>> tonight, breaking news, Donald Trump and 18 allies are charged in Georgia with trying to overturned 2020 election.

The former president accused of running a criminal enterprise to stay in power.

Tomorrow, we will break down the unprecedented charges against Mr. Trump, the most extensive yet.

How a law used to target mobsters is now central to this case.

Why Mr. Trump could face prison time if convict it, and the parallels between the Georgia case and Mr. Trump's indictment in the January 6 indictment.

Tonight, we are looking at another generation defining moment in our history, Woodstock.

On the anniversary of the legendary music festival, rock icons Carlos Santana and Graham Nash reflect on three days of peace and music that changed America.

That as "METRO focus" starts right now.

♪ >> this is "METRO focus" with Rafael Pugh Oman, Jack Ford and Jenna Flanagan.

METRO focus is made possible by by James and Merrill.

The Sylvia a and Simon be endowment to fight anti-Semitism.

Bernard and Irene Schwartz.

Rosalyn P Walter.

Our breath hope Zuckerberg.

And -- Barbara Hope Zuckerberg.

>> in August of 1969, half a million people converged on the dairy farm in upstate New York for in the event that would become the defining moment of the 1960's counterculture revolution.

Unfolding against a backdrop of a nation divided over the Vietnam War, civil rights and sexual politics, Woodstock would feature some of the biggest names in rock 'n' roll, including Jimi Hendrix, the Grateful Dead, the who, Janis Joplin and Richie Havens.

Among the performers gathered for what was billed as three days of peace and music, was a new super group made up from members of the most popular bands of the era.

Stephen steals and Neil Young of Buffalo Springfield.

David Cross be of the birds, and Graham Nash of the hollies.

Together the harmonies were almost otherworldly.

At Woodstock they earned themselves the title of rock 'n' roll royalty.

Recently I had a chance to speak with Graham Nash about that surreal and life transforming experience.

Thank you so much for joining us, it's such an honor to have you with us.

When Crosby, stills, Nash and Young first got on the stage in Woodstock, Stephen stills Fay make -- famously said, this is only the second time we ever played in front of people.

We are scared.

Was it really the second time you guys ever played in front of an audience?

Were all of you scared?

>> I wasn't so scared.

I had already been through seven years of madness with the hollies in England.

But it was a crazy night and we were a little nervous.

Not particularly because of the people in front of us but because of the people surrounding us period all of our favorite musicians that wanted to know -- they knew who these guys were, but can these guys do that record?

Come on, show us what they are.

We were nervous about the people around us, not necessarily the people in front of us, of which there were many.

Briana: that's amazing -- Rafael: that's amazing, that is amazing.

Set the scene for us.

How did you get to Woodstock and how did the whole scene unfold before your eyes?

>> we flew into Woodstock in helicopters and flying over all those people and the mud, the rain, the fires, Crosby said it looked like an encampment of the Macedonian army and he was great -- she was quite right.

-- he was quite right.

I think I was nearly killed on the way in.

As we were whining 50 feet from landing, the tail rotor on the helicopter stopped.

The body of the helicopter started spinning opposite to the rotation of the plates, but the pilot -- of the blades, but the pilot knew what he was doing.

We had a heavy landing but it turned out OK. Rafael: that would've changed rock 'n' roll history.

That same night you were set to appear on the Dave Cavett show back in New York City.

You made it, straight from Woodstock, mud and all.

>> here's the story, it wasn't us that was supposed to be on there.

This was Joanie's first major TV appearance in America.

Even though Joni was invited to play Woodstock, Elliott Roberts, our manager and David, our manager, decided that Joni might not be able to get out of Woodstock for the Monday show of her biggest TV appearance.

So, what happened is because we had come back from Woodstock and we were hanging out.

Joni was my girlfriend and we were at the Carlisle Hotel, she had a piano, we got back from Woodstock and she had already -- Woodstock and she never went.

She had been checking it out on the TV and listening to people.

That's the genius of Joni.

She didn't even go but she wrote this song that encapsulates all of it.

Rafael: it's the emblematic song, particularly your recording of it.

What is it about that song that continues to captivate?

Is it that it just captured the essence of that event?

Beautiful lyrics.

>> Joanie's version is a little bluer, a little more purple, a little more minor, a little slower.

When she played us the song, Stephen -- Stephen looked at Joni and said, can we have that song?

she said, yes, you can have it.

And he said, can I turn it into a rock 'n' roll song?

She looked at him and said, OK, I trust you.

Yes, you can.

It was Stephen stills that made that record.

He was a brilliant musician.

Rafael: Neil Young performed with you guys in Woodstock.

>> not a lot of people think that.

Rafael: we will talk about that.

Deja vu had not yet come out, did people already know that Crosby, stills and Nash had already morphed or were they surprised to see him there?

>> I think they were surprised to see him there because the first record was quite popular at that point.

Nobody had ever seen it, and little been announced to us, meaning me and David and Stephen , Neil told every cameraman on the stage never to shoot one frame of him.

Rafael: why?

>> I have asked Neil several times.

To this day, I've never gotten a reason why you chose that.

But we didn't know that he had done that.

Rafael: that sounds like what people say about him.

>> the truth is, I begin to recognize what sort of a special man Neil Young was.

Rafael: you are going to be diplomatic.

As is your reputation.

In many peoples minds, Woodstock symbolize the formal birth of the age of Aquarius.

A new dawn of peace, love and understanding.

This was something I didn't know until recently.

Four months later you guys were performing in auto on -- in all to mom.

The infamous -- you were performing where three people died, one stabbed to death by the Hells Angels.

Which for some reason were hired to do security.

>> it was a complete mess.

Rafael: that's considered, both literally and symbolically, the end of the 60's -- 1960's.

Do you see it that way?

>> I do.

It completely reverse the vibe of Woodstock.

It was chaotic, they were playing electronic music loud between sets, between acts.

They had given the Hells Angels permission to be security.

They had aligned all -- they have lined all their beautiful bikes up.

Somebody knocked one over and the kid was getting beaten.

It was entirely the opposite of the vibe of Woodstock.

>> people from the Jefferson Angels onstage were getting beat up by the Hells Angels.

Was it a reflection of the times?

Was the warm turning on the age of Aquarius or did it kind of spark a negative movement?

>> I don't think it sparked a negative movement.

I think it was the entire opposite of Woodstock but it did not fill the age of Aquarius and it did not fill the 1960's.

It tried, for sure.

We had a show that same night in Los Angeles, and of course it was just outside of San Francisco and we got out of there as fast as we could.

Nobody wanted to be there.

I'm sure not even the Rolling Stones.

But I think they handled it as best they could.

Rafael: 50 years later, what's left of the essence, the movement that was Woodstock, do you think?

>> the one thing that comes to mind is the intrusion of corporate money into rock 'n' roll.

When they saw 300, 400, 500,000 people and they realize that we can sell them another pair of secret -- sneakers and another cola, that was incredible.

That was when Corporation started getting better -- involved in the performance of festivals.

I think that was a bad thing.

Rafael: a year after Woodstock, deja vu came out.

Even bigger in your first -- even bigger than your first hour bone.

In many people's minds -- then your first-out boom.

In many people's minds it was your rock album.

A year later, you guys split up.

>> when you are in a band with four massive egos and four massive talents, it gets a little tricky sometimes.

In that particular case, it was Neil deciding that our drummer couldn't play Neil's music the way Neil wanted it played.

That became a sticking point and there were a lot of drugs involved, a lot of smoking weed and a lot of some -- a lot of snorting cocaine.

It was a very tough time.

We don't believe we ever broke up.

We just took small vacations from each other occasionally.

It was an intense time, for sure.

>> David Crosby has said that the fluidity of Crosby stills and Nash and Crosby stills, Nash, Young was the idea from the beginning.

You did not want to be a regular band.

He wanted the freedom to separate and come back together.

That must've played a part in that.

>> we had already been in bands.

Springfield and the birds, we wanted to put our names there.

We didn't want to be a band in that sense, we wanted to be able to come together whenever we wanted, when the music struck us.

That's how it was always.

Rafael: that's what you've done.

I recently had a chance to speak with David Brown, who has written the most recent history of your group, and I asked him where would he put Crosby, stills, Nash and Young in the pantheon of rock 'n' roll.

He said you guys were way up there because of the quality and influence of your music.

But if you had not broken up and gotten back together so many times, if you stayed longer, you would be up higher.

What do you think?

>> I read David's book, I was interviewed for.

He's a fine writer and a great friend.

My only complaint was, it seemed to be a diary of how we screwed up.

There wasn't a lot of joy in the music re-created when David, Steven and I had put three voices to blend together as one voice.

There was an incredible joy when we first heard that sound, which happened in Joanie's living room .

We knew our lives had changed dramatically and that I would go back to England and leave the hollies and leave my stuff and leave my family.

We are musicians and we were all pretty decent harmony bands.

The birds and the Springfield's in the hollies were pretty good at harmony, but this was something completely different to all of us.

Each one of us knew.

In fact, after we sing that one song of Stevens, you don't have to cry, we said to Joan, was that as good as we thought it was?

She said, absolutely and she was the only witness.

Rafael: according to conventional wisdom, the wisdom of those who write books about it or music fans, David Crosby is the wild, undisciplined hippie.

Stephen stills is the hard taskmaster, the platoon leader.

Young is out there.

Harley and your orbit.

And you are the diplomat, the peacemaker.

His conventional wisdom right?

>> I believe so and it's simple, I want to get the job done.

Whatever task we set out to do, get it done the best way you can.

I already experienced madness with seven years of 15 top 10 hits with the hollies.

Woodstock wasn't that crazy for me.

Those amount of people were not that crazy for me.

But, yes, we had created something and were so moved by it that I left my country of birth to come here and follow that sound, because I'm a musician and I wanted that sound.

I always wanted that sound.

And yes, I have tried to keep us even keeled, I have tried to balance arguments with praise.

I have tried it a lot.

But I want to get the job done, and that Sue I'm.

Rafael: -- that's who I'm.

Rafael: are we going to see that job gets done again.

Are you going to record again?

>> absolutely not.

Rafael: what do you think has been the group's most lasting legacy, final question?

>> I think we made music that made people shake their -- and think.

We brought music into the world that was decent music that will last for a long time.

I'm going to be 78 next birthday.

It has been a long time and yet people still love the songs.

I was sitting in CVS trying to pick up a subscription -- prescription and wasting on the way came on.

I was sitting there going, that was a cool record.

It made me appreciate exactly what it was we did.

To have that recollection in the CVS was quite strange for me.

Rafael: the rest of us know exactly what you contributed to music.

It changed many of our lives.

It's what they say, the soundtrack of our lives.

I really appreciate you taking the time to talk to us.

>> my pleasure.

Thanks.

♪ >> I know you told the story a million times and I have to ask.

It's been reported that every time you locate your performance of Woodstock in the Woodstock documentary you either flinch or over your eyes.

What is it about that performance that makes you do that?

>> We were in this helicopter and it was like an ocean of hair, teeth and arms.

When we landed, the first person I saw was Jerry Garcia and he said, what time do you want to go on.

I said, I've got two bands after you.

He goes, make yourself comfortable.

It's 12:30 in the afternoon.

So we won't go on until 1:00 in the morning.

I go, around 3:00 in the morning.

In the meantime, do you want some of this?

I was like, sure.

I was doing the math and said, I'll be fine by this -- by then.

Rafael: what was it?

>> it was acid, it was LSD.

As soon as I took it, it was like everything became another dimension.

Then I see this face coming in saying, if you don't play now, you're not going to play at all, you need to go on right now.

And I'm like, oh my God.

OK.

I thought I had 6, 7 hours to recuperate because, it's kind of like a roller coaster.

You go through this and I said, OK, take a deep breath and I discovered a mantra back then without even knowing.

God, please help me, help me to stay in tune and in time.

And I promise I will never do this again.

Sure.

So I went out there, so when I started playing, of course, the guitar, the neck of the guitar started wavering like a snake.

I was like, oh, so I started making faces because I was trying to make it tame.

I was trying to keep it from slithering all over the place.

When I first saw the movie, Jimi Hendrix took me to see it.

He had left that morning for Maui so he says, what are you doing and I said, we had the day off.

Well, pack your stuff I want to take you to a movie.

What movie?

Woodstock.

They made a movie?

We saw it last night with Jimi Hendrix.

When you guys came on, you guys freaked them out.

I go, really?

He goes, he love your energy and your performance.

It was such a beautiful badge of honor to have someone so Imperial like Jimi Hendrix would dig our performance.

I feel really grateful because, it takes a lot of courage to go in front of 150,000 people at the peak of this mind -- kind of like a shaman going from -- anyway, fortunately it was successful.

It was more than successful.

It was masterful.

>> I know you are a modest guy, you stole the show.

>> I give the credit to him.

With diligence, please, please, please.

I trusted that my fingers knew where to go and what to do.

What I was calling up to make the connection was with my spirit in God so that God would say, OK, take a deep breath, take a deep breath and I'm going to guide you, navigate through all this mind hallucination stuff.

And then I begin to really like it.

I used to do it in New York a lot.

>> I thought you promised God you wouldn't do it again, you didn't keep your promise?

>> I didn't do that specific asset.

Nowadays, I don't think people are, maybe under supervision.

I'm not endorsing it, but I would say that even Cary Grant, under supervision, needed to.

When you take it, it's like a -- it's like a snake shedding all release.

It's a very therapeutically human for you.

♪ >> Woodstock, in the summer of 1969 thousands of young Americans gathered at the askers farm and jammed with Janis Joplin, Richie Havens in so many more iconic sounds.

It was a festival of music and life coupled with the sexual drug liberation of the time.

As 13 celebrates the summer of 69, let's take a look at Woodstock myths versus Woodstock realities.

Joining us now to go along on this trip and to discuss how Woodstock marked the end of an era for an entire country in the beginning of a new one, Professor Robert Thompson, the founding director of the Center for television and popular culture at Syracuse University.

Always a pleasure to have you with us to talk about all of these things.

What was the lore?

The music was attractive, but what was the inspiration that brought so many people to this place?

>> part of it was just magic.

This was kind of a disorganized thing.

If you go back and see, it it was originally you had to have tickets, they had to open it to be free.

They didn't have the thing set up, traffic was completely not accounted for.

But for all number of reasons, dozens of these great people playing, this became kind of the siren call in the Golden age of the counterculture to come to Woodstock, something really special will happen there.

And something did.

I don't the good was the music.

The music only became important when the film came out and when the soundtrack came out.

Most of the people who were there were so far away, they couldn't even see the bands, the sound system wasn't designed for that many people.

This was so much more about a happening.

In many ways, you and I, you were worried about your summer job.

The fact that we didn't go was one of the reasons why they wanted it.

>> let's talk about some of those myths versus realities.

The first one you touched on, the notion of the music.

Legendary performers, but not that many people got to hear them.

>> in so many ways, some anymore people showed up than was expected.

Most people were way far back.

This was before they had the big video screens.

So all you had to do was look, yonder at those tiny things that may or may not be the people performing.

The music was important, that was why they were there, that's what brought them there, but once they got there, it was about all of this other stuff.

>> a couple of interesting things.

You mention this is an event or Sony people said, I was at Woodstock and you look at them and say, no you weren't.

But beyond that.

We talked about music, it's this vision, the myth of this idyllic gathering in Meadows and lovely personal interactions.

Talk about the weather in the mud and the facilities, food.

What was that all about?

>> this was the perfect manifestation of the counterculture of the hippie movement as we called her back then.

You are right, this was back to the garden.

It was a dairy farm, for heaven sakes.

This really did, in so many ways, was the epitome of what some much of -- so much of the counterculture was about.

When they got there, nation continue to cooperate by raining and making mud and allowing people to literally become one with nature as they fell in the mud.

And they didn't mind, most audiences today would never tolerate the conditions at Woodstock.

The lack of enough bathrooms, lack of food and water and all the rest of it, but somehow that back to the garden thing really works.

>> It was a fascinating moment in time that captured so much of what was going on in our culture and society back then.

When we have you on there it always illustrates to me why you are such an extraordinary teacher because we learned so much from you in our conversation.

Professor Robert Thompson.

It's always our pleasure to have you here with us and to share some of your thoughts.

We look forward to the next conversation.

Thank you for joining us and you be well.

>> METRO focus is made possible by James and Merrill Tisch.

This Sylvia AA-and Simon B programming endowment to fight anti-Semitism.

Bernard and Irene Schwartz.

Rosalyn P Walter.

Barbara Hope Zuckerberg.

And by peer corporate funding was provided by mutual of America, your retirement company.

♪