STEVE HACKETT

WHAT DID JIMI MEAN TO YOU AS A PLAYER?

“Initially I thought he came across with a rare animal power. But when you look more closely, his lyrics are full of poetry. Sometimes the words are very dark, with lots of references to imminent death and allusions to the next world. His showmanship seemed to come naturally to him. No one ever moved as gracefully with the guitar in hand. I feel it was his fluidity, as well as his innovation and risk-taking, that impressed and influenced me. His playing was heady stuff for me as an aspiring teenage rocker.”

WHAT DO YOU THINK HENDRIX BROUGHT TO THE GUITAR?

“Hendrix was a bluesman with a very big difference. I knew his guitar tech, Eric Barrett, who said that Jimi played through feedback constantly, like a weapon permanently set on stun. The spacecraft aspect of his playing was hugely inspiring. He was always going to take you on a trip to some uncharted part of the universe. His playing skirts the limits of earthly experience. It’s virtually a shamanic inner journey. He also brought many production ideas to the guitar. Somehow you feel that at Woodstock he was trying to register his protest at the falling bombs on Vietnam, managing to say as much with his guitar as other protest songs had done with words.”