Why The Animals Chas Chandler was the only person who could manage Jimi Hendrix
When we look back on instrumental figures in the world of music, it’s hard to imagine a world where Jimi Hendrix wasn’t famous and didn’t shape music in the iconic way that he did. However, for Hendrix to have the impact he did, he needed to meet the right people and be given a chance to make a difference. There was a period when it looked like that chance may never come.
When labels and representatives look for talent to sign, they aren’t just looking for good musicians, but they are looking for somebody that they can sell to the public. Keep in mind that when Hendrix was touring and making music, the guitarist didn’t have such a strong stance on the development of rock. You had artists like Eric Clapton and Jeff Beck, who were revered as guitar heroes, but the riff and the solo weren’t deemed as important as they are now.
As such, when people saw Jimi Hendrix perform live, while they saw a great guitar player, they didn’t see somebody they could sell to the masses. A lot of potential managers were invited to Hendrix’s shows, and he didn’t have any luck winning over any of them.
Linda Keith, Keith Richards’ fiancée at the time, was responsible for asking Rolling Stones manager Andrew Loog Oldham to go and see Hendrix when he was in New York. She was so keen on someone giving Hendrix a chance that she even gave him one of Richards’ guitars so that his playing was on top form.
“I couldn’t believe nobody had picked up on him before, because he’d obviously been around,” Keith said in an interview. “Jimi was astonishing — the moods he could bring to music, his charisma, his skill and stage presence.”
Oldham was just another name added to the list of managers who weren’t keen on signing with Hendrix, though. He didn’t get a chance until The Animal’s bassist, Chas Chandler, came around and took him under his wing. While this now looks like a standard piece of serendipity, it’s now clear that there weren’t many other people at the time who would’ve been able to see past potential sales and give Hendrix a chance.
The Animals had a successful run, but it was becoming clear to Chandler that the band were playing with borrowed times as work was drying up and new music wasn’t doing as well. Chandler decided he wanted to step away from making music and instead started contributing towards finding future talent. He hadn’t been working with many artists when he discovered Hendrix on a tour of the US, and when he saw Hendrix, it wasn’t a manager seeing a potential star; it was a great musician seeing another great musician.
Realistically, regular managers from the music industry wouldn’t have given Hendrix a chance, as he was too out there and difficult to sell to others. It had to be another musician who gave him his break-out opportunity. Chandler was responsible for encouraging Hendrix to move to London, where his career started to take off, and he was recognised as the huge talent he would become famous for.
