An audio clip of an interview with guitar icon Jimi Hendrix the week before he died has been released as part of an animated web series titled Blank On Blank.
The conversation between the guitarist and UK journalist Keith Altham was recorded in September 1970 – just a few days before Hendrix died in London.
In the clip, he talks about money, his appearance, smashing up his equipment on stage and his thoughts on the way he’d like to have seen music and visuals combine in the future.
When questioned about being credited as giving birth to psychedelic music, he says: “The way I write is a clash between reality and fantasy. You have to use fantasy to show different sides of reality – that’s how it can bend.
“I don’t really round it off too good – it’s almost naked. I just hate to be in one corner. I hate to be just a guitar player, or a songwriter, or a tap dancer.”
And he also gives his thoughts on the music scene at the time, calling it “too heavy.”
He continues: “There’s too many heavy songs out nowadays – music is getting too heavy, almost to the state of unbearable. I have this one little saying, ‘When things get too heavy just call me helium – the lightest known gas to man.’
Hendrix’s early work with Curtis Knight & The Squires will be showcased in a remaster release next month. You Can’t Use My Name: The RSVO/PPX Sessions launches on March 24.
He’s also the cover star of the latest edition of The Blues Magazine which is on sale now.
