Fact #154438
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Short story:
Jimi Hendrix is arrested in Gothenburg, Sweden, Europe, after smashing up his room at the Opelan Hotel. The incident will inspire the lyric, 'Well I just got out of a Scandinavian jail, and I'm on my way straight home to you' in his song My Friend.Full article:
Just two days after being named Rock's greatest musician in the annual reader's polls of both Melody Maker and Disc, Jimi Hendrix went on a bender in Sweden, Europe.
The Jimi Hendrix Experience flew into Gothenburg for two gigs at the Lorensberg Cirkus on 4 January, as part of a brief Scandanavian tour. Relations between Jimi and the other two members of the band had been deteriorating for some while, and the guitarist was exhausted by three months of solid gigging. To cap it all, he was in the middle of a frustrating legal battle with a New York record label which was releasing some of his early recordings as a session guitarist as if they were a bona fide Jimi Hendrix album.
Despite his reputation as a wild man, Hendrix in fact had an unusually low tolerance for alcohol. Those around him that day in Gothenburg say he began drinking early at The Opelan Hotel, in a deliberate attempt to get seriously drunk. Experience bassist Noel Redding has claimed that Jimi had fallen in with a gay Swedish journalist and, much the worse for drink, suggested that Noel, drummer Mitch Mitchell, himself and the Swede should indulge in group sex.
They returned to the hotel from the Klubb Karl around 2am, at which point Jimi began drumming loudly in room 623. Before long, Noel and Mitch's unwillingness to participate had enraged Jimi who began smashing up the room. Hotel residents claimed to hear screaming plus the sound of glass and furniture being smashed, as Hendrix's anger erupted into a fight with Redding and Mitchell.
According to Mitchell, the fight continued out into the hotel corridor. "I think I threw a very feeble punch at him," recalls Mitchell, "which amazed him rather than anything else."
Eventually, with the aid of roadie Gerry Stickells, Hendrix was subdued, at least for a while, by the simple expedient of sitting on top of him.
It was around 4am that a guest in the room below complained to the receptionist, Per Magnusson, who let himself into room 623 with a pass key only to find Hendrix lying on the bed, his right hand bleeding profusely after having been smashed through the window. There was virtually not a stick of furniture left intact. Magnusson set a commissionaire to stand guard on the door while he went to summon the police.
According to Hendrix's manager Chas Chandler, "I asked him what happened but he didn't know himself and I never really got the full story. But I think Noel hit Jimi and Jimi laid out two cops and tried to jump out of the window."
Two more police were summoned and Hendrix was finally arrested at about 6 am by four officers, then taken to hospital to have his wound attended to.
Hoping to end the incident there, Chandler handed over 8000 crowns (about £500) for repairs, but the hotel insisted on charges being made. Hendrix spent one night in jail and on 12 January appeared in court and agreed to pay the full cost of the damage to the room, and was fined an amount equal to his Swedish concert earnings.
The ordeal eventually cropped up as the subject matter of his song My Friend, where he sang 'Well I just got out of a Scandinavian jail, and I'm on my way straight home to you'.
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The Jimi Hendrix Experience flew into Gothenburg for two gigs at the Lorensberg Cirkus on 4 January, as part of a brief Scandanavian tour. Relations between Jimi and the other two members of the band had been deteriorating for some while, and the guitarist was exhausted by three months of solid gigging. To cap it all, he was in the middle of a frustrating legal battle with a New York record label which was releasing some of his early recordings as a session guitarist as if they were a bona fide Jimi Hendrix album.
Despite his reputation as a wild man, Hendrix in fact had an unusually low tolerance for alcohol. Those around him that day in Gothenburg say he began drinking early at The Opelan Hotel, in a deliberate attempt to get seriously drunk. Experience bassist Noel Redding has claimed that Jimi had fallen in with a gay Swedish journalist and, much the worse for drink, suggested that Noel, drummer Mitch Mitchell, himself and the Swede should indulge in group sex.
They returned to the hotel from the Klubb Karl around 2am, at which point Jimi began drumming loudly in room 623. Before long, Noel and Mitch's unwillingness to participate had enraged Jimi who began smashing up the room. Hotel residents claimed to hear screaming plus the sound of glass and furniture being smashed, as Hendrix's anger erupted into a fight with Redding and Mitchell.
According to Mitchell, the fight continued out into the hotel corridor. "I think I threw a very feeble punch at him," recalls Mitchell, "which amazed him rather than anything else."
Eventually, with the aid of roadie Gerry Stickells, Hendrix was subdued, at least for a while, by the simple expedient of sitting on top of him.
It was around 4am that a guest in the room below complained to the receptionist, Per Magnusson, who let himself into room 623 with a pass key only to find Hendrix lying on the bed, his right hand bleeding profusely after having been smashed through the window. There was virtually not a stick of furniture left intact. Magnusson set a commissionaire to stand guard on the door while he went to summon the police.
According to Hendrix's manager Chas Chandler, "I asked him what happened but he didn't know himself and I never really got the full story. But I think Noel hit Jimi and Jimi laid out two cops and tried to jump out of the window."
Two more police were summoned and Hendrix was finally arrested at about 6 am by four officers, then taken to hospital to have his wound attended to.
Hoping to end the incident there, Chandler handed over 8000 crowns (about £500) for repairs, but the hotel insisted on charges being made. Hendrix spent one night in jail and on 12 January appeared in court and agreed to pay the full cost of the damage to the room, and was fined an amount equal to his Swedish concert earnings.
The ordeal eventually cropped up as the subject matter of his song My Friend, where he sang 'Well I just got out of a Scandinavian jail, and I'm on my way straight home to you'.