“When you get into the music, into doing your thing, do something original, do something different.” ~James Al Hendrix
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Jimi Hendrix aka Noize |
In 1896 Ross Hendricks moved to Chicago and changed his last name to Hendrix and eventually joined a traveling vaudeville troupe as a stagehand where he met stage performer Nora Moore. They married in Seattle but eventually moved to Vancouver where the father of Jimi Hendrix, James Al Hendrix, was born in 1919. Al Hendrix grew up with performing aspirations training in dancing and boxing, marrying Lucille Jeter along the way, but the Great Depression forced him to focus on earning a living instead, forcing a move to Seattle in 1940. Al Hendrix eventually joined the Army.
Al Hendrix’ commanding officer locked him up to prevent him from going AWOL to be there at the birth of his son on November 27, 1942. After returning from WWII, Al took custody of him, and renamed him from Johnny Allen Hendrix to James Marshal Hendrix, he was three years old at the time.
About the name James: Origin: Hebrew. Meaning: “he who supplants”. Nicknames: Jem, Jemmy, Jim, Jimbo, Jimmie, JimmyAl Hendrix gave Jimmy an old ukulele as a toy, followed by an acoustic guitar and soon after a used electric guitar. Jimmy taught himself to play by ear, and later dropped out of Garfield High School to tour with traveling bands and develop his new technique. He also changed the spelling of his first name to Jimi.
Jimi Hendrix joined the Army, not because he wanted to be a soldier, but because he didn’t want to go to jail. He was arrested for riding around in stolen cars (twice) and the second time they told him he could spend two years in prison or join the army, he chose to enlist in the army and was assigned to the 101st Airborne Division. This didn’t last long though as he was constantly getting in trouble for sleeping while on duty and disregarding rules and regulations. His commanding officers finally requested that he be discharged, which he was, after being a soldier only a year.
- Hendrix contested this and stated he was discharged after breaking his ankle on his 26th parachute jump.
In the song “Purple Haze”, Hendrix has a line “Excuse me while I kiss the sky.” This gave rise to some people misinterpreting the lyrics “Excuse me while I kiss this guy.” As a result of this, sometimes Hendrix would sing the latter line in his actual performances because he thought it was funny.
Hendrix was famous for being an extreme perfectionist with his music. For instance, it took 43 takes for him to be satisfied with the song “Gypsy Eyes”. As a result of this, his producer, Chas Chandler, cut ties with Hendrix during the recording of the Electric Ladyland album.
This also created tension with band mates. For instance, bassist Noel Redding would get frustrated at how long it took to record things and take breaks to cool down, only to return and find Hendrix had played his own takes of Redding’s parts in his absence.
Hendrix disliked performing in front of large crowds. Because of this, he requested to have his time slot at Woodstock moved to the end, on Monday morning, rather than on Sunday night, as he had been slotted before. He hoped that many of the people would have left by that time, which indeed happened. By the time he started playing at 8:30am on Monday morning only about 30,000 people of the estimated original 400,000 remained. Many of those 30,000 remaining left during his iconic performance.
- Hendrix’ rendition of the Star Spangled banner at Woodstock was actually something he’d been performing regularly for about a year up to that point.
- Dannemann also claimed that Hendrix was still alive when the ambulance arrived. Further, she claimed she was with him in the ambulance. However, the medics stated she wasn’t there when they arrived and Hendrix had been dead for some time (probably around 3am-4am, and they arrived at 11:27am). Many years later, in 1996, Dannemann committed suicide after running into legal troubles.
His great-great grandmother was a full blood Cherokee, hence why Jimi Hendrix is in the Native American Music Hall of Fame, the first musician to have that honor, being in inducted in 1998.
On May 13, 2014 The United States Postal Service released the Jimi Hendrix stamp set.
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Backside of Jimi Hendrix USPS Stamp Set |
On May 8, 2015, Rolling Stone Magazine reported that Hendrix estate has reached an agreement with Legendary Pictures for an official biopic of the rock legend.
Jimi Hendrix Quote: "It's hard for me to remember any notes, cause I'm trying to constantly create other things, that's why I make a lot of mistakes."
Hear My Train A Comin'
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