Jimi Hendrix was born in Seattle, Washington with the birth name “Jonny Allen Hendrix”. His birth name was later changed by his father to “James Marshall Hendrix” and “Jimi Hendrix” became his stage name. Born 27th November 1942 his mainstream career was only four years long but this didn’t stop Jimi from making a significant impact during those 4 years. Highly regarded as “The greatest instrumentalist in the history of rock music”, Jimi’s short career still landed him as one of the superstar musicians of the 20th century.
Jimi started his guitar playing journey at the age of 15. He then enlisted into the US Army for a brief period of time, training as a paratrooper in the 101st Airborne Division, before being discharged 1 year later. After the US Army discharged him, he moved to Tenessee. He played with Curtis Knight and the Squires before moving to England towards the end of 1966.
10 Facts About Jimi Hendrix:
1. Jimi was left-handed, so he played his guitar upside down.
2. Hendrix’s first instrument was a Ukelele he found with only one string.
3. Jimi’s Mum was a Cherokee Indian.
4. Jimi did not like the cover picture of the Electric Ladyland album. It had 19 naked women found in pubs in The UK. Hendrix felt the cover image took diminish the value of his music. This was changed in the US and had a psychedelic artwork as the cover.
5. Electric Ladyland was Jimi Hendrix’s only US number 1 album.
6. His body was moved in 2002 to Greenwood Memorial Cemetery in Washington, USA. He is buried under a 30-foot granite dome.
7. Born with the name John Allen Hendrix his father changed his name to “James Marshall Hendrix”.
8. In 1975, a Swedish court held up claims that “James Sundquist” (A Swedish Man) was Hendrix’s illegitimate son.
9. Jimi played over 600 shows in a four year period.
10. To gain exposure in the US Jimi toured with The Monkees in 1967. The young female audience which The Monkee’s attracted did not like Jimi Hendrix at all. The tour was a complete failure and resulted in Jimi flipping off the crowd and leaving the tour early.
Below is a video of Jimi playing the acoustic guitar. The video is quite rare as Jimi wasn’t captured playing an acoustic guitar much. Cameras were less present in those days as there were no smartphones and Jimi was always playing his electric guitar. Enjoy.
Summary: Jimi played guitar backward, behind his back, under his legs, with his teeth, and then set it on fire Not many other guitarists throughout history can beat that. However, despite his somewhat “wild” lifestyle, Jimi was a clean well-kept man. His bed was always well made, probably something leftover from his Arm days.
