Jimi was born John Allen Hendrix in 1942 in Seattle, Washington to a father in the army and a seventeen year old mother. His mother was a hard partier, and would rarely be present in his life, before dying of liver cirrhosis when Jimi was fifteen. The same year, he bought his first acoustic guitar. Seeing Jimi’s dedication to the guitar, his father bought him an electric guitar shortly after. Jimi practiced constantly, and become good quickly. His friends said he could play songs by simply hearing them, before he could read music.

 
Jimi was inspired early on by his dad’s blues collection, influential artists of the time like B.B. King and Muddy Waters.  Rock and roll guitarist Chuck Berry was also one of his biggest influencers. Music was always the most important thing in Jimi’s life, putting school on the backburner. During his high school career he played guitar in several bands, including The Velvetones and The Rocking Kings.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

With Jimi’s carefree, musical lifestyle came trouble. At 17 he was caught riding in a stolen car, and given the option of two years in jail, or joining the army. He chose the army, and in 1961 he was assigned to the 101st airborne division, stationed in Fort Campbell, Kentucky, where he volunteered as a paratrooper. It was at Fort Campbell Jimi met his life-long friend and future bass player, Billy Cox. A year later Jimi broke his ankle on his twenty fifth jump, and was medically discharged. 

Jimi returned to Seattle still without a high school diploma, but ready to focus entirely on his music career. He played guitar for multiple artists, all over the African American club circuit. By 1965 he had played with such artists as Ike and Tina Turner, and Little Richard. 1965 was also the year he made the move to Harlem, in search of bigger gigs in bigger venues. He formed his own band, Jimmy James and the blue flames, thus making the leap from backup guitar to lead guitarist. 

It was at a club in Greenwich Village that Jimi was discovered by Keith Richard’s then girlfriend, Linda Keith. She was blown away with his music, and brought her friend Chas Chandler of the popular Brittish group The Animals to see him the next evening. Currently a bassist, he was interested in transitioning into producing. Chas believed immediately Jimi would be a sensation in England. Jimi, interested in traveling the world, headed to London with Chas in September of 1966.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In London Jimi was introduced to some of the managers and producers for The Who, who created a record label just for Jimi. They found an English drummer and bassist for him, and named his band The Jimi Hendrix Experience. Jimi’s clothing style, stage persona, and music style did indeed make him a sensation. The Jimi Hendrix Experience exploded in the London club scene, shocking the crowd with his previously unheard sound, a hybrid of psychedelic rock and blues. His style included amplifying the distortion on his electric guitar, an also previously unheard of concept. 

 

Jimi’s style was as original as his sound. He dressed in psychedelic patterns, silk scarves, velvet pants, blazers, and this could all be seen in one outfit. His stage persona was wild and sexual, he was known to play his guitar with his teeth or behind his back. Despite his over-the-top style and persona, those who met him discovered a shy, soft-spoken sweet heart. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Beatles were among Hendrix’s growing fan base. John Lennon told a Warner Brothers Producer “You have to see this guy,” ultimately leading Jimi to sign up for a North America tour. His first stop was the Monterrey International Pop Festival of 1967, at the time the biggest music festival in the country. The lineup included superstars like The Who, Janis Joplin, and Otis Redding. Jimi, relatively unknown in America at the time, knew he had to make a big impression. And make a big impression, he did. 

At the end of his wild and perfectly distorted set, Jimi began to sing “Wild Thing.” He played his guitar with his teeth, behind his back, and actually managed to continue playing while humping a giant speaker. He then put his guitar on the ground, doused it in kerosene, lit it on fire, and smashed it against the stage multiple times before flinging the remains into the crowd. A video of the performance shows some crowd members rocking out, as well as women staring with their mouths wide open, as if they can’t believe their eyes. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The performance brought The Jimi Hendrix Experience a lot of attention quickly. They were invited to open for The Monkees, but were kicked off the tour after a few performances for being too obscene. His first album, Are You Experienced?  delighted fans with its psychedelic sounds and blues lyrics. It contained some of his biggest hits, “Purple Haze,” “Foxey Lady,” and “Are you experienced?” His second album, Axis: Bold as Love was released with equally good reviews. In February of 1968 the Jimi Hendrix Experience embarked on a widespread U.S. tour. Jimi embraced the counter culture wholeheartedly, and was known to partake frequently in psychedelic drugs. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After only a year touring in America, Jimi Hendrix was arguably the most popular artist in the country. In 1968 he built his own recording studio in New York City, and named it Electric Lady. Friends and colleagues of Jimi said he recorded constantly, and would have lived in the studio if he could. His countless hours in the studio resulted in his extensive third album, Electric Ladyland. 

Perhaps the biggest moment in Jimi’s career, one that remains iconic for American counter culture, transpired at the Woodstock Music and Art Fair in August of 1969. Jimi stepped on stage with a makeshift band called Gypsy Sun and the Rainbows at 5 am, ready to play for a crowd of 400,000 muddy hippies.  He ended the set with a unique, distorted rendition of the Star Spangled Banner guaranteed to give the most emotionless listener the chills. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After Woodstock, Jimi added his old army friend and bassist Billy Cox to The Jimi Hendrix Experience, and they began touring and recording music in 1970. Jimi was living a wild life full of women, drugs, and parties. He returned to England with the band to tour. 

 The details of Hendrix's last day and death are debatable and hazy. He had spent much of September 17 in London with Monika Dannemann, a close friend of his. He awoke late that morning at Dannemann's apartment in the Samarkand Hotel. By around 2 p.m., he was sitting in a garden area outside the apartment enjoying some tea while she took photographs of him holding his favorite Fender Stratocaster guitar that he called the "black beauty.” In the opinion of author Tony Brown, "Jimi doesn't look particularly healthy in these photographs: his face seems a little puffy and on only a few of the pictures does he attempt to smile."

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Although he led the life of a bronco, living each day wild and untamed, he died a premature death. Jimi Hendrix passed away on September 18th, 1970.  The official story surrounding his death, as determined by the autopsy, states that Jimi aspirated his own vomit and died of suffocation, while intoxicated with barbiturates. Hendrix had taken sleeping pills called Vesperax. Hendrix allegedly took nine tablets, which is about twenty times the prescribed amount. He was only twenty seven years old. 

Hendrix changed rock forever during his short lived musical reign. He was the first black man to front a rock band. He pioneered the art of using electric feedback and distortion for beautifully heavy guitar solos. His combination of blues and psychedelic rock has never been successfully replicated.There will probably never be another like him. There probably shouldn't be.