The boy from a smog-drenched city who sang through addiction and into our hearts

the charts and gave him the recognition he had chased for years. A telegram reportedly arrived from John Lennon and Paul McCartney, a small but symbolic acknowledgment that he had finally been heard.

But it was at Woodstock in 1969 that he truly became unforgettable.

Dressed simply, moving unpredictably, voice cracking with intensity, he delivered a continue reading …