The Highest Praise: the guitarist that Jimi Hendrix compared to “heaven”
Musicians need to be pros at whatever instrument they’re keen on being recognised for playing; however, there is more to it than that. Musicians also need to be incredibly skilled borrowers. They should be proficient when it comes to borrowing from one another. They would pick out parts of new music they were into and then use them to influence their style and sound while still making something relatively unique.
Jimi Hendrix was very familiar with the concept of borrowing in music, given so many people took from what he was doing. The minute he took to the stage in the UK, word of mouth made him one of the biggest live acts in the country, as people were bowled over by the skill he displayed when he performed.
For instance, Paul McCartney has been upfront about the fact that when he was writing some of The Beatle’s later work, he used a heavier distortion sound because he liked the guitar solos of Jimi Hendrix so much. McCartney recalled seeing Hendrix for the first time and being blown away by his guitar playing as the guitarist decided to cover a track from The Beatles’ most recent album at the time, Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.
“Jimi opened, the curtains flew back, and he came walking forward playing ‘Sgt. Pepper’, and it had only been released on Thursday, so that was like the ultimate compliment,” he said, “It’s still obviously a shining memory for me because I admired him so much anyway. He was so accomplished. To think that that album had meant so much to him as to actually do it by the Sunday night, three days after the release.”
Many other musicians loved Jimi Hendrix and were keen on trying to play like him and capture audiences like him. Hendrix never minded when people called him an influence, though, given that he had such big influences himself. Two guitarists in particular inspired him: Jeff Beck, who changed the way people perceived guitarists following his stint in The Yardbirds, and Buddy Guy.
Buddy Guy was a famous blues singer and musician who packed a lot of emotion into his music while still flexing his technical ability. It is clear when you listen to Guy that he was a big influence on Hendrix, and Hendrix would be the first person to admit that. As a spiritual man, he gave Guy the ultimate compliment when he shone a light on the blues musician’s otherworldly skills.
As noted by multiple sources, Hendrix said of Buddy Guy: “Heaven is lying at Buddy Guy’s feet while listening to him play guitar.” Heaven on earth in the form of music, something Hendrix was converted to and preached for his whole life.
