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Jimi's Mystery Tapes
Where are the lost Hendrix masterpieces?
by DAVID FRICKE
Jimi's Mystery Tapes
Where are the lost Hendrix masterpieces?
by DAVID FRICKE
Jimi Hendrix would have turned sixty on November 27th. The guitarist -- who died in 1970 at twenty-seven -- left behind an immense legacy of music and film from gigs, jams and studio sessions that remains unreleased, unheard and unseen. In Black Gold: The Lost Archives of Jimi Hendrix (Billboard Books, $19.95), author Steven Roby, the former publisher of the Hendrix fanzine Straight Ahead, draws on eyewitness accounts, vintage press clips and Hendrix's own words to examine the missing pieces of the guitarist's life, from a rumored tape of his teenage band the Rocking Kings to the autobiographical suite Black Gold, a demo made shortly before his death. According to Roby, this is the best of the lost:
Jimi at Cafe Wha?
New York, Summer 1966
Jimi James and the Blue Flames: "Randy California, the guitarist in Spirit, was in the Blue Flames. He claimed to have a tape of the group doing blues classics, 'Hey Joe' and early versions of 'Foxey Lady' and 'Third Stone From the Sun.' That would be amazing to hear -- the sound that influenced Chas Chandler to take Jimi to England and manage him."
Making Electric Ladyland
New York, May 1968
Jimi Hendrix Experience, an ABC-TV documentary filmed in May 1968 but never finished, now thought to be stolen or destroyed: "One of the holy grails -- where they follow Jimi to concerts and into the studio, sitting in his hotel room watching football. The show would have told us how he made Electric Ladyland. And the Fillmore East show from May '68 with Sly Stone opening: I have an audiotape, and Jimi sounds like he's on fire."
Live on The Tonight Show
New York, July 10th, 1969
"I've got a great-sounding audiotape. Flip Wilson, the guest host, is relaxed and kidding with Jimi. Billy Cox was on bass and Ed Shaughnessey, of Doc Severinsen's band, was the drummer. Ed's trying to keep up - they're playing a fast version of 'Lover Man' - and Jimi's amp blows up. They come back after a commercial, and Hendrix dedicates the song to Brian Jones of the Stones, who had just passed away."
Jamming With Miles Davis
New York, 1969
"It's one of the things that make people like me keep looking. Miles' account of it in his autobiography is so descriptive. Miles wants to get into rock; Jimi wants to get into jazz. And Miles realizes that Hendrix can't read or write music after he tells him to play a certain piece. I would have loved to have been there, to see Hendrix's face.
Live in Berkeley
Berkeley, California, May 30th, 1970
Berkeley Community Theater, two shows filmed for the 1971 movie Jimi Plays Berkeley: "A lot of this was abandoned on the cutting-room floor. I was at the first show, and he was on that night. The streets were filled with the National Guard, tear gas was in the air. And Hendrix rolled into town, very casually, and played two amazing sets."
The rights to Jimi Hendrix's music were returned to his family seven years ago, prompting fans to believe that the plundering of his recorded legacy would end and legendary unreleased tapes would finally see the light of day. Today, however, it is clear that the Hendrix family is not one that plays together.
Following the death of Al Hendrix (Jimi's father) in April, the survivors are playing out a battle scenario with million-dollar stakes. Brother Leon Hendrix, 54, sued the estate in August, claiming that he was denied his rightful inheritance and seeking to wrest control of the estate from Janie Hendrix, 41, who is president of Experience Hendrix, the company that owns and controls Jimi Hendrix's music and image.
Janie Hendrix, however, says she is only carrying out Al Hendrix's wishes. "It's too bad they couldn't have settled their differences," she told Rolling Stone. "Leon and Dad were very different people and, as Dad would say, they never saw eye to eye. I was surprised at Dad's will (where he only left Leon one gold record), but it was his money and he decided where it should go."
In preparation to strike a better royalty deal of his own, Al requested that Leon sign over his rights to the music in 1992, and Leon complied. However, according to Leon's attorneys, the document granting those rights -- for which Leon was paid $1 million -- was not a relinquishment of all of his rights.
On October 9th, Leon slapped Janie with an additional defamation suit for her alleged claim that Leon and Jimi were only half brothers. As refutation, Leon pulls out a copy of his birth certificate listing Al as his father. "He was my dad," Leon says. "And he never said or thought any different until Janie put that into his head." Experience Hendrix's The Jimi Hendrix Experience box set, released in 2000, fanned the flames, as the liner notes refer to Leon as Jimi's "troubled half-brother."
Even if the degree of Leon's relationship to Jimi can be argued, Janie's is clear: She is an adopted stepsister with no blood relationship to any member of the Hendrix family. "Janie is family in the legal sense," says attorney David Huber, who represents Leon. "But actual blood relatives deserve a share of this money."
Leon's latest suit also accuses Janie of defrauding the public by her claims that that Experience Hendrix was a "family company" intent on winning rights back for musicians. "Leon and other family members were not allowed to participate in the company's function or operation, or to receive the benefits of those operations," the suit states.
Should the court rule in Leon's favor, he would be granted control over Jimi Hendrix's archival tapes and videos. Aside from allocating funds to the "real Hendrix" bloodline, he claims he would give back to the community and pay the musicians their due.
The two bass players who shared the stage with Jimi Hendrix during his fame have very different perceptions of the power struggle. Billy Cox, Jimi's army buddy who dominated during the latter part of his career, says he is "very proud of how Janie's handled Jimi's legacy. She's done it all in a very professional manner. I did the San Diego Street Scene for her, and was paid very handsomely. I like Leon, he's good people, but I stay away from controversy. This bickering, this stress is killing a lot of people."
Noel Redding, who played on Hendrix's three studio albums, is less charitable. He said he relinquished his rights for $100,000 in 1973 when he was told there were no more recordings forthcoming. He has spent the subsequent years trying to recoup some of the money earned by the estate.
Redding says he helped Janie gain control of the estate from previous owners Alan Douglas and Leo Branton with the understanding that he would receive back royalties, which he claims now total more than $20 million per his original contract. Seven years later, Redding says he is still waiting, adding that he did not receive a penny for the box set. "I got a letter saying that I wasn't getting any money," he says, "and then they sent me a copy of the box set C.O.D." Experience Hendrix catalog manager John McDermott refutes the latter claim: "We've never sent anything out C.O.D. Mr. Redding has received each release issued by Experience Hendrix at no charge to him."
Since 1997, Experience Hendrix has released a steady stream of CDs. Most are reissues or expanded versions of what was once available, aside from the four-disc The Jimi Hendrix Experience, which featured rare material. However, spurned on by talk of hundreds of lost tapes, many fans have expected more.
"[Janie has] promised a lot of things that haven't materialized," said Steven Roby, a former Experience Hendrix employee and author of Black Gold: The Lost Archives of Jimi Hendrix. "But the fans aren't too happy with her. Aside from putting out an occasional disc for collectors, we get things like golf balls, furniture, boxer shorts. It's pretty embarrassing." Adds filmmaker David Kramer, who is preparing a Beatles Anthology-style Jimi Hendrix documentary (although without any material licensed by Experience Hendrix), "If Leon was in charge, he wouldn't put Jimi on a cushion so you could sit on his face."
McDermott disputes the depth of Hendrix's lost catalog. "If one considers the total amount of concert, demo and studio recordings in the entire Hendrix tape library, the statement [that there are hundreds of unreleased tapes] is simply absurd," he says. He does acknowledge that substantial material exists in the vaults, enough for one album of unreleased or updated material annually for the next fifteen years. Hendrix's former girlfriend Kathy Etchingham ruefully backs up the more modest estimate. "I know there aren't a lot of unreleased tapes," she says, "because I personally threw a lot of them in the dustbin. We had no idea that they would ever be worth anything."
Of the legendary "holy grail" recordings, McDermott states that Hendrix and Miles Davis never recorded together. Also, the recently recovered "Black Gold" tape may be something less than what fans make it out to be. "It's wonderful music," says McDermott. "But it doesn't solve the Hendrix riddle. It won't make you put away your copy of Are You Experienced? It just reminds you that his life was cut short, and indicates what he would have done had he lived."
While Experience Hendrix promises one new album a year, at least one aspect of Hendrix's recording legacy will not yet get a proper release. Craig Dieffenbach, a forty-one-year-old Seattle real estate developer and Leon Hendrix's business manager, secured rights to the "PPX Tapes," sixty-six titles recorded between 1965 and 1967 for PPX Enterprises that feature Jimi Hendrix backing singer Curtis Knight. While first promising a release of all the tapes, Dieffenbach now says he may release fourteen of the songs on a "nonexclusive" album once certain licensing and copyright issues are cleared up. Hendrix himself was no fan of these recordings, going so far as to take legal action to block their initial release.
The final Hendrix battle is the one over Jimi's image. Leon still sees his late brother as a free spirit who embodied the drug use and casual sex of the times, and claims that Janie, a devout Christian, has actively suppressed that image.
"The people who are running Experience Hendrix are just trying to whitewash history," Leon says. Adds Etchingham, who has aligned herself with Leon and Redding. "Janie is offended by Jimi's lifestyle. So she doesn't like Leon's lifestyle, and won't allow Hendrix music to be used in any context that suggests sex or drugs . . . Janie doesn't want people to see the truth about Jimi."
Jimi at Cafe Wha?
New York, Summer 1966
Jimi James and the Blue Flames: "Randy California, the guitarist in Spirit, was in the Blue Flames. He claimed to have a tape of the group doing blues classics, 'Hey Joe' and early versions of 'Foxey Lady' and 'Third Stone From the Sun.' That would be amazing to hear -- the sound that influenced Chas Chandler to take Jimi to England and manage him."
Making Electric Ladyland
New York, May 1968
Jimi Hendrix Experience, an ABC-TV documentary filmed in May 1968 but never finished, now thought to be stolen or destroyed: "One of the holy grails -- where they follow Jimi to concerts and into the studio, sitting in his hotel room watching football. The show would have told us how he made Electric Ladyland. And the Fillmore East show from May '68 with Sly Stone opening: I have an audiotape, and Jimi sounds like he's on fire."
Live on The Tonight Show
New York, July 10th, 1969
"I've got a great-sounding audiotape. Flip Wilson, the guest host, is relaxed and kidding with Jimi. Billy Cox was on bass and Ed Shaughnessey, of Doc Severinsen's band, was the drummer. Ed's trying to keep up - they're playing a fast version of 'Lover Man' - and Jimi's amp blows up. They come back after a commercial, and Hendrix dedicates the song to Brian Jones of the Stones, who had just passed away."
Jamming With Miles Davis
New York, 1969
"It's one of the things that make people like me keep looking. Miles' account of it in his autobiography is so descriptive. Miles wants to get into rock; Jimi wants to get into jazz. And Miles realizes that Hendrix can't read or write music after he tells him to play a certain piece. I would have loved to have been there, to see Hendrix's face.
Live in Berkeley
Berkeley, California, May 30th, 1970
Berkeley Community Theater, two shows filmed for the 1971 movie Jimi Plays Berkeley: "A lot of this was abandoned on the cutting-room floor. I was at the first show, and he was on that night. The streets were filled with the National Guard, tear gas was in the air. And Hendrix rolled into town, very casually, and played two amazing sets."
Hendrix Family Feud Continues
Jimi's brother battles step-sister over estate, image
by CHARLES BERMANT
Jimi's brother battles step-sister over estate, image
by CHARLES BERMANT
The rights to Jimi Hendrix's music were returned to his family seven years ago, prompting fans to believe that the plundering of his recorded legacy would end and legendary unreleased tapes would finally see the light of day. Today, however, it is clear that the Hendrix family is not one that plays together.
Following the death of Al Hendrix (Jimi's father) in April, the survivors are playing out a battle scenario with million-dollar stakes. Brother Leon Hendrix, 54, sued the estate in August, claiming that he was denied his rightful inheritance and seeking to wrest control of the estate from Janie Hendrix, 41, who is president of Experience Hendrix, the company that owns and controls Jimi Hendrix's music and image.
Janie Hendrix, however, says she is only carrying out Al Hendrix's wishes. "It's too bad they couldn't have settled their differences," she told Rolling Stone. "Leon and Dad were very different people and, as Dad would say, they never saw eye to eye. I was surprised at Dad's will (where he only left Leon one gold record), but it was his money and he decided where it should go."
In preparation to strike a better royalty deal of his own, Al requested that Leon sign over his rights to the music in 1992, and Leon complied. However, according to Leon's attorneys, the document granting those rights -- for which Leon was paid $1 million -- was not a relinquishment of all of his rights.
On October 9th, Leon slapped Janie with an additional defamation suit for her alleged claim that Leon and Jimi were only half brothers. As refutation, Leon pulls out a copy of his birth certificate listing Al as his father. "He was my dad," Leon says. "And he never said or thought any different until Janie put that into his head." Experience Hendrix's The Jimi Hendrix Experience box set, released in 2000, fanned the flames, as the liner notes refer to Leon as Jimi's "troubled half-brother."
Even if the degree of Leon's relationship to Jimi can be argued, Janie's is clear: She is an adopted stepsister with no blood relationship to any member of the Hendrix family. "Janie is family in the legal sense," says attorney David Huber, who represents Leon. "But actual blood relatives deserve a share of this money."
Leon's latest suit also accuses Janie of defrauding the public by her claims that that Experience Hendrix was a "family company" intent on winning rights back for musicians. "Leon and other family members were not allowed to participate in the company's function or operation, or to receive the benefits of those operations," the suit states.
Should the court rule in Leon's favor, he would be granted control over Jimi Hendrix's archival tapes and videos. Aside from allocating funds to the "real Hendrix" bloodline, he claims he would give back to the community and pay the musicians their due.
The two bass players who shared the stage with Jimi Hendrix during his fame have very different perceptions of the power struggle. Billy Cox, Jimi's army buddy who dominated during the latter part of his career, says he is "very proud of how Janie's handled Jimi's legacy. She's done it all in a very professional manner. I did the San Diego Street Scene for her, and was paid very handsomely. I like Leon, he's good people, but I stay away from controversy. This bickering, this stress is killing a lot of people."
Noel Redding, who played on Hendrix's three studio albums, is less charitable. He said he relinquished his rights for $100,000 in 1973 when he was told there were no more recordings forthcoming. He has spent the subsequent years trying to recoup some of the money earned by the estate.
Redding says he helped Janie gain control of the estate from previous owners Alan Douglas and Leo Branton with the understanding that he would receive back royalties, which he claims now total more than $20 million per his original contract. Seven years later, Redding says he is still waiting, adding that he did not receive a penny for the box set. "I got a letter saying that I wasn't getting any money," he says, "and then they sent me a copy of the box set C.O.D." Experience Hendrix catalog manager John McDermott refutes the latter claim: "We've never sent anything out C.O.D. Mr. Redding has received each release issued by Experience Hendrix at no charge to him."
Since 1997, Experience Hendrix has released a steady stream of CDs. Most are reissues or expanded versions of what was once available, aside from the four-disc The Jimi Hendrix Experience, which featured rare material. However, spurned on by talk of hundreds of lost tapes, many fans have expected more.
"[Janie has] promised a lot of things that haven't materialized," said Steven Roby, a former Experience Hendrix employee and author of Black Gold: The Lost Archives of Jimi Hendrix. "But the fans aren't too happy with her. Aside from putting out an occasional disc for collectors, we get things like golf balls, furniture, boxer shorts. It's pretty embarrassing." Adds filmmaker David Kramer, who is preparing a Beatles Anthology-style Jimi Hendrix documentary (although without any material licensed by Experience Hendrix), "If Leon was in charge, he wouldn't put Jimi on a cushion so you could sit on his face."
McDermott disputes the depth of Hendrix's lost catalog. "If one considers the total amount of concert, demo and studio recordings in the entire Hendrix tape library, the statement [that there are hundreds of unreleased tapes] is simply absurd," he says. He does acknowledge that substantial material exists in the vaults, enough for one album of unreleased or updated material annually for the next fifteen years. Hendrix's former girlfriend Kathy Etchingham ruefully backs up the more modest estimate. "I know there aren't a lot of unreleased tapes," she says, "because I personally threw a lot of them in the dustbin. We had no idea that they would ever be worth anything."
Of the legendary "holy grail" recordings, McDermott states that Hendrix and Miles Davis never recorded together. Also, the recently recovered "Black Gold" tape may be something less than what fans make it out to be. "It's wonderful music," says McDermott. "But it doesn't solve the Hendrix riddle. It won't make you put away your copy of Are You Experienced? It just reminds you that his life was cut short, and indicates what he would have done had he lived."
While Experience Hendrix promises one new album a year, at least one aspect of Hendrix's recording legacy will not yet get a proper release. Craig Dieffenbach, a forty-one-year-old Seattle real estate developer and Leon Hendrix's business manager, secured rights to the "PPX Tapes," sixty-six titles recorded between 1965 and 1967 for PPX Enterprises that feature Jimi Hendrix backing singer Curtis Knight. While first promising a release of all the tapes, Dieffenbach now says he may release fourteen of the songs on a "nonexclusive" album once certain licensing and copyright issues are cleared up. Hendrix himself was no fan of these recordings, going so far as to take legal action to block their initial release.
The final Hendrix battle is the one over Jimi's image. Leon still sees his late brother as a free spirit who embodied the drug use and casual sex of the times, and claims that Janie, a devout Christian, has actively suppressed that image.
"The people who are running Experience Hendrix are just trying to whitewash history," Leon says. Adds Etchingham, who has aligned herself with Leon and Redding. "Janie is offended by Jimi's lifestyle. So she doesn't like Leon's lifestyle, and won't allow Hendrix music to be used in any context that suggests sex or drugs . . . Janie doesn't want people to see the truth about Jimi."
Hendrix biographer offers college course on rock star's life
Steven Roby has a bottle of Jimi Hendrix commemorative wine on the coffee table of his Larkspur apartment.
He put it there for my benefit, as an example of the crass commercial exploitation of one of rock's most revered guitar gods.
In 1970, after a brief but prolific career that produced incandescent hits such as "Purple Haze," "The Wind Cries Mary" and his incendiary performance at Monterey Pop, Hendrix died in London in 1970, asphyxiated by his own vomit after taking sleeping pills and drinking wine.
"This is the stuff that killed Jimi," Roby says, sneering at the gleaming bottle with its classic photograph of Hendrix on the label. "The medical report says that when they found his body, his hair was matted with it. He was trying to throw it up. For them to put his face and image on the label - how disgraceful."
That insensitivity so outraged Roby that he quit his job with Experience Hendrix, the Seattle-based company formed by the rock star's family to manage Hendrix's intellectual property and merchandising.
Roby sat back while they put out Jimi Hendrix golf balls and golf bags and furniture and other items of questionable relevance and taste. But the wine was too much.
"I told them adios," he says.
Before he resigned in disgust, Roby, author of "Black Gold, The Lost Archives of Jimi Hendrix," published in 2002 by Billboard Books, edited their fanzine and contributed to their Web site, Experience Hendrix.
"It got too commercial and it still is," he complains, mentioning a new Hendrix energy drink, Liquid Experience, and a family member's Electric Hendrix Vodka, packaged in a purple bottle.
"Another tacky item," he says, adding sardonically, "For some reason they want to stay in the beverage business."
For the 52-year-old Roby, a rabid fan since he was 12, Hendrix is deserving of serious scholarship. This fall, he will teach a seven-week, noncredit course titled "Jimi Hendrix, His Life and Music" at the College of Marin, one of only two such courses in the country. Registration opens Aug. 6.
The first class begins Sept. 10 with an examination of Hendrix's early career, "From Seattle to the Chitlin' Circuit," with audio excerpts of the Isley Brothers, Little Richard and other early rockers, as well as a look at Hendrix's little-known connection to the Bay Area (He once lived in the East Bay.)
The course description:
"Trace Hendrix's musical roots through rare videos and audio É For the past 30 years, Roby has uncovered lost gems like Hendrix jamming with Little Richard and actress Jayne Mansfield.
"Learn the real story behind 'Purple Haze,' and why Hendrix was banned from the BBC. Read court transcripts from the 1969 Toronto drug bust and examine his FBI files. Discover Hendrix's unreleased autobiographical sci-fi rock opera, and hear of projects with jazz legends Miles Davis, Roland Kirk and Gil Evans. Debate the controversy over Hendrix's death in 1970."
Roby plans to bring in guest speakers, including guitarist Vernon Black and Grammy-winning record producer Narada Michael Walden, a friend of Hendrix's father, Al.
After hearing Hendrix on KMPX radio in San Francisco in 1967, Roby, then a preteen, was thunderstruck, convincing his parents to let him go to a concert by his new idol in Berkeley.
"It was something that just resonated," he says. "I loved the Beatles, I loved the Stones, but he just stood out."
Roby just happened to be vacationing with his family in Hawaii when Hendrix performed for the last time in the United States before his untimely death. Young Steven was in the audience for what would be a historic show.
Roby's final class at College of Marin will be devoted to the details of the rocker's last 24 hours. He'll discuss the conspiracy theories, the legal battles among the Hendrix family and the posthumous recordings that keep popping up nearly 40 years later.
Roby was so devastated by his idol's death that he assuaged his grief by seeking out Hendrix recordings, becoming a key player in a collectors' network.
This was pre-Internet, so he founded a bimonthly fan magazine called Straight Ahead, which he published for seven years, interviewing Carlos Santana, Buddy Miles and other local musicians who knew Hendrix. At the same time, he produced Hendrix tributes on local FM radio stations KPFA and KFOG.
Though he's long dead, Hendrix remains a force in rock. His "Experience Hendrix: The Best of Jimi Hendrix" is one of the most successful posthumous greatest hits albums ever released.
"He still remains a popular artist," he points out. "Pop singers come and go, but he just never seems to go away."
IF YOU'RE EXPERIENCED
What: Steven Roby's class, "Jimi Hendrix, His Life and Music"
When: 7 to 10 p.m. Mondays, Sept. 10 to Oct. 22
Where: College of Marin, Kentfield campus, Science Center 101
Information: lostarchives @yahoo.com
Paul Liberatore can be reached at liberatore@marinij.com
Steve Roby and Joel Selvin
"Steven Roby is a Jimi Hendrix expert and scholar"
Joel Selvin, Senior Pop Critic, San Francisco ChronicleListen to a sample of Selvin's interview with Roby here
Radio
Listen to Steven's interview on Seattle's KOMO radio
Listen to Steven's KFOG (104.5 FM) InterviewMay 2007
Part One Part Two
November 2007
Part One Part Two
Listen To Steven's KPFA (94.1 FM) Interview
November 2007
Listen here
Join Ben Fong-Torres - and go "Backstage" as he interviews Steven Roby on KFRC (106.9 FM)Listen here
TV
Getting schooled on a legend
Hendrix class taught at College of Marin
By: Graham Shepard (The Echo Times - 2007)
Hendrix class taught at College of Marin
By: Graham Shepard (The Echo Times - 2007)
Jimi Hendrix died. Then he came to College of Marin.
Music historian and collector Steven Roby is helping the legacy of guitarist Jimi Hendrix stay intact in the minds of students at College of Marin. He has formed a class at College Of Marin called Jimi Hendrix: His Life and Music. Roby has also written a book called Black Gold: The Lost Archives of Jimi Hendrix, from which he teaches the community education class. The class is lightly structured with lectures focused on the all the years of Hendrix's life that were either controversial in the eyes of the media or important to the music landscape. His major focus is Hendrix's work in the late psychedelic 1960's until the end of his life in 1970.
Each Monday the class meets and a packet of Jimi Hendrix information is given out. The packet includes a timeline of important events and national non-Hendrix related cultural events to compare the time period to his life and music. Also amongst the information are pictures of various stunts of Hendrix's like lighting his guitar on fire and other instances of his flamboyant and wild stage presence. The info includes his troubles with the law, his festival tour dates, and a track listing and musician list for his albums.
The general focus is mainly on the music. His CD's are played then discussed and DVD's of his shows are played and questions are answered. A DVD of the Monterey Pop Festival for instance, shows that Hendrix's creativity in the studio was unmatched because of his ability to toy with the effects pedals and play his guitar using bottles and cans to change vibrations on the fret board.
Each week the class is presented with a knowledgeable speaker who talks about Hendrix and his music. Anyone from musicians who saw him perform to well-informed fans come to the class to speak about Hendrix's legacy. The class also explores the politics and controversies of Hendrix's career, like the media cloud that surrounded him for being a black man heading a group with two white musicians and playing "white music". Hendrix's bouts with law enforcement while touring on his long and vicious club schedule and drug possession charges are also discussed.
The reason for teaching the class, according to Roby, is that he feels Hendrix should be looked at as a "classic and needs to be respected". Roby also believes that Hendrix should be put in the same category with Beethoven or Mozart and shows respect by saying that in the 60's "he had as much of an impact as The Beatles. Roby admires the greatness and presence that Hendrix brought to the time period and with the formation of this class, hopes his memory will live on.
"It's not about the equipment, but the power of imagination," said Guest speaker for the class Narada Michael Walden.
"You never knew what to expect," added Roby
Internet
'Scuze Me, While I Sue This Guy
By Mark Lewis (From Forbes.com - August 2002)
By Mark Lewis (From Forbes.com - August 2002)
NEW YORK - When rock legend Jimi Hendrix died in 1970, he left behind millions of adoring fans, hundreds of hours of unreleased recordings--and no will. That was a recipe for trouble, and trouble is what ensued. In the latest legal battle over Jimi's legacy, his brother Leon filed suit today against his stepsister Janie, who stands accused of denying Leon his fair share of Jimi's posthumous profits.
Leon Hendrix, 54, is suing to overturn the will of his father, James "Al" Hendrix, who died last April at the age of 82. Al Hendrix had inherited his son Jimi's estate, which Al in turn bequeathed to a trust headed by his adopted stepdaughter Janie Hendrix.
According to Leon's attorney Lance Losey, the actions filed today in King County Superior Court seek to overturn both the will and the trust. Losey said Leon also filed a civil lawsuit against Janie Hendrix, alleging that she "interfered with Leon's inheritance expectancy," in part by isolating Al from the rest of the family and by suggesting that Leon was not Al's natural son.
When Al died, all Leon inherited was a gold record. Now he wants more--a lot more. The civil suit against Janie seeks damages amounting to half the estate. No dollar estimate was given, but Jimi Hendrix albums still sell very well, and Forbes.com estimates that the late guitarist earned $8 million for the estate over the past year--good enough for ninth place on our 2002 list of the top-earning dead celebrities.
Janie Hendrix did not immediately return a phone call seeking comment.
Losey conceded that Leon accepted a $1 million settlement from the estate several years ago, but the lawyer said that earlier agreement involved issues that are not connected to the claims made in the lawsuits filed today. "A good portion of that million dollars was put into a trust for Leon's children," Losey added.
Today's legal action is only the latest salvo in a three-decade war over the Hendrix legacy. "The story of the Jimi Hendrix 'industry' after his death is an unedifying tale of litigation, exploitation and the rubbishing of Jimi's memory by his hometown, Seattle," wrote Harry Shapiro and Caesar Glebbeek in their book Jimi Hendrix--Electric Gypsy (St. Martin's Press, 1990; updated 1995).
Hendrix died in his sleep of a barbiturate overdose in London's Samarkand Hotel on Sept. 18, 1970. In the absence of a will, the estate was inherited by his father, a landscaper whom Jimi had seen relatively little of since leaving Seattle to join the Army in 1961. The two were not estranged, but they were not especially close, according to Steven Roby, author of the recently published Black Gold: The Lost Archives of Jimi Hendrix.
Al Hendrix entrusted management of the estate--and all those unreleased recordings--to attorney Leo Branton. Some two decades later, Al decided he was being cheated and filed suit against Branton. Roby said that Seattle billionaire Paul Allen, a Jimi Hendrix fan, helped fund Al's legal effort. A settlement was reached in 1995 by which Al regained direct control of the estate. He soon passed those reins to Janie Hendrix, daughter of the late Ayako Fujita, whom Al had married after Jimi left Seattle. Al adopted Janie after marrying her mother.
Leon Hendrix is not the only person who feels aggrieved. Roby, in an interview earlier this week, said that Jimi's former sidemen "are all kind of bitter," that at least two women claimed to have had a child by Jimi and that a record producer is still pressing claims in connection with a contract Jimi signed back in 1965. Some of the potential claimants have not been heard from lately, Roby said, but when Jimi experiences the next upsurge in his popularity, "I'm sure they'll be coming out of the woodwork once again."