50 years ago the Rolling Stones headlined a ‘West Coast Woodstock.’ Livermore, CA ended the ’60s with chaos and death.

On Dec. 6, 1969, more than 300,000 people gathered at the Altamont Speedway in Livermore, Calif., for an all-day festival billed as “The West Coast Woodstock.”

The helicopter landed just before 3 p.m. and Mick Jagger, 26 years old, bushy-haired and chewing gum, peacocked onto the pavement. That’s when a stranger ran toward him. “I hate you!” the man screamed, and then he punched the Rolling Stones singer in the mouth.

Standing next to Jagger, the band’s business manager, Ron Schneider, watched in horror.

“I wanted to kill the guy, but Mick’s immediately, ‘No, no, no,’ ” he recalls.

The stranger was wrestled away, and Jagger and his small entourage pressed on through a sea of hippies to a location backstage where the Stones would huddle for the next three hours until it was their turn to play.

What Jagger didn’t fully realize is that by the time he arrived, the Altamont Free Concert wasn’t just underway, it was already out of control.

On Dec. 6, 1969, more than 300,000 people gathered at the Altamont Speedway in Livermore, Calif., for an all-day festival billed as “The West Coast Woodstock.” Dumping their cars by the roadside, they packed the barren hills of Alameda County to drop acid, chug wine and listen to a lineup that included the Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane, Santana and Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young. It was supposed to be an extension of the “peace and music” mantra marketed by Woodstock four months earlier, but the trouble began early and would not abate.