The record Jimi Hendrix listened to on his first acid trip – The Bluntness Picture the scene: it’s January 3rd 1966, in New York City, and a young Jimi Hendrix has just sent his father in Seattle an Empire State Building postcard admitting that the grass is not in fact greener on the other side and “every thing so-so on this big, raggedy city”. Although he doesn’t know it yet, Hendrix’s life is about to change seismically with the introduction of LSD .
Having spent four years residing in the Big Apple as a permanently broke musician, Hendrix had experienced his fair share of Black juke joints and clubs around the continent. Despite the gruelling nature of the ‘chitlin circuit’, comprising venues in the eastern, southern, and upper Midwest areas of the United States, Hendrix honed his craft by borrowing crowd-pleasing techniques from T-Bone Walker and Buddy Guy. A couple of these antics included the signature Hendrix trick of playing guitar behind his head and with his teeth. Hot StoriesAI Powered Northern Lights: Indica Legend
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It wasn’t until May 1966 that the future guitar-playing prodigy began to cause ripples on the surface of rock music, as he met with Linda Keith, the girlfriend of Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards. Each of them a blues enthusiast, the couple had travelled to New York to scour the city’s vast blues scene ahead of The Stones’ fifth US tour.
Accompanying Curtis Knight in his band The Squires, Hendrix’s voyeuristic guitar performance stunned Keith and her boyfriend as they witnessed the soon-to-be star entertain at the Cheetah Club on Broadway and 53rd Street. It would not be long until Keith made an impression on the young Hendrix, known by the name of Jimmy James at the time, as she showered him with compliments before inviting him to her apartment on 63rd Street. Don’t Miss Out
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From LSD to Legendary: Jimi Hendrix’s First Psychedelic Journey