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1
00:00:19,853 --> 00:00:25,667
Jimi Hendrix is one of the most important
American musicians of the 20th century.
2
00:00:26,326 --> 00:00:29,364
He revolutionized the electric guitar.
3
00:00:31,131 --> 00:00:34,044
There were a lot of great players
in the late 1960s,
4
00:00:34,034 --> 00:00:37,072
but no one pushed the envelope like he did.
5
00:00:40,641 --> 00:00:42,518
I can't express myself in a conversation.
6
00:00:42,509 --> 00:00:45,319
I can't explain myself like
this or that sometimes
7
00:00:45,412 --> 00:00:47,722
'cause it just doesn't come out like that.
8
00:00:47,814 --> 00:00:51,421
When you're on stage, it's all in the world.
That's your whole life.
9
00:00:56,056 --> 00:00:57,262
He connected with people.
10
00:00:57,457 --> 00:01:00,199
And he connected in his faith
11
00:01:00,193 --> 00:01:04,835
that the guitar could take you someplace
you've never been before.
12
00:01:06,500 --> 00:01:12,041
There was no one like him around,
not only in rock 'n' roll, but just around.
13
00:01:12,139 --> 00:01:14,050
He was startling.
14
00:01:14,808 --> 00:01:17,118
I don't think I've ever heard a guitar player
15
00:01:17,210 --> 00:01:21,522
who had as much power, as much sexuality,
as much genius
16
00:01:21,915 --> 00:01:23,485
as Jimi Hendrix.
17
00:01:35,395 --> 00:01:37,932
You're considered one of the best
guitar players in the world...
18
00:01:37,998 --> 00:01:39,136
No.
19
00:01:42,402 --> 00:01:43,403
Certainly...
20
00:01:46,406 --> 00:01:49,444
Well, one of the best in this studio, anyway.
21
00:01:49,610 --> 00:01:52,022
- How about the best sitting in this chair?
- Yeah.
22
00:01:55,248 --> 00:01:57,455
When he was playing,
he was supremely confident.
23
00:01:57,718 --> 00:02:01,757
When he wasn't,
he was desperately insecure.
24
00:02:02,956 --> 00:02:07,405
I think, like a lot of artists,
he would be unsure of his own worth.
25
00:02:07,394 --> 00:02:10,898
You never got the feeling that
this was someone who's gonna show off
26
00:02:11,131 --> 00:02:12,576
until he got on stage.
27
00:02:28,949 --> 00:02:31,953
There were a lot of people
that didn't understand
28
00:02:32,052 --> 00:02:35,397
Jimi the artist, Jimi the human being.
29
00:02:35,956 --> 00:02:39,062
The only thing he wanted
was to be able to play his music.
30
00:05:19,820 --> 00:05:22,562
I was in the service when he was born.
31
00:05:22,689 --> 00:05:27,832
I got a letter from his aunt that I had a son.
32
00:05:28,695 --> 00:05:32,575
At that time, his mother and I,
we weren't together.
33
00:05:32,699 --> 00:05:34,770
Yeah, I missed all his baby days.
34
00:05:45,111 --> 00:05:47,489
Jimi's father came back from the service.
35
00:05:47,581 --> 00:05:49,151
Jimi wasn't here in Seattle.
36
00:05:49,149 --> 00:05:52,358
And he found out that Lucille,
Jimi's mother,
37
00:05:52,452 --> 00:05:57,197
she had given Jimi to a friend of the family
to kind of take care of.
38
00:05:57,324 --> 00:05:59,395
And he ended up getting Jimi back,
39
00:05:59,492 --> 00:06:02,962
and came back to Seattle
and then put his little family together.
40
00:06:07,567 --> 00:06:09,240
Lucille, she enjoyed the party life,
41
00:06:09,336 --> 00:06:13,682
and she'd be with Al for a while,
and then she'd kind of drift off.
42
00:06:13,673 --> 00:06:17,678
I know a couple of times that he'd said that
she'd come over in the middle of the night,
43
00:06:17,777 --> 00:06:22,157
and she'd be kind of drunk and stuff,
and it was just a bad time for him.
44
00:06:22,148 --> 00:06:26,153
So I don't think he really had a chance
to have a good relationship with his mother
45
00:06:26,219 --> 00:06:27,425
because she just was never there.
46
00:06:27,654 --> 00:06:29,361
It was always Al that was raising him.
47
00:06:30,857 --> 00:06:34,327
Jimi and I,
we just lived from one place to another,
48
00:06:34,461 --> 00:06:37,840
just various places around Seattle.
49
00:06:37,931 --> 00:06:40,605
Just stayed with my niece.
50
00:06:40,800 --> 00:06:42,643
He'd stay with my family.
51
00:06:42,636 --> 00:06:43,637
We never thought anything
different about it.
52
00:06:43,737 --> 00:06:45,774
"Jimi's gonna come and live with us
for a couple months."
53
00:06:45,839 --> 00:06:47,750
I was, "Hey, cool, man. That's great."
54
00:06:52,512 --> 00:06:56,358
A friend of mine,
well, he had this acoustic guitar
55
00:06:56,449 --> 00:06:59,521
that he wanted to sell for $5.
56
00:06:59,619 --> 00:07:03,726
So, Jimi told me about it, and I told, "Okay."
57
00:07:03,723 --> 00:07:06,169
And he used to be working away
on that all the time.
58
00:07:06,159 --> 00:07:10,164
Any spare time he had,
he used to be playing that guitar.
59
00:07:11,564 --> 00:07:15,979
So after he got good on that,
I went and got him an electric guitar.
60
00:07:33,720 --> 00:07:36,599
When Jimi first started
really getting interested in music,
61
00:07:36,690 --> 00:07:38,966
he listened to his dad's record collection.
62
00:07:39,059 --> 00:07:41,562
His dad, of course,
had a great blues collection.
63
00:07:41,661 --> 00:07:46,406
He used to listen to Robert Johnson,
B.B. King, Howlin' Wolf, Muddy Waters,
64
00:07:46,499 --> 00:07:48,342
all of these great blues guys.
65
00:07:50,337 --> 00:07:51,873
Jimi would kind of pick up
what they were playing,
66
00:07:51,972 --> 00:07:54,350
and then he'd practice for hours.
67
00:07:54,841 --> 00:07:56,115
We knew he was talented.
68
00:07:56,209 --> 00:07:58,314
For him to be able to play the guitar
by just listening
69
00:07:58,311 --> 00:08:00,814
and picking it up
without knowing how to read music,
70
00:08:01,247 --> 00:08:03,056
we knew that.
71
00:08:08,021 --> 00:08:10,695
We started coming to my house after school,
72
00:08:10,857 --> 00:08:12,859
'cause I had a piano in my little playroom.
73
00:08:12,859 --> 00:08:14,566
And I start playing the piano
and he'd play the guitar,
74
00:08:14,561 --> 00:08:16,734
and we started saying,
"Well, we could be a band,"
75
00:08:16,730 --> 00:08:19,301
and started a band called
the Rocking Kings.
76
00:08:20,500 --> 00:08:22,605
We just started harmonizing
and trying to play groups together
77
00:08:22,602 --> 00:08:25,674
and play little songs
that we'd heard on the radio.
78
00:08:29,876 --> 00:08:33,483
Rock 'n' roll was starting then,
and it was a new music and it felt good,
79
00:08:33,613 --> 00:08:36,287
and it was so different
than what our parents would listen to
80
00:08:36,383 --> 00:08:39,023
that it just suddenly took us over.
81
00:08:40,854 --> 00:08:42,561
He loved Chuck Berry.
82
00:08:42,555 --> 00:08:45,832
That was his love, because of the hair
and the flamboyant clothes,
83
00:08:45,892 --> 00:08:47,701
and Jimi loved that kind of stuff.
84
00:08:57,103 --> 00:08:59,049
Due to our poor economic condition,
85
00:08:59,039 --> 00:09:00,313
we didn't have
that many clothes and things,
86
00:09:00,373 --> 00:09:02,250
so we had to makeshift stuff.
87
00:09:02,342 --> 00:09:04,481
So in his early days,
you could see him sometime,
88
00:09:04,477 --> 00:09:08,926
he'd have a hat with an ostrich feather
coming out of it, or a peacock feather,
89
00:09:09,015 --> 00:09:10,494
and people thought
he was so weird and stuff,
90
00:09:10,483 --> 00:09:13,327
but he was already setting the tone
to what he was gonna do in the future.
91
00:09:31,538 --> 00:09:33,347
I remember him telling his dad,
92
00:09:33,406 --> 00:09:35,079
one time we were over there, and he said,
93
00:09:35,175 --> 00:09:37,052
"You know, Dad,
I'm gonna make you proud of me one day.
94
00:09:37,143 --> 00:09:40,681
"I'm gonna be very famous.
I'm gonna make it. I'm gonna make it."
95
00:09:41,014 --> 00:09:42,925
There's more for you in today's action.
96
00:09:49,255 --> 00:09:51,257
Bet you didn't wear this in the paratroops.
97
00:09:51,324 --> 00:09:52,962
Not necessarily.
98
00:09:53,059 --> 00:09:57,565
You were, what is it,
a paratrooper or parachutist, or shout-ist?
99
00:09:57,564 --> 00:10:00,204
101st Airborne. Fort Campbell, Kentucky.
100
00:10:01,634 --> 00:10:04,410
It's part of the thing that
most young, black men did at the time.
101
00:10:04,404 --> 00:10:07,283
If you weren't able to go to college
and get a college education,
102
00:10:07,373 --> 00:10:09,546
the next best thing was to join the service.
103
00:10:23,656 --> 00:10:27,001
When Jimi went in the service,
I think it was a way of getting out of Seattle.
104
00:10:27,460 --> 00:10:29,497
He's got three meals a day.
105
00:10:29,596 --> 00:10:33,237
He didn't have to worry about
where's he gonna sleep tonight.
106
00:10:33,233 --> 00:10:35,611
And when he has free time,
what's he doing?
107
00:10:35,702 --> 00:10:38,478
He's playing the guitar.
He's learning his craft.
108
00:10:43,576 --> 00:10:46,489
It was very fortunate that
when Jimi goes into the service,
109
00:10:46,579 --> 00:10:51,085
that he meets almost immediately
a fellow musician
110
00:10:51,084 --> 00:10:53,655
that he will have then
a lifelong relationship with,
111
00:10:53,720 --> 00:10:55,666
and that's the bass player, Billy Cox.
112
00:11:01,528 --> 00:11:05,340
I went in, introduced myself
and told him I play the bass.
113
00:11:05,465 --> 00:11:08,810
So we jammed, and there it was, we clicked.
114
00:11:10,003 --> 00:11:13,883
He didn't have a lot of idle time
where he sat around and did nothing.
115
00:11:13,973 --> 00:11:17,011
He sat around and played his guitar.
116
00:11:19,779 --> 00:11:23,090
He walked down the street, he's practicing.
He'd go to a movie carrying the guitar.
117
00:11:23,183 --> 00:11:24,890
He was on a mission.
118
00:11:44,437 --> 00:11:45,438
Fate is fate.
119
00:11:46,139 --> 00:11:49,348
Who would have known that
on his 25th jump, he breaks his ankle,
120
00:11:49,342 --> 00:11:53,722
gets booted out of the service
on an honorable medical discharge?
121
00:11:53,713 --> 00:11:56,216
But he's out of the service.
Now what's he gonna do?
122
00:12:02,522 --> 00:12:05,731
All I remember is getting out of the army
and then trying to get something together,
123
00:12:05,725 --> 00:12:11,141
and then I was playing in different groups
all over around the States and in Canada,
124
00:12:11,297 --> 00:12:12,640
playing behind people most of the time.
125
00:12:41,728 --> 00:12:43,139
He hits the Chitlin' Circuit,
126
00:12:43,229 --> 00:12:45,573
and the Chitlin' Circuit really
is nothing more
127
00:12:45,565 --> 00:12:48,603
than a series
of mostly African-American clubs
128
00:12:48,701 --> 00:12:50,578
where you could maybe
make a meager living,
129
00:12:50,670 --> 00:12:54,482
but at least enough to survive
and call yourself a professional musician.
130
00:12:54,941 --> 00:12:58,548
He does that with Wilson Pickett,
he does that with Little Richard.
131
00:12:58,645 --> 00:13:00,215
It was like going to college for him,
132
00:13:00,313 --> 00:13:03,851
because not only did he go
on a stage and watch
133
00:13:03,850 --> 00:13:07,855
how audiences reacted to the music
that was coming off the stage,
134
00:13:07,854 --> 00:13:11,734
he also got to basically learn
how to be a performer.
135
00:13:23,569 --> 00:13:26,516
Nobody told him what to play.
How can you?
136
00:13:26,739 --> 00:13:31,051
And he starts playing
and that energized everybody,
137
00:13:31,144 --> 00:13:34,284
just because you had a player
that could play like that.
138
00:13:45,825 --> 00:13:48,897
Most groups I was with,
they didn't let me do my own thing.
139
00:13:48,895 --> 00:13:51,307
When I was with the lsley Brothers,
140
00:13:51,297 --> 00:13:53,538
they used to make me do my thing there,
141
00:13:53,633 --> 00:13:56,113
because it made them
more bucks or something, I don't know.
142
00:14:15,388 --> 00:14:20,804
You gotta remember he was not
"Jimi Hendrix" Jimi Hendrix at that time.
143
00:14:21,928 --> 00:14:27,241
He was still playing everybody else's stuff
because that's what the clubs wanted.
144
00:14:27,934 --> 00:14:33,407
He was real naive, real fun
and he was so painfully shy.
145
00:14:33,673 --> 00:14:36,449
He was such a shy baby.
146
00:14:37,510 --> 00:14:42,016
Every time we went out in Harlem,
he had that guitar hanging,
147
00:14:42,181 --> 00:14:43,888
all the time.
148
00:14:44,016 --> 00:14:46,690
Never went anywhere without it.
149
00:14:48,087 --> 00:14:51,933
When he was playing blues,
he got my undivided attention.
150
00:14:51,924 --> 00:14:55,736
But most people didn't want him
to play any blues.
151
00:14:55,828 --> 00:15:00,937
So, he was reduced to playing Top 40 stuff.
152
00:15:14,781 --> 00:15:18,820
I knew a lot of sidemen.
They were gonna be sidemen.
153
00:15:18,818 --> 00:15:21,321
They weren't trying to go somewhere.
154
00:15:21,320 --> 00:15:25,860
But Jimi was trying to do something else.
155
00:15:26,325 --> 00:15:32,105
Many nights, I had to prop my eyes open
to listen to him try to do...
156
00:15:33,366 --> 00:15:37,781
He wanted to have vibrato in his voice
like Elmore James.
157
00:15:37,870 --> 00:15:40,316
He wanted to sound like Howlin' Wolf.
158
00:15:40,373 --> 00:15:43,411
He wanted to sound like everybody.
159
00:15:43,509 --> 00:15:48,652
He wanted to do the blues
and he wanted to do his special stuff.
160
00:15:54,554 --> 00:16:00,129
When he came with us, he was more free
to do the things that he wanted to do.
161
00:16:01,627 --> 00:16:06,133
He was not only a guitar player,
but he was a showman, too.
162
00:16:07,033 --> 00:16:10,537
The whole club wanted to know who he was,
163
00:16:10,536 --> 00:16:14,382
what was his name
and where he was gonna be playing next.
164
00:16:16,909 --> 00:16:22,416
He was just so outstanding and so different
from anyone else.
165
00:16:22,415 --> 00:16:25,021
And we didn't know what to call him.
We didn't know his name or anything.
166
00:16:25,418 --> 00:16:29,389
But you never forgot him once you saw him,
and we called him Dylan Black,
167
00:16:29,455 --> 00:16:30,934
because he wore his hair
168
00:16:31,023 --> 00:16:33,299
kind of the same way
that Bob Dylan did at that point.
169
00:16:43,736 --> 00:16:47,343
In 1966, I was going outwith Keith Richards
of the Rolling Stones.
170
00:16:47,340 --> 00:16:50,583
And one night, Keith was on tour
and I was with a bunch of friends.
171
00:16:50,743 --> 00:16:55,488
So I was in New York just hanging out,
and we ended up in a club.
172
00:16:56,349 --> 00:16:59,387
The guy on the guitar
completely blew my mind.
173
00:17:01,654 --> 00:17:06,660
I definitely had the impression that he had
desires where he wanted to take his music,
174
00:17:06,659 --> 00:17:11,267
but wasn't capable of actually
putting those steps together to attain that.
175
00:17:12,665 --> 00:17:15,009
He wanted to be a rock star.
176
00:17:15,001 --> 00:17:17,811
He didn't want to be
a struggling blues artist,
177
00:17:17,870 --> 00:17:20,783
drinking gin in these little clubs
178
00:17:20,873 --> 00:17:24,013
and trying to catch the next Greyhound.
179
00:17:24,977 --> 00:17:29,687
He never let on that he was broke,
but he certainly was scuffling in the Village.
180
00:17:29,815 --> 00:17:32,455
So, just for him to have an apartment
181
00:17:32,552 --> 00:17:36,432
would have been delightful for him
at that point.
182
00:17:37,023 --> 00:17:39,299
He needed to be looked after,
and that's why he always had
183
00:17:39,292 --> 00:17:44,139
one or two or three women
dotted around for his every need.
184
00:17:44,230 --> 00:17:47,177
And he used to go up to Harlem
at least once a week.
185
00:17:47,300 --> 00:17:49,746
He'd say he was going to see
his Aunty Fayne,
186
00:17:49,735 --> 00:17:54,912
but he said it not like a big lie or anything,
he said it with a twinkle in his eye.
187
00:17:56,375 --> 00:17:59,822
There were no obligations to me
188
00:18:00,146 --> 00:18:01,489
and there were none to him,
189
00:18:01,581 --> 00:18:05,893
but he came and went as he wanted to.
190
00:18:06,185 --> 00:18:09,655
I never knew what was going on
until he told me.
191
00:18:10,990 --> 00:18:14,096
He was forming his own band,
the Blue Flames,
192
00:18:14,093 --> 00:18:16,300
and it got a gig at Café Wha?
193
00:18:16,295 --> 00:18:19,299
I did bring a couple of music business guys
down to see him.
194
00:18:19,298 --> 00:18:23,508
They both passed, which absolutely
flabbergasted me. I couldn't believe it.
195
00:18:23,603 --> 00:18:27,710
And both Jimi and I felt,
when the second guy passed,
196
00:18:27,773 --> 00:18:29,753
that maybe we were all mad.
197
00:18:31,143 --> 00:18:34,420
I was introduced to Chas Chandler
from the Animals.
198
00:18:34,413 --> 00:18:36,859
He was saying how he wanted
to get out of the Animals,
199
00:18:36,949 --> 00:18:39,486
how he wanted to get into production
and management.
200
00:18:39,485 --> 00:18:40,623
And I said,
201
00:18:40,620 --> 00:18:45,091
"I happen to have an artist
that you will be very, very interested in.
202
00:18:45,091 --> 00:18:49,096
"Come on down to Café Wha?
tomorrow afternoon and check him out."
203
00:18:52,565 --> 00:18:55,011
I'd been out the night before
with a girlfriend of mine,
204
00:18:55,001 --> 00:18:58,107
and she had played me a recording
by Tim Rose, Hey Joe.
205
00:18:58,471 --> 00:19:01,281
And it had been out about 10 months
in America at that time.
206
00:19:01,340 --> 00:19:03,183
It was very folky, great song.
207
00:19:17,289 --> 00:19:19,895
And I said, "At the end of this tour,
I'm gonna go back to England
208
00:19:19,892 --> 00:19:22,372
"and find an artist to record this song with."
209
00:19:24,864 --> 00:19:26,138
We made arrangements to go down
210
00:19:26,232 --> 00:19:27,973
to see this guy Jimi Hendrix.
211
00:19:27,967 --> 00:19:29,969
And the very first song he played
was Hey Joe.
212
00:19:41,647 --> 00:19:44,253
I knew the only thing I wanted to do
was take this guy to England,
213
00:19:44,350 --> 00:19:47,229
'cause I thought he would change
the music face of England,
214
00:19:47,286 --> 00:19:48,321
if not the world.
215
00:19:48,421 --> 00:19:50,094
I knew he was gonna be
a sensation in England.
216
00:19:59,565 --> 00:20:01,772
The universe opened the doors.
217
00:20:01,767 --> 00:20:06,910
It just happened that he got on the path
where he was supposed to get on,
218
00:20:06,972 --> 00:20:09,646
and did what he was supposed to do.
219
00:20:11,444 --> 00:20:14,015
I wasn't thinkin' about nothin'
but the idea of going to England.
220
00:20:14,013 --> 00:20:16,823
That's all I was thinkin' about,
'cause I like to travel.
221
00:20:16,816 --> 00:20:18,227
One place bores me too long,
222
00:20:18,217 --> 00:20:20,458
so I have to try to see
if I can get something together
223
00:20:20,553 --> 00:20:21,861
by moving somewhere else.
224
00:20:21,854 --> 00:20:25,859
And the idea of England,
this was the idea of England itself. So, wow.
225
00:20:27,026 --> 00:20:28,562
I'd never been there before.
226
00:20:37,403 --> 00:20:40,179
This was actually a very smart move
on Chas' part,
227
00:20:40,172 --> 00:20:45,383
because, unlike America where
you had a music scene in New York,
228
00:20:45,377 --> 00:20:48,153
a music scene in Nashville,
a music scene in LA,
229
00:20:48,247 --> 00:20:49,851
a music scene in San Francisco,
230
00:20:49,949 --> 00:20:53,829
in England, everybody finished up
at one place, London.
231
00:21:00,326 --> 00:21:05,969
There was this revolution happening
in London, in style, in clothes, in music.
232
00:21:06,031 --> 00:21:09,342
So we were all converging on London.
233
00:21:18,110 --> 00:21:23,253
I think if Jimi had just arrived on his own
with some manager who is just some guy,
234
00:21:23,349 --> 00:21:25,260
there wouldn't have been the "in"
235
00:21:25,351 --> 00:21:28,924
that Jimi was afforded by Chas,
236
00:21:29,622 --> 00:21:32,899
because Chas knew all of us.
237
00:21:32,892 --> 00:21:35,498
First flat we had belonged to Ringo Starr.
238
00:21:35,494 --> 00:21:37,735
We're looking for a flat
and Ringo lended us his flat
239
00:21:37,863 --> 00:21:39,934
up on Montagu Street,
for the tour.
240
00:21:39,932 --> 00:21:42,003
And then we moved
to Upper Berkeley Street.
241
00:21:42,802 --> 00:21:46,181
And it was just great because
we went out to gigs, partied,
242
00:21:46,305 --> 00:21:47,784
worked on songs.
243
00:21:47,773 --> 00:21:51,220
The whole direction
was just on making it a success.
244
00:21:52,378 --> 00:21:54,221
He had enormous faith in Chas.
245
00:21:54,213 --> 00:21:56,591
And he also knew
that Chas was gonna look after him
246
00:21:56,649 --> 00:21:58,458
and that was very important for Jimi.
247
00:21:58,551 --> 00:22:01,031
He had to make sure that he was gonna be
248
00:22:01,020 --> 00:22:03,330
in the hands of somebody
who was gonna take care of him.
249
00:22:04,056 --> 00:22:06,730
He needed looking after, and he always did.
250
00:22:07,293 --> 00:22:11,742
When he came to London,
he needed looking after 100% more.
251
00:22:12,464 --> 00:22:15,934
When Jimi Hendrix first came to London,
as far as I was aware,
252
00:22:15,935 --> 00:22:18,074
he was managed by Chas Chandler.
253
00:22:18,070 --> 00:22:20,710
But behind the scenes,
it was Michael Jeffery,
254
00:22:20,806 --> 00:22:22,843
who actually managed the Animals.
255
00:22:22,842 --> 00:22:27,188
And he was Chas' business partner, really.
256
00:22:27,379 --> 00:22:32,761
Chas was very essential
for what he did for Jimi.
257
00:22:33,552 --> 00:22:36,294
But without Mike,
it would have gone nowhere.
258
00:22:36,722 --> 00:22:40,864
Mike really was a very clever negotiator
and wheeler-dealer.
259
00:22:41,260 --> 00:22:43,536
We used to all go down to a club
called the Scotch.
260
00:22:43,629 --> 00:22:45,734
The Beatles, the Stones
and us by this time
261
00:22:45,731 --> 00:22:47,972
used to go to
the Scotch club of Saint James.
262
00:22:48,067 --> 00:22:52,948
Jimi sat in there with a band called the VIPs
that became known later as Humble Pie.
263
00:22:53,005 --> 00:22:54,814
And Jimi sat in with them.
264
00:23:05,017 --> 00:23:06,963
It's like, "Whoa!"
265
00:23:07,019 --> 00:23:08,589
Wait a minute.
266
00:23:08,721 --> 00:23:10,598
He knows his way around the guitar,
this guy.
267
00:23:11,523 --> 00:23:13,662
There was hardly anyone in the club.
268
00:23:13,726 --> 00:23:15,865
So it was kind of,
269
00:23:15,961 --> 00:23:18,373
"Where is everyone? They've gotta see this."
270
00:23:33,812 --> 00:23:35,553
He didn't just sit in and play,
271
00:23:35,614 --> 00:23:37,252
he sort of did his act.
272
00:23:39,018 --> 00:23:42,693
With the teeth, behind the neck,
I mean, the whole nine yards.
273
00:23:53,032 --> 00:23:57,208
I'm getting very emotional just remembering
and just thinking I was there.
274
00:23:57,303 --> 00:23:58,304
But that was a great thing.
275
00:24:03,042 --> 00:24:04,043
Thank you very much.
276
00:24:08,213 --> 00:24:11,683
Kit Lambert and Chris Stamp were
the managers and producers of the Who.
277
00:24:11,817 --> 00:24:17,062
And they were in the throes of making a deal
with Polydor for distribution of a label,
278
00:24:17,122 --> 00:24:19,602
which was to be known as Track Records.
279
00:24:20,726 --> 00:24:21,761
We got the SP.
280
00:24:21,860 --> 00:24:24,932
We got the fact that Jimi
was over here with Chas.
281
00:24:24,930 --> 00:24:28,343
And we said, "Well, can we produce him?
We'd love to produce him."
282
00:24:28,334 --> 00:24:29,540
And Chas said,
"Well, I'm gonna produce him."
283
00:24:30,970 --> 00:24:33,678
We looked at each other, said,
"Has he got a record label?"
284
00:24:34,740 --> 00:24:35,980
Of course he didn't have a record label.
285
00:24:35,975 --> 00:24:38,819
So we immediately
286
00:24:38,811 --> 00:24:42,452
got into the machinations
of creating a record label because of Jimi.
287
00:24:42,781 --> 00:24:46,558
And we sat at the table
and, literally, did a deal on a beer mat
288
00:24:46,652 --> 00:24:48,928
for Jimi to be on Track Records.
289
00:24:51,590 --> 00:24:53,797
I was surprised to get
this call from London, England.
290
00:24:53,859 --> 00:24:57,033
And I knew who that'd be coming from.
291
00:24:57,129 --> 00:24:59,735
I hear Jimi, he said to me, he said,
292
00:24:59,832 --> 00:25:03,143
"Dad, I think I'm on my way to the big time."
293
00:25:03,135 --> 00:25:09,051
He says, "I'm over here in England now
and they're building up a group around me."
294
00:25:09,141 --> 00:25:11,951
And he said, "I'm gonna name it
the Jimi Hendrix Experience."
295
00:25:47,046 --> 00:25:49,822
We're going back to, what, September '66
296
00:25:49,815 --> 00:25:52,853
when I actually went to do an audition
as a guitar player
297
00:25:52,951 --> 00:25:55,932
for Eric Burdon and the New Animals,
'cause the Animals had broken up.
298
00:25:56,221 --> 00:25:59,725
And I was handed this bass.
We played three tunes.
299
00:25:59,825 --> 00:26:03,034
The American gentleman
just sort of told me the chords.
300
00:26:03,095 --> 00:26:05,132
And we went through them.
301
00:26:05,230 --> 00:26:08,541
And then the American bloke said,
"Do you wanna join my group?"
302
00:26:08,767 --> 00:26:10,007
And that was it.
303
00:26:14,373 --> 00:26:16,785
Noel comes down
expecting to play the guitar.
304
00:26:16,775 --> 00:26:18,812
He was trying for the Animals.
305
00:26:18,811 --> 00:26:22,657
So I dug his hairstyle,
so I asked him to play bass.
306
00:26:25,951 --> 00:26:28,522
I got a phone call from Chas Chandler.
307
00:26:28,520 --> 00:26:32,093
"Hey, I got this guy
coming over from America.
308
00:26:33,192 --> 00:26:35,069
"Do you fancy having a play with him?"
309
00:26:39,098 --> 00:26:42,875
And he's the first person
I ever heard that knew
310
00:26:43,001 --> 00:26:47,143
how to play that Curtis Mayfield style
of guitar.
311
00:26:47,272 --> 00:26:49,752
And also, "You want Wes Montgomery?"
312
00:26:49,842 --> 00:26:51,651
I mean, without being a flash git.
313
00:27:34,686 --> 00:27:40,295
Our first gigs were in France
on the 13th of October, 1966.
314
00:27:40,392 --> 00:27:44,568
And then we started doing what we called
the club scene in London.
315
00:27:59,645 --> 00:28:03,218
You knew people in America
who were great, like James Brown.
316
00:28:03,215 --> 00:28:07,994
But he was a guy, he was in London,
so he was now kind of one of ours.
317
00:28:08,253 --> 00:28:10,859
And here he was just being phenomenal.
318
00:28:39,585 --> 00:28:42,532
Well, there was a ready audience,
a lot of people thought was the source.
319
00:28:42,621 --> 00:28:45,295
People wanted to see black artists in Britain
320
00:28:45,390 --> 00:28:49,338
because they were the inspiration
for all our young musicians.
321
00:28:49,328 --> 00:28:52,172
People who had grown up listening
to B.B. King and Muddy Waters
322
00:28:52,264 --> 00:28:54,505
and Chuck Berry and Bo Diddley.
323
00:28:54,499 --> 00:28:57,708
They were the idols,
and the great thing about Jimi Hendrix,
324
00:28:57,903 --> 00:29:00,406
of course, he was much younger
and much hipper and cooler.
325
00:29:09,848 --> 00:29:12,385
People had started off
doing covers like he had.
326
00:29:13,418 --> 00:29:17,628
He did Hey Joe,
Stones did Little Red Rooster.
327
00:29:17,723 --> 00:29:19,259
Everyone was coming out of that world.
328
00:29:19,524 --> 00:29:22,937
But there was a germ in the air,
329
00:29:22,928 --> 00:29:25,101
which was like, "Hey, we could
write this ourselves, you know."
330
00:29:51,390 --> 00:29:56,362
It was essential that Jimi be there,
in London, at that particular time
331
00:29:56,528 --> 00:29:59,304
to soak it up and create this hybrid sound
332
00:29:59,631 --> 00:30:04,137
of blues, R&B, rock and psychedelia,
all mixed into one.
333
00:30:12,010 --> 00:30:15,822
Cleverly, he made the connection
with the English rock
334
00:30:15,814 --> 00:30:18,886
and the way English people
were interpreting blues.
335
00:30:19,084 --> 00:30:21,064
That was the genius of it.
336
00:30:24,790 --> 00:30:27,031
So, Jimi's solo is about to come up.
337
00:30:27,092 --> 00:30:29,766
And this is amazing, this thing.
338
00:30:29,928 --> 00:30:34,070
It freaked everybody out
because it's one of the great classic
339
00:30:34,866 --> 00:30:38,678
initial solos where psychedelia and blues
all rolled in together.
340
00:31:06,465 --> 00:31:08,604
He was accepted by the British audience
341
00:31:08,600 --> 00:31:10,580
with a reverence
that had happened with the Beatles.
342
00:31:11,470 --> 00:31:13,609
He was loved in England, and immediately,
343
00:31:13,605 --> 00:31:17,314
and appreciated
as the great artist that he was.
344
00:31:20,712 --> 00:31:23,488
Jimi must've felt like a prince.
345
00:31:23,482 --> 00:31:27,487
He must've felt like, "I am finally
being appreciated." And he was.
346
00:31:30,088 --> 00:31:32,034
The reason he took off
so quickly in England
347
00:31:32,624 --> 00:31:34,900
was because of
the Rolling Stones and the Beatles.
348
00:31:34,893 --> 00:31:37,169
They'd say,
"You've got to go see Jimi Hendrix."
349
00:31:37,262 --> 00:31:39,868
I put another thousand on the door
the next day
350
00:31:39,865 --> 00:31:42,778
when Mick Jagger or John Lennon
or Paul McCartney were saying,
351
00:31:43,402 --> 00:31:44,710
"This guy is great."
352
00:31:45,771 --> 00:31:47,580
We got Jimi on the Savoy Theatre,
353
00:31:47,672 --> 00:31:50,983
which was the theater being run by
the Beatles' manager, Brian Epstein.
354
00:31:51,610 --> 00:31:55,148
Jimi decided to come on and play
Sgt. Pepper.
355
00:31:55,380 --> 00:31:57,792
Sgt. Pepper literally
had been released that week.
356
00:32:21,006 --> 00:32:23,213
Jimi had learned Sgt. Pepper
357
00:32:23,742 --> 00:32:27,656
and opened with it, so for me,
that is one of my proud moments,
358
00:32:27,979 --> 00:32:30,858
that someone I loved as much as that,
359
00:32:30,849 --> 00:32:33,591
and someone who was destined to be great,
one of the greats,
360
00:32:33,885 --> 00:32:37,332
would open with one of our songs.
361
00:32:52,304 --> 00:32:55,342
We'd been tipped off, actually,
by John Lennon,
362
00:32:55,574 --> 00:32:57,850
he said, "You got to come and see this guy."
363
00:32:57,843 --> 00:32:59,845
And so I think we all got in limos
364
00:32:59,845 --> 00:33:02,485
at about 4:00 in the morning,
which was de rigueur
365
00:33:02,547 --> 00:33:04,424
in London at that time.
366
00:33:05,283 --> 00:33:07,854
We had never really seen
anything like that before
367
00:33:07,853 --> 00:33:10,857
or heard anything like that before,
what he did with the guitar.
368
00:33:11,223 --> 00:33:16,571
And so then began the negotiations
with Chandler and Jeffery,
369
00:33:16,661 --> 00:33:20,768
and we met Jimi, but he didn't
get involved in the business at all,
370
00:33:20,866 --> 00:33:23,403
and so we did our deal for North America.
371
00:33:23,401 --> 00:33:26,780
But that's the first time
I became really aware of him.
372
00:33:27,506 --> 00:33:29,645
He'd achieved the kind of
373
00:33:30,809 --> 00:33:34,552
level of acceptance
that had gone another gear.
374
00:33:35,180 --> 00:33:38,787
And Chas now had to
move towards the next stage.
375
00:33:38,884 --> 00:33:41,694
And the next stage was obviously
to break America.
376
00:33:55,967 --> 00:34:00,382
Jimi's first two US releases were
two singles, Hey Joe and Purple Haze.
377
00:34:00,906 --> 00:34:03,045
Neither of which had a huge market impact
378
00:34:03,441 --> 00:34:06,388
'cause there was no context for them,
it was just out of the blue.
379
00:34:08,280 --> 00:34:11,386
I think it was completely understandable
that they didn't find a market
380
00:34:11,750 --> 00:34:16,130
and the name "Jimi Hendrix" became
kind of a sub rosa thing.
381
00:34:19,858 --> 00:34:22,065
Those of us that were
proud hippies in the day
382
00:34:22,360 --> 00:34:24,567
were looking for the next new thing.
383
00:34:24,663 --> 00:34:27,075
And so we were becoming aware of him,
384
00:34:27,065 --> 00:34:29,375
but he certainly didn't have
a widespread popularity.
385
00:34:44,983 --> 00:34:49,090
"Monterey Pop" was
the first major rock festival.
386
00:34:49,621 --> 00:34:52,659
And the first major festival to include
387
00:34:54,259 --> 00:34:57,331
pop music from many different genres.
388
00:35:00,832 --> 00:35:07,340
Everyone was encouraged to submit names
that they thought would be interesting
389
00:35:08,006 --> 00:35:14,423
and a good reflection
of the "Monterey International Pop Festival."
390
00:35:15,213 --> 00:35:16,851
John from The Mamas & the Papas
391
00:35:16,948 --> 00:35:20,691
said, "Look, we're putting on a festival.
'Monterey,' it's gonna be great."
392
00:35:20,785 --> 00:35:23,095
He said, "Would you play it
with the Beatles?"
393
00:35:23,455 --> 00:35:25,867
We were very involved in the studio,
394
00:35:26,224 --> 00:35:28,329
so I said, "We won't be able to come over.
395
00:35:28,693 --> 00:35:31,503
"But I'll tell you who you've got to get."
396
00:35:31,830 --> 00:35:34,970
I said, "Jimi Hendrix,"
and they look quizzical and said, "Who?"
397
00:35:36,368 --> 00:35:37,369
So, they looked at me,
398
00:35:37,602 --> 00:35:40,173
"Yeah? I must look into it."
I said, "Yeah, look into it."
399
00:35:40,872 --> 00:35:41,976
And they booked him.
400
00:35:44,909 --> 00:35:46,217
If you're an American,
401
00:35:46,411 --> 00:35:50,223
and you play in and around the Village,
and you play a bunch of small clubs,
402
00:35:50,215 --> 00:35:53,094
and you never really make it,
and then you go to England
403
00:35:53,084 --> 00:35:55,655
and you're starting to become a success,
404
00:35:55,654 --> 00:35:58,294
and you've got a chance
to go back to America
405
00:35:58,423 --> 00:36:02,064
and say, "I told you so,"
I mean, that's really important.
406
00:36:06,631 --> 00:36:08,941
I sat next to him on the plane, going over.
407
00:36:09,000 --> 00:36:11,173
And he said that he was a bit frightened
408
00:36:11,536 --> 00:36:17,782
because he didn't really know
whether he'd be able to get across
409
00:36:18,610 --> 00:36:20,112
what he was trying to do.
410
00:36:23,081 --> 00:36:25,561
This was the Summer of Love,
411
00:36:25,984 --> 00:36:29,227
so you couldn't do anything that was
too outrageous for that crowd.
412
00:36:29,587 --> 00:36:33,330
Here to introduce him,
he's come all the way over from London,
413
00:36:34,626 --> 00:36:37,163
it's Brian Jones from the Rolling Stones.
414
00:36:38,663 --> 00:36:41,610
A very good friend,
a fellow countryman of yours.
415
00:36:41,966 --> 00:36:45,675
The biggest performer.
The most exciting sounds I've ever heard.
416
00:36:45,870 --> 00:36:47,907
The Jimi Hendrix Experience.
417
00:38:26,271 --> 00:38:28,376
It was a thin line-up, just three.
418
00:38:28,740 --> 00:38:32,745
But when the music started,
it was 10, it could've been 20.
419
00:38:33,211 --> 00:38:34,417
It was that powerful.
420
00:38:36,014 --> 00:38:40,053
Noel Redding and Mitch Mitchell
were these tiny, frail Englishmen
421
00:38:40,151 --> 00:38:43,189
with this wild man fronting the act.
422
00:39:04,509 --> 00:39:06,011
Yeah, baby, good lovin'.
423
00:39:09,047 --> 00:39:12,392
Man, this, I've been around,
went to England to pick up these two cats,
424
00:39:12,817 --> 00:39:16,629
and now here we are, it was so groovy
to come back here this way
425
00:39:16,988 --> 00:39:18,831
and really get a chance to really play.
426
00:39:43,081 --> 00:39:46,551
I cannot imagine what it was like
to see that first time out.
427
00:39:48,052 --> 00:39:52,865
He arrived without a great deal of fanfare,
without a great deal of advance notice
428
00:39:53,124 --> 00:39:56,333
and basically blew that crowd away.
429
00:39:59,831 --> 00:40:01,902
You can say
that the stars were in alignment.
430
00:40:02,300 --> 00:40:05,372
I would actually say
that he had everything he needed.
431
00:40:05,703 --> 00:40:08,149
He showed up
and he didn't waste a single bit of it.
432
00:40:37,869 --> 00:40:42,443
When you watch the Penny Baker film
and he goes to the audience
433
00:40:42,440 --> 00:40:45,910
and captures the look
on a couple of the girls in the audience,
434
00:40:47,178 --> 00:40:50,455
it's like astonishment,
"Is this really happening?"
435
00:40:53,418 --> 00:40:57,924
I was in the audience and I was appalled.
436
00:40:59,657 --> 00:41:03,332
It wasn't the sexuality
of the show that appalled me,
437
00:41:03,928 --> 00:41:06,204
it was what he did to his instrument.
438
00:41:07,265 --> 00:41:10,337
Here he was throwing lighter fluid
439
00:41:10,935 --> 00:41:14,473
on his guitar and setting it on fire.
440
00:41:15,373 --> 00:41:18,252
And I had never seen
anything like this in my life.
441
00:41:21,446 --> 00:41:23,392
I could imagine somebody
coming home from that
442
00:41:23,448 --> 00:41:25,223
and trying to describe it to their friends.
443
00:41:25,984 --> 00:41:28,988
"He was really loud,
he set his guitar on fire."
444
00:41:29,787 --> 00:41:34,099
"What? Why?"
"I don't know, but it was amazing."
445
00:41:41,099 --> 00:41:42,703
People take it for granted now
446
00:41:42,934 --> 00:41:45,346
because they've seen it,
they've seen the DVD of it,
447
00:41:45,403 --> 00:41:47,144
and it's not the same as like...
448
00:41:47,205 --> 00:41:48,616
Well, before that day,
449
00:41:48,706 --> 00:41:51,380
there was nothing like that
that ever happened in the world.
450
00:42:05,256 --> 00:42:06,860
Hendrix!
451
00:42:08,026 --> 00:42:12,441
There is a contention
that "Monterey" broke Jimi Hendrix.
452
00:42:12,530 --> 00:42:13,736
It didn't.
453
00:42:13,731 --> 00:42:17,201
"Monterey" was
the foot in the door for Jimi Hendrix.
454
00:42:17,368 --> 00:42:21,214
"Monterey" proved to all the music critics
that were there
455
00:42:21,205 --> 00:42:23,515
that this was something special, this guy.
456
00:42:23,708 --> 00:42:27,121
Well, the reaction to him in Monterey
457
00:42:27,345 --> 00:42:30,485
reached the promoters,
the concert promoters around the country.
458
00:42:30,882 --> 00:42:32,452
So Jimi started getting dates.
459
00:42:38,189 --> 00:42:40,897
He went straight from Monterey
to play for Bill Graham
460
00:42:41,292 --> 00:42:43,533
at The Fillmore hall in San Francisco.
461
00:42:46,230 --> 00:42:47,709
He did The Fillmore,
462
00:42:47,965 --> 00:42:51,742
and then someone had this brainstorm
to put him on tour with The Monkees.
463
00:42:55,373 --> 00:42:57,410
And the logic, I kind of understand.
464
00:42:57,742 --> 00:43:01,246
It's a huge audience,
The Monkees are super popular,
465
00:43:01,412 --> 00:43:04,291
but the reality is,
that audience is not predisposed
466
00:43:04,382 --> 00:43:08,626
to liking anything as jarring
and as groundbreaking as that.
467
00:43:15,059 --> 00:43:17,096
Dick Clark was the promoter of the tour.
468
00:43:17,095 --> 00:43:19,871
Dick Clark and I sat down
and worked out a tale
469
00:43:20,231 --> 00:43:24,008
that the Daughters of the American
Revolution objected to Jimi's obscene act.
470
00:43:24,335 --> 00:43:27,282
I thought that would do as a story
to save Jimi's face, pulling him off.
471
00:43:30,842 --> 00:43:33,652
And so they played
three or four dates, I guess,
472
00:43:33,644 --> 00:43:35,419
but we got the call right away from Atlanta.
473
00:43:35,680 --> 00:43:37,182
"Get him off the tour.
474
00:43:37,348 --> 00:43:39,294
"Get him out of there."
475
00:43:45,590 --> 00:43:47,297
He was such a sweetheart.
476
00:43:47,291 --> 00:43:51,933
He was so conservative
and he was shy and reserved and stuff.
477
00:43:52,029 --> 00:43:58,241
And they had him out as this wild man
from Borneo, and he wasn't any of that.
478
00:44:01,706 --> 00:44:05,449
Well, you only would've seen him being
flashy and extrovert when he was playing.
479
00:44:05,710 --> 00:44:09,624
I don't know. Are there interviews where
he's flashy and extrovert? I doubt it.
480
00:44:10,815 --> 00:44:12,726
Because he was two different characters.
481
00:44:13,084 --> 00:44:16,497
When he was playing,
he was super confident,
482
00:44:16,487 --> 00:44:19,627
he was in total control,
his focus was immaculate.
483
00:44:20,124 --> 00:44:24,300
But when he wasn't playing,
he was desperately insecure.
484
00:44:25,897 --> 00:44:31,142
I think, like a lot of artists, too,
he would be unsure of his own worth.
485
00:44:31,569 --> 00:44:35,346
You never got the feeling that this was
someone who was going to show off
486
00:44:36,007 --> 00:44:38,214
until he got on stage and then...
487
00:44:38,209 --> 00:44:42,658
But that's like a lot of artists,
they can be quite quiet.
488
00:44:43,214 --> 00:44:46,855
And then they get on stage
and now they're let out of jail.
489
00:44:55,159 --> 00:44:56,968
When I'm on stage, I'm a complete natural,
490
00:44:57,061 --> 00:44:59,940
more so than talking
to a group of people or something.
491
00:45:00,097 --> 00:45:03,306
When I feel like playing with my teeth,
I do it, 'cause I feel like it.
492
00:45:07,905 --> 00:45:10,010
The audience that was being exposed
493
00:45:10,107 --> 00:45:13,054
to what Jimi was doing
had probably never seen it before.
494
00:45:13,411 --> 00:45:15,015
Playing guitar with his teeth.
495
00:45:15,279 --> 00:45:16,656
Back behind his head.
496
00:45:17,181 --> 00:45:20,754
Those were old tricks
that had been around since the '50s.
497
00:45:21,018 --> 00:45:24,989
That was kind of
stock-in-trade showmanship guitar tricks.
498
00:45:32,029 --> 00:45:36,375
There was a guy who used to be
an older guy named T-Bone Rocker,
499
00:45:36,534 --> 00:45:39,014
he used to play the guitar
on the back of his head.
500
00:45:39,003 --> 00:45:42,644
Now the biting of the guitar
and playing it like
501
00:45:43,374 --> 00:45:46,821
he was having some kind of
a love affair was...
502
00:45:47,778 --> 00:45:51,487
That was basically his original.
503
00:46:00,024 --> 00:46:01,901
He did act up a bit.
504
00:46:02,126 --> 00:46:04,072
But he was a great musician.
505
00:46:04,262 --> 00:46:06,868
And none of the showmanship he did
506
00:46:07,031 --> 00:46:12,481
was done to cover up anything that
he lacked in his musicianship.
507
00:46:12,536 --> 00:46:13,606
Absolutely no way.
508
00:46:16,207 --> 00:46:18,118
It's not like he was doing something easy
509
00:46:18,309 --> 00:46:21,347
and that's why it was easy for him
to dance around and do the things he did,
510
00:46:21,579 --> 00:46:26,050
he had all these showman skills while
he was doing something really complicated.
511
00:46:29,253 --> 00:46:32,860
He hated being referred to
as having gimmicks
512
00:46:33,324 --> 00:46:34,803
and all that stuff.
513
00:46:35,826 --> 00:46:40,138
But it wasn't a gimmick,
it was who he was, period.
514
00:46:40,231 --> 00:46:42,507
Jimi, how much do you rely on gimmicks?
515
00:46:42,667 --> 00:46:43,737
Gimmicks, there we go again.
516
00:46:43,734 --> 00:46:45,805
Gimmicks, I'm tired of people saying
I have gimmicks.
517
00:46:45,803 --> 00:46:48,340
What is this? The world is
nothing but a big gimmick, isn't it?
518
00:46:48,339 --> 00:46:50,182
Wars, napalm bombs and all that.
519
00:46:50,174 --> 00:46:53,781
People get burned up on TV
and it's nothing but a big gimmick.
520
00:46:53,978 --> 00:46:55,423
Why do you wear your hair like that?
521
00:46:55,479 --> 00:46:56,856
Yeah, well, these hair strands here,
522
00:46:56,947 --> 00:47:00,053
each one stands for a vibration
and all are supposed to be good.
523
00:47:00,151 --> 00:47:02,256
But... There goes a strand there.
524
00:47:02,320 --> 00:47:04,459
He was an entity unto himself.
525
00:47:04,655 --> 00:47:07,659
He was unique, his thought processes,
526
00:47:08,025 --> 00:47:10,631
his music,
527
00:47:10,695 --> 00:47:13,904
his verbalizations of things.
528
00:47:13,964 --> 00:47:16,774
His body language, his clothes.
529
00:47:16,901 --> 00:47:19,507
He was unique,
he didn't follow a pattern at all.
530
00:47:33,484 --> 00:47:35,862
He looked like an exotic bird at that point.
531
00:47:36,821 --> 00:47:38,858
He had the big hat on
532
00:47:38,856 --> 00:47:40,733
with the feather coming out the back of it,
533
00:47:40,991 --> 00:47:44,234
and he had the chains,
and nobody else looked like that.
534
00:47:45,930 --> 00:47:47,238
He was very clever.
535
00:47:47,698 --> 00:47:49,200
Don't think this is just,
536
00:47:49,533 --> 00:47:52,639
smoke a little weed
and decide to dress this way.
537
00:47:52,636 --> 00:47:58,746
I think he definitely wanted to
look as original as his music was.
538
00:48:03,247 --> 00:48:06,888
He wanted to look like that all the time
539
00:48:07,017 --> 00:48:09,190
because that was who he was.
540
00:48:09,387 --> 00:48:15,360
Not somebody who was going to
put this on right now and take this off
541
00:48:15,760 --> 00:48:17,535
and go into the street.
542
00:48:17,628 --> 00:48:20,268
It was him, he was expressing who he was.
543
00:48:20,765 --> 00:48:24,975
And that didn't set well with everybody.
544
00:48:32,576 --> 00:48:34,954
I tried to get him onto "Ed Sullivan."
545
00:48:35,780 --> 00:48:39,023
I got Bob Precht to see
them perform at one point.
546
00:48:39,784 --> 00:48:43,823
And he said, "That's too far for us,
we're not going there.
547
00:48:45,823 --> 00:48:47,325
"Ed won't like that."
548
00:48:52,863 --> 00:48:56,675
So Jimi Hendrix had to make it without
the help of "The Ed Sullivan Show,"
549
00:48:56,934 --> 00:49:00,006
which the Beatles had,
the Stones had, the Doors, Dave Clark Five.
550
00:49:00,004 --> 00:49:03,679
All these different people did their turn
on "The Ed Sullivan Show."
551
00:49:04,909 --> 00:49:06,183
Some people don't need it.
552
00:49:07,511 --> 00:49:11,550
A lot of what success is for some people,
it's just word of mouth.
553
00:49:30,334 --> 00:49:33,907
Although music was cast
in terms of racial context,
554
00:49:33,971 --> 00:49:35,541
R&B is black music,
555
00:49:35,606 --> 00:49:36,983
rock is white music,
556
00:49:37,107 --> 00:49:41,249
but what you didn't see
is a black man fronting a rock band.
557
00:49:41,412 --> 00:49:43,187
It just didn't happen before.
558
00:49:48,185 --> 00:49:51,496
A month after "Monterey,"
the Are You Experienced? album came out.
559
00:49:51,822 --> 00:49:53,324
Now you had graphics,
560
00:49:53,324 --> 00:49:56,032
you could see what the
Jimi Hendrix Experience looked like.
561
00:50:01,265 --> 00:50:04,144
When I saw that cover, I knew I wanted it.
562
00:50:04,935 --> 00:50:08,815
The fact that he was a black guitar player,
for someone who was into rock 'n' roll,
563
00:50:08,939 --> 00:50:11,044
who knew Motown, who knew soul,
564
00:50:11,408 --> 00:50:16,949
for this to be a black American
rock guitarist, it was really...
565
00:50:17,047 --> 00:50:19,653
It was something
that I really wanted to know about.
566
00:50:38,269 --> 00:50:42,945
Are You Experienced? as the first album
just blew people's minds.
567
00:50:43,574 --> 00:50:47,351
We tried anything and everything
to make the sounds different
568
00:50:47,444 --> 00:50:50,982
because we could, we were given
that freedom to do that,
569
00:50:51,081 --> 00:50:53,618
and I think the album represents that.
570
00:50:53,617 --> 00:50:57,463
Before that record was made,
a lot of those sounds had never been heard.
571
00:50:57,454 --> 00:51:01,129
And so just to be able to say,
"Hey, I just recorded something
572
00:51:01,125 --> 00:51:03,696
"and it's got stuff on it
that's never been heard before."
573
00:51:03,928 --> 00:51:05,737
That was a time when you could do that.
574
00:51:40,698 --> 00:51:42,905
What set it apart was everything.
575
00:51:43,133 --> 00:51:45,545
There was the lyrics,
576
00:51:45,903 --> 00:51:49,248
which seemed...
They seemed very psychedelic,
577
00:51:49,340 --> 00:51:53,789
but when you look at it now,
they're actually very grounded in blues.
578
00:51:53,777 --> 00:51:56,621
When he sings about the Wind Cries Mary,
579
00:51:56,847 --> 00:51:59,418
that's not much more different
than the old bluesmen saying,
580
00:51:59,516 --> 00:52:01,086
"The blues fell down like rain."
581
00:52:41,425 --> 00:52:45,373
You have to wrench your mind back
to a time before the social network.
582
00:52:45,963 --> 00:52:47,943
No Twitter, no Facebook.
583
00:52:48,499 --> 00:52:50,604
When something new
like that would come along,
584
00:52:50,768 --> 00:52:53,305
it was very organic, it was word of mouth.
585
00:52:53,570 --> 00:52:57,518
And the people on the radio,
we would hear this.
586
00:52:58,008 --> 00:53:02,684
The west coast stations started playing him,
and then it worked its way back
587
00:53:02,746 --> 00:53:03,747
across the country.
588
00:53:03,847 --> 00:53:06,293
The underground radio
is going together so nicely,
589
00:53:06,417 --> 00:53:09,728
I just hope that this keeps on,
with the stereo and so forth.
590
00:53:09,920 --> 00:53:12,730
Everybody makes a little better records
591
00:53:12,823 --> 00:53:14,734
and stereo singles and so forth.
592
00:53:14,825 --> 00:53:19,103
That means music itself is being
presented to the public in a better way.
593
00:53:19,163 --> 00:53:22,975
Are You Experienced?
594
00:53:28,138 --> 00:53:29,742
The record was fantastic.
595
00:53:29,973 --> 00:53:32,852
The ones who got it
never stopped talking about it.
596
00:53:33,277 --> 00:53:35,814
Nascent FM radio was
starting to play it.
597
00:53:35,946 --> 00:53:39,917
By February of '68, he's on a major US tour.
598
00:53:41,652 --> 00:53:43,290
The '68 tour was
599
00:53:44,321 --> 00:53:47,097
best described as complete madness.
600
00:53:47,491 --> 00:53:50,870
The gigs were far and wide, we would do
601
00:53:51,695 --> 00:53:54,938
Virginia Beach,
and then we would do Quebec
602
00:53:54,932 --> 00:53:57,139
and Cleveland,
and then we were back in New York.
603
00:53:57,201 --> 00:53:59,010
And we were all over the place.
604
00:54:00,804 --> 00:54:04,183
The Jimi Hendrix Experience
comes to Tampa.
605
00:54:04,308 --> 00:54:07,221
The Jimi Hendrix Experience at
the Rhode Island Auditorium in Providence.
606
00:54:07,211 --> 00:54:11,023
Two shows this Friday night
at the Anaheim Convention Center.
607
00:54:13,050 --> 00:54:16,327
You were gonna listen to him on the radio,
but you were not going to see it on TV.
608
00:54:17,121 --> 00:54:20,295
When he came to your town,
you had to be at that concert,
609
00:54:20,290 --> 00:54:22,736
'cause that was the only chance
you were going to get to see him.
610
00:54:23,093 --> 00:54:25,369
The Jimi Hendrix Experience.
611
00:54:25,696 --> 00:54:28,302
The number one
progressive rock act in the world.
612
00:54:32,536 --> 00:54:36,609
I recorded driving
19,000 miles in eight days.
613
00:54:38,575 --> 00:54:40,418
I didn't sleep at all.
614
00:54:40,477 --> 00:54:42,582
All I did was took
615
00:54:42,813 --> 00:54:45,453
Dexedrine or anything I could take.
616
00:54:45,816 --> 00:54:47,887
So it was pretty ridiculous.
617
00:54:49,620 --> 00:54:52,533
The Jimi Hendrix Experience on stage.
618
00:54:52,623 --> 00:54:56,161
In person with the most dynamic
experience of a lifetime.
619
00:54:56,527 --> 00:55:01,476
We did 57 gigs in 55 days, or something.
620
00:55:01,965 --> 00:55:05,003
That's when we noticed
we were playing to bigger things,
621
00:55:05,102 --> 00:55:08,174
we were now doing 20,000 to 30,000 people.
622
00:55:14,178 --> 00:55:15,452
He'd come home to Seattle.
623
00:55:16,013 --> 00:55:19,051
We went down to where he was playing
and we went backstage.
624
00:55:19,216 --> 00:55:22,220
You got to remember, I just got out
of the service, so I've got this crew cut.
625
00:55:22,820 --> 00:55:24,629
I'm very severe looking.
626
00:55:24,621 --> 00:55:27,363
And I look at Jimi and I go,
"Buster, what have they done to you?"
627
00:55:27,357 --> 00:55:30,770
'Cause he had these bellbottom pants
and all this great look,
628
00:55:30,861 --> 00:55:33,569
and I'm looking at him with wide eyes,
and he's looking at me and he's going,
629
00:55:33,664 --> 00:55:35,735
"Bobby, what have they done to you?"
630
00:55:41,104 --> 00:55:43,209
He left in 1961.
631
00:55:43,207 --> 00:55:45,778
Just a poor kid from Seattle
632
00:55:45,776 --> 00:55:48,848
joining the army
so that he could serve his time.
633
00:55:49,746 --> 00:55:53,023
Though he contacted my dad
and he kept in contact through letters,
634
00:55:53,350 --> 00:55:54,795
they really hadn't seen each other.
635
00:55:55,085 --> 00:55:57,087
The meeting, the homecoming.
636
00:55:57,721 --> 00:55:59,064
He was so excited to see him.
637
00:56:00,023 --> 00:56:02,526
Jimi was the last person
to come off the plane.
638
00:56:02,726 --> 00:56:04,228
He had his big hat.
639
00:56:04,728 --> 00:56:07,766
My dad had shaved all the hair off his face.
640
00:56:07,865 --> 00:56:10,004
My dad had never been without a mustache.
641
00:56:10,100 --> 00:56:13,604
So here he was, all clean-shaven,
even had a tie on.
642
00:56:13,804 --> 00:56:16,148
If you knew my dad, he didn't wear ties.
643
00:56:16,340 --> 00:56:18,616
I can count on one hand
how many times he wore a tie,
644
00:56:18,609 --> 00:56:22,352
but he was just so proud of Jimi,
and he was so excited to see him.
645
00:56:22,412 --> 00:56:24,756
I mean, after all, it'd been seven years.
646
00:56:25,349 --> 00:56:28,819
No longer was he little Jimi Hendrix, Buster,
647
00:56:29,086 --> 00:56:32,260
whatever other names
that our family had for him.
648
00:56:32,990 --> 00:56:35,698
He didn't do the big limos
and the big hotels,
649
00:56:35,859 --> 00:56:40,069
he stayed at his dad's house,
drove his dad's old jalopy around town
650
00:56:40,264 --> 00:56:42,505
to go see his friends and stuff,
651
00:56:42,566 --> 00:56:45,172
he was always the same kind of guy.
652
00:56:47,371 --> 00:56:52,445
He was very humble, he was a gentleman,
and he was very caring for his friends
653
00:56:52,509 --> 00:56:55,786
and for people that worked for him.
654
00:56:56,546 --> 00:56:59,857
The only thing he wanted
was to be able to play his music.
655
00:57:01,385 --> 00:57:03,865
He was so concentrated on music,
656
00:57:03,987 --> 00:57:08,060
there wasn't a sport he liked,
I never heard him talk about a sport,
657
00:57:08,392 --> 00:57:11,862
he didn't read the papers,
he really had no interest
658
00:57:14,164 --> 00:57:16,201
for anything other than music and women.
659
00:57:16,566 --> 00:57:19,069
So, Jimi had two areas of expertise,
660
00:57:19,236 --> 00:57:21,273
he had his guitar-playing,
661
00:57:21,672 --> 00:57:26,314
and then he had an immaculate
and intense sexuality.
662
00:57:27,444 --> 00:57:29,117
He was usually pretty polite.
663
00:57:29,246 --> 00:57:31,453
You could see he was a real player,
664
00:57:31,448 --> 00:57:34,452
he could just walk up to a chick
and whisper something to her,
665
00:57:34,518 --> 00:57:37,021
and they'd go off.
666
00:57:38,455 --> 00:57:42,096
If I get up at 7:00 in the morning,
and I'm really sleepy,
667
00:57:42,259 --> 00:57:45,729
but then I open the door
and I see somebody that appeals to me,
668
00:57:46,396 --> 00:57:51,641
well, first of all, I say,
"What in the world is she doing here?
669
00:57:51,768 --> 00:57:53,611
"What does she even want?"
Or something like that.
670
00:57:53,603 --> 00:57:56,277
I stand there and she says, "Can I come in?"
671
00:57:56,473 --> 00:58:00,478
And I stand there really digging her.
She's nice-looking, you know.
672
00:58:00,477 --> 00:58:06,018
She's about 19, 20,
beyond the age of so and so.
673
00:58:06,116 --> 00:58:11,657
Well, I probably stand there,
and then I go biting into an apple maybe.
674
00:58:37,614 --> 00:58:44,623
Axis: Bold As Love was out another six
to seven months after Are You Experienced?
675
00:58:48,725 --> 00:58:52,935
The album became a lot more complex,
and, I think, a better sound.
676
00:58:53,730 --> 00:58:58,839
The rawness is there, but it's a much more
refined-sounding album.
677
00:58:58,835 --> 00:59:01,839
And then we bring in all the phasing
and all the special effects,
678
00:59:01,838 --> 00:59:06,184
which we'd refined between the first album
and the second album.
679
00:59:06,443 --> 00:59:08,582
You can hear the changes
from Are You Experienced?
680
00:59:08,645 --> 00:59:11,455
Loud and brash and frustrated
681
00:59:11,848 --> 00:59:13,850
and rebellious and so forth,
682
00:59:14,117 --> 00:59:19,123
and with Axis, then try and maybe
cool everything down a little bit.
683
00:59:19,423 --> 00:59:24,304
And bring some beautiful stories together,
maybe say certain things here and there.
684
00:59:24,694 --> 00:59:27,004
He'd have bits and pieces of paper,
685
00:59:26,997 --> 00:59:30,410
like hotel stationery, backs of envelopes,
matchbooks, whatever,
686
00:59:30,534 --> 00:59:32,036
and he'd be always scribbling.
687
00:59:32,135 --> 00:59:34,547
He'd have a bag full
of bits and pieces of paper,
688
00:59:34,638 --> 00:59:40,281
which he'd finally bring out and then start
reassembling the lyrics for the final time,
689
00:59:40,377 --> 00:59:42,687
then he would go into the studio
and then he would sing it.
690
01:00:15,278 --> 01:00:17,884
If we had a constant row in the studio,
691
01:00:17,981 --> 01:00:20,052
when I say "row," it was disagreement,
692
01:00:20,117 --> 01:00:23,030
it was where his voice should be in the mix.
693
01:00:23,153 --> 01:00:26,760
He always wanted to have his voice buried,
and I always wanted to bring it forward.
694
01:00:26,756 --> 01:00:29,862
He'd say, "I've got a terrible voice.
I've got a terrible voice."
695
01:00:29,960 --> 01:00:33,464
I said, "You might have a terrible voice,
but you've got great rhythm in your voice.
696
01:00:33,463 --> 01:00:38,378
"It's important for the song, your diction,
and the way you deliver the words."
697
01:00:38,435 --> 01:00:41,575
It was always a controversy between us,
698
01:00:42,205 --> 01:00:45,084
which I always won
by pulling his voice forward.
699
01:00:51,081 --> 01:00:54,187
For a guy that really didn't like
the sound of his own voice,
700
01:00:54,384 --> 01:00:56,091
his voice was incredible,
701
01:00:56,219 --> 01:01:00,065
absolutely phenomenal on this,
beautiful, soft tones.
702
01:01:34,324 --> 01:01:35,564
He'd put his head around the booth,
703
01:01:35,659 --> 01:01:38,071
'cause we always used to construct
this little booth for him,
704
01:01:38,295 --> 01:01:41,299
he never wanted anybody to see him,
of course, he was so shy,
705
01:01:41,598 --> 01:01:44,442
but he'd say, "How was that?"
"That was great, Jimi."
706
01:01:44,434 --> 01:01:46,038
"I gotta do another one."
707
01:01:46,036 --> 01:01:48,846
There was this desire to be better.
708
01:01:48,838 --> 01:01:53,844
The desire that I think
all great artists have in them,
709
01:01:54,044 --> 01:01:58,823
whether you're a painter, or a poet,
or a playwright, or a musician,
710
01:01:59,249 --> 01:02:02,458
that you're very rarely satisfied
with your work.
711
01:02:02,786 --> 01:02:06,131
That whole LP means so much,
it wasn't just slopped together,
712
01:02:06,323 --> 01:02:08,564
every little thing that you hear on there
means something,
713
01:02:08,625 --> 01:02:09,933
it's not a little game that we're playing,
714
01:02:10,660 --> 01:02:12,936
trying to blow the public's mind or so forth,
715
01:02:13,196 --> 01:02:17,008
it's a thing that we really, really mean,
it's a part of us, another part of us.
716
01:02:18,902 --> 01:02:20,643
He was looking for something,
717
01:02:20,737 --> 01:02:25,083
and he'd always have these little parts
that worked like a little puzzle, you know,
718
01:02:25,675 --> 01:02:30,249
it could be five, six, seven, eight
guitar tracks, all to make one texture.
719
01:02:30,614 --> 01:02:35,359
And it was in the early stages
of all of that recording technology,
720
01:02:35,352 --> 01:02:40,495
so he was pushing the limits
of what could be done to make his music.
721
01:02:45,328 --> 01:02:48,241
During Little Wing,
there are three rhythm guitars,
722
01:02:48,331 --> 01:02:49,605
here's one of them.
723
01:02:51,735 --> 01:02:54,739
Slightly dirty guitar, but not that dirty.
724
01:02:55,205 --> 01:02:56,980
And then there's this one.
725
01:02:59,009 --> 01:03:01,250
A really clean one.
726
01:03:02,045 --> 01:03:05,788
And then in addition to that one,
there's also a Leslie guitar.
727
01:03:10,353 --> 01:03:13,493
And when you put them all together,
you get this.
728
01:03:49,859 --> 01:03:53,773
People always made out Jimi
to be some sort of tragic character,
729
01:03:53,930 --> 01:03:57,776
sort of gloomy, mystical,
and all the rest of it,
730
01:03:57,834 --> 01:03:59,006
he was anything but that.
731
01:03:59,102 --> 01:04:01,343
If I think of Jimi,
I think of him with a smile on his face,
732
01:04:01,471 --> 01:04:03,747
'cause he was full of fun all the time.
733
01:04:04,207 --> 01:04:06,653
And if you really look
at the bunch of pictures,
734
01:04:06,643 --> 01:04:08,316
apart from when he's actually
on stage playing,
735
01:04:08,411 --> 01:04:10,118
if you see all the pictures,
736
01:04:10,113 --> 01:04:14,186
in nine out of 10 of them, he's always got
a smile or a secret grin on his face,
737
01:04:14,250 --> 01:04:16,059
he was a very funny guy.
738
01:04:17,253 --> 01:04:19,062
He would imitate people.
739
01:04:19,723 --> 01:04:21,999
He would tell you jokes.
740
01:04:23,159 --> 01:04:25,867
He was a prankster. He was a prankster.
741
01:04:26,730 --> 01:04:28,607
He was very funny,
742
01:04:28,732 --> 01:04:31,542
he was just so lovable,
he was such a sweetheart.
743
01:04:32,135 --> 01:04:35,844
His friendliness just drew people to him,
like a magnet.
744
01:04:36,239 --> 01:04:40,654
He was just likeable, and you wanted him
on your friendship train.
745
01:04:46,916 --> 01:04:48,259
He connected with people.
746
01:04:48,318 --> 01:04:51,162
And he connected in his faith
747
01:04:51,254 --> 01:04:55,600
that the guitar could take you someplace
you'd never been before.
748
01:04:55,925 --> 01:04:58,064
And he made you believe it.
749
01:05:13,543 --> 01:05:16,854
He's a pretty far out guitar player.
I like his riffs.
750
01:05:19,883 --> 01:05:21,226
He flows.
751
01:05:21,518 --> 01:05:25,898
He says things with his guitar, man.
You wouldn't need words, right?
752
01:05:26,022 --> 01:05:28,559
We have to turn from looking
at everybody else
753
01:05:28,658 --> 01:05:29,966
sometimes to looking at ourselves,
754
01:05:30,093 --> 01:05:32,198
I think that Jimi's music turns people
a little more inward
755
01:05:32,328 --> 01:05:33,864
and they can figure out
where their own head's at
756
01:05:33,930 --> 01:05:35,000
and how to get together.
757
01:05:36,433 --> 01:05:39,642
He embraced the counterculture,
he dressed like a hippie,
758
01:05:39,769 --> 01:05:44,013
he spoke like one,
he took the same kind of drugs,
759
01:05:44,007 --> 01:05:47,045
so he infiltrated the counterculture
760
01:05:47,043 --> 01:05:49,717
in a way that instantly brought him attention
761
01:05:49,813 --> 01:05:51,850
mostly from young, white kids.
762
01:05:54,117 --> 01:05:55,323
He was a black kid,
763
01:05:55,318 --> 01:05:58,356
suddenly, thousands and thousands
of white guys are coming up to see him play,
764
01:05:58,555 --> 01:06:02,002
he was the first artist that had done that
in America, in real terms, in the modern era.
765
01:06:48,838 --> 01:06:53,253
You have to remember that
Hendrix arrived in '67 with the Experience,
766
01:06:53,443 --> 01:06:55,116
black guy and two English guys,
767
01:06:55,245 --> 01:06:58,715
and this was actually a year before
the major race riots,
768
01:06:58,882 --> 01:07:01,260
after the killing of Martin Luther King.
769
01:07:01,417 --> 01:07:05,126
People say, "Well, you know,
why aren't you playing with black guys
770
01:07:05,221 --> 01:07:09,692
"and getting political
about civil rights in America?"
771
01:07:10,260 --> 01:07:15,175
Ultimately, what Hendrix was doing
was expressing the ultimate civil right,
772
01:07:15,164 --> 01:07:17,201
to do whatever the hell he wanted
773
01:07:17,200 --> 01:07:22,274
with his art
and with whoever he chose to do it with.
774
01:07:30,880 --> 01:07:33,918
He didn't have to come out and march,
he didn't have to come out and do anything,
775
01:07:34,017 --> 01:07:37,521
just being there
with Mitch Mitchell and Noel Redding,
776
01:07:37,620 --> 01:07:41,466
that was a statement
about where we're going,
777
01:07:41,524 --> 01:07:43,800
it ain't the same world anymore.
778
01:07:43,893 --> 01:07:46,601
I just want to listen to this guy play music,
779
01:07:46,763 --> 01:07:49,243
and I don't care
that he's with two white guys,
780
01:07:49,232 --> 01:07:52,509
and it's a black guy, or he's purple.
This guy is great.
781
01:07:52,569 --> 01:07:54,207
And that was a huge breakthrough.
782
01:08:04,180 --> 01:08:06,922
He's the big star now,
he's had two records out,
783
01:08:07,083 --> 01:08:10,360
he's been touring America,
you know, he's the big cheese.
784
01:08:10,453 --> 01:08:12,626
And everybody comes to see Jimi.
785
01:08:13,456 --> 01:08:15,163
In less than a year from the time that
786
01:08:15,158 --> 01:08:16,933
Jimi Hendrix
and the Jimi Hendrix Experience
787
01:08:16,926 --> 01:08:19,634
came over to do
the "Monterey Pop Festival,"
788
01:08:19,629 --> 01:08:22,940
to the time Jimi Hendrix
was headlining "Miami Pop,"
789
01:08:22,932 --> 01:08:26,744
he became the biggest concert attraction
in the country.
790
01:08:26,903 --> 01:08:28,143
That's fast.
791
01:08:36,846 --> 01:08:38,621
His arrival was kind of interesting.
792
01:08:38,715 --> 01:08:41,958
We were waiting for him to show up,
and he wasn't showing up,
793
01:08:42,619 --> 01:08:44,690
the cars that we sent missed our pick-up,
794
01:08:44,854 --> 01:08:47,733
and it was getting late,
so finally, I said, "Just go find a helicopter,
795
01:08:47,857 --> 01:08:49,268
"get over here."
796
01:08:51,127 --> 01:08:54,631
Somebody had slipped him
some STP on the way over, apparently,
797
01:08:55,531 --> 01:08:57,340
and so, they were blasted.
798
01:08:57,567 --> 01:09:00,309
But played an unbelievable set.
799
01:09:00,370 --> 01:09:02,611
He literally took off like a rocket.
800
01:11:29,786 --> 01:11:33,495
This was a weekend event,
and we planned two performances a day,
801
01:11:33,689 --> 01:11:38,138
and, Sunday, I guess
pretty early in the morning,
802
01:11:38,494 --> 01:11:40,838
the clouds descended.
803
01:11:58,614 --> 01:12:00,423
The second gig, he couldn't play, of course,
804
01:12:00,416 --> 01:12:03,829
we're in the limousine
going back from the gig back to the hotel,
805
01:12:03,953 --> 01:12:05,899
and I'm sitting next to Jimi
and I'm looking over,
806
01:12:05,888 --> 01:12:10,633
and there he is, he's got a pad out
and he's writing Rainy Day, Dream Away.
807
01:12:10,793 --> 01:12:12,431
And that's when he wrote it.
808
01:12:26,175 --> 01:12:29,122
There's no question about it,
Jimi was tremendously gifted,
809
01:12:29,212 --> 01:12:31,988
he was meant to play guitar,
but, by hell, he worked at it.
810
01:12:31,981 --> 01:12:34,257
He worked at it more than
anybody I've ever seen.
811
01:12:34,250 --> 01:12:35,888
Thinking about it, most of the time,
812
01:12:35,885 --> 01:12:38,229
I never saw that guy
without a guitar in his hands,
813
01:12:39,155 --> 01:12:43,194
in or out of the studio,
or sitting around in the apartment.
814
01:12:43,826 --> 01:12:45,134
Jimi used to get up in the morning
815
01:12:45,127 --> 01:12:47,073
and put a guitar on
before he walked out of the bedroom.
816
01:12:47,063 --> 01:12:50,636
He'd be walking in the kitchen
to make breakfast, playing guitar,
817
01:12:50,833 --> 01:12:53,074
he went to the loo with the guitar on,
818
01:12:53,236 --> 01:12:55,739
he had a guitar on eight, nine hours a day.
819
01:12:55,972 --> 01:12:59,010
Well, he only wanted to be noticed
if he was playing the guitar,
820
01:12:59,008 --> 01:13:03,514
he wanted to meld into
the background otherwise.
821
01:13:04,046 --> 01:13:07,186
He didn't want to be noticed at all,
it was only his playing,
822
01:13:07,383 --> 01:13:10,023
he only wanted to communicate
through his playing.
823
01:13:10,419 --> 01:13:13,798
He didn't want to communicate
via words in any sense.
824
01:13:13,990 --> 01:13:15,526
If you were in a group of people
825
01:13:15,625 --> 01:13:18,606
and you were having a conversation
and talking, he'd be part of it,
826
01:13:18,995 --> 01:13:21,771
but he would be quiet
and keeping his own counsel
827
01:13:21,864 --> 01:13:23,571
unless he had something to say.
828
01:13:23,766 --> 01:13:25,575
And he would always be playing the guitar.
829
01:13:25,701 --> 01:13:28,011
It wasn't plugged in,
but he was always playing.
830
01:13:29,472 --> 01:13:31,782
He was constantly about making music.
831
01:13:32,174 --> 01:13:37,089
Whatever else might be said about
the drugs and the ladies,
832
01:13:37,380 --> 01:13:40,190
his prime focus was on making music.
833
01:13:41,684 --> 01:13:46,030
Everywhere he went, he had a guitar
with him. Everywhere he went.
834
01:13:47,623 --> 01:13:49,261
And if music was not happening,
835
01:13:49,258 --> 01:13:52,671
then he'd go somewhere else
to try to find where music was happening.
836
01:13:54,497 --> 01:13:58,377
Whenever he did jams in places,
if we went to clubs after a gig,
837
01:13:58,501 --> 01:14:01,539
he'd just get a bass guitar
and turn it upside down and play it.
838
01:14:02,004 --> 01:14:06,612
I've seen him do that with a guitar as well,
a right-handed, play it backwards.
839
01:14:07,176 --> 01:14:11,454
I know a few people that can do that,
but not many people can do that
840
01:14:11,547 --> 01:14:13,322
'cause you have to think backwards.
841
01:14:15,151 --> 01:14:17,290
Everybody wanted to be a part of it,
842
01:14:17,286 --> 01:14:21,632
but it had more to do with him as a person
843
01:14:21,691 --> 01:14:25,229
than it did just his playing.
844
01:14:28,197 --> 01:14:31,371
He would know someone
around the corner that was playing,
845
01:14:31,367 --> 01:14:33,347
and at the drop of a hat, he'd go and play,
846
01:14:33,436 --> 01:14:37,782
so his whole life was either playing
with the band he was in, or other people,
847
01:14:38,007 --> 01:14:40,044
or going in a studio.
848
01:15:02,098 --> 01:15:06,979
Jimi loves to now expand his horizon
with multiple takes,
849
01:15:07,136 --> 01:15:08,774
many, many overdubs,
850
01:15:08,904 --> 01:15:12,374
we're now in the land of 12-track,
whereas before, we'd only had four,
851
01:15:12,475 --> 01:15:15,786
and Jimi's going,
"Wow, I got a bunch of tracks I can fill up."
852
01:15:24,186 --> 01:15:28,430
It was no longer, do a quick
three-minute song and another one,
853
01:15:28,691 --> 01:15:32,730
you had time to stretch,
and that was the fashion then.
854
01:15:32,928 --> 01:15:37,240
Like, "Let's try it this way."
"That's not quite right." "That's great."
855
01:15:37,466 --> 01:15:39,468
"Okay, Well, let's build on that bit."
856
01:15:39,568 --> 01:15:42,708
Which is much more
how people record these days.
857
01:15:51,313 --> 01:15:57,320
Having the luxury to be able
to go into a studio,
858
01:15:57,386 --> 01:16:02,335
and to try things out and to jam,
859
01:16:02,425 --> 01:16:07,135
and to just make accidents happen
with the tape rolling,
860
01:16:07,129 --> 01:16:11,509
and try and develop those,
that was all developing.
861
01:16:26,615 --> 01:16:29,061
When we recorded our last LP,
Electric Ladyland,
862
01:16:29,185 --> 01:16:32,257
we were touring at the same time,
which is hard to do,
863
01:16:32,388 --> 01:16:34,493
because that means you've got
to concentrate on two things,
864
01:16:34,623 --> 01:16:38,400
you have to do a good show tonight,
plus tomorrow morning at 6:00,
865
01:16:38,461 --> 01:16:39,838
you have to go into the studio.
866
01:16:54,977 --> 01:16:57,389
By the time we got
to the middle of Electric Ladyland,
867
01:16:57,379 --> 01:17:00,417
the songs started getting
almost written in the studio,
868
01:17:01,050 --> 01:17:05,465
which takes an awful long time,
and it's very boring for a producer.
869
01:17:08,657 --> 01:17:11,137
Jimi could be
a manager's worst nightmare,
870
01:17:11,127 --> 01:17:15,234
because he would live in the studio,
given half the chance.
871
01:17:15,331 --> 01:17:18,574
And either people like that atmosphere
or they don't.
872
01:17:22,805 --> 01:17:26,685
If Hendrix was into the thing,
they'd end up doing 38, 39 takes,
873
01:17:26,876 --> 01:17:28,719
and the first one was just as good,
874
01:17:29,044 --> 01:17:34,790
by which time, we're all getting
a bit anxious, as they say.
875
01:17:36,152 --> 01:17:37,597
People started picking on us all the time,
876
01:17:37,686 --> 01:17:40,292
they're always saying, "Why don't you
do this, why don't you do that?"
877
01:17:40,289 --> 01:17:43,327
So, well, give us a chance,
things happen in time,
878
01:17:43,425 --> 01:17:45,701
we're learning the studio,
we want to do it all ourselves
879
01:17:45,828 --> 01:17:47,637
because we have definite ideas.
880
01:17:47,897 --> 01:17:53,245
To listen to the same song played 50 times
in the studio isn't something I want to do,
881
01:17:53,702 --> 01:17:57,013
that's trainspotting, it's not recording.
882
01:17:57,540 --> 01:18:01,010
Chas came from this school of,
883
01:18:01,110 --> 01:18:04,785
"We've got to get a three-and-a-half-minute,
or a four-minute song,
884
01:18:04,780 --> 01:18:09,889
"all these jams are all very well,
but where's the bloody songs?"
885
01:18:10,586 --> 01:18:12,657
You could really get the sense
886
01:18:12,655 --> 01:18:17,331
that Chas and Jimi were
getting further and further apart.
887
01:18:18,861 --> 01:18:23,469
I walked, I just said, "Well, give us a ring
when you come back to your senses."
888
01:18:31,106 --> 01:18:32,983
I definitely got a sense that Jimi felt,
889
01:18:32,975 --> 01:18:36,184
"Now, this is my record,
I'm gonna do it my way."
890
01:19:06,275 --> 01:19:11,520
The wait between Axis: Bold As Love
and Electric Ladyland seemed interminable.
891
01:19:12,147 --> 01:19:13,888
It's like, "Where is this thing?"
892
01:19:14,350 --> 01:19:16,626
And then when it showed up, it was like,
"Okay, you got homework."
893
01:19:19,822 --> 01:19:22,996
It's four sides,
there's all kinds of stuff in there,
894
01:19:23,125 --> 01:19:25,071
you got studying to do.
895
01:19:46,815 --> 01:19:49,352
It went to number one,
it was his first number one album,
896
01:19:49,451 --> 01:19:51,294
but that was just part of the story,
897
01:19:51,287 --> 01:19:55,326
because the previous two albums
were pulled back into the charts,
898
01:19:55,324 --> 01:19:58,305
so he had three albums in the Top 20
at the same time.
899
01:20:01,430 --> 01:20:03,967
The industry might have been
taken by surprise,
900
01:20:04,166 --> 01:20:08,410
but this was an artist that we knew we were
gonna hang our hat on for many years,
901
01:20:08,504 --> 01:20:11,417
so whatever numbers he sold,
we kind of expected.
902
01:20:39,134 --> 01:20:40,442
He had a hit single.
903
01:20:40,569 --> 01:20:43,209
And he had a hit single
on a Bob Dylan song.
904
01:20:43,372 --> 01:20:46,819
It just showed that he was
a fantastic instrumentalist,
905
01:20:46,909 --> 01:20:49,981
a much better singer than anyone
ever gave him credit for being,
906
01:20:50,145 --> 01:20:52,989
and an interpreter of other people's music.
907
01:20:53,048 --> 01:20:55,551
I mean, check every box, he's got it.
908
01:21:28,817 --> 01:21:31,821
He was probably the biggest thing
in rock 'n' roll at that time,
909
01:21:31,820 --> 01:21:33,925
and rock 'n' roll was
the biggest thing in music,
910
01:21:34,022 --> 01:21:36,730
so he was at the top of the ladder.
911
01:21:37,626 --> 01:21:40,539
He was Dylan, he was the Beatles,
he was the Stones,
912
01:21:40,662 --> 01:21:43,905
he was in that strata.
913
01:21:54,042 --> 01:21:59,253
I think we were the highest paid act
in America at that particular time.
914
01:22:01,250 --> 01:22:04,197
When we'd put tickets on sale,
they'd be gone in a couple of hours.
915
01:22:04,286 --> 01:22:07,130
I mean, he was just so tremendously big.
916
01:22:10,392 --> 01:22:12,895
He was aware of how big he was,
917
01:22:12,895 --> 01:22:18,743
I just don't think that that mattered to him,
what mattered to him was how good he was,
918
01:22:19,034 --> 01:22:20,741
and he wanted to be better.
919
01:22:30,345 --> 01:22:33,815
My friend and I went out
and we found an apartment for Jimi,
920
01:22:34,049 --> 01:22:36,222
a lovely apartment on 12th Street,
921
01:22:36,952 --> 01:22:38,954
between 5th and 6th,
922
01:22:39,354 --> 01:22:43,894
it was his first home in New York,
and he really, really loved it.
923
01:22:45,494 --> 01:22:49,374
He had dinner parties,
he had friends come up and jam,
924
01:22:49,865 --> 01:22:51,936
he loved being in the Village.
925
01:22:52,634 --> 01:22:54,204
The Village was fun.
926
01:22:57,272 --> 01:23:01,550
The first time I went down there,
I said, "Wow, this is nice.
927
01:23:01,844 --> 01:23:04,256
"I really like this place."
928
01:23:04,513 --> 01:23:06,515
It's big, it's roomy,
929
01:23:06,882 --> 01:23:12,491
he was showing me, "Look at this,
look at that." The little kitchen.
930
01:23:12,554 --> 01:23:14,591
I'm like, "Yeah, you're gonna cook."
931
01:23:15,624 --> 01:23:18,833
Much to the frustration of his neighbors,
he had an apartment,
932
01:23:19,061 --> 01:23:22,133
we used to get an occasional call
from the police,
933
01:23:22,130 --> 01:23:24,770
saying that he was playing guitar
at 4:00 in the morning
934
01:23:24,900 --> 01:23:27,278
and everybody was on
the street complaining.
935
01:23:29,137 --> 01:23:33,984
He's going from room to room,
there's lots of girls there,
936
01:23:34,243 --> 01:23:36,519
he was just flushed with excitement,
937
01:23:37,112 --> 01:23:39,718
and there was a sweetness to him still,
938
01:23:40,315 --> 01:23:44,229
he wasn't cocky,
he was just having fun with his fame.
939
01:23:45,621 --> 01:23:47,567
He had fame and he was recognized,
940
01:23:47,656 --> 01:23:51,729
but, in those days, you could walk around
the Village without the paparazzis.
941
01:23:52,427 --> 01:23:55,965
You could walk around without
bodyguards or an entourage.
942
01:23:56,298 --> 01:23:59,279
He felt free, and it was a good time for him,
943
01:23:59,434 --> 01:24:01,641
those days were a very good time for him.
944
01:24:02,538 --> 01:24:04,711
He was still sweet Jimi.
945
01:24:04,806 --> 01:24:07,343
Kind, considerate, funny.
946
01:24:07,776 --> 01:24:09,449
Tremendous sense of humor.
947
01:24:09,945 --> 01:24:12,653
And his ego was still the right size.
948
01:24:13,181 --> 01:24:16,390
And I don't think he was really
bitten by the serpent of fame.
949
01:24:32,668 --> 01:24:35,547
We have an interesting guest tonight.
Jimi Hendrix.
950
01:24:37,806 --> 01:24:39,149
You've met him.
951
01:24:40,876 --> 01:24:44,050
I don't think he has ever been
on television like this before.
952
01:24:44,313 --> 01:24:47,260
Here is a naive and innocent Jimi Hendrix.
953
01:25:00,929 --> 01:25:03,034
What do you like to hear when
somebody comes up after a concert?
954
01:25:03,098 --> 01:25:04,702
What kind of compliment do you like?
955
01:25:05,167 --> 01:25:07,374
I don't know.
I don't really live on compliments.
956
01:25:07,469 --> 01:25:09,506
As a matter of fact,
it has a way of distracting me.
957
01:25:09,871 --> 01:25:13,216
I know a lot of other musicians and
artists that are out there today, you know,
958
01:25:13,375 --> 01:25:16,015
they hear these compliments, they say,
"Wow. it must've been really great."
959
01:25:16,144 --> 01:25:19,785
So they get fat and satisfied,
and then they get lost and they forget about
960
01:25:19,781 --> 01:25:23,251
the actual talent that they have,
and they start moving into another world.
961
01:25:23,418 --> 01:25:25,694
The problem of succeeding
is a hard one for you
962
01:25:25,787 --> 01:25:28,097
if your basis stays in the blues,
or something like that,
963
01:25:28,090 --> 01:25:31,537
and you suddenly make
hundreds of thousands of dollars a year.
964
01:25:31,627 --> 01:25:35,131
Someone said it's harder to sing the blues
when you're making that kind of money.
965
01:25:35,664 --> 01:25:38,508
This assumes that you can't be unhappy
and have a lot of money.
966
01:25:38,667 --> 01:25:41,409
Yeah, sometimes it gets to be
really easy to sing the blues
967
01:25:41,570 --> 01:25:43,777
when you're supposed to be making
so much money, you know,
968
01:25:43,872 --> 01:25:47,445
because money is getting to be
out of hand now,
969
01:25:47,709 --> 01:25:50,656
like musicians, especially young cats,
they get a chance
970
01:25:50,746 --> 01:25:53,056
to make all this money and they say,
"Wow, this is fantastic."
971
01:25:53,148 --> 01:25:56,391
Like I said before, they lose themselves
and they forget about the music itself.
972
01:25:56,818 --> 01:25:59,765
They forget about their talents,
they forget about the other half of them.
973
01:25:59,988 --> 01:26:02,059
So therefore, you can sing a lot of blues.
974
01:26:02,057 --> 01:26:04,594
The more money you make,
the more blues sometimes you can sing.
975
01:26:21,843 --> 01:26:25,757
I think he fended off the myth of
his invulnerability and that he was
976
01:26:25,814 --> 01:26:27,452
the world's greatest guitarist.
977
01:26:27,549 --> 01:26:30,086
This is something that he wanted, truly,
978
01:26:30,185 --> 01:26:33,655
but what he really wanted was
not to be distracted by that.
979
01:26:44,166 --> 01:26:47,272
You're considered one of the best
guitar players in the world and...
980
01:26:47,335 --> 01:26:48,336
No.
981
01:26:51,106 --> 01:26:52,278
Certainly...
982
01:26:55,010 --> 01:26:57,149
Well, one of the best in this studio, anyway.
983
01:26:58,146 --> 01:27:00,820
- How about the best sitting in this chair?
- Yeah.
984
01:27:01,383 --> 01:27:02,953
He didn't like being flattered.
985
01:27:03,351 --> 01:27:04,659
He fended it off.
986
01:27:04,986 --> 01:27:07,057
He actually found it corrosive.
987
01:27:07,823 --> 01:27:09,700
He wanted to stay hungry.
988
01:27:13,095 --> 01:27:16,508
We've been playing Purple Haze,
Wind Cries Mary,
989
01:27:16,498 --> 01:27:19,672
Hey Joe, Foxy Lady,
we've been playing all these songs,
990
01:27:19,735 --> 01:27:21,180
which I really think are groovy songs,
991
01:27:21,269 --> 01:27:23,408
but we've been playing all these songs
for two years,
992
01:27:23,505 --> 01:27:25,416
so quite naturally,
we start improvising here and there.
993
01:27:25,507 --> 01:27:27,714
And there's other things
we want to turn on to the people.
994
01:27:29,978 --> 01:27:33,391
He really liked playing the blues,
but of course the audience in an arena,
995
01:27:33,381 --> 01:27:35,759
is not into listening to the blues that much.
996
01:27:36,451 --> 01:27:39,432
I remember at one time him saying to me,
997
01:27:39,421 --> 01:27:42,800
"All I have to do is smash my guitar
and these crowds are fine with that.
998
01:27:42,858 --> 01:27:45,202
"But I want to play the guitar."
999
01:27:46,628 --> 01:27:49,370
He really was a consummate blues musician.
1000
01:27:49,698 --> 01:27:54,272
But there were marketing concerns,
where they wanted more Jimi Hendrix.
1001
01:27:55,070 --> 01:27:56,947
He was getting disgusted with his own...
1002
01:27:58,406 --> 01:27:59,942
The whole carnival
1003
01:28:01,109 --> 01:28:04,318
of gimmicks that he was happy to use
in the beginning
1004
01:28:04,379 --> 01:28:06,188
as part of his stagecraft.
1005
01:28:06,548 --> 01:28:09,085
But he felt creatively hemmed in by that,
1006
01:28:09,818 --> 01:28:11,092
he wanted something new.
1007
01:28:14,122 --> 01:28:19,071
As you get older, you do want to drop
some of the showy things behind
1008
01:28:19,060 --> 01:28:22,940
and get down to the more serious things,
so perhaps that was going on with him.
1009
01:28:59,901 --> 01:29:01,812
Thank you, thank you very much.
1010
01:29:04,539 --> 01:29:08,919
Jimi and myself, we had discussed
about other people coming into the band.
1011
01:29:09,544 --> 01:29:11,319
There was quite a bit of pressure
1012
01:29:11,546 --> 01:29:17,462
from Mike Jeffery, as a manager who could
probably see the writing on the wall.
1013
01:29:17,853 --> 01:29:21,426
Jeffery was still, in the back of his mind,
I think, trying to keep
1014
01:29:21,823 --> 01:29:27,535
the Experience, as such,
with Noel and myself together.
1015
01:29:28,296 --> 01:29:32,039
Whereas, you know, Jimi had other ideas.
1016
01:29:34,336 --> 01:29:36,577
Yeah. He reached out to me in '69
1017
01:29:36,671 --> 01:29:40,847
through a friend who was told that
Jimi was going to be in Memphis
1018
01:29:41,409 --> 01:29:43,548
and wound up at the concert.
1019
01:29:43,945 --> 01:29:46,118
After the gig,
1020
01:29:47,249 --> 01:29:52,494
we went to his hotel room
and discussed some things, musically.
1021
01:29:54,389 --> 01:29:57,802
There was a really special bond between
Billy and Jimi.
1022
01:29:58,526 --> 01:30:00,563
I think the fact that they were in the army.
1023
01:30:00,829 --> 01:30:03,332
Billy was there at the beginning.
1024
01:30:03,531 --> 01:30:08,002
He trusted Billy, he trusted him musically
and he trusted him as a human being.
1025
01:30:10,138 --> 01:30:11,617
We were playing in Denver,
1026
01:30:11,606 --> 01:30:14,849
and prior to the gig,
someone in the hotel had said,
1027
01:30:14,943 --> 01:30:19,016
"Have you heard that Jimi had said
to the press about extending the band?"
1028
01:30:19,114 --> 01:30:20,252
And I said, "Well, he didn't tell me."
1029
01:30:20,649 --> 01:30:23,596
Next, I got on a plane.
I just couldn't handle it any longer.
1030
01:30:25,387 --> 01:30:27,264
Why do the super groups keep breaking up?
1031
01:30:27,255 --> 01:30:29,667
There are always rumors
that your group is breaking up.
1032
01:30:29,658 --> 01:30:31,501
And Big Brother broke up and...
1033
01:30:31,493 --> 01:30:34,497
Well, probably because they want to get into
individual things on their own,
1034
01:30:34,496 --> 01:30:37,306
or maybe they might want to get into
other things besides music, you know.
1035
01:30:37,699 --> 01:30:40,873
Like Noel Redding,
he's into a more harmonic thing.
1036
01:30:40,936 --> 01:30:42,415
You know, when you sing and so forth.
1037
01:30:42,804 --> 01:30:44,613
He went to England
to get his own group together...
1038
01:30:44,606 --> 01:30:46,210
- Who's this?
- Noel Redding, the bass player.
1039
01:30:46,308 --> 01:30:47,309
Noel Redding, yeah.
1040
01:30:47,542 --> 01:30:49,112
Yeah, Billy Cox is playing bass this time.
1041
01:31:04,192 --> 01:31:06,035
I see that we meet again.
1042
01:31:11,032 --> 01:31:13,410
Dig. Dig, we'd like to get something straight.
1043
01:31:13,501 --> 01:31:16,573
We got tired of the Experience,
and every once in a while,
1044
01:31:16,571 --> 01:31:17,811
we just blow out our minds too much.
1045
01:31:17,806 --> 01:31:20,047
So, we've decided to change
the whole thing around
1046
01:31:20,542 --> 01:31:23,546
and call it Gypsy Sun & Rainbows.
1047
01:31:27,682 --> 01:31:31,459
At "Woodstock," he showed up with
one guy from the Experience
1048
01:31:31,453 --> 01:31:33,490
and a bunch of other guys,
most of them I had never heard of.
1049
01:31:34,022 --> 01:31:35,501
But it was movement.
1050
01:31:39,094 --> 01:31:43,372
The band that did the "Woodstock" gig
was really a kind of makeshift band
1051
01:31:43,465 --> 01:31:46,503
just to see what direction
anything could go into.
1052
01:31:56,811 --> 01:32:00,054
He was growing musically like all artists do.
1053
01:32:00,148 --> 01:32:03,129
He had a concept that he wanted
1054
01:32:03,752 --> 01:32:06,323
to present and that was with two guitars.
1055
01:32:06,888 --> 01:32:11,667
I found Larry Lee and we added
two conga players, Jerry Velez and Juma.
1056
01:32:11,726 --> 01:32:13,137
And then Mitch was there.
1057
01:32:14,362 --> 01:32:17,775
We were just friends
having fun doing music.
1058
01:32:38,486 --> 01:32:41,524
We were scheduled to go on at midnight,
but they were that far behind schedule
1059
01:32:41,623 --> 01:32:42,931
that we couldn't go on.
1060
01:32:43,091 --> 01:32:46,800
And we went on in the morning.
There were still thousands of people there
1061
01:32:46,861 --> 01:32:48,568
at the time that we played.
1062
01:32:54,169 --> 01:32:57,412
It was 9:00 in the morning
and half the audience is gone.
1063
01:32:57,405 --> 01:33:00,215
And there is just a sea of mud out there.
1064
01:33:00,208 --> 01:33:02,449
How do you get inspired
at that time in the morning?
1065
01:33:02,544 --> 01:33:09,621
But he did. He just, he pulled off, I think,
an enormous feat, that to this day,
1066
01:33:09,617 --> 01:33:13,190
people still listen to his
performance from "Woodstock" and go,
1067
01:33:13,254 --> 01:33:16,531
"WOW. That is incredible."
1068
01:33:16,624 --> 01:33:19,104
It's one of the highlights of his career.
1069
01:33:20,095 --> 01:33:23,565
I think, in a way, "Woodstock" is one
of his greatest performances.
1070
01:33:23,665 --> 01:33:29,138
As ragged as it is in places,
because it has some of his most
1071
01:33:29,737 --> 01:33:32,946
poignant and explosive guitar playing,
often in the same moment.
1072
01:33:53,194 --> 01:33:56,539
What was the controversy about
the national anthem and the way...
1073
01:33:56,531 --> 01:33:59,740
I don't know, man. All I did was play it.
I'm American, so I played it.
1074
01:33:59,734 --> 01:34:02,544
I used to sing it in school,
they made me sing it in school, so...
1075
01:34:02,904 --> 01:34:05,510
it was a flashback, you know,
and that's about it.
1076
01:34:10,979 --> 01:34:14,586
The first six, seven, eight notes,
I'm right with him.
1077
01:34:14,849 --> 01:34:16,453
And then something inside me said,
1078
01:34:16,451 --> 01:34:18,692
"Wait a minute,
you guys didn't rehearse this.
1079
01:34:18,786 --> 01:34:20,026
"You better lay off."
1080
01:34:21,456 --> 01:34:24,994
And then there was one of the greatest
renditions I've ever heard in my life.
1081
01:35:01,329 --> 01:35:04,640
That rendition of The Star-Spangled Banner
is so resonant,
1082
01:35:05,066 --> 01:35:07,672
in terms of what our lives had been
for that decade.
1083
01:35:08,369 --> 01:35:11,748
It brought all those images to mind
of what America's about,
1084
01:35:11,739 --> 01:35:13,844
and what we were doing in these wars
and all those things.
1085
01:35:14,509 --> 01:35:17,456
The civil rights movements
and all these struggles that were going on.
1086
01:35:22,417 --> 01:35:25,023
It really was a soundtrack to the country.
1087
01:35:25,954 --> 01:35:27,297
A country divided.
1088
01:35:27,822 --> 01:35:32,271
A country really at odds,
a country in the ongoing Vietnam War.
1089
01:35:35,029 --> 01:35:38,101
He essentially rescored
1090
01:35:39,367 --> 01:35:40,778
the national anthem.
1091
01:35:43,805 --> 01:35:45,409
We don't play it to take away
1092
01:35:45,506 --> 01:35:47,247
all this greatness that
America's supposed to have,
1093
01:35:47,242 --> 01:35:50,246
we play it the way the air is
in America today.
1094
01:35:50,345 --> 01:35:51,722
The air is slightly static.
1095
01:36:25,113 --> 01:36:29,687
That performance has a life to it that
he could never have envisioned
1096
01:36:29,784 --> 01:36:32,890
and certainly no one would've known.
1097
01:36:34,489 --> 01:36:37,663
A lot of people, when they think of Jimi,
they think of that white guitar
1098
01:36:37,725 --> 01:36:39,033
and the Star Spangled Banner.
1099
01:36:39,861 --> 01:36:44,310
Ladies and gentlemen,
thank you so very much.
1100
01:36:48,002 --> 01:36:53,645
The notion that Hendrix played
one of the most important events
1101
01:36:53,741 --> 01:36:55,846
of that period, and his life,
1102
01:36:56,444 --> 01:36:59,618
under basically refugee camp conditions.
1103
01:37:00,148 --> 01:37:03,220
And with a new band, untested.
1104
01:37:03,584 --> 01:37:05,689
With new material, untested.
1105
01:37:05,687 --> 01:37:10,295
You sort of forget that live music at that time
was not a dog and pony show.
1106
01:37:11,526 --> 01:37:13,767
You showed up with something that
you thought was gonna be fresh,
1107
01:37:13,761 --> 01:37:17,140
that was gonna move people and
move the music and move the times.
1108
01:37:19,167 --> 01:37:23,411
The great artists of the 1960s, in particular,
had this ability
1109
01:37:23,504 --> 01:37:26,747
to reinvent themselves very, very quickly,
1110
01:37:26,808 --> 01:37:28,116
very effortlessly,
1111
01:37:28,343 --> 01:37:30,880
and very much on tune and on track.
1112
01:37:31,913 --> 01:37:35,451
The man was on a mission
to constantly do better
1113
01:37:35,550 --> 01:37:37,587
than what he did the previous day.
1114
01:37:38,019 --> 01:37:40,898
He couldn't help himself
but push that envelope.
1115
01:37:42,223 --> 01:37:45,204
After "Woodstock," he forms
Band of Gypsys.
1116
01:38:10,451 --> 01:38:14,399
The Band of Gypsys was a strong statement
1117
01:38:15,590 --> 01:38:16,864
from three brothers.
1118
01:38:28,469 --> 01:38:30,608
We all had intimacies and love,
1119
01:38:31,105 --> 01:38:34,052
and we also had a feel
for what we thought was right
1120
01:38:34,308 --> 01:38:37,448
and what we liked
and what we enjoyed playing.
1121
01:38:38,413 --> 01:38:40,689
Everyone had contributed
in some kind of way.
1122
01:38:40,681 --> 01:38:45,096
And so all the experience we had,
everybody threw in something into this pot.
1123
01:38:45,420 --> 01:38:49,027
And it came out the Band of Gypsys.
We had a very, very unique sound.
1124
01:38:50,224 --> 01:38:51,703
Jimi had signed a contract
1125
01:38:52,093 --> 01:38:55,131
years before the Jimi Hendrix Experience,
when he worked with Curtis Knight,
1126
01:38:55,229 --> 01:39:00,008
that ultimately obligated him to deliver
an album to Capitol Records,
1127
01:39:00,101 --> 01:39:03,981
to which he was never signed, but they
became the rights holder of that contract.
1128
01:39:05,907 --> 01:39:09,514
I know he owed this album to Capitol,
and that must've really
1129
01:39:09,577 --> 01:39:11,454
put a bit of pressure on him.
1130
01:39:11,546 --> 01:39:15,619
And the decision was eventually to make it
a live album down at The Fillmore,
1131
01:39:15,616 --> 01:39:17,459
which in the end, I think,
was a great decision.
1132
01:39:20,721 --> 01:39:22,200
Happy New Year, first of all.
1133
01:39:23,658 --> 01:39:25,934
I hope we have about a million
or two million more of them.
1134
01:39:27,228 --> 01:39:28,468
If we get over this summer.
1135
01:39:31,332 --> 01:39:34,575
I'd like to dedicate this one
to the draggy scene that's going on,
1136
01:39:34,569 --> 01:39:38,210
and all the soldiers that are fighting
in Chicago and Milwaukee and New York.
1137
01:39:38,372 --> 01:39:40,852
Yes. And all the soldiers fighting
in Vietnam.
1138
01:39:40,942 --> 01:39:42,444
I'm gonna do a thing called Machine Gun.
1139
01:39:50,785 --> 01:39:53,095
That night was very, very special.
1140
01:39:53,254 --> 01:39:56,098
And it was electric and it was magical.
1141
01:39:56,090 --> 01:39:59,401
And he was very happy playing that music.
1142
01:40:00,127 --> 01:40:03,597
You know, he was going back
to his roots, really.
1143
01:40:33,895 --> 01:40:35,568
When we did Machine Gun,
1144
01:40:35,563 --> 01:40:40,137
it was really taken from a style
which was called Delta blues.
1145
01:40:41,335 --> 01:40:44,282
I think it was, most definitely,
from the Deep South.
1146
01:41:15,937 --> 01:41:19,316
That was his ultimate luxury,
to play what he wanted to play.
1147
01:41:19,373 --> 01:41:20,852
And everybody loved it.
1148
01:41:22,910 --> 01:41:28,417
It was short-lived because right after
the album, the band was dismantled.
1149
01:41:28,749 --> 01:41:33,698
Unfortunately, that's not what was wanted
from the handlers.
1150
01:41:34,322 --> 01:41:36,495
Hey, is Eric around anywhere? Eric?
1151
01:41:37,325 --> 01:41:41,330
After doing the Band of Gypsys
with Buddy and Billy,
1152
01:41:41,329 --> 01:41:42,967
I think there was a band meeting.
1153
01:41:42,964 --> 01:41:46,707
The band was gonna be reformed
with Noel and myself.
1154
01:41:46,867 --> 01:41:50,781
And we were going to do one more tour,
you know, that kind of deal.
1155
01:41:52,173 --> 01:41:55,620
Jimi put his foot down that he wanted
me as bass player,
1156
01:41:55,610 --> 01:42:00,423
so I guess myself and Mitch and Jimi
got together and I started touring,
1157
01:42:00,481 --> 01:42:01,585
as with the Experience.
1158
01:42:13,060 --> 01:42:17,770
We had to start doing a tour
spread over a few months,
1159
01:42:17,865 --> 01:42:20,004
but just working at the weekends.
1160
01:42:25,506 --> 01:42:27,417
When we were out on the road,
we were on the road.
1161
01:42:27,408 --> 01:42:33,450
But when we were back at home or in town,
we spent all of our time in the studio.
1162
01:42:38,586 --> 01:42:40,725
I'm sure he was spending
about $300,000 a year,
1163
01:42:40,721 --> 01:42:42,667
which was a hell of a lot of money
in those days.
1164
01:42:42,823 --> 01:42:47,499
And Jimi's jamming at this club
down in the Village called the Generation.
1165
01:42:47,728 --> 01:42:50,106
And he said to Mike,
"Why don't we just buy this?
1166
01:42:50,364 --> 01:42:51,968
"So I can have a place where I can jam
1167
01:42:51,966 --> 01:42:54,071
"and maybe we'll put a little, tiny studio
in the back."
1168
01:42:55,169 --> 01:42:59,982
And I said to the guys, "Are you crazy?
You wanna make a nightclub?"
1169
01:42:59,974 --> 01:43:02,454
"Let's build Jimi a recording studio.
1170
01:43:02,443 --> 01:43:05,049
"We'll make the best recording studio
in the world."
1171
01:43:08,215 --> 01:43:10,456
I think, building that studio,
1172
01:43:11,485 --> 01:43:14,125
he thought would give him
an incredible freedom
1173
01:43:14,121 --> 01:43:17,295
to be able to create as much music
as he wanted to create,
1174
01:43:17,391 --> 01:43:19,200
which was enormous.
1175
01:43:19,627 --> 01:43:23,234
Jimi had very specific ideas of what
it would look and feel like.
1176
01:43:24,365 --> 01:43:27,778
Very few ideas about the acoustics.
He left that to Eddie, basically.
1177
01:43:27,768 --> 01:43:31,545
And then Eddie and I had to, sort of,
translate that into sticks and bricks.
1178
01:43:31,806 --> 01:43:34,218
Construction started and stopped
a few times,
1179
01:43:34,642 --> 01:43:36,212
usually having to do with money.
1180
01:43:36,510 --> 01:43:40,219
Jimi would either make another deal
or do a concert or whatnot.
1181
01:43:40,214 --> 01:43:43,491
So a case full of money would appear,
and a month later, we would start again.
1182
01:43:45,786 --> 01:43:50,098
Ultimately, performing became a way
for him to pay for the studio.
1183
01:43:50,191 --> 01:43:52,865
Literally, as he was building
the Electric Lady,
1184
01:43:52,960 --> 01:43:54,462
the studio down on 8th Street.
1185
01:43:54,929 --> 01:43:56,875
How you doing? You feeling all right?
1186
01:43:57,098 --> 01:43:58,736
Yeah, all right. Here we go.
1187
01:44:00,367 --> 01:44:03,211
Give us about a minute to get tuned up
1188
01:44:03,370 --> 01:44:04,974
and get rid of these joints
and everything, all right?
1189
01:44:14,849 --> 01:44:18,296
He got a big advance from
Warner Brothers, his American label,
1190
01:44:18,285 --> 01:44:20,891
to finance the building of
Electric Lady Studios.
1191
01:44:21,589 --> 01:44:24,934
And, of course, they want some return
for their investment.
1192
01:44:26,060 --> 01:44:29,371
We've got management pressures,
we've got record company pressures.
1193
01:44:29,463 --> 01:44:31,272
The road pressures, the money pressures.
1194
01:44:31,499 --> 01:44:36,881
All of these things must play a role
in your psyche every day.
1195
01:44:37,505 --> 01:44:39,348
Everybody wanted him to do something.
1196
01:44:39,406 --> 01:44:42,250
It was a movie, a TV show,
1197
01:44:42,343 --> 01:44:45,654
it was a concert,
everybody wanted him to do something.
1198
01:44:45,646 --> 01:44:47,853
He had people coming out of the woodwork.
1199
01:44:47,848 --> 01:44:50,658
It was too much for him.
That's really what it was.
1200
01:44:56,891 --> 01:44:58,996
Everything was getting too much.
1201
01:44:59,226 --> 01:45:03,299
And you just can't do... Well, you can do it
with a certain amount of chemicals.
1202
01:45:27,321 --> 01:45:30,928
He didn't really adjust to celebrity
the way people do now.
1203
01:45:30,925 --> 01:45:33,769
You know, there's a whole way
to be a celebrity now.
1204
01:45:34,161 --> 01:45:36,266
And that just wasn't his way.
1205
01:45:37,464 --> 01:45:41,378
He had it all, but sometimes
when you have it all, you find that
1206
01:45:41,368 --> 01:45:45,908
having it all isn't as much fun as
trying to have it all.
1207
01:45:48,576 --> 01:45:50,021
Jimi was very simple.
1208
01:45:50,511 --> 01:45:54,618
He needed very little.
What he needed was his music,
1209
01:45:55,082 --> 01:45:56,618
a few friends,
1210
01:45:57,184 --> 01:46:00,256
his recording studio was his biggest luxury.
1211
01:46:01,388 --> 01:46:02,526
And he deserved it.
1212
01:46:03,791 --> 01:46:08,069
And so, he would leave the apartment
and go to the studio every day.
1213
01:46:09,230 --> 01:46:12,768
I don't know if there was another artist
that owned their own recording studio.
1214
01:46:13,400 --> 01:46:16,006
Certainly nothing on the scale of
Electric Lady, that's for sure.
1215
01:46:16,003 --> 01:46:17,414
If there was, there might have been,
1216
01:46:17,404 --> 01:46:20,385
some people had home studios
or a small rig somewhere.
1217
01:46:20,441 --> 01:46:22,011
But nothing like Electric Lady.
1218
01:46:23,544 --> 01:46:26,548
I think for Jimi, coming into Electric Lady,
1219
01:46:26,680 --> 01:46:29,422
even though there were
frustrating moments,
1220
01:46:29,884 --> 01:46:32,660
just being in the studio that he loved
1221
01:46:32,820 --> 01:46:37,098
and being with the guys he liked
to play with, which was now Billy and Mitch,
1222
01:46:37,725 --> 01:46:40,763
I think it was a relief for him and a release.
1223
01:46:42,296 --> 01:46:44,333
Electric Lady was a safe harbor for him,
1224
01:46:44,498 --> 01:46:47,968
a place just to recover from the stress
and toil and chaos of life.
1225
01:46:47,968 --> 01:46:51,142
It was part of his vision,
of how he wanted to make music.
1226
01:46:51,472 --> 01:46:54,419
You know, without the distractions
of the industry and the partying.
1227
01:46:55,910 --> 01:46:59,483
For a man like Jimi Hendrix
as a creative artist,
1228
01:46:59,580 --> 01:47:04,461
he had to have a place like
Electric Lady Studio.
1229
01:47:04,618 --> 01:47:08,430
So it became his and our laboratory.
1230
01:47:22,202 --> 01:47:25,809
The time period from when he first entered
Electric Lady,
1231
01:47:25,806 --> 01:47:29,219
which was roughly May of '70
to the end of August,
1232
01:47:29,209 --> 01:47:33,214
there was a tremendous amount of material
that he had recorded.
1233
01:47:34,548 --> 01:47:38,496
This is Dolly Dagger, it's one of the tracks
that Jimi and I were working on
1234
01:47:38,585 --> 01:47:41,998
before he left for Europe in August of 1970.
1235
01:47:42,623 --> 01:47:46,628
We actually finished mixing this
just before he left for Europe for his tour.
1236
01:47:49,163 --> 01:47:51,336
Part of the frustration
of going to Europe was
1237
01:47:51,332 --> 01:47:53,278
that he was happy with what he was writing.
1238
01:48:00,574 --> 01:48:02,554
Before he left for London,
1239
01:48:03,043 --> 01:48:06,547
he said he was gonna die before he was 30.
1240
01:48:07,481 --> 01:48:09,893
He just had a premonition.
1241
01:48:10,617 --> 01:48:14,190
And I said, "Don't say that.
You should never talk like this."
1242
01:48:14,421 --> 01:48:18,927
And he said, "No, I know, I know I'm gonna
die before I'm 30 and that's okay.
1243
01:48:19,059 --> 01:48:24,907
"The only thing I'm sorry about is that
I have so much music left that I want to do."
1244
01:49:02,903 --> 01:49:08,046
We get to the "lsle of Wight," and I don't
know Jimi's state of mind at that time.
1245
01:49:08,042 --> 01:49:13,390
I would imagine, it meant a fair bit,
as it was the first time he'd done a concert
1246
01:49:13,447 --> 01:49:16,018
in England for some years.
1247
01:49:16,150 --> 01:49:20,292
And obviously, I mean,
that was the starting point for us.
1248
01:49:21,855 --> 01:49:23,892
Yeah, the guitar clip,
do you have the guitar clip?
1249
01:49:30,497 --> 01:49:33,034
Jimi Hendrix was the one
everybody wanted to see.
1250
01:49:33,033 --> 01:49:34,876
He was gonna be the headliner
on the last night.
1251
01:49:35,669 --> 01:49:38,013
And he came on terribly late,
1252
01:49:38,005 --> 01:49:40,417
by this time,
everybody was pretty tired and exhausted.
1253
01:49:40,707 --> 01:49:42,448
- Yeah, right. Hit it.
- Are you ready?
1254
01:49:43,544 --> 01:49:45,854
Ask the road managers. Are we ready?
Are we ready?
1255
01:49:45,846 --> 01:49:48,156
- Okay. All right. All good.
- Okay. Ready.
1256
01:49:48,649 --> 01:49:50,458
Tell the emcee to go then.
1257
01:49:51,351 --> 01:49:54,025
The man with the guitar, Jimi Hendrix.
1258
01:50:00,127 --> 01:50:02,368
Hello, how you doing? I'm glad to see you.
1259
01:50:02,696 --> 01:50:04,107
We'll do a thing called Freedom.
1260
01:50:17,244 --> 01:50:20,782
The "lsle of Wight," you know,
it was a festival.
1261
01:50:21,014 --> 01:50:22,857
I don't think he was that keen to do it.
1262
01:50:22,850 --> 01:50:27,265
It was very disorganized. We did it and
we figured we'd just do the other shows,
1263
01:50:27,254 --> 01:50:29,325
get it over with and go back to New York.
1264
01:50:42,169 --> 01:50:43,773
They were on tour in Germany.
1265
01:50:44,404 --> 01:50:47,385
Billy got sick and had to go back to America.
1266
01:50:47,908 --> 01:50:51,185
Jimi then went to London
and was hanging out there.
1267
01:50:51,178 --> 01:50:56,890
He didn't really know what was happening,
or what he was going to do
1268
01:50:56,950 --> 01:50:58,156
or where the group was going.
1269
01:51:10,831 --> 01:51:14,369
He called me from England.
1270
01:51:14,801 --> 01:51:20,012
He was saying, "Hey, man, can you bring
those tapes over to London?
1271
01:51:20,107 --> 01:51:21,643
"I wanna start working on them over here."
1272
01:51:21,642 --> 01:51:26,216
I said, "Jimi, we just built you
a million dollar studio."
1273
01:51:26,213 --> 01:51:30,093
"Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. But, I mean,
don't worry about it.
1274
01:51:30,083 --> 01:51:32,620
"I'll see you in about a week.
Everything's cool, you know."
1275
01:51:37,658 --> 01:51:38,659
Jimi called me.
1276
01:51:38,892 --> 01:51:41,168
He says, "Well, I need you.
We gotta finish up
1277
01:51:41,261 --> 01:51:44,731
"then get some words and things
straightened out in the studio."
1278
01:51:44,831 --> 01:51:46,902
I said, "Okay, I'll make it."
He said, "All right, great."
1279
01:52:10,824 --> 01:52:13,361
The Jimi Hendrix Experience is over.
1280
01:52:13,460 --> 01:52:16,737
The acid-rock musician died today
in a London hospital.
1281
01:52:16,964 --> 01:52:21,174
During his short career,
Hendrix flailed his electric guitar
1282
01:52:21,168 --> 01:52:24,513
into some of the most unusual sounds
of an unusual music.
1283
01:52:31,211 --> 01:52:35,489
You talk about the stars being in
alignment when he shows up in Monterey.
1284
01:52:35,582 --> 01:52:39,223
Where the hell were the stars
in September of '70?
1285
01:52:40,587 --> 01:52:41,861
I wish I knew.
1286
01:52:44,124 --> 01:52:47,697
I've never had any problems
with my past with Jimi,
1287
01:52:47,694 --> 01:52:51,574
because the day before he died,
we agreed to start working again together.
1288
01:52:52,966 --> 01:52:55,970
Unfortunately, he was dead 27 hours
later or something.
1289
01:53:54,361 --> 01:53:56,864
I talk about him to my grandkids.
1290
01:53:57,230 --> 01:54:01,269
I show people the letters and stuff.
I like my letters.
1291
01:54:02,202 --> 01:54:04,580
I'm so constantly reminded of him.
1292
01:54:10,911 --> 01:54:13,892
A great guy, one of my best friends.
1293
01:54:14,848 --> 01:54:17,226
I miss him, even today, 40 years later.
1294
01:54:18,819 --> 01:54:20,059
Like a brother.
1295
01:54:27,461 --> 01:54:31,534
I lost this wonderful musician friend,
if you will.
1296
01:54:32,065 --> 01:54:36,013
But the world of music lost a genius.
1297
01:54:36,403 --> 01:54:38,781
That was tough. That was really tough.
1298
01:54:43,410 --> 01:54:47,017
Even today, nobody comes close to Jimi.
1299
01:54:48,215 --> 01:54:50,252
He was very, very special.
1300
01:54:58,825 --> 01:55:00,065
Didn't you think I'd do that?
115797