Jimi Hendrix is still widely revered as the most gifted guitarist in the history of rock. His fluency on an electric guitar was breathtaking, and he had a way with words that somehow paralleled his music.
Fortunately, Jimi gave many interviews during his short life. Here is what he had to say...
- I used to like to paint. At school the teacher used to say 'Paint three scenes'. And I'd do abstract stuff like Martian sunsets.
- Because I didn't have a cent in my pocket, I walked into the first recruitment office I saw and went into the army.
- Anyway my discharge come through... and I found myself with my duffle bag and three or four hundred dollars in my pocket. I went in this jazz joint and had a drink, liked it and stayed. I came out of that place with sixteen dollars left... All I can do I thought is get a guitar and try to find work.
- Woodstock was groovy and all that, but anybody can get a field and put lots of kids in there and put band after band on. I don't particularly like the idea of groups after groups. It all starts merging together.
- Music is religion for me. There'll be music in the hereafter, too.
- Many say they can understand themselves better when they take LSD. Rubbish! They're idiots, who talk like that.
- I had one [car] back home, but a girl-friend wrecked it. She ran it straight through a hamburger joint. After that, I started to devote more times to my music than to girls.
- Yeah, I never did want to go to the moon too much. I always wanted to go to Saturn or Venus, or something like that. I believe that maybe in one sense we might be nothing but little ants to them, you know.
Contents / Song list
INTRODUCTION
CHILDHOOD
ARMY DAYS
THE EARLY BANDS
FROM THE EXPERIENCE & BEYOND
LIFE ON THE ROAD
GUITARS & EQUIPMENT: THEIR USES AND MISUSES
SONGWRITING & THE RECORDINGS
FROM RELIGION, DRUGS & GIRLS, TO DEATH & REINCARNATION
POLITICS & STYLE
LOOKING INTO THE FUTURE
MUSICAL HEROES.
