Fact #118232
When:
Short story:
During a gig at The Memorial Auditorium, Dallas, Texas, USA, Jimi Hendrix finds five thugs blocking the entrance to his dressing room. Support band for the gig is The Chessmen.Full article:
Ron Terry (booking agent) : The leader got up in my face and said, 'You running this thing?' Jimi was standing right next to me but this guy didn't address him in any way. He just asked me again and I said, 'I guess… I don't know.' He said, 'Well you tell that fuckin' nigger if he plays Star-Spangled Banner in this hall tonight he won't live to get out of the building. I was stunned, replying, 'Come on, get serious.' (The thug replies) 'Did you hear what I said? No-one does that in Dallas, Texas, and lives to tell about it. We'll start a riot and, if he don't make it out of the building, that's just the way it fucking goes.'
Jimmie Vaughan (guitarist, The Chessmen) : It was in 1969 in Dallas. I got in a band called The Chessmen. I was 15 and they were all around 21. They'd cut a few 45s and got on the radio, so we got this gig opening for Hendrix. We couldn't believe it.
I'll never forget, before the show, he did a line check and played all these licks - the guy blew my mind! I can't even explain it. It just seemed like he was having fun, but the stuff he was doing was incredible. What was fun to him was magic to somebody else. I'll always remember that.
Actually, I sold my wah-wah pedal to him. Wherever he had played the night before, he broke his wah-wah pedal. The roadie came out to me before the show and said, 'Hey, look, Jimi broke his pedal last night. Can I borrow yours?' I had a brand-new Vox wah-wah pedal at the time, a pretty hip item to have. And in the one second I was thinking about it, he said, 'Better yet, I'll give you 50 bucks. You can go buy a new one and here's his old one.' It was one of those DeArmond wahs. And I was like, 'OK, sure. Anything else you need?' I would've given him my guitar if he asked - he was Jimi Hendrix!
But see, the reason why they had to ask me was, they just didn't have time to go get a new one. It wasn't like nowadays where you find something fast in any music store. They couldn't FedEx things. Jimi needed a pedal for the show and he was in a bind.
(Source : MusicRadar.com, July 26, 2010)
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Jimmie Vaughan (guitarist, The Chessmen) : It was in 1969 in Dallas. I got in a band called The Chessmen. I was 15 and they were all around 21. They'd cut a few 45s and got on the radio, so we got this gig opening for Hendrix. We couldn't believe it.
I'll never forget, before the show, he did a line check and played all these licks - the guy blew my mind! I can't even explain it. It just seemed like he was having fun, but the stuff he was doing was incredible. What was fun to him was magic to somebody else. I'll always remember that.
Actually, I sold my wah-wah pedal to him. Wherever he had played the night before, he broke his wah-wah pedal. The roadie came out to me before the show and said, 'Hey, look, Jimi broke his pedal last night. Can I borrow yours?' I had a brand-new Vox wah-wah pedal at the time, a pretty hip item to have. And in the one second I was thinking about it, he said, 'Better yet, I'll give you 50 bucks. You can go buy a new one and here's his old one.' It was one of those DeArmond wahs. And I was like, 'OK, sure. Anything else you need?' I would've given him my guitar if he asked - he was Jimi Hendrix!
But see, the reason why they had to ask me was, they just didn't have time to go get a new one. It wasn't like nowadays where you find something fast in any music store. They couldn't FedEx things. Jimi needed a pedal for the show and he was in a bind.
(Source : MusicRadar.com, July 26, 2010)