Jimi Hendrix

Jimi Hendrix came out of Seattle, born Johnny Allen Hendrix in 1942. He picked up the guitar at 15, did a short hitch in the US Army starting in 1961, and then learned his trade the hard way on the Chitlin' Circuit, backing the Isley Brothers and Little Richard and later playing with Curtis Knight and the Squires. Jimmy James and the Blue Flames was another stop along the way.

Everything changed in late 1966, when Chas Chandler of the Animals became his manager and brought him to England. Within months he had put together the Jimi Hendrix Experience, with Noel Redding on bass and Mitch Mitchell on drums, and had three UK top-ten hits: the slow, menacing "Hey Joe", the fuzz-drenched "Purple Haze" and the gentle, rueful "The Wind Cries Mary". His performance at the Monterey Pop Festival in 1967 took care of America. Electric Ladyland, in 1968, was his third and last studio album and his only number-one album in the States, and he went on to headline Woodstock in 1969 and the Isle of Wight Festival in 1970, as the highest-paid rock musician in the world.

The sound was something new under the sun. Hendrix cranked overdriven amplifiers up to punishing levels and tamed the feedback that other players ran from, turning it into a language. He was among the first to lean heavily on fuzz, wah-wah, the Octavia and the Uni-Vibe, and the first to put stereo phasing on record, all of it rooted in the rock and roll and electric blues he started with. Put the roaring "All Along the Watchtower" next to the delicate, drifting "Little Wing" and hear one man cover the whole distance between hurricane and lullaby.

He died in London in September 1970, aged 27, and the albums keep coming: The Cry of Love and Rainbow Bridge both surfaced in 1971. He later received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1991 and a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 1992, and the UK Music Hall of Fame has made room for him too.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.