Jimi Hendrix

Early Life

Jimi Hendrix was born Johnny Allen Hendrix in Seattle, Washington, on November 27, 1942, the oldest of five children^[1]. His childhood was marked by poverty and instability. His mother, Lucille, left the family when he was young and died in 1958, and Hendrix spent stretches of his early years living with relatives and family friends^[1]. He got his first guitar, an acoustic that cost about five dollars, at age fifteen, and taught himself largely by ear, listening closely to Muddy Waters, B.B. King, and Howlin' Wolf^[1].

Army Service and Early Career

Facing jail time after being caught riding in stolen cars, Hendrix enlisted in the US Army in May 1961 and was assigned to the 101st Airborne Division at Fort Campbell, Kentucky, earning his paratrooper wings before receiving an honorable discharge in 1962^[1]. He spent the following years on the touring circuit, backing acts including the Isley Brothers, Little Richard, and Curtis Knight, before settling in Greenwich Village and forming his own band, Jimmy James and the Blue Flames, in 1966^[1].

The Jimi Hendrix Experience

Bassist and talent scout Chas Chandler discovered Hendrix playing in New York and brought him to London in September 1966, pairing him with bassist Noel Redding and drummer Mitch Mitchell to form the Jimi Hendrix Experience^[1]. Hendrix met Kathy Etchingham, who would become his girlfriend throughout much of his London years, at the Scotch of St. James nightclub on the very night he arrived in the city, and their relationship and shared flat became part of the backdrop against which songs like "The Wind Cries Mary" were written^[2]. The trio scored three UK top-ten singles, "Hey Joe," "Purple Haze," and "The Wind Cries Mary," before their debut album, Are You Experienced, reached number two on the UK charts in May 1967^[1]. Hendrix's guitar-burning performance at the Monterey Pop Festival that June introduced him to American audiences and made him an overnight sensation^[1]. The follow-up, Axis: Bold as Love, arrived that December, and the double album Electric Ladyland followed in October 1968, reaching number one in the US and featuring his best-known cover, "All Along the Watchtower"^[1].

The rapid pace of 1967 nearly broke the band's momentum rather than building it: a contract obligating two full albums within the year, plus a touring schedule of more than 180 dates that included an odd pairing with the Monkees and Engelbert Humperdinck, left little room to make Axis: Bold as Love anything but a sprint^[3]. Hendrix later described his own songwriting process as starting from something closer to a daydream than a guitar riff, telling Rolling Stone in 1970 that trying to force a feeling directly onto the instrument "spoils the whole thing"^[4].

Later Years and Death

Tensions over creative direction led Noel Redding to leave the group in mid-1969, and the Experience played its final show that June at the Denver Pop Festival^[1]. Hendrix went on to headline Woodstock that August, closing the festival with a transformed rendition of "The Star-Spangled Banner," and later formed the short-lived Band of Gypsys^[1]. He died in London on September 18, 1970, at age 27, and was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1992^[1].