WAMC's Ian Pickus speaks with leading Jimi Hendrix scholar Steven Roby, who has uncovered and collected several forgotten or lost interviews the riotous guitarist gave during his too-short heyday in his new book, Hendrix on Hendrix: Interviews and Encounters with Jimi Hendrix, published by Chicago Review Press.
Several themes that defined Hendrix’s life emerge in its pages: isolation, his tough childhood, an always shifting biographical timeline, diffidence, and often a good sense of humor.
The southpaw guitar god is one of those rock and roll figures suspended in a state of permanent youth in the popular imagination because of his tragic death at just 27 in 1970. It’s difficult to imagine, but that means Hendrix would have turned 70 today.
But the Hendrix myth has continued over the past four decades, with "new" music having been released as recently as 2010. His Monterey Pop and Woodstock performances are still referenced with every smashed guitar or wah-wahed national anthem.
Before his death, fame, critical accolades and the swirling 60s converged on the Seattle-born guitarist.
