Everyone's got their own opinion on the mysterious death of Jimi Hendrix — but
what about the rockers and rollers who knew him best?
In an interview for a BBC series, The Who's Roger Daltrey opened up
about the final days of Jimi Hendrix. It turns out that,
the weekend before Hendrix's death, they had been hanging out at his home in Berkshire.
Daltrey explained that Hendrix had shown up there with groupie-turned-confidante Devon Wilson. At
first, Daltrey said, things were hopeful. Hendrix was looking into taking his music
in a more experimental, jazz-inspired direction, and he was also looking ahead to setting up in New
York after the end of his time in Europe. Before long, however, things had turned a little weird.
According to Daltrey, Hendrix and Wilson were doing a call-and-answer
kind of singing that got slower and slower; it quickly became clear that
they were high on barbiturates. Wilson passed out first, followed by Hendrix;
Daltrey and his companions put them both to bed. Daltrey explained:
"So they put the kettle on for a cup of tea and blow me if 10
minutes later [Hendrix] doesn't appear in the doorway with his boots back on,
his hat on all skew whiff, and says, 'Right, I'm ready for the interview.'"
A few hours later, they headed back to London. As Daltrey said:
"I say, he was right as rain in the morning. [It] was like nothing had happened."
Some friendships make even the most cynical person believe in destiny,
and that's apparently the case with Jimi Hendrix and Billy Cox. After meeting while
they were in the army, Hendrix and Cox toured the United States chitlin' circuit before
going their separate ways. They reunited again in 1969, formed The Band of Gypsys,
and shared a bright but brief time in the recording studio before Hendrix's death.
Cox spoke with Rock Cellar Magazine about those final months with Hendrix,
including that legendary Woodstock performance, their collaboration with Miles Davis, and the
last time he spoke with his old friend. Cox was feeling under the weather, he remembered, but he
also recalled Hendrix looking forward to recording and tying up a number of loose ends. Cox said:
"He knew I was feeling sick and said, 'I know you might not be up to it,' and I said,
'I'll be there,' and that was a Monday and then Wednesday, I got the call that he was gone."
"I've learned one lesson from all of this: Fate are the cards you're dealt at birth,
and destiny is what you do with those cards."
Ronnie Wood has been at the heart of the music industry for decades, most famously
as a guitarist in the Rolling Stones. Back in the day, though, when he was still finding his feet,
he was Jimi Hendrix's roommate — and he has had nothing but good things to say about
his late friend. On an installment of his radio show on Absolute Radio UK, Wood said:
"Jimi was a really sweet, well-mannered boy,
and I'm very honored to have shared a little space of time with him back in the late 1960s."
Hendrix's last performance took place at a jazz club called Ronnie Scott's.
He was invited on-stage by Eric Burdon of the Animals and War,
and Wood just happened to be there. He saw Hendrix afterward when the music was over. Wood recalled:
"He was walking down the stairs with his arm around this girl and I said to him,
'Jimi, say goodnight' — and he didn't turn round. I said,
'Jimi, say goodnight!' and he turned round really slowly, out of his brain,
and just gave me a little stoned wave. And that was the last the world saw of him."
Howard Scott didn't just have a front-row seat to what would ultimately become Jimi Hendrix's
last live performance: As the guitarist for War, he was on stage with him. When he spoke to Blues
Blast Magazine in 2019, Scott told the story of how Hendrix had actually been invited to
play for two nights by Eric Burdon. On the first, he was apparently too high to play.
The second night, things went differently,
and Scott's last memories of Hendrix were of a musician at the top of his game. He remembered:
"That second night, I saw him walking through the crowd with his Strat. His
eyes were cobalt white. He was ready. He was Jimi Hendrix and in charge."
Scott says that his instinct was to unplug his guitar and step aside,
but Hendrix wouldn't let him. Instead, they played, plugged into the same amp,
and took turns trading solos. Scott described:
"It was amazing, a great concert. He was smilin' and feelin' good. After the set, Lee Oskar and
I walked back to the hotel in the rain. I don't believe the raindrops even touched us."
It's easy to forget how pivotal The Monkees were to music in the
'60s — and it's even easier to forget that Jimi Hendrix opened for them when they were touring.
"I think he got as far as Forest Hill Stadium before the conflict between what
Monkee fans want and what Jimi Hendrix was prepared to deliver overcame him."
Hendrix only did a few shows with the band, but he didn't forget them. In fact,
just days before he died, he went to a party that was being thrown for The Monkees' Mike Nesmith.
Nesmith said that they spent some time just hanging out and talking about music, but added
that Hendrix seemed incredibly melancholy. In the book Eyewitness: Jimi Hendrix, he recalls:
"I was surprised to see him in somewhat of a funk. He was not happy with the way his
music had developed. [...] As he stood there, his eyes kind of drifted off,
and I could see him trying to come to terms with some devil or something in his own head."
Hendrix said that he wanted to do something entirely different and
pitched the idea of an R&B band, or following in the footsteps of
Otis Redding. Nesmith said that, when he asked why Hendrix was going
through this "crisis of self-confidence," Hendrix didn't answer; he only nodded.
Mitch Mitchell, the last living member of the Jimi Hendrix Experience, passed away in
2008. Interestingly, his final conversation with Jimi Hendrix was a little less dismal than the
experiences of others, as they had apparently made a number of exciting plans together.
They spoke the day before Hendrix died, and at the time, Mitchell
was getting ready to go to Heathrow airport to pick up Sly Stone. Mitchell remembered:
"Jimi was really excited about Sly, and said, 'Is there any chance of a play?' So I said,
'Funny you should say that, [...] the idea is we're all going down to The Speakeasy
for a jam.' Jimi was really up for it, and agreed to meet us there about midnight."
But Hendrix never made it. Mitchell added:
"We all thought [that] was very, very strange, 'cos no matter what situation was going on,
for Hendrix to miss a chance of a play was very out of character."
Mitchell later received a phone call telling him that Hendrix had died.
He has since insisted his friend's death was not deliberate on his part, saying:
"Jimi was the kind of person who'd push things to the nth degree,
but I never saw suicidal tendencies there."
"I think you had to have seen Jimi Hendrix to really understand what he was about."
In 1970, around 600,000 people flooded to the Isle of Wight to see some of the era's biggest
names performing at a single event. Akin to Woodstock, the festival was reported to
be the largest outdoor gathering since World War II, and the line-up was a who's-who of the time:
Joining Jimi Hendrix were acts like Joni Mitchell, The Doors, and The Who.
Apparently, Hendrix was petrified of going on stage at the event,
and before his set he split a bottle of vodka with a few friends. Worse still,
when he finally went on stage, he was booed. Still, his appearance both on stage
and off of it had a huge impact on those who saw him — including one Pete Townshend. He recalled:
"Hendrix was a psychological mess of a man. Nobody cared. People thought,
'He can play such great guitar, so he's obviously okay.' What made me work so hard
was seeing the condition Jimi was in. He was in such tragically bad condition physically,
and I remember thanking God as I walked on stage that I was healthy."
Dave Taylor was a guitarist for Eire Apparent, an Irish band that put out a single album produced
by and featuring Jimi Hendrix. Taylor also toured with the Jimi Hendrix Experience,
and in the decades following Hendrix's untimely death, he has spoken highly
of the man who he remembered not only as a brilliant guitar player, but as a good friend.
In a 2020 interview with The Irish Times, Taylor reflected on the year
he spent touring with Hendrix. He said that they all got along really well,
and made a point to stress that he didn't see much of the raucous partying everyone always
associates with Hendrix. Taylor also spoke of the stress Hendrix was clearly under,
adding that his management rarely let him see anything related to money.
Taylor ran into Hendrix in March of 1970, just a few months before his death. They were in a
London club called The Speakeasy, he said, adding that, even though it was a while since
they'd seen each other, Hendrix greeted him like an old friend. Taylor recalled:
"He was with Sly Stone. He was asking me what I was doing and he told me that if I needed
any help I should give him a shout. He was always willing to help. If he could help you,
he would help you — and without asking for money."
Chas Chandler was the talent scout who first spotted a guitarist named Jimmy James,
thought he was something special, and convinced him to head to Britain.
"The first album only cost about £1500 or something. It was done in 10 days, all told."
Before that, though, he was the bass player for The Animals,
and although he had parted ways from Hendrix in an official capacity,
they still moved in the same circles. Chandler saw Hendrix about three weeks before his death.
Hendrix was in Stockholm at the tail end of August, performing at a concert at
Stora Scenen — and he wasn't in a particularly healthy state. According to one of the event's
photographers, Hendrix had been sitting in his dressing room chugging whiskey when he
was asked to take part in a photo shoot with a child. He picked up a little girl,
proclaiming that it was his baby — even though it definitely wasn't. Later, Chandler recalled
seeing Hendrix on stage, in the one place that was supposed to be his element. He said:
"He was wrecked. He'd start a song, get into the solo section and then
he wouldn't even remember what song they were playing at the time. He'd come into
a different song. It was a disastrous concert, it was really awful to watch."
It was Eric Burdon who invited Jimi Hendrix to play at Ronnie Scott's for
what would be his last public appearance; Hendrix played there on September 16th,
1970. Burdon later told Louder Sound that he had actually stopped by before that, remembering:
"I had to send him away because he was in such a bad state. You could almost smell
the problems that he was having and, believe me, it was tough for me to say, 'No, Jimi,
you can't do it, come back when you're in better form.' He did, but it didn't do much good."
In an interview with Straight Ahead Magazine,
Burdon said they were hassled by members of the crowd who were unhappy that they
weren't getting to see a typical jazz set. Hendrix eventually walked off, but, after a
pep talk from Burdon, came back and finished his performance in style. Burdon recalled:
"Afterwards, Jimi said, 'I'll see you around,' and that was it. I never saw him again."
Burdon has also said that Hendrix's unfortunate state in those final days
showed him what could happen to people working in the music industry. He said:
"He was very removed and in Britain, he was a stranger in a strange land.
The people who purported to be his friends were bringing him gifts of
poison in the form of bad drugs that he was so ready to consume. He didn't care."