How did Jimi Hendrix get his stage name?
Many legends have lived multiple lives and been known by various aliases. While the most famous might be David Bowie, whose real name was David Jones, with another example being Lemmy – born Ian Fraser Kilmister – another classic instance is Jimi Hendrix.
It’s an often overlooked point, but Jimi Hendrix was not the great pioneer’s real name. That, in fact, was Johnny Allen Hendrix. Although it still has a ring to it, it doesn’t have the same celestial shine the moniker we all know him by has.
Hendrix was born to young parents on November 27th, 1942. His mother, Lucille, was just 17 when she gave birth to him, and his father, James Allen Hendrix, ‘Al’, was 23. The future rock hero’s parents married just three days before his father was drafted into the army for the Second World War. Adding extra confusion and pointing to the laissez-faire nature of such things at the time, in 1946, when he was four, Hendrix’s parents decided to change his name to James Marshall Hendrix in honour of his father and his late brother, Leon.
Hendrix’s father was stationed in Alabama when he was born. Making things worse, Al was denied the military furlough given to servicemen for childbirth, and his commanding officer put him in the stockade to stop him from taking a flight to return to Seattle and see his baby son. It was when he was locked up for two months, without trial, that he received the telegram that his son had been born.
Like many African-Americans at the time, the Hendrix’s lived in poverty, both when Al was away in the army for three years and when he returned. Marred by alcohol, Al and Lucille’s relationship was tempestuous. After they divorced in 1951 and the former gained custody of the kids, the future Jimi Hendrix began to evolve. It was during this period that he became ensconced in the burgeoning world of rock ‘n’ roll.
When helping his father on a removal job in 1957, Hendrix found a one-stringed ukelele among the rubbish, and the old woman who owned the house said he could keep it. This was his introduction to playing music, and he learned single notes to songs such as Elvis’s ‘Hound Dog’. It was in the middle of the following year that Hendrix bought his first acoustic guitar for just $5, and before too long he’d be immersed in the world of rock.
So, how did Jimi Hendrix get his stage name?
In 1962, after he was finally discharged from the army, Hendrix began life as a session musician, using the name Jimmy James. Over the next few years, he’d play with a myriad of acts, including prominent ones such as The Isley Brothers, Sam Cooke, Little Richard, and Ike and Tina Turner.
After being fired by Little Richard’s manager, Hendrix took this as a sign that he should finally go it alone. He formed his own band, Jimmy James and the Blue Flames, and it was with this outfit one night in 1966 that he’d catch the eye of former Animals bassist Chad Chandler. He had been advised to watch the American by Linda Keith, the girlfriend of Rolling Stone Keith Richards.
Chandler knew straight away what he was witnessing. That September, he whisked him to London to make him a star. When forming a faciliatory band in the capital, it was suggested that Hendrix change his name to ‘Jimi’. The rest was history.
