Jimi was born Johnny Allen Hendrix on November 27, 1942 Seattle, Washington. At the time Jimi was born his father Al was serving in the Army after being drafted as a result of WW II. During the first three years of his Jimi's life, his mother, Lucille left him to stay with his Grandmother and many friends. Lucile would often go out partying and galavanting around. When Al returned home in 1945, he reunited with Lucille. Their marriage was touch and go for the next six years, until their divorce in 1951. During that time Jimi's parents provided him with two brothers, Leon (1948) and Joseph (1949), and two sisters Cathy (1950) and Pamela (1951). Pamela was adopted at birth, and Cathy was adopted shortly before the divorce. Joseph would later be adopted as well. Throughout his young years Jimi moved around many times. He spent much of his childhood with his Aunt in Vancouver and in many homes throughout Seattle with his Dad. When Jimi was 15, his mother passed away. Jimi was unable to go the funeral, as Al did not attend either. In 1959 Al bought Jimi his first electric guitar. Al tried repeatedly to get Jimi to do everything right handed as in those days left-handers were considered abnormal. Jimi was uncomfortable playing right handed though, and later discovered a way to reverse his strings and play his right-handed guitar upside down in a left-handed manner. While Jimi was in Junior High School, he had begun playing for many small bands. He continued improving his guitar playing abilities and was really beginning to show some extraordinary talent as he entered high school. He also excelled at poetry and art. A few years later Al convinced Jimi, without much of an argument, to leave school and come work with him. Jimi would never return to or graduate from High School. About this time, Jimi had a few skirmishes with the law and even spent a week in jail. As an incentive to lessen his penalty he soon decided to join the Army. Once through basic training, he was stationed as a member of the 101st Airborne at Ft. Campbell, Kentucky. He parachuted his way to becoming a Screaming Eagle, but on one of his many jumps he broke his ankle. Already bored with the military way, Jimi used his injury to quickly get a discharge. Jimi waited around for friend Billy Cox, whom he met at Ft. Cambell, to be discharged as well. Together they head out to Nashville and joined up with the chitlin' circuit and moved around in their own band called the King Casuals. Jimi then began shuffling around alot from '63 - '66 playing with the likes of Sam Cooke, Jackie Wilson, Tommy Tucker, The Supremes, Lonnie Youngblood, The Isley Brothers, Little Richard, Curtis Knight and the Squires, and a slew of others. On July 5th Chas Chandler ( Former Animal) sees Jimi play at the Cafe' Wha? in Greenwich Village, New York City. Just a few weeks later Jimi would have passport in hand headed for London. The Jimi Hendrix Experience had begun. Other names to explore in the inner world of Jimi Hendrix: Mitch Mitchell, Noel Redding, Billy Cox, Buddy Miles, Chas Chandler, Eddie Kramer
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The Jimi Hendrix Experience
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The Jimi Hendrix Experience was formed on October 6, 1966. James "Jimi" Hendrix (lead guitar and vocals), John "Mitch" Mitchell (drums), and Noel Redding (bass) made up the three man group. The bands' managers were Chas Chandler (formerly with the Animals) and a shady character named Mike Jeffery. The first official performance of the Experience was at the Novelty in Evreux, France October 13, 1966.
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The last was at the Denver Pop Festival June 29, 1969 when Noel Redding quit the band. In a little over three and a half years the band had performed nearly 500 live shows in 14 countries. The Experience produced four original albums in the time they were together: Are you Experienced?, Axis: Bold as Love, Smash Hits, and Electric Ladyland. Smash Hits was a "best of" album used to generate revenue during a stagnant period between Axis and Ladyland. Many other albums have been released since their break up. Most of which are recordings of live performances of various shows, or from studio tracks not deemed ready. Jimi is credited on the covers of most such albums with no mention of The Experience as a group. Unfairly, most of the attention of the band had always been centered around Jimi. The bands management had marketed Jimi's talents and cared little about obligations due Noel and Mitch. Continual pressures to keep the band touring and giging nearly nonstop lead to the use of drugs. At first it was to keep up with the grueling schedule, and eventually they were used for pleasure. Even later, use was simply for the addiction. The band had been performing months and months and yet the management claimed that they were broke. Noel and Mitch were always inadequately paid if paid at all. This lead to frustrations within the band since some of the moneys due them had been given to Jimi, who at times was less than careless how he went about spending it. The greed of the management namely Mike Jeffery, was the contributing factor to most of the Experiences' problems and undoubtedly served as a catalyst to Jimi's untimely death.
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