The poignant words Jimi Hendrix said right before he set fire to his guitar
It was June 18th, 1967, a warm summer night in Monterey, California. As a festival that set the tone for Woodstock, the Monterey Pop Festival gathered the countercultural cream of the crop for a weekend where each set only got better and better. It started with Simon and Garfunkel and went on appearances from Janis Joplin, Jefferson Airplane, The Byrds, then Buffalo Springfield, Mamas and Papas and The Who. But despite not being the closing act, everything came to a climax when Jimi Hendrix doused his guitar in lighter fluid and set it ablaze. With that one move, he made music history, gave rock and roll a new image of glory, and made himself a star.
Really, it all happened because of petty competition. The Who and Jimi Hendrix were in a competition about who was going to play first. Both acts were about to break into the big time in America, so this set felt important. Still, they let fate decide as they flipped a coin. It handed on to The Who, meaning that Hendrix pulled the short straw and had to attempt to follow up on the explosive set they had planned.
Explosive is the right word, as the band’s set ended with smoke bombs, Keith Moon kicking over his drum set, and Pete Townshend smashing up his guitar. Behind the scenes, Hendrix was watching and hatching a plan. He asked around if anyone had any fuel.
But the image of Hendrix with his guitar on fire remains important and poignant despite it’s origin story. At the time, he was still a relatively new name, but this one defiant and striking act shot him to fame. It was the start of a steep and sharp climb to the top that would come to fruition at Woodstock, where his sunrise set, shredding ‘Star Spangled Banner’ would lock in his legacy as one of music’s favourite legends.
It could even be set that Monterey established the legacy he would leave behind as the words he said before lighting the flame feel poetic and powerful, representative of everything that was to come. Before starting the first he said to his crowd, “I’m gonna sacrifice something that I really love, man.”
But it wasn’t just his Fender Stratocaster that he sacrificed. While in the moment his comment was more literal, looking back, it feels sadly prophetic. Hendrix would go on to burn himself out. With an intense schedule of shows and a worsening drug habit, as he spiralled into addiction with a cocktail of LSD, cannabis, amphetamines, booze and cocaine, he couldn’t survive his own celebrity. In September 1970, he died at age 27, sacrificing his health and, ultimately, his life for his music, just like he did his guitar.
It’s an unhealthy mindset that has taken so many victims. That same mentality of putting artistry before well-being stole the lives of Janis Joplin, Jim Morrison, Kurt Cobain, Amy Winehouse and countless others, where a lethal mix of ill mental health, addiction and an industry not yet set up to support artists led to tragedy after tragedy. In 1967, Hendrix vowed to sacrifice something he loved, but he likely didn’t know that it would end up being his life.
