Jimi Hendrix Trivia

Guitarist Jimi Hendrix is one of the most widely recognized figures of the American 60s and 70s. Like many pop stars, there are one or two things that everyone knows about Jimi Hendrix and there are half a dozen lesser known facts that only the fans are aware of.

Everyone knows that Hendrix died of "drug complications" and that he absolutely tore it up on the guitar like no one before or after. Jimi Hendrix fans know a little bit more...

The Biggest Jimi Hendrix Concert

For starters, many people know that Jimi Hendrix played an epic set at Woodstock in 1969, rendering a creative, original version of "The Star-Spangled Banner" on his electric guitar and playing some mind-blowing rock-and-roll to a rain-soaked audience. The crowd at the Woodstock concert was famously massive yet it was not the biggest show Hendrix ever played.

In England, there was a counter-part to Woodstock held on the Isle of Wight. In the summer of 1970 the last of three Isle of Wight festivals featured Jimi Hendrix who performed in front of an estimated 600,000 people*.

How Jimi Hendrix Got His Start

Like Ray Charles, another icon of American music, Jimi Hendrix was raised in the northwestern United States in Seattle, Washington. Music was his first love and the left handed Jimi Hendrix learned to play guitar at a young age.

As a back-up rhythm guitarist, Jimi Hendrix first found work as a musician in the American South playing R&B on the "Chitterling Circuit", an unaffiliated chain of black juke joints from Texas to Florida.

An Axe in Vietnam

When he was of age, Jimi Hendrix enlisted in the United States Army, became a paratrooper, and shipped off to Vietnam. Friends of Hendrix have said that the musician always had his guitar with him and was constantly playing.

The war found its way into Jimi Hendrix' music in several songs, the most obvious of which is "Machine Gun", a song found on the Band of Gypsies New Year's Eve performances from 1970.

London Is Where Fame Came to Hendrix

The music of Jimi Hendrix is rightfully associated with American blues and rock traditions, yet Hendrix did not break into fame until he travelled to England and formed a band in London with Noel Redding and Mitch Mitchell. The group was called The Jimi Hendrix Experience.

With the release of the band's first single, "Hey Joe", fame was instantaneous. The Jimi Hendrix name was big in England before it gained cache in the USA.

The Hendrix Legacy is Larger than the Hendrix Catalogue

Jimi Hendrix came to fame in 1966 and died in 1970. While working as a recording artist Hendrix completed three albums.

The virtuoso guitarist toured extensively during this period and achieved great fame for his stage presence and his antics (like lighting his guitar on fire and smashing guitars on stage...while they were still plugged in sometimes).

However, considering the towering status of Jimi Hendrix, his image, his myth and his legacy, a person might assume that Hendrix had recorded more than just three studio albums.

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Sources:

Bio.com

IsleofWightFestival.com

Biggest Concert of Its Time: Isle of Wight 1970

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