The only guitarist who made Brian May question his own ability: “Made me feel like I couldn’t play”
After Brian May received a Spanish guitar as a gift for his seventh birthday, it didn’t take long for him to realise that this was his purpose in life, and the dream that he wanted to spend his life chasing.
Upon Queen forming in the 1970s and taking the world by storm, May succeeded in his mission. However, before then, there had been bumps in the road, such as his first band, Smile, failing to take off in the late ’60s, which could have easily led to him throwing in the towel rather than persisting.
May also questioned whether he was up for the task after seeing Jimi Hendrix live in 1966, which made him doubt whether he had the capabilities to make his dream become a possibility. Admittedly, this was a thought that raced through the mind of any guitarist who saw Hendrix in that fabled era.
The stories of Hendrix’s arrival in London in 1966 have taken on mythical status. In a remarkably short period, Hendrix’s name became legend in the English capital, fuelled further by the release of his debut single ‘Hey Joe’, which elevated his star power even more, and made everyone aware of the new kid on the block.
At this stage in his life, May was just another teenager obsessed with rock music, fostering ambitions to one day be at the top. Before Hendrix found his way into his consciousness, May believed guitar playing couldn’t possibly get better than Eric Clapton and Jeff Beck. How wrong he proved to be.
In his mind, the English duo, who made their name in The Yardbirds, had set a benchmark that could never be eclipsed technically. Then, Hendrix changed his perspective entirely.
The discovery of Clapton was a landmark moment in May’s life, as he offered a gateway into a whole new world. It opened May’s mind to a string of heroes from the blues scene, such as BB King and Bo Diddley, who informed Clapton’s style.
However, when Hendrix came along, it was like he was playing a completely different instrument. Due to his individualistic sound, it was impossible to trace his influences as he did with Clapton, and seeing him live confirmed that Hendrix was superhuman.
During an interview with Guitar Player in 1983, May said of Clapton and Beck before comparing their talents with Hendrix: “I thought after seeing those two, I’d seen it all. I had been playing all that time, and I could play that style. I was beginning to make the guitar sort of talk. I always wanted the guitar to play for people, to talk the same way a vocal did and have feeling in it. I didn’t want it to be an accompanying instrument.”
“Then, when I saw Hendrix, I thought, ‘Oh, my god. This guy is doing everything that I was trying to do.’ He just made me feel like I couldn’t play.”
Brian May
May then explained how Hendrix could do “all sorts of things which you hadn’t even thought of, never mind find yourself able to play.”
Reflecting on his first time hearing Hendrix, May said: “I heard him play on a single of ‘Hey Joe‘, and on the flip side, there’s an amazing solo on ‘Stone Free’, where he’s talking to the guitar and it’s talking back to him. I thought, ‘Well, he can’t really be that good. He must have done that with studio technique’.”
Shortly afterwards, in January 1967, Hendrix supported The Who at London’s Savoy Theatre, and May was in attendance. At this point, the American only had one single to his name, yet within the next 12 months, he’d be an internationally renowned figure.
For May, once he’d seen Hendrix in the flesh, he knew he’d witnessed greatness, noting: “He just completely blew me away. I thought, ‘He’s it.’ The Who couldn’t follow him in those days, and they were really hot, big news in England. Anybody in the world would find it hard to follow Hendrix.”
Half of London was speaking in equally favourable terms about Hendrix, but it was for good reason. Everybody who saw him during this golden chapter felt like they’d stumbled upon the messiah, and accepted that they couldn’t compete with his greatness.
No guitarist was able to compete with him in 1966, and 60 years later, there is still nobody who exists on his level when it comes to ingenuity. As May knew upon seeing him live, Hendrix was an unprecedented genius, the likes of which we will never witness again.
