Eric Clapton Meets Jimi Hendrix: 'My Life Was Never the Same Again'

‘Hendrix: An Illustrated Look at the Life of Jimi Hendrix’ Book Excerpt

Frank Mastropolo

Enjoy this opening chapter of the mini book, Hendrix: An Illustrated Look at the Life of Jimi Hendrix.

The electric guitar was invented in the early 1930s during the big band era. Jazz guitar players snapped them up. Now people could hear their solos above the volume of big band orchestras. Blues, country, and pop musicians were quick to adopt the instrument.

The electric guitar has been an essential part of rock and roll since its birth in the 1950s. A handful of players have been called “guitar gods” by critics and fans. Eric Clapton, Jimmy Page, Eddie Van Halen, George Harrison, Slash, and Jeff Beck are near the top of most lists.

But the musicians themselves name one guitarist as the most innovative and influential: Jimi Hendrix. His music was a fusion of blues, jazz, rhythm & blues, soul, and psychedelic rock, which Hendrix combined with his fascination with science fiction and outer space to create something impossible to label.

On October 1, 1966, Hendrix attended a performance by Clapton’s band Cream at the London Polytechnic. “He asked if he could play a couple of numbers,” Clapton recalled. “I said, ‘Of course,’ but I had a funny feeling about him.”

Hendrix joined the power trio of Clapton, Jack Bruce, and Ginger Baker for a ferocious version of Howlin’ Wolf’s “Killing Floor.”

“We were having a pre-gig pint in a pub across the road and in comes this guy who turns out to be Jimi Hendrix,” said Bruce.

“Now, we had already heard about Jimi on the grapevine. Jimi came up to me and said, ‘Hi. I would like to sit in with the band.’ So he came on and plugged into my bass amp, and he just blew us all away.”

“He played just about every style you could think of, and not in a flashy way,” said Clapton.

“He did a few of his tricks, like playing with his teeth and behind his back, but it wasn’t in an upstaging sense at all, and that was it.

“He walked off, and my life was never the same again.”

Hendrix, the most dynamic live performer of his generation, headlined the Woodstock Festival in 1969. His sold-out concerts made Hendrix the world’s highest-paid rock musician in 1969 and 1970.

But Hendrix’s success belied the grinding poverty of his youth in Seattle, Washington.

Frank Mastropolo is the author of Hendrix: An Illustrated Look at the Life of Jimi Hendrix. For more on our latest projects, visit Edgar Street Books.