Jeff Beck discussed Jimi Hendrix’s death in a new Classic Rock interview.
“When I saw Jimi we knew he was going to be trouble. And by ‘we’ I mean me and Eric [Clapton] because Jimmy [Page] wasn’t in the frame at that point.
“I saw him at one of his earliest performances in Britain, and it was quite devastating.
“He did all the dirty tricks – setting fire to his guitar, doing swoops up and down his neck, all the great showmanship to put the final nail in our coffin.
“I had the same temperament as Hendrix in terms of ‘I’ll kill you,’ but he did in such a good package with beautiful songs.
“Reporters got the number of my flat the day he died. I was suicidal at the time because my girlfriend had dumped me.
“And to have to the deal with a call saying, ‘Jimi Hendrix is dead. How do you feel about that?’ At first, I thought it was a bloody hoax, but as the day wore on I realized it was tragically true.
“I don’t want to say that I knew him well, I don’t think anybody did, but there was a period in London when I went to visit him quite a few times.
“He invited me down to Olympic studios and I gave him a bottleneck. That’s what he plays on ‘Axis: Bold s Love.’ We hooked up in New York and played at Steve Paul’s club The Scene.”
