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GenreRock, Blues, Funk, Rock & Roll, Metal
Rank816 (+1,971)
Albums31
Songs234
AboutJohnny Allen Hendrix was born in Seattle, 27th of September, 1942. After a couple of years his father, Al Hendrix, changed Johnny's name to James Marshall.
When he was nine years old his parents divorced. James and his two brothers came to live with their father. But one off his two brothers was later adopted by another family and James got really reserved and insecure. He started to live in his own dream world.
His talent was soon discovered by his father while James was sitting drumming and singing along with the songs on the radio. When James was 12 his father sold his own Saxophone and bought his son his first guitar. James was very happy for his new instrument and educated himself by playing his own songs inspired by Rock 'n roll and, of course, Blues.
At the age of 16, James started his own band. A year later he got his first electric guitar form his father. 1962 James went to Nashville, searching for someone to play with. He was tremendously successful! In the coming years he played with great artists such as Tina Turner and BB king.
When James finally started his own band in 1966 he came to meet Chas Chandler, the guitarist in the band Animals, thanks to Keith Richards's girlfriend, Linda. After Chas had jammed with James he was so impressed that he persuaded him to go with him and Animals to England. It was Chas that came up with the idea that James could change his name to Jimi.
They recruited a drummer named Mitch Mitchell and a bassist named Noel Redding and in October the same year they got their first gig in Evreux, France as the trio "The Jimi Experience". Next year the released their first single, Hey Joe, that reached the 6th place on the English charts.
As manger, Chas came up with a new idea to make Jimi even more famous. He made Jimi do his stage performances more sexy and Jimi became the new Sex symbol. The people loved it, but Jimi just saw it as a more effective way to introduce his music.
Even though he already was a success in England, Jimi still was almost unknown in his home country. Before they took the chance and left for USA they decided to do something other bands had already done. Sweden was considered a land with familiar taste as America, so they booked Gröna Lund in Stockholm, Sweden. The show was a huge success, 15 000 people came to see it. Now they dared to take the chance and cross the ocean.
In California,USA, they made their debut on the Monterey festival. The preview band, The Who, had just trashed their instruments and Jimi didn't want to do anything less. He set his guitar on fire and the successful performance reached all over USA and the rest of the world!
They started to go on touring a whole lot and could have performances up to 7 days a week!
But Jimi didn't want to do that. He liked being in the studio, finding new sound. So in 2 years he had a studio built in New York. He named it Electric Lady Studio.
1968 the band made a new album named "Electric Ladyland" witch became a huge success and is consider a milestone in the history of music. It was sold in millions of copys. Jimi Hendrix had developed a completely new sound on the guitar witch no one thought was possible. He became a rollmodell to many great musicians such as the famous Jazz player Miles Davis. Miles Davis created a new sound, a mixture of rock'n roll and Jazz. But you can hear that it has it's root's in Jimi's music.
As so many other famous people with a lot of money, Jimi had a drug addiction. He made a big scene when he got charged and convicted for trashing his hotelroom in Sweden and had to pay a fine of 8918 Skr. And the next year he got caught in Canada for drugpossession.
While he was charge in court, a witness claimed that someone had put it there when nobody was watching.
All this problems gave him a lot of problems in his roll as a rebell.
Sad enough the band split up. They played together for two more times and then they all went there separate ways. No one can be sure off the real reason why the band split but the official reason was that they had different opinions about the music. But it can't be easy playing with an addicted and Jimi got criticized by other black bands' about him playing with white guys.
Because of this Jimi recruited Billy Cox as bassist and Buddy Miles as drummer in his new band that he called the Gypsys.
A few weeks after Jimi received standing ovations from a thrilled Swedish crowd he was found dead in his girlfriend's apartment. Because of too many sleeping pills he died, suffocated by his own vomit. It was the 18th of September, he was 27 years old.
His last years he had been spending a whole lot in the studio recording thousands of hours of music. Most of witch he didn't release. Much of it got mixed and put on CD's after his death but Jimi himself only made and released 5 albums.
When he was nine years old his parents divorced. James and his two brothers came to live with their father. But one off his two brothers was later adopted by another family and James got really reserved and insecure. He started to live in his own dream world.
His talent was soon discovered by his father while James was sitting drumming and singing along with the songs on the radio. When James was 12 his father sold his own Saxophone and bought his son his first guitar. James was very happy for his new instrument and educated himself by playing his own songs inspired by Rock 'n roll and, of course, Blues.
At the age of 16, James started his own band. A year later he got his first electric guitar form his father. 1962 James went to Nashville, searching for someone to play with. He was tremendously successful! In the coming years he played with great artists such as Tina Turner and BB king.
When James finally started his own band in 1966 he came to meet Chas Chandler, the guitarist in the band Animals, thanks to Keith Richards's girlfriend, Linda. After Chas had jammed with James he was so impressed that he persuaded him to go with him and Animals to England. It was Chas that came up with the idea that James could change his name to Jimi.
They recruited a drummer named Mitch Mitchell and a bassist named Noel Redding and in October the same year they got their first gig in Evreux, France as the trio "The Jimi Experience". Next year the released their first single, Hey Joe, that reached the 6th place on the English charts.
As manger, Chas came up with a new idea to make Jimi even more famous. He made Jimi do his stage performances more sexy and Jimi became the new Sex symbol. The people loved it, but Jimi just saw it as a more effective way to introduce his music.
Even though he already was a success in England, Jimi still was almost unknown in his home country. Before they took the chance and left for USA they decided to do something other bands had already done. Sweden was considered a land with familiar taste as America, so they booked Gröna Lund in Stockholm, Sweden. The show was a huge success, 15 000 people came to see it. Now they dared to take the chance and cross the ocean.
In California,USA, they made their debut on the Monterey festival. The preview band, The Who, had just trashed their instruments and Jimi didn't want to do anything less. He set his guitar on fire and the successful performance reached all over USA and the rest of the world!
They started to go on touring a whole lot and could have performances up to 7 days a week!
But Jimi didn't want to do that. He liked being in the studio, finding new sound. So in 2 years he had a studio built in New York. He named it Electric Lady Studio.
1968 the band made a new album named "Electric Ladyland" witch became a huge success and is consider a milestone in the history of music. It was sold in millions of copys. Jimi Hendrix had developed a completely new sound on the guitar witch no one thought was possible. He became a rollmodell to many great musicians such as the famous Jazz player Miles Davis. Miles Davis created a new sound, a mixture of rock'n roll and Jazz. But you can hear that it has it's root's in Jimi's music.
As so many other famous people with a lot of money, Jimi had a drug addiction. He made a big scene when he got charged and convicted for trashing his hotelroom in Sweden and had to pay a fine of 8918 Skr. And the next year he got caught in Canada for drugpossession.
While he was charge in court, a witness claimed that someone had put it there when nobody was watching.
All this problems gave him a lot of problems in his roll as a rebell.
Sad enough the band split up. They played together for two more times and then they all went there separate ways. No one can be sure off the real reason why the band split but the official reason was that they had different opinions about the music. But it can't be easy playing with an addicted and Jimi got criticized by other black bands' about him playing with white guys.
Because of this Jimi recruited Billy Cox as bassist and Buddy Miles as drummer in his new band that he called the Gypsys.
A few weeks after Jimi received standing ovations from a thrilled Swedish crowd he was found dead in his girlfriend's apartment. Because of too many sleeping pills he died, suffocated by his own vomit. It was the 18th of September, he was 27 years old.
His last years he had been spending a whole lot in the studio recording thousands of hours of music. Most of witch he didn't release. Much of it got mixed and put on CD's after his death but Jimi himself only made and released 5 albums.
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