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A musician, if he’s a messenger, is like a child who hasn’t been handled too many times by man, hasn’t had too many fingerprints across his brain. Jimi Hendrix, Life magazine 1969
Blues is easy to play but hard to feel. Jimi Hendrix, cited Charles Murray, Crosstown Traffic 1989
Every city in the world always has a gang, a street gang, or the so-called outcasts. Jimi Hendrix
I don’t really live on compliments. As a matter of fact, they have a way of distracting me. Jimi Hendrix, interview Dick Cavett 1969
If it was up to me, there wouldn’t be no such thing as the establishment. Jimi Hendrix
I’m the one that’s got to die when it’s time for me to die, so let me live the way I want to. Jimi Hendrix
I try to get up every day. Jimi Hendrix, interview Dick Cavett 1969
It’s time for a new National Anthem. America is divided into two definite divisions. The easy thing to cop out with is sayin’ black and white. You can see a black person. But now to get down to the nitty-gritty, it’s gettin’ to be old and young – not the age, but the way of thinking. Old and new, actually ... because there’s so many even older people that took half their lives to reach a certain point that little kids understand now. Jimi Hendrix
I’ve been imitated so well I’ve heard people copy my mistakes. Jimi Hendrix
Knowledge speaks, but Wisdom listens. Jimi Hendrix, atrributed
See, that’s nothing but blues, that’s all I’m singing about. It’s today’s blues. Jimi Hendrix
Sometimes you want to give up the guitar, you’ll hate the guitar. But if you stick with it, you’re gonna be rewarded. Jimi Hendrix
You have to go on and be crazy. Craziness is like heaven. Jimi Hendrix
I’ve always been very quiet. But I saw a lot of things. Jimi Hendrix: Voodoo Child, 2010
At school I used to write poetry a lot. ibid.
The first guitarist I was aware of was Muddy Walters. I heard one of his old records when I was a little boy. And it scared me to death. Because I heard all of those sounds. ibid.
I was about fourteen or fifteen when I started playing guitar. I learnt all the riffs I could. I never had any lessons. I learnt guitar from records and the radio. ibid.
I had to get an electric guitar. My first electric was a Danelectro which my dad bought for me. Must have busted him for a long time. I got the guitar together because that was all I had. ibid.
I was starting to see you could create a whole new world with an electric guitar. Because there isn’t a sound like it. ibid.
Bob Dylan was also down there. We were both stoned and hung just about laughing thanks to the demon ale. When I first heard Dylan I thought you must admire the guy for having that much nerve to sing out of key. But when I started listening to the words that sold me. ibid.
Chaz came down and heard me and asked, Would I like to come to England and start a group there? He seemed like a sincere guy and I’d never been to England before. ibid.
I wasn’t thinking about nothing but the idea of going to England. That’s all I’m thinking about. ’Cause I like to travel. One place bores me too long. ibid.
My music isn’t pop. It’s me ... Who doesn’t want to be written down in history? ibid.
We all dug Hey Joe as a number. Chaz made me sing serious. I was too scared to sing. It was the first time I ever tried to sing on a record. While we were working on it I don’t think we played it the same way twice. Hey Joe is really a Blues arrangement of a cowboy song. It isn’t quite a commercial song. So I’m surprised that it got so high in the hit parade. ibid.
We are calling our album Are You Experienced? This is a very personal album. Just like all our singles. I guess you could call it an ad lib album. As we made so much of it up on the spot. ibid.
I don’t want people to get the idea it’s a collection of freak-out material. Imagination is the key to my lyrics. And the rest is painting it with a little science fiction. ibid.
Britain is our station now. It’s not my home. But it was our beginning. They took us in like lost babies. We’ll stay here probably until around the end of June, and then we’ll see if we can get something going in America. ibid.
I arrived in England in just the clothes I stood up in. I’m going back with the best wardrobe of gear Carnaby Street can offer. ibid.
When I was in Britain I used to think about America every day. I’m American. I wanted people here to see. I also wanted to see whether we could make it back here. ibid.
Everything was perfect. And it was such a good feeling. Especially on your own home country. So I decided to destroy my guitar at the end as a sacrifice. You sacrifice the things you love. I loved my guitar. ibid.
Then we got into a tour with The Monkeys. They are like plastic Beatles. ibid.
I did write slow songs because I feel it’s easier to get more blues and feeling into them. The ballads I get really together – that’s what I really dig. Flower power. ibid.
Of course a lot of those hippies may get busted once in a while. But you don’t hear of banks beings robbed by hippies. It’s your own private thing if you use drugs. Everyone should be able to think or do what they want as long as it don’t hurt anybody. ibid.
Music is a safe kind of high. It’s more it’s the way it’s supposed to be. ibid.
When I die I’m going to have a jam session. And knowing me, I’ll probably get busted at my own funeral. And I’ll try to get Miles Davis along if he feels like making it. The music will be played loud. And it will be our music. ibid.
When I die just keep on playing the records. ibid.
The world owes me nothing. ibid.
The circumstances surrounding the death of Jimi Hendrix have been open to speculation ever since the Coroner issued an open verdict. Criminal Behaviour: Jimi’s Final Hours
His reputation was already legendary – not with the public yet but with other guitarists like Keith Richard, Jeff Beck and The Beatles. ibid.
Hey Joe was an instant hit reaching number six in the charts. Success came almost overnight and Hendrix was welcomed into the fold. ibid.
Jimi Hendrix died on the 18th September 1970. He’d spent the night with a blonde German groupie, Monika Dannemann, in a West London hotel. Hendrix met Monika at a gig in Dusseldorf. But Monika said that she was different from the other groupies, that Jimi was going to marry her. On the last night of his life Hendrix jammed at a Soho bar and partied afterwards. At some point it’s said he dropped some acid, but it wasn’t that that killed him. It was the nine sleeping pills that belonged to Monika that killed Jimi Hendrix. He was twenty-seven years old. ibid.
We went to the hospital. And now the ambulance men clearly stated Jimi was still alive when we arrived at the hospital. Monika Dannemann
I think there may have been a conspiracy, a cover-up. Kathy Etchingham, London girlfriend
He was breathing normally. And he had a normal pulse. But that he was sat up on the ambulance. Well of course that would be a lethal thing to do. That his head fell forward, and every time it was pushed back. And it sounded as if he was treated very badly. And then when he got to the hospital the doctors failed to treat him. And they were asking questions on a racial theme – what are you doing with him, and black and white and all this, and they didn’t get on with resuscitating him. And they could have saved him but they didn’t. Kathy Etchingham
Jimi Hendrix was American. But he owed his very pop existence to British creative forces. He had been spotted by Animal’s bassist Chad Chandler while touring the USA. Pop Britannia: A Well Respected Man, BBC 2008
Hendrix stormed the UK and US charts with Hey Joe in the summer of ’67. ibid.
British pop was now growing up. Bands like Pink Floyd and Cream brought Britain into the Rock era. Rock was conceptual. For grown-ups. And made three-minute pop seemed passé. The very currency of British pop seemed to change overnight. ibid.
In late September 1966 a tale dark wild-haired stranger played his very first gig in England here at the Scotch Club at St James’s, London. His name was Jimi Hendrix. Imagine ... Jimi Hendrix: Hear My Train a Coming, BBC 2013
A softly spoken dreamer who struggled with the pressures of fame. ibid.