When someone says the name Jimi Hendrix the first thing that comes to most peoples mind is, that he was one of the world’s greatest guitar players. Most people don’t think about his constant drug use and depression. But yet, the things that most people think down on such as his drug use are just as much apart of his life as his music. So the good and bad in Hendrix’s life balanced out to make his life what it was and why the world was so shocked to hear of Hendrix’s death at the age of twenty eight, because suddenly a very untimely death had occurred, and this man had come to meet his maker much too soon. The world would no longer get to experience his presence.

Jimi and his brother Leon were raised by their father Al in Seattle Washington, living off of one income. Al was a jazz dancer around many clubs in town, and also did small jobs on the side to help support the family. When Jimi was twelve, his father surprised him with his first guitar. Jimi had been wanting a guitar for quite sometime, and at last he had one to call his own, But he was left handed and this guitar was right handed. So he had to improvise and played the guitar upside down. Jimi didn’t receive lessons, he learned to play by listening to some of his favorite songs and learning to play along with them. As Jimi got older he, his playing increased along with his love for music. He formed his first band in his mid teens and begun playing with them and forming his own playing style.

At the age of seventeen, Hendrix started to want more out of life, and in his search, he ended up in the armed forces at the age of seventeen as a paratrooper. While in the army he would play guitar and associate with other soldiers who were in to music. While at camp he met an aspiring bassist, Billy Cox, who had heard Hendrix play, and suggested they join up. So they started playing together, until finally Hendrix had had enough of the strictness of the camp and decided to get out. He was discharged over an injury. Cox got out two months later. As the two started playing together they decided to head for Nashville Tennessee, Which was gaining ground as the place to go to get a record deal. As they made their way around, their band the Kings Kasuals, got a few gigs at some clubs around town. As Hendrix made his way around town he gained a bigger and bigger reputation and was gaining ground as one of the towns best guitarists. AS Hendrix would play he wouldn’t always be the center of attention as he grew to be known for in his later years, but instead he would stand back and hold back some. As he gained more experience through getting more and more gigs his confidence grew and soon, he started playing improvised solos.

As Jimi’s name got more and more popular, and so did the style of music he played so more and more aspiring musicians came into the light and the competition grew. Bands such as The Who, The Rolling Stones, and Deep Purple, and The Beatles all seemed to be competing for who’s style of music would become the most popular through out the world. When Linda Keith, the girlfriend of Keith Richards, lead guitarist for the Rolling Stones heard Jimi Play, She passed his name on to Chas Chandler, an aspiring manager and bassist for the famous British rock band, The Animals. After Jimi’s skepticism past, due to a few bad deals with other “managers” he flew to the Uk to see what could be done. After the two talked for some time, they decided that a band was needed. So they got together and rounded up Guitarist Noel Redding, and drummer John Mitchell. They were called the Jimi Hendrix Experience. They got some good gigs right off the bat, they opened up for Johnny Hollyday in Paris for the Paris Olympia. Suddenly his fame opened up in less than a few months and his new style of playing claimed everyone’s interest. As the Hendrix Experience played more and more gigs, they released there first single in December of 1966, “Hey Joe.” At this point Hendrix had got his big break, there were no more small gigs and working to get his name known. It was now known, but along with the new found fame virtually overnight, came the problems related to the fame, drugs, depression from all the attention, and racism. Equal rights had been an ongoing battle that hadn’t hesitated to even begin to come to an end. In fact the most heated part of the battle was just beginning, because at this point in time, change was everywhere, the new generation was about breaking down barriers. Jimi’s fame may account for why racism was not such a problem for him, as it may have been for ordinary citizens but it was still there or possibly the fact that he was great with a guitar. At this point Jimi had reached the peak in his career in the uk, things seemed great, the fame was all his and his music was evolving and changing the way we think about, hear, and play music to this day, but something else was changing the way Hendrix Thought about, heard and played music, and was a fairly well known part of his musical career, drugs. It is not necessarily a surprise to hear that Hendrix was an avid LSD user and Marijuana smoker. One specific time when Hendrix actually performed under the influence of LSD was at the Monterey Pop Festival, which was the Hendrix experience’s first U.S. appearance.

During their performance, Hendrix lit his guitar on fire and smashed it apart on stage. Hendrix had just made his first mark on America, and that was only the beginning. In 1969, Jimi made a guest appearance on the Dick Cavett Show, which for that time was a major break through because there hadn’t been a black performer stared on his show before, but it seemed that his fame and guitar skills knocked it all away. His appearance on the Dick Cavett show only popularized him even more, because this time, his name and music reached a mass number of people, all sitting in front of there television sets. Suddenly everyone knew who Jimi Hendrix was. As things seemingly just got better and better for Jimi, things started to get a bit shaky from the inside. The Hendrix Experience had made their mark not only in the UK but in the U.S. as well, and they had made themselves known, but it seemed as if the fame took its toll on them all. As time went on, the band spent less and less time practicing, and eventually did far less shows, Until the day came when they split up officially. It was announced to the public in late 1969 that the band was no longer going to make music with each other.

Jimi found this to be a good time to take a little bit of time off from the gigs and shows. Jimi went back to London at this time, to enjoy some of what he missed when he was in the UK. During the time the band was splitting up, Jimi had been having trouble dealing with the amounts of attention he was receiving and found that doing drugs was a good way to escape some of it. Not to say he didn’t love the fame because he did, but he didn’t love getting harassed. At one point Hendrix had received a large amount of fan mail from a particular girl who was over obsessed about him, and actually said that if I cant have you no one can. Hendrix found some threats that he would receive not only from people who would make racist comments at him but threats from over desperate fans to be some what overwhelming. So he got away by using drugs, and alcohol. He had been an avid user of both before his career started, but found them to be a good outlet for his problems during his fame. Not only did the alcohol and drug use effect him when it came to him performing, but it caused him some depression issues when it came to not having drugs, or not using them. In some ways you may look at his drug use in a good way, how it contributed to his great performances, which made him the guitar legend we know today, but largely in a bad way, because drugs led to his very untimely death, the death that know one expected, and know one wanted to ever read in the newspaper, or here about on the radio.

In 1970, in a London hotel, Jimi Hendrix Died of a drug overdose while sleeping. Earlier that night, Jimi had taken far to many sleeping, pills, reports say between eight to twelve, and then had some wine. It was either a combination of the two, or simply too many sleeping pills that cut his life short. The Legend of Jimi Hendrix was ups and downs, hidden problems and a lavish lifestyle, but he left his legacy of music for us.