Why was Jimi Hendrix fired from Little Richard’s band?
What goes around comes around, as the old saying proclaims. Given that rock music’s introduction to the mainstream was fast and furious amid a significant counterculture movement, it should come as little surprise that many of the world’s most famous names crossed paths from time to time – but few stories are as great as this one. Once upon a time, Little Richard, one of the all-time greats of rock and roll, handed another iconic name his first taste of life in a band, a time when he offered up a place in his group to a little-known guitarist going by the name of Jimi Hendrix.
Of course, two behemoths of the rock world attempting to perform together in one band was always destined to find divisions, but Little Richard would only tolerate the musicians in his outfit arriving to rehearsals on time and playing like the backing band they were.
The legacy of Richard speaks for itself. An icon of music to this day which stems from his pioneering work that dates back to the 1960s, the singer was well known for not only forging the path for how rock and roll was delivered on a live stage setting but also for offering a leg up to other artists behind the scenes too. One such artist was Jimi Hendrix.
Charles White’s The Life and Times of Little Richard: The Authorised Biography states that the two musicians crossed paths when a young Hendrix was playing for Gorgeous George, a soul singer and a renowned tailor known for his beautiful suits. Little Richard told White that Hendrix was caught without cash and had nowhere to go. “My bus was parked on Auburn Avenue and Jimi was staying in this small hotel. And so he came by to see us,” he said. “He had watched me work and just loved the way I wore these headbands around my hair and how wild I dressed.”
Little Richard’s brother, Robert Penniman, who acted as the flamboyant rocker’s tour manager, noted that Jimi Hendrix had a habit of being late and upstaging the main act, two things that no session guitarist should ever do. Penniman remembers: “I fired Hendrix, who was using the name Maurice James all the time I knew him. He was a damn good guitar player, but the guy was never on time. He was always late for the bus and flirting with the girls and stuff like that. It came to a head in New York, where we had been playing the Apollo and Hendrix missed the bus for Washington, DC. I finally got Richard to cut him loose.”
Penniman explained that Hendrix called when the group arrived in DC, and Penniman was not afraid to tell the young guitarist why he was being fired: “I was running the road for Richard and I didn’t accept that kind of bullshit.” It’s a fair demand and likely something Hendrix needed to learn before becoming a star in his own right.
Looking at Hendrix’s all-too-brief time in the spotlight, it’s easy to see how Richard influenced the young star. Whether it was his stage persona, dress sense or impassioned performance, Hendrix took a lot from his time with Little Richard: “I want to do with my guitar what Little Richard does with his voice,” Hendrix once said in a quote that explains everything we need to know about their relationship.
