Jimi Hendrix GRC History of Rock
Born in Seattle, Washington - 1942
Enlisted in US Army - Paratrooper in 101st Airborne Division based at Fort Campbell, KY
After his Honorable Discharge, he moved to nearby Clarksville, TN where he started playing with local musicians. Eventually made his way to backing up more famous acts, like Little Richard, and The Isley Brothers.
Moved to England in 1966, and found stardom.
Died at age 27 of asphyxia caused by drugs.
Hendrix was inspired musically by American rock and roll and electric blues. He favored overdriven amplifiers with high volume and gain, and was instrumental in utilizing the previously undesirable sounds caused by guitar amplifier feedback. He helped to popularize the use of a wah-wah pedal in mainstream rock, and was the first artist to use stereophonic phasing effects in music recordings. Holly George-Warren of Rolling Stone commented: "Hendrix pioneered the use of the instrument as an electronic sound source. Players before him had experimented with feedback and distortion, but Hendrix turned those effects and others into a controlled, fluid vocabulary every bit as personal as the blues with which he began