“Who the hell is that?”: the moment Jimi Hendrix met his guitar hero
Never trust anyone in rock music who says their favourite guitarist is someone other than Jimi Hendrix. It might be the vanilla answer, but it is ultimately the right one – because who else, in the space of just a few short years, has made such a seismic impact and legacy on the industry apart from him? Hero status is banded about all too nonchalantly these days, but Hendrix will always deserve every inch of that crowning glory.
In this sense, it’s almost impossible to imagine – let alone remember – a time before Hendrix was electrifying the airwaves. Bearing in mind he died in 1970, famously at just 27 years old, yet the firestorm he whipped up in the rock canon in such little time was enough to send most people into a frenzy, except his very own guitar hero.
It seems there is very little that can faze Buddy Guy, the poster boy of the Chicago blues movement that many, including Hendrix, worshipped as their guiding inspiration. That estimable title never looked as though it washed with Guy, however, as his legion of protégés were merely small fry to him.
As the British electric scene increasingly emerged as a force to be reckoned with in the mid-1960s, Guy had caught wind of some of its leading lights in the form of Hendrix and Eric Clapton’s Cream yet never paid them much attention as he was more focused on his own American circuit. But later, he recalled in a 2023 interview, that all changed when a certain Seattle-native virtuoso came rocking into his orbit.
Guy said: “I got invited to play in New York City. I was putting on the ‘Buddy Guy show’ with my guitar behind my back and throwing it around. And somebody said to me, ‘Look out, man, that’s Jimi Hendrix over there!’ – ’cause those were Jimi’s moves. But I said, ‘So what? Who the hell is that?’”
Seemingly unbothered by the human embodiment of a voltage shock heading his way, Guy then added: “Eventually, Jimi came over to me and introduced himself. He said, ‘I just cancelled a gig ’cause I wanted to see you.’ And that’s how we became friends.” Undoubtedly, this was a friendship as personally significant to the pair as it was symbolic for the entire history of electric rock. Channelling some level of Guy’s avant-garde style, when iconic performances like Woodstock came calling, it was this spontaneous energy that spurred Hendrix to unparalleled and legendary heights.
We can all rhyme off countless seismic friendships that all play their role in creating the best stories from the music world – but few can be held up to the status of Guy and Hendrix, who both, individually and collectively, created an indelible imprint on the genre that has single-handedly influenced all those who have since followed in their footsteps. They tell you not to meet your heroes, but in this case, when one guitar god crashed into the world of another, the entire planet began to spin on a whole new axis.
