The Real Me

Jimi Hendrix by those who knew him best. AS TOLD TO DAVID SINCLAIR

“Hendrix has since been made into something he never thought he would be, I’m sure of that. I got a letter inviting me to go to a ceremony in LA where they put a star for him in Hollywood Boulevard. That would have been about the biggest insult imaginable in the sixties, to suggest to him that one day: ‘Jimi, you will be such a part of the establishment they will put a star for you on Hollywood Boulevard.’ It was as if everything he had stood against and played against was being forced upon him after he’d died. He might have seen the funny side of it, but I certainly didn’t go to the ceremony.” Gerry Stickells (roadie/road manager)

“After he died, it seemed as if everyone knew Hendrix. But he didn’t make friends easily, certainly not in public, because he was basically very shy. When I first met him he was very quiet and polite. It was only when we were working that he used to do the wildman bit. He was quite disorganised. He would lose things and he used to have an untidy room. He wouldn’t know how to check in at an airport. I(had to check in for the group.” Noel Redding bassist, the Experience)

“He wasn’t an extrovert at all. He was a very reserved but happy character. I shared two flats with him and he was a perfectly straight dude. He’d do much the same as anyone else, except he’d have a guitar on when he was doing it. He’d fry his breakfast in the morning with a guitar round his neck. We played board games, like Risk, a lot. “He was very easy to work with in the studio; we only ever had one ruck, the first time we went in to record. We got into quite a heated row over the sheer volume of the guitar. At one point he said: ‘This is useless, I’ll never be able to make a record here.’ As it happened, I’d just come from the visa office and I had his passport and a return ticket to America in my pocket. So I handed them to him and I said: ‘Go on then. Fuck off back to America.’ And he just burst out laughing. That was the end of that and we never argued again.” Chas Chandler ( first manager and producer) “Jimi was too easy to get along with. He just had a real gentleness and a kindness about him – and in my opinion it got him in a lot of trouble. Not everyone took advantage of him, but then again I saw a lot of people who did”. Buddy Miles ( drummer, Band Of Gypsys)

“Jimi could be as moody as hell, but I always found him funny. The band never split up for me. Jimi and I always played together, and it was fun. Even while the Band Of Gypsys was going on, we carried on working in the studio together. He put up with a lot of bullshit, but the music was the most important thing. And if that ain’t right, forget it.” Mitch Mitchell ( drummer, the Experience)