February 13, 2020 • 34 mins
Before he broke down musical barriers with his virtuoso talent, Jimi Hendrix broke the monotony of teenage life by breaking the law––stealing cars––and when he saw Little Richard perform for the first time he got a crash course in breaking norms. It was a lesson he’d never forget.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
The twenty seven Club is the production of I Heart
Radio and Double Elvis Media. Jimmie Hendricks was born on
the seven day of November, and he lived a life
of character building faux pause. I can give you twenty
seven reasons why that statement is true. Ten would be
the number of times his father caught him playing the
(00:20):
Devil's Guitar left handed, upside down guitar the way that
Satan liked it. It wasn't allowed in his father's house.
One would be the number of times he was caught
masturbating the Army barracks as a private first class, an
act that would ultimately lead to his welcome dismissal from
the Armed Forces. Two more would be the number of
times he was arrested for riding around and stolen cars
(00:42):
as a teenager in Seattle. Another three would be the
number of times he tried to infiltrate the backstage dressing
room of Hank Ballard in the midnighters to get someone
on one guitar lessons not to mention an intensely strong contact.
High and eleven would be the number of years he
had left to live after he first saw Little Richard
preached some fire and Brimstone Gospel all totally on this
(01:07):
our fourth episode of season one, getting caught with your
pants down, Stolen Cars, backstage, Reefer Madness and the god
fearing Georgia Peach. I'm Jake Brennan and this is the
Seven Cars. Jimmy Hendrix was up against the back of
(01:48):
the Chevy Corvett when the handcuffs bit into his wrists, chest,
pressed flat on the car's turquoise frame, legs straight and
spread apart. The wind picked up and howled and then
died back down again. Typical Seattle weather for early May,
windy and just about ten degrees above freezing. The air wet, salty, frigid,
and the wind bit into the back of Jimmy's neck
(02:10):
just like the cuff metal dug in his hands. Two
of his friends were in the same upright position, standing
next to him. Maybe friends was a stretch. There were
a couple of other aimless punks from the neighborhood, high
school dropouts like Jimmy, searching for something to occupy their
idle time on a Friday night. Again, like Jimmy and
the Seattle cops were white, middle aged, uptight, the polar
(02:34):
opposite of the three black kids that they had pulled over.
Mc carr was definitely not there's, and it was definitely hot.
Jimmy had been riding shotgun when the familiar blue lights
snapped on behind them. Jimmy stood there with his arms
behind his back, didn't say a word. One of the
cops was doing the Miranda thing, you have the right
to remain silent, and the other one looked Jimmy up
(02:55):
and down to come all in. Squinted his eyes in
the dark, wet, salty wind, pelting his eyelids and ringing
a bitter tone in his ear. The wind, ever, remember
the names that has blown in the past. Don't I
know you, cop asked Jimmy, Didn't I just see you
a few nights ago. Jimmy, head down and still silent,
slowly turned to look at the cop, one hand pointing
(03:16):
his flashlight and Jimmy's general direction together resting on top
of his standard issue piece and its holster. Fuck, he
was made about joy riding again, Hendricks. The cop wasn't wrong.
Jimmy had been picked up three nights earlier doing the
exact same thing, riding around in a hot car. He
tell the cops the same thing. He told him the
other night. He didn't know the car was stolen. He
(03:38):
was bored looking for something to do. This is a
nine sixty Chevy Corvet. Would you refuse a ride in
nineteen sixty Chevy Corvet? If someone you knew pulled up
to your house and howid yo, let's go for a ride,
would you honestly turn your back and sit at home.
It's not like there was homework to do. Jimmy had
flunked out of Garfield High School back in the fall,
and he was starting to get a little too equinated
(03:59):
with the local fuzz, taking rides in cars that didn't
belong to him, didn't belong to his family. The police
had been targeting black teenagers in the city due to
a rash of home burglaries, profiling stopping black kids as
they walked down the street. The MOUTHI cop couldn't help themself.
You're a real dumb shit. Huhboy? You don't learn new lessons,
do you. Jimmy didn't say anything. His father always told
(04:23):
him a fish wouldn't get into trouble if it kept
its mouth shut. The relationship between white cops and black
kids in Seattle wasn't all that different from anywhere else
in the country. At the time, tensions were high, ignorance
was wide, bullshit ran deep, and there were bad eggs.
An investigation of police brutality in the Seattle department a
(04:43):
few years earlier brought some deeply Harvard ships to the surface.
All negroes carry knives, went one of the popular tenants
of the forest. Any negro driving a Cadillac is either
a pimp or a dope headler was another of Seattle
police departments in sane truisms, and the cops arresting Jimmy
and his fellow joy riders mumbled to each other and laughed,
shot their fair share of glances at the kids. Made
(05:05):
them uncomfortable, sure, as black kids being arrested by white cops,
but also as kids being arrested by cops. And the
cops bent Jimmy's head down and pushed him into the
back of the police cruiser, and the heat was on
full blast, and the back seat smelled like sweaty teenage boys,
and the cops kept up with their inside jokes, and
(05:26):
Jimmy let his head fall against the headrest and tuned out.
If only he hadn't jumped in that fucking Corve air.
He wasn't paying attention when they pulled up to the
Rainier Vista for h Youth Center. He'd spent a night
at this juvenile detention ship box earlier in the week
when he was picked up the first time, his father
billed him out. Now he was a repeat offender. The
(05:47):
one thing he was sure of as the cops yanked
him from the back seat was that he wasn't busting
out after just one night. He would sit in this
cooler for a while. The receptionist at the front desk
wore cat eyeglasses beneath her stylish bouffant. She sat hypnotized
by a small black and white TV. It's funny years
askew Alan Shepard was on the news, first American man
(06:09):
in space, his spacecraft launched from Cape Canaveral earlier that day.
Jimmy stopped transfixed watched the TV screen. The other worldliness
of it, the thrill of it, the future of it.
He thought of gazing up at the stars and seeing
his mother nestled between two bright spots in the dark.
About Buster Crabb, who played Flash Gordon in those old
(06:30):
film serials he loved. How about the flying saucer doodles
he drew when he was little. It was brought back
to reality when the officer removed his handcuffs started barking,
take off your damn shoes and your belt, empty your
fucking pockets. Jimmy sat in that cooler for a week,
sat searching through his own mind, through the weeks and
years and events that had led him here. And the
(06:51):
first day he thought about his parents, whose Seal was
only seventeen when she became his mother. She named him
Johnny Allen. She was unprepared, couldn't even change a diaper,
bounced around from house to house and family. The family
relied on the kindness of strangers. Al, his dad, was
stationed with the army in Alabama when Jimmy was born.
(07:12):
Denied paternity, they jailed him instead flight risk, They transferred
him to the South Pacific. When Al finally met his
son at age three, he changed Jimmy's name from Johnny
Allen to James Marshall. James was Al's legal first name,
and Marshall was the middle name of his dead brother.
The second day, he thought about his parents, fighting, Al
(07:32):
coming home drunk and walking in the wrong house in
the street stumbling into the wrong living room, sitting down
on the wrong couch, yelling at the wrong family. When
he did find his way at home, he get violent,
de nined paternity to half his offspring. His parents split
when he was nine. The fourth day he thought about
his brothers and sisters. Goddamn Shakespearean tragedy. Cathy born blind,
(07:53):
Pamela put into foster care, Joe born with two rows
of front teeth, a club foot, cleft palette. Jim Me
himself didn't speak for the longest time, and when he
finally did, he stuttered. They were hungry. They were fed
by neighbors and friends. Alan Lucille would eventually sign away
their parental rights to most of them. The fifth day
he thought about his ancestors, slaves, slave owners, Native Americans,
(08:17):
The shame of America tangled up in the roots of
his family tree. The sixth day, he thought about his guitar,
actually thought about his guitar every day. He'd been without
the silver tone for nearly a week, and it was
killing him. It was an instrument of comfort, a sense
of self. He needed it back in his hands. On
the last day, Jimmy found himself standing in front of
(08:38):
the judge public defender at his side. He was still
searching in his own head for answers, for an explanation,
for a good reason why he was standing in front
of a judge. The public defender was explaining to the
judge that his client would like to avoid jail time
by enlisting in the U. S. Army. He'd sign up
for three years. Would that suit the court? As he
(08:59):
left court and checked out of the youth center, he
wasn't thinking about the army. His thoughts were stuck on
his guitar. On playing that sound. He thought about Ernestine Penson,
a border who had stayed at Al and Jimmy's place
when Jimmy was in the seventh grade. Her seventy eight
record collection was Revelatory, Wolf, Muddy Lightning, Robert Johnson. She
(09:19):
bought him an acoustic guitar with one string for five bucks.
It was first when you get a full set of
strings for it. He restrung a lefty style. Jimmy was
born left handed, but Al was always trying to get
him to use his right hand. Jimmy would eat cereal
with a spoon in his left hand, and I would
take the spoon and put it in his right hand.
I would take the pencil out of Jimmy's left hand
(09:41):
to put it in his right hand. God forbid that
Il caught Jimmy playing the guitar left handed. Ain't no
son of mine gonna play no devil guitar. You play
that thing like a normal person, like a Christian, or
so help me God, I will break it in half
while you watch. Left handed guitar was surely the sign
of the devil. It was unnatural, Al thought to pray
raved ungodly people would talk, so Jimmy had to learn
(10:03):
to play it upside down like a right hander. In
case Al walked in his bedroom and announced left handed
guitar was some devil ship. Jimmy sat on his bed alone,
the five dollar guitar pulled tight against his chest on
top of his lap. His door was closed but not latched.
A two inch gap kept it open to the hallway.
(10:25):
Better to hear his father approaching the next time and
not be taken by surprise. He was holding the guitar
right handed, and where he had strung at lefty it
was upside down. He had to try at least to
play it upside down, if for nothing else, to avoid
the hell fire. That al was just itching unleash. It
was like someone had swapped wires in his brain. His
left hand on the neck and right hand picking at
(10:46):
the strings like some scavenger bird picking at the corpse
of a bloated animal on the side of the road,
childlike remedial run of the middle dissonance, random packs, garbage sound.
He flipped back over lefty style, and right hand wrapped
itself tight around the neck and wouldn't let go. The
maple wood of the guitar neck was flesh now. He
felt the blood pumped to the palm of his hand
(11:08):
and surged into the guitar neck like his heart was
right there. The hair on the back of his neck
stood up. His left hand brought the guitar pick down
to the strings viciously, and he lit into that little
ship box. He played the flurry of notes he heard
in his head, this melodic improvisation over a one, four
or five blues tune. The fingernails on his right hand
arched like plants, favoring the sun towards the fretboard. The
(11:31):
guitar was hot, hell fire for sure. He thought he
heard footsteps in the hall and quickly turned the guitar
back over right handed. He sounded like shit again and
there was no connection between his body and the instrument.
Clunky pecks again, garbage sound. He flipped it back lefty
style and felt the surge to go through his body
once more. His right hand got hot. He looked down
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and couldn't tell where his hand ended him the guitar's
neck began. He didn't even think about what he was doing.
He didn't have to his hands, his arms there were
a part of this now, soon his whole body to me.
In a few years, Jimmy would play it upside down,
right side up, on his head, behind his back. He
would lower it over the Devil's instrument. But first things first.
Before he could devote himself entirely to the guitar, his
(12:16):
time belonged to someone else, Uncle Sam. It was army
time for joy riding Jimmy Hendricks, and no amount of
devil ship was going to stop that from happening. He
would just have to figure out a way to make
the best of it, endure it, live through it, and
then get out fast, get out early. He'd have to
get creative, do something that would shock the army. Not
enough for a dishonorable discharge, but just enough so that
(12:40):
he packed his bags and hit the road. Jimmie Hendricks
(13:02):
was masturbating furiously, and he got caught. Not by his mom,
not by his dad, not in his bedroom. Jimmy was
having a whank in the barracks at Fort Campbell, Kentucky,
out in the open. A superior officer found him. There
are moving at a feverish pace, his breathing labored and rough.
(13:23):
He was peeking plateaung. He was nineteen Private first Class
and the hundred first Airborne. The screaming eagles. Goddamn right
that eagle was screaming in the spring two Private Hendricks
Jimmy's head shot up from where he was seated on
his bunk, panicked, humiliated, mortified, no pun intended, caught red
(13:44):
handed with his pants down, with his stick in his hand.
Are you supposed to be on duty? Son? It was
on all in act. The shock, the disbelief, the shame,
the humiliation. This whole thing was jive. Private Hendricks, Private
first class jump or paratrooper, death to fire. Jim Me
Hendrick sitting prone in an army barracks in Kentucky, wearing
standard issue all of drab fatigues. Jimmy Hendricks in the army.
(14:08):
Now it was all bullshit. This wasn't Jimmy Hendricks. Anyone
could see that Jimmy wanted to get caught in the act.
Do something stupid. Jimmy, wait until they were making their
rounds and just sit out in the open spanking it.
It would make his story airtight, legit. His plan to
get the funk out of the army less than a
(14:28):
year after he went and got himself enlisted was gonna work.
He met with the based psychiatrist a few times in
the spring to put his plan into action. Change up
the plot, and he no longer wanted to be Jimmy Hendricks,
the army man, the one on one er. He needed
something fantastical in order to wriggle out of his three
year commitment, and offered. They couldn't refuse three years, three
(14:51):
years of tumbling from great heights and praying to God
that the shoot would open when it was supposed to.
Funck now, never mind what was going on in Cuba.
Laos to be an um. It made it through the
exhaustion of basic training at Fort Ord in California the
previous year, only to realize that Fort Campbell as the
greenest member of the hundred and first Airborne, that this
(15:12):
certainly wasn't his path, not who he was supposed to be.
He asked to speak with the base psychiatrists. It was urgent.
Uh Doc, it's like this, I think I'm a homosexual
homo what? Jimmy spun the tail to an army shrink
in a proto don't ask, don't tell a world. He
was thinking about the other guys in the barracks and
(15:33):
the showers. He was getting turned on all the time.
He was hard all the time. He couldn't take it anymore, Doc,
And the psychiatrist wasn't sure what to do with this.
Is his love or is this confusion? He told Jimmy
to calm down, to get over it. That's what he
did in the army, get over it. But Jimmy kept
going back, kept requesting appointments with the base headshrinker, kept
(15:53):
adding to the story. Uh, Doc, it's like this. I
can't stop touching myself. Do you know what I mean? Doc?
Can you even look at these guys in here and
the next thing you know, your hands are down your pants.
I can't stop it, Doc, I don't want to stop.
Jimmy sat on a chair in the base psychiatrist's office,
his eyes straight to the floor. He pulled on his
standard issue tie, turned his standard issue cadet cap over
(16:14):
and over in his hands. Once he was caught in
the act, things moved quickly. He got the once over
by a captain at the base who gave Jimmy the
first full exam he'd had since joining the year before.
Captain Halbert his notes were a succinct bigoted, narrow minded.
Just as Jimmy had hoped. Jimmy had quote unquote personal problems.
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Perhaps the United States Military and Jimmie Hendricks should go
their separate ways. Jimmie Hendrix just was an army material.
Jimmy chose the hundred and first Airborne not just because
it was sexy and cutting edge. The airborne power troopers
who hit the beach on D Day were the stuff
of legends, but serving for the hundred and first Airborne
(16:58):
also meant an extra freak bucks in your pocket. Each month,
Jimmy's father, Al Hendrix, shipped his guitar to him from
back home in Seattle. It allowed him to hang on
to a piece of himself, a piece of himself that
he could recognize. It was like a missing appendage. The
guitar was a Dan Electro, a silvertone, a budget model
with a decent tone, budget enough that a teenager like
(17:21):
Jimmy could afford it, but decent enough that it would
be favored. I'lbe it briefly by Eric Clapton during his
Blind Faith and by Sid Barrett and Pink Floyd's Salad years.
Jimmy bought it for fifty bucks at Sears Roebuck. It
was white, but he painted it red. He wrote Betty
Jean and big letters on its front after his high
school girlfriend, and Jimmy didn't keep his guitar in a case.
(17:44):
At every opportunity he would play, he walked around the
basse with it strung to his back like string Hayden
and Johnny guitar. He talked to it, slept with it.
During downtime, Jimmy would plug his Dan Electro and amplifiers
at the club on bass. He'd jam on the blues
tunes from Back Home, Muddy Waters, Helen Wolf, BB King,
and the guitar would echo through the empty service club hall,
(18:06):
and Jimmy would close his eyes and imagine the hall
full of people, and this could be him, This could
be Jimmy Hendricks. One afternoon, another serviceman walked in with
a club, seeking shelter from the rain outside. Jimmy was oblivious,
but this dude stopped to listen. It's nd like anything
he'd ever heard before. Later described what he heard as
Beethoven meets John Lee Hooker. It was Billy Cox, bass
(18:29):
player from Pittsburgh, fellow Screaming Eagle. He'd go on to
play in one of Jimmy's first real bands, and again
in his last real band. Throughout he'd be a constant
in Jimmy's life, a friend, an ally, a fellow gypsy,
fellow army trooper, a true brother in arms. Right now,
though Billy Cox was standing silent listening to the sounds
(18:50):
from Jimmy, stan electro bounced around the service Club Number one,
thinking who the fuck is this dude. Jimmy and Billy
became fast friends. They're band, The Casuals with a K
played bass clubs. Eventually they played joints outside of Fort Campbell,
morph into the King Casuals with two K's, and soon
Jimmy was imagining a life outside the Army, a life
(19:12):
without the army, a life free from the stress of
the jumps and the repetition of the Fort Campbell lifestyle.
Play Late, sleep in, wake up, Play, guitar jam, a
little hit, the next gig. Repeat. But to get to
that place where he could stroll around like Sterling Hayden
all day long, he would have to transcend this reality.
He would have to get as far away from the
army as possible before his skin turned the color of camouflage,
(19:35):
before he bled red, white and blue. He had to
lay some trip that would be impossible to come back from.
He'd say he was gay. He had no problem with
that personally, but it drove the military types up the
fucking wall. Being gay in the early nineteen sixties was
a social prison for some, but for Jimmy Hendricks, it
was his ticket to freedom. Gotta get away, Stone, free
(19:57):
to do what I please, Stone, free to ride the breeze.
Jimmy had recently heard his ankle jumping from an airplane,
and that would be the perfect reason to give when
friends and family asked what had happened to him why.
Less than a year after enlisting, he was out on
the street, out on his own, no direction home. His
discharge papers in May sixty two told a different story.
(20:20):
Of course, behavior problems requires excessive supervision. While on duty,
apprehended masturbating and platoon area the ruse worked. He was
stone free, and now what? He didn't have to play
this role any longer. But now who would he be?
It would have to be different new He's sure as
hell wasn't going to go back to that spody was
(20:42):
him before winding up in the army, Dead, broke, busted
head in jail. He let his guitar lead him there,
lead him far away from the army, far away from home,
far from a comfort zone, surrounded by smoke, noise, temptation,
things he hadn't seen, and things he would start to
see a lot more of. Some of the best teachers
(21:03):
laid in wait downe a darkened hallway behind the stage,
stained with sweat and spit and dirt, in a dressing
room stained with god knows what else. Deep into these
dens of experience, he'd go to find out just how
much more devilish he could become. We'll be right back
after this word word word. Jimmie Hendricks was out of
(21:31):
the army and searching for Billy Davis, the Billy Davis,
Hank Ballard's guitar player, the cat behind the monster riff
on Sexy Ways and the Whiplash solo on look at
Little Sister, the guy who rubbed elbows with John Lee Hooker,
Jackie Wilson and Smokey Robinson. They called him the face.
Chicks dug him. Dudes wanted his duds. He was only
(21:51):
a few years older than Jimmy, but in guitar years,
in show biz years, the dude was a legend. He
was the wise old man at the top of the
mountain that she me had only begun to climb. Hank
Ballard in the Midnighters, had just finished their first set
of the night in Jimmy's hometown at the Eagles Auditorium.
Sixteen year old Jimmy brought his guitar to the show.
(22:12):
Brought his own guitar to someone else's show. It wasn't
leaving until he got some pointers from his hero, Billy Davis.
It was the shitty acoustic guitar given to him by
Ernestine that he had re strong lefty. He sat there
in a chair, guitar on his lap, and watched the
Midnighters run through their well oiled show, dressed to the nines,
singing those lyrics that got their songs pulled from the
(22:33):
air by stations all over the country. Annie Please don't cheat,
give me all my meat, and Billy Davis nearly showing
up Hank Ballard. He was flashy as hellfire, dancing, spinning, twirling,
playing his guitar behind his head, holding his guitar near
his amp to coax house some discord and feedback. Billy
had it all the chops, the looks, the moves. Everyone
(22:55):
else in the room was watching Hank Ballard, but Jimmy
kept his eye on the guitar player absorbed every move.
Intermission hit and Jimmy jumped up clawed his way through
the crowd towards the stage to track down Billy. He
had to find Billy. The band was nowhere to be found,
probably in their dressing room already. Jimmy didn't know how.
(23:16):
He didn't filtrate, but did he get back there? Pulled
up ballads. Trumpet player was talking up some little mistranged
and well warmed polo skirt stage right. Jimmy made a bline,
the acoustic guitar in his hand, banging into people mingling
throughout the crowd. Hey man, Jimmy Hollard at the Hornman.
Where's Billy Davis? Can I talk to Billy? Hornman held
up his finger to the girl to pause their conversation
(23:37):
and gave Jimmy a look that was halfway between disgust
and shock. Say what, Billy, Billy Davis? I want to
ask him some questions about playing guitar? See and Jimmy
lifted a guitar up to offer the Hornman a better view,
flashed a toothy smile, and the Hornman's face changed from
a scowl to a smirk, and suddenly he was laughing. Ship,
(23:58):
you gotta be kidding me with this horse Ship kid,
Go back to your seat, enjoy the show. Jimmy stood
his ground. He came all the way over here. He
brought his damn guitar. He was gonna get some tips
from Billy Davis. God damnit, he interrupted Hornman again. This
was important, urged he was a huge fan. He just
had to meet him. Horn Man looked at Jimmy's face,
that face that summoned strangers, that face that had charisma
(24:20):
to spare. All right, fuck it, follow me. I am
promising you nothing though, Hornman motion to Jimmy to follow
him behind the stage down a darkened hallway to the
band's dressing room. The dressing room door opened, and peaking
over Hornman's shoulder, Jimmy spied the action dressing room confidential.
The midnight is laughing, yelling at each other, drinking hoops
(24:40):
from little cups, smoking stubby cigarettes, thick waffs of reefer suspenders,
shined up shoes pullmade infectious laughter of women. A two
radio pumping out the coasters. Charlie Brown fee fee five
five fox fox fum I smell smoke. In the auditorium
front and center. Billy Davis chilling on a seat with
a girl dangling on each knee. The girls were laughing,
(25:03):
laughing way too hard, their heads thrown back into attention,
getting ecstasy. Billy's eyes at half masks grinning from ear
to ear. Who walks in the classroom? Cool and slow?
Who calls the English teacher daddy yo yo? Billy Hornman
hauled into the dude, this is this kid who wants
to talk to you. He brought a guitar. I'm busy man.
(25:23):
Billy turned his attention back to the girls, took a
long drag from a thin cigarette, mumbled something to one
of them, something like tell me that again, baby, But
one of the band members in the room shut the
dressing room door, a shut Hornman shrugged his shoulders, and
that was that. Them's the brakes, kid, Nah, them's ain't
the brakes, Jimmy insisted, dog torn man, how did him
(25:46):
threaten to annoy the ship out of him all night
long if he didn't get him five minutes with his
idol or Man made another attempt, and Billy shot back
the same response. I said, I was busy, Billy. This
kid is annoying the ship out of me. He only
be a loan and he brought his goddamn guitar. The
third time turned out to be the charm. Billy conceded
(26:06):
ushered the girls off his lap, and that Jimmy out
in the hallway, and Jimmy smile took over his entire face.
The face made fast friends. Billy felt his annoyance deflate. Obviously,
this was a fan and a dedicated one at that.
Billy's ego was in control now, so Jimmy and Billy
shook hands, and then the day loser questions him, how
(26:27):
do you make a sound like that. When do you
know how to bend a note? How do you know
you're bending the right note? How do you make that
scuffing sound and fingerpop in time? How many hours a
day do you play? Billy laughed, answered some of the questions,
told him some of the other answers would have to
wait until Jimmy had some more experience under his belt.
He examined the shitty acoustic guitar, which Jimmy knew was shitty,
knew he could do better. He was just so eager
(26:49):
to learn. And maybe Billy could just stop by his
house this week. They could sit down and he could
show him a thing or two. I went to midnighters
here in town for a whole week playing shows. Billy
saw the since Sarah in Jimmy's eyes, the realness. The
kid didn't care about the dressing room confidential going on
behind the door, didn't care about the girls, about the smokes,
about the tube radio powered hijinks. He wanted to learn
(27:11):
everything there was to learn about the guitar, as shitty
as his was. He wanted to take the mojo from
Ernestine's seventy eight and injected straight into the fret board
and he wanted Billy Davis to show him how sure
a kid? What's your address? What do you do in tomorrow?
Action June Jimmie Hendricks's crash course tutoring by the Billy
Davis is fantastical, mythical even, but it totally happened. Billy
(27:35):
went to Al and Jimmy's house a few times during
the week that the band was in Seattle, distilled the
lifetime of playing and noodling and learning into a couple
of afternoon sessions. A few years later, Billy laid down
the guitar on Jackie Wilson's time was classic You Love
Keeps lifting Me higher and higher, and in two thousand
twelve he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall
of Fame as a member of the Midnighters. But his
(27:56):
tutelage of a young Jimmie Hendricks likely was enough of
a country be your Ship. Jimmy's first attempt to insert
himself into the scene, be in the right place at
the right time, to learn what he wanted from who
he wanted was his success, and it gave him confidence,
or at least the lack of fear, to go out
and do it again. It came in handy as he
joined some of his first bands, first the Velvet Tones
(28:18):
and then the Rock and Kings. He'd hang around the
Spanish Castle legendary dance Hall, an hour outside of Seattle,
and offered to fill in for other bands if they
needed a player. The more he looked, the more he saw.
The more he searched, the more he found. Sometimes he
wouldn't even be looking. Sometimes these things just pulled up
in a car, opened the door, and stepped out in
(28:40):
front of him. Jimmy's younger brother, Leon burst through the
(29:07):
front door and recounted the story breathlessly. It was a
long black limousine. It was parked right outside to Carlton
having a grocery. Just as he was walking by, a
little Richard climbed out of it. It was Leon there,
of course, Leon was there. He stopped dead in his tracks,
mouth the game. Little Richard stepped out of that limo,
white tie on, white shirt, dark mohair suit, big gass hair,
(29:28):
pencil mustache, right here in Seattle. He took one look
at Leon and started to testify. Praise Jesus. This wasn't
the twoty fruity Little Richard or leather g string and
feather head dressed Little Richard. This was the god fearing,
life changing gospel spreading Little Richard. Little Richard was known
as one of the architects of rock and roll that
(29:51):
year in ninety seven. After years of wearing makeup and
singing tirelessly of sex charged liberation, he was looking for
and finding signs God. He infamously mistook the launch of
the Soviet Union spot Nick Jue as a red fireball
sent from the heavens. He was on tour in Australia
and saw armageddon and the sky through his big, gaudy
(30:12):
rings in a river boom. No more rock and roll.
It was all God's work from then on out, Old man, trouble,
please wash away all my fears. Leon was out running
a few errands for the house when Little Richard's limo
entered his life. Little Richard immediately invited Leon to come
to the Baptist church that night, where he'd be preaching.
Leon had never met a celebrity before, and Jimmy would
(30:34):
never believe it. The brothers didn't have church clothes per se,
but they did their best. Jimmy shirt was a little dirty,
his shoes torn, and the fancy church going crowd looked
at the brothers up and down when they arrived, like
they were orphans out of a Dickens novel? Who let
these street urchins in here? And they leaned their bikes
up against the exterior of the church. They found a
(30:54):
few seats up front, as close as they could get
to the pulpit, and Jimmy was reminded of the feeling
he got when he saw Elvis performed just a few
months earlier, the anticipation of seeing this person in the flesh,
this famous person who was on your radio all the time.
Unlike the Elvis show, though, Jimmy was going to be
only a few arms length the way from the start tonight,
(31:17):
Little Richard hit the stage, still with the big gass
hair and the pencil mustache minus the makeup, oversized purple
robe trailing behind him. As he prowled in front of
the packed house, his eyes blew up wide, just like
when he's sang Rock and Roll. He shook his head
and raptures twitches, just like you would in front of
a piano. With men, it's impossible, but with God, all
things are possible, he exclaimed. The crowd immediately responded with amens.
(31:41):
And other agreeable grunts ecstasy. Teary eyed, he went on,
he shall know the truth, and the truth shall set
you free. Jimmy closed his eyes, listen to Little Richard's
words and imagine that he wasn't talking about God in
the hereafter he knew what Little Richard was talking about.
He was talking about other truths, about long till Sally,
and about ripping it up, and about how the girl
(32:02):
can't help it. Jimmy imagine that voice booming and wooing
into the Baptist ceiling and transposed it onto the words
he wanted to hear. And after the sermon, Jimmy and
Leon stood in the receiving line to get their blessing
from the celebrity pastor to touch the hem of his garment.
For Jimmy, it was another one of his creative osmosis moments,
to stand next to greatness, observe it, decoded, become it.
(32:26):
Little did Jimmy know that only a few years down
the road, Little Richard would trade in his preaching robe
for his rock and roll shoes once more, only this
time he'd have a young Jimmy Hendrix playing guitar by
his side. I'm Jake Burning In this seven Claus Club
(32:57):
is scored and co written by me jacob En and
Zeth Lundi is the lead writer, editor, and co producer.
The twenty seven Club is mixed and engineered by Sean
Kalen and Matt Owdin, both of whom lent their considerable
music talent to the scoring of this series, as well
additional music and score elements by Ryan Spraker. The twenty
seven Club is produced by myself for Double Elvis in
(33:20):
partnership with I Heart Radio. Sources for this episode are
available at Double Elvis dot com on the twenty seven
Club series page. The twenty seven Club is released weekly
every Thursday. Season one features twelve episodes on Jimmy hendricks In.
Season two will feature twelve episodes on Jim Morrison. If
you like what you here, please be sure to subscribe
(33:40):
to the twenty seven Club on Apple podcast the I
Heart Radio, Apple or wherever you get your podcasts, and
if you'd like to win a free twenty seven Club
poster designed by the man himself, Nate Gonzalez, then leave
a review for twenty seven Club on Apple Podcasts or
hashtag subscribe to twenty seven Club on social media and
We'll pick two winners each week and announced them on
(34:01):
the Double Elvis Instagram page. That's at double Elvis. You're
gonna want to give that a follow, So get out
there and please spread the word about As always, you
can find me blabbing about other crazy rock stars on
my other podcast, dis Graceland, and you can talk to
me per usual on Instagram and Twitter at this Graceland pod.
One way or another, I hope to be talking to
(34:22):
you soon. Until then, what's up, Fear is
The twenty seven Club is the production of I Heart
Radio and Double Elvis Media. Jimmie Hendricks was born on
the seven day of November, and he lived a life
of character building faux pause. I can give you twenty
seven reasons why that statement is true. Ten would be
the number of times his father caught him playing the
(00:20):
Devil's Guitar left handed, upside down guitar the way that
Satan liked it. It wasn't allowed in his father's house.
One would be the number of times he was caught
masturbating the Army barracks as a private first class, an
act that would ultimately lead to his welcome dismissal from
the Armed Forces. Two more would be the number of
times he was arrested for riding around and stolen cars
(00:42):
as a teenager in Seattle. Another three would be the
number of times he tried to infiltrate the backstage dressing
room of Hank Ballard in the midnighters to get someone
on one guitar lessons not to mention an intensely strong contact.
High and eleven would be the number of years he
had left to live after he first saw Little Richard
preached some fire and Brimstone Gospel all totally on this
(01:07):
our fourth episode of season one, getting caught with your
pants down, Stolen Cars, backstage, Reefer Madness and the god
fearing Georgia Peach. I'm Jake Brennan and this is the
Seven Cars. Jimmy Hendrix was up against the back of
(01:48):
the Chevy Corvett when the handcuffs bit into his wrists, chest,
pressed flat on the car's turquoise frame, legs straight and
spread apart. The wind picked up and howled and then
died back down again. Typical Seattle weather for early May,
windy and just about ten degrees above freezing. The air wet, salty, frigid,
and the wind bit into the back of Jimmy's neck
(02:10):
just like the cuff metal dug in his hands. Two
of his friends were in the same upright position, standing
next to him. Maybe friends was a stretch. There were
a couple of other aimless punks from the neighborhood, high
school dropouts like Jimmy, searching for something to occupy their
idle time on a Friday night. Again, like Jimmy and
the Seattle cops were white, middle aged, uptight, the polar
(02:34):
opposite of the three black kids that they had pulled over.
Mc carr was definitely not there's, and it was definitely hot.
Jimmy had been riding shotgun when the familiar blue lights
snapped on behind them. Jimmy stood there with his arms
behind his back, didn't say a word. One of the
cops was doing the Miranda thing, you have the right
to remain silent, and the other one looked Jimmy up
(02:55):
and down to come all in. Squinted his eyes in
the dark, wet, salty wind, pelting his eyelids and ringing
a bitter tone in his ear. The wind, ever, remember
the names that has blown in the past. Don't I
know you, cop asked Jimmy, Didn't I just see you
a few nights ago. Jimmy, head down and still silent,
slowly turned to look at the cop, one hand pointing
(03:16):
his flashlight and Jimmy's general direction together resting on top
of his standard issue piece and its holster. Fuck, he
was made about joy riding again, Hendricks. The cop wasn't wrong.
Jimmy had been picked up three nights earlier doing the
exact same thing, riding around in a hot car. He
tell the cops the same thing. He told him the
other night. He didn't know the car was stolen. He
(03:38):
was bored looking for something to do. This is a
nine sixty Chevy Corvet. Would you refuse a ride in
nineteen sixty Chevy Corvet? If someone you knew pulled up
to your house and howid yo, let's go for a ride,
would you honestly turn your back and sit at home.
It's not like there was homework to do. Jimmy had
flunked out of Garfield High School back in the fall,
and he was starting to get a little too equinated
(03:59):
with the local fuzz, taking rides in cars that didn't
belong to him, didn't belong to his family. The police
had been targeting black teenagers in the city due to
a rash of home burglaries, profiling stopping black kids as
they walked down the street. The MOUTHI cop couldn't help themself.
You're a real dumb shit. Huhboy? You don't learn new lessons,
do you. Jimmy didn't say anything. His father always told
(04:23):
him a fish wouldn't get into trouble if it kept
its mouth shut. The relationship between white cops and black
kids in Seattle wasn't all that different from anywhere else
in the country. At the time, tensions were high, ignorance
was wide, bullshit ran deep, and there were bad eggs.
An investigation of police brutality in the Seattle department a
(04:43):
few years earlier brought some deeply Harvard ships to the surface.
All negroes carry knives, went one of the popular tenants
of the forest. Any negro driving a Cadillac is either
a pimp or a dope headler was another of Seattle
police departments in sane truisms, and the cops arresting Jimmy
and his fellow joy riders mumbled to each other and laughed,
shot their fair share of glances at the kids. Made
(05:05):
them uncomfortable, sure, as black kids being arrested by white cops,
but also as kids being arrested by cops. And the
cops bent Jimmy's head down and pushed him into the
back of the police cruiser, and the heat was on
full blast, and the back seat smelled like sweaty teenage boys,
and the cops kept up with their inside jokes, and
(05:26):
Jimmy let his head fall against the headrest and tuned out.
If only he hadn't jumped in that fucking Corve air.
He wasn't paying attention when they pulled up to the
Rainier Vista for h Youth Center. He'd spent a night
at this juvenile detention ship box earlier in the week
when he was picked up the first time, his father
billed him out. Now he was a repeat offender. The
(05:47):
one thing he was sure of as the cops yanked
him from the back seat was that he wasn't busting
out after just one night. He would sit in this
cooler for a while. The receptionist at the front desk
wore cat eyeglasses beneath her stylish bouffant. She sat hypnotized
by a small black and white TV. It's funny years
askew Alan Shepard was on the news, first American man
(06:09):
in space, his spacecraft launched from Cape Canaveral earlier that day.
Jimmy stopped transfixed watched the TV screen. The other worldliness
of it, the thrill of it, the future of it.
He thought of gazing up at the stars and seeing
his mother nestled between two bright spots in the dark.
About Buster Crabb, who played Flash Gordon in those old
(06:30):
film serials he loved. How about the flying saucer doodles
he drew when he was little. It was brought back
to reality when the officer removed his handcuffs started barking,
take off your damn shoes and your belt, empty your
fucking pockets. Jimmy sat in that cooler for a week,
sat searching through his own mind, through the weeks and
years and events that had led him here. And the
(06:51):
first day he thought about his parents, whose Seal was
only seventeen when she became his mother. She named him
Johnny Allen. She was unprepared, couldn't even change a diaper,
bounced around from house to house and family. The family
relied on the kindness of strangers. Al, his dad, was
stationed with the army in Alabama when Jimmy was born.
(07:12):
Denied paternity, they jailed him instead flight risk, They transferred
him to the South Pacific. When Al finally met his
son at age three, he changed Jimmy's name from Johnny
Allen to James Marshall. James was Al's legal first name,
and Marshall was the middle name of his dead brother.
The second day, he thought about his parents, fighting, Al
(07:32):
coming home drunk and walking in the wrong house in
the street stumbling into the wrong living room, sitting down
on the wrong couch, yelling at the wrong family. When
he did find his way at home, he get violent,
de nined paternity to half his offspring. His parents split
when he was nine. The fourth day he thought about
his brothers and sisters. Goddamn Shakespearean tragedy. Cathy born blind,
(07:53):
Pamela put into foster care, Joe born with two rows
of front teeth, a club foot, cleft palette. Jim Me
himself didn't speak for the longest time, and when he
finally did, he stuttered. They were hungry. They were fed
by neighbors and friends. Alan Lucille would eventually sign away
their parental rights to most of them. The fifth day
he thought about his ancestors, slaves, slave owners, Native Americans,
(08:17):
The shame of America tangled up in the roots of
his family tree. The sixth day, he thought about his guitar,
actually thought about his guitar every day. He'd been without
the silver tone for nearly a week, and it was
killing him. It was an instrument of comfort, a sense
of self. He needed it back in his hands. On
the last day, Jimmy found himself standing in front of
(08:38):
the judge public defender at his side. He was still
searching in his own head for answers, for an explanation,
for a good reason why he was standing in front
of a judge. The public defender was explaining to the
judge that his client would like to avoid jail time
by enlisting in the U. S. Army. He'd sign up
for three years. Would that suit the court? As he
(08:59):
left court and checked out of the youth center, he
wasn't thinking about the army. His thoughts were stuck on
his guitar. On playing that sound. He thought about Ernestine Penson,
a border who had stayed at Al and Jimmy's place
when Jimmy was in the seventh grade. Her seventy eight
record collection was Revelatory, Wolf, Muddy Lightning, Robert Johnson. She
(09:19):
bought him an acoustic guitar with one string for five bucks.
It was first when you get a full set of
strings for it. He restrung a lefty style. Jimmy was
born left handed, but Al was always trying to get
him to use his right hand. Jimmy would eat cereal
with a spoon in his left hand, and I would
take the spoon and put it in his right hand.
I would take the pencil out of Jimmy's left hand
(09:41):
to put it in his right hand. God forbid that
Il caught Jimmy playing the guitar left handed. Ain't no
son of mine gonna play no devil guitar. You play
that thing like a normal person, like a Christian, or
so help me God, I will break it in half
while you watch. Left handed guitar was surely the sign
of the devil. It was unnatural, Al thought to pray
raved ungodly people would talk, so Jimmy had to learn
(10:03):
to play it upside down like a right hander. In
case Al walked in his bedroom and announced left handed
guitar was some devil ship. Jimmy sat on his bed alone,
the five dollar guitar pulled tight against his chest on
top of his lap. His door was closed but not latched.
A two inch gap kept it open to the hallway.
(10:25):
Better to hear his father approaching the next time and
not be taken by surprise. He was holding the guitar
right handed, and where he had strung at lefty it
was upside down. He had to try at least to
play it upside down, if for nothing else, to avoid
the hell fire. That al was just itching unleash. It
was like someone had swapped wires in his brain. His
left hand on the neck and right hand picking at
(10:46):
the strings like some scavenger bird picking at the corpse
of a bloated animal on the side of the road,
childlike remedial run of the middle dissonance, random packs, garbage sound.
He flipped back over lefty style, and right hand wrapped
itself tight around the neck and wouldn't let go. The
maple wood of the guitar neck was flesh now. He
felt the blood pumped to the palm of his hand
(11:08):
and surged into the guitar neck like his heart was
right there. The hair on the back of his neck
stood up. His left hand brought the guitar pick down
to the strings viciously, and he lit into that little
ship box. He played the flurry of notes he heard
in his head, this melodic improvisation over a one, four
or five blues tune. The fingernails on his right hand
arched like plants, favoring the sun towards the fretboard. The
(11:31):
guitar was hot, hell fire for sure. He thought he
heard footsteps in the hall and quickly turned the guitar
back over right handed. He sounded like shit again and
there was no connection between his body and the instrument.
Clunky pecks again, garbage sound. He flipped it back lefty
style and felt the surge to go through his body
once more. His right hand got hot. He looked down
(11:53):
and couldn't tell where his hand ended him the guitar's
neck began. He didn't even think about what he was doing.
He didn't have to his hands, his arms there were
a part of this now, soon his whole body to me.
In a few years, Jimmy would play it upside down,
right side up, on his head, behind his back. He
would lower it over the Devil's instrument. But first things first.
Before he could devote himself entirely to the guitar, his
(12:16):
time belonged to someone else, Uncle Sam. It was army
time for joy riding Jimmy Hendricks, and no amount of
devil ship was going to stop that from happening. He
would just have to figure out a way to make
the best of it, endure it, live through it, and
then get out fast, get out early. He'd have to
get creative, do something that would shock the army. Not
enough for a dishonorable discharge, but just enough so that
(12:40):
he packed his bags and hit the road. Jimmie Hendricks
(13:02):
was masturbating furiously, and he got caught. Not by his mom,
not by his dad, not in his bedroom. Jimmy was
having a whank in the barracks at Fort Campbell, Kentucky,
out in the open. A superior officer found him. There
are moving at a feverish pace, his breathing labored and rough.
(13:23):
He was peeking plateaung. He was nineteen Private first Class
and the hundred first Airborne. The screaming eagles. Goddamn right
that eagle was screaming in the spring two Private Hendricks
Jimmy's head shot up from where he was seated on
his bunk, panicked, humiliated, mortified, no pun intended, caught red
(13:44):
handed with his pants down, with his stick in his hand.
Are you supposed to be on duty? Son? It was
on all in act. The shock, the disbelief, the shame,
the humiliation. This whole thing was jive. Private Hendricks, Private
first class jump or paratrooper, death to fire. Jim Me
Hendrick sitting prone in an army barracks in Kentucky, wearing
standard issue all of drab fatigues. Jimmy Hendricks in the army.
(14:08):
Now it was all bullshit. This wasn't Jimmy Hendricks. Anyone
could see that Jimmy wanted to get caught in the act.
Do something stupid. Jimmy, wait until they were making their
rounds and just sit out in the open spanking it.
It would make his story airtight, legit. His plan to
get the funk out of the army less than a
(14:28):
year after he went and got himself enlisted was gonna work.
He met with the based psychiatrist a few times in
the spring to put his plan into action. Change up
the plot, and he no longer wanted to be Jimmy Hendricks,
the army man, the one on one er. He needed
something fantastical in order to wriggle out of his three
year commitment, and offered. They couldn't refuse three years, three
(14:51):
years of tumbling from great heights and praying to God
that the shoot would open when it was supposed to.
Funck now, never mind what was going on in Cuba.
Laos to be an um. It made it through the
exhaustion of basic training at Fort Ord in California the
previous year, only to realize that Fort Campbell as the
greenest member of the hundred and first Airborne, that this
(15:12):
certainly wasn't his path, not who he was supposed to be.
He asked to speak with the base psychiatrists. It was urgent.
Uh Doc, it's like this, I think I'm a homosexual
homo what? Jimmy spun the tail to an army shrink
in a proto don't ask, don't tell a world. He
was thinking about the other guys in the barracks and
(15:33):
the showers. He was getting turned on all the time.
He was hard all the time. He couldn't take it anymore, Doc,
And the psychiatrist wasn't sure what to do with this.
Is his love or is this confusion? He told Jimmy
to calm down, to get over it. That's what he
did in the army, get over it. But Jimmy kept
going back, kept requesting appointments with the base headshrinker, kept
(15:53):
adding to the story. Uh, Doc, it's like this. I
can't stop touching myself. Do you know what I mean? Doc?
Can you even look at these guys in here and
the next thing you know, your hands are down your pants.
I can't stop it, Doc, I don't want to stop.
Jimmy sat on a chair in the base psychiatrist's office,
his eyes straight to the floor. He pulled on his
standard issue tie, turned his standard issue cadet cap over
(16:14):
and over in his hands. Once he was caught in
the act, things moved quickly. He got the once over
by a captain at the base who gave Jimmy the
first full exam he'd had since joining the year before.
Captain Halbert his notes were a succinct bigoted, narrow minded.
Just as Jimmy had hoped. Jimmy had quote unquote personal problems.
(16:38):
Perhaps the United States Military and Jimmie Hendricks should go
their separate ways. Jimmie Hendrix just was an army material.
Jimmy chose the hundred and first Airborne not just because
it was sexy and cutting edge. The airborne power troopers
who hit the beach on D Day were the stuff
of legends, but serving for the hundred and first Airborne
(16:58):
also meant an extra freak bucks in your pocket. Each month,
Jimmy's father, Al Hendrix, shipped his guitar to him from
back home in Seattle. It allowed him to hang on
to a piece of himself, a piece of himself that
he could recognize. It was like a missing appendage. The
guitar was a Dan Electro, a silvertone, a budget model
with a decent tone, budget enough that a teenager like
(17:21):
Jimmy could afford it, but decent enough that it would
be favored. I'lbe it briefly by Eric Clapton during his
Blind Faith and by Sid Barrett and Pink Floyd's Salad years.
Jimmy bought it for fifty bucks at Sears Roebuck. It
was white, but he painted it red. He wrote Betty
Jean and big letters on its front after his high
school girlfriend, and Jimmy didn't keep his guitar in a case.
(17:44):
At every opportunity he would play, he walked around the
basse with it strung to his back like string Hayden
and Johnny guitar. He talked to it, slept with it.
During downtime, Jimmy would plug his Dan Electro and amplifiers
at the club on bass. He'd jam on the blues
tunes from Back Home, Muddy Waters, Helen Wolf, BB King,
and the guitar would echo through the empty service club hall,
(18:06):
and Jimmy would close his eyes and imagine the hall
full of people, and this could be him, This could
be Jimmy Hendricks. One afternoon, another serviceman walked in with
a club, seeking shelter from the rain outside. Jimmy was oblivious,
but this dude stopped to listen. It's nd like anything
he'd ever heard before. Later described what he heard as
Beethoven meets John Lee Hooker. It was Billy Cox, bass
(18:29):
player from Pittsburgh, fellow Screaming Eagle. He'd go on to
play in one of Jimmy's first real bands, and again
in his last real band. Throughout he'd be a constant
in Jimmy's life, a friend, an ally, a fellow gypsy,
fellow army trooper, a true brother in arms. Right now,
though Billy Cox was standing silent listening to the sounds
(18:50):
from Jimmy, stan electro bounced around the service Club Number one,
thinking who the fuck is this dude. Jimmy and Billy
became fast friends. They're band, The Casuals with a K
played bass clubs. Eventually they played joints outside of Fort Campbell,
morph into the King Casuals with two K's, and soon
Jimmy was imagining a life outside the Army, a life
(19:12):
without the army, a life free from the stress of
the jumps and the repetition of the Fort Campbell lifestyle.
Play Late, sleep in, wake up, Play, guitar jam, a
little hit, the next gig. Repeat. But to get to
that place where he could stroll around like Sterling Hayden
all day long, he would have to transcend this reality.
He would have to get as far away from the
army as possible before his skin turned the color of camouflage,
(19:35):
before he bled red, white and blue. He had to
lay some trip that would be impossible to come back from.
He'd say he was gay. He had no problem with
that personally, but it drove the military types up the
fucking wall. Being gay in the early nineteen sixties was
a social prison for some, but for Jimmy Hendricks, it
was his ticket to freedom. Gotta get away, Stone, free
(19:57):
to do what I please, Stone, free to ride the breeze.
Jimmy had recently heard his ankle jumping from an airplane,
and that would be the perfect reason to give when
friends and family asked what had happened to him why.
Less than a year after enlisting, he was out on
the street, out on his own, no direction home. His
discharge papers in May sixty two told a different story.
(20:20):
Of course, behavior problems requires excessive supervision. While on duty,
apprehended masturbating and platoon area the ruse worked. He was
stone free, and now what? He didn't have to play
this role any longer. But now who would he be?
It would have to be different new He's sure as
hell wasn't going to go back to that spody was
(20:42):
him before winding up in the army, Dead, broke, busted
head in jail. He let his guitar lead him there,
lead him far away from the army, far away from home,
far from a comfort zone, surrounded by smoke, noise, temptation,
things he hadn't seen, and things he would start to
see a lot more of. Some of the best teachers
(21:03):
laid in wait downe a darkened hallway behind the stage,
stained with sweat and spit and dirt, in a dressing
room stained with god knows what else. Deep into these
dens of experience, he'd go to find out just how
much more devilish he could become. We'll be right back
after this word word word. Jimmie Hendricks was out of
(21:31):
the army and searching for Billy Davis, the Billy Davis,
Hank Ballard's guitar player, the cat behind the monster riff
on Sexy Ways and the Whiplash solo on look at
Little Sister, the guy who rubbed elbows with John Lee Hooker,
Jackie Wilson and Smokey Robinson. They called him the face.
Chicks dug him. Dudes wanted his duds. He was only
(21:51):
a few years older than Jimmy, but in guitar years,
in show biz years, the dude was a legend. He
was the wise old man at the top of the
mountain that she me had only begun to climb. Hank
Ballard in the Midnighters, had just finished their first set
of the night in Jimmy's hometown at the Eagles Auditorium.
Sixteen year old Jimmy brought his guitar to the show.
(22:12):
Brought his own guitar to someone else's show. It wasn't
leaving until he got some pointers from his hero, Billy Davis.
It was the shitty acoustic guitar given to him by
Ernestine that he had re strong lefty. He sat there
in a chair, guitar on his lap, and watched the
Midnighters run through their well oiled show, dressed to the nines,
singing those lyrics that got their songs pulled from the
(22:33):
air by stations all over the country. Annie Please don't cheat,
give me all my meat, and Billy Davis nearly showing
up Hank Ballard. He was flashy as hellfire, dancing, spinning, twirling,
playing his guitar behind his head, holding his guitar near
his amp to coax house some discord and feedback. Billy
had it all the chops, the looks, the moves. Everyone
(22:55):
else in the room was watching Hank Ballard, but Jimmy
kept his eye on the guitar player absorbed every move.
Intermission hit and Jimmy jumped up clawed his way through
the crowd towards the stage to track down Billy. He
had to find Billy. The band was nowhere to be found,
probably in their dressing room already. Jimmy didn't know how.
(23:16):
He didn't filtrate, but did he get back there? Pulled
up ballads. Trumpet player was talking up some little mistranged
and well warmed polo skirt stage right. Jimmy made a bline,
the acoustic guitar in his hand, banging into people mingling
throughout the crowd. Hey man, Jimmy Hollard at the Hornman.
Where's Billy Davis? Can I talk to Billy? Hornman held
up his finger to the girl to pause their conversation
(23:37):
and gave Jimmy a look that was halfway between disgust
and shock. Say what, Billy, Billy Davis? I want to
ask him some questions about playing guitar? See and Jimmy
lifted a guitar up to offer the Hornman a better view,
flashed a toothy smile, and the Hornman's face changed from
a scowl to a smirk, and suddenly he was laughing. Ship,
(23:58):
you gotta be kidding me with this horse Ship kid,
Go back to your seat, enjoy the show. Jimmy stood
his ground. He came all the way over here. He
brought his damn guitar. He was gonna get some tips
from Billy Davis. God damnit, he interrupted Hornman again. This
was important, urged he was a huge fan. He just
had to meet him. Horn Man looked at Jimmy's face,
that face that summoned strangers, that face that had charisma
(24:20):
to spare. All right, fuck it, follow me. I am
promising you nothing though, Hornman motion to Jimmy to follow
him behind the stage down a darkened hallway to the
band's dressing room. The dressing room door opened, and peaking
over Hornman's shoulder, Jimmy spied the action dressing room confidential.
The midnight is laughing, yelling at each other, drinking hoops
(24:40):
from little cups, smoking stubby cigarettes, thick waffs of reefer suspenders,
shined up shoes pullmade infectious laughter of women. A two
radio pumping out the coasters. Charlie Brown fee fee five
five fox fox fum I smell smoke. In the auditorium
front and center. Billy Davis chilling on a seat with
a girl dangling on each knee. The girls were laughing,
(25:03):
laughing way too hard, their heads thrown back into attention,
getting ecstasy. Billy's eyes at half masks grinning from ear
to ear. Who walks in the classroom? Cool and slow?
Who calls the English teacher daddy yo yo? Billy Hornman
hauled into the dude, this is this kid who wants
to talk to you. He brought a guitar. I'm busy man.
(25:23):
Billy turned his attention back to the girls, took a
long drag from a thin cigarette, mumbled something to one
of them, something like tell me that again, baby, But
one of the band members in the room shut the
dressing room door, a shut Hornman shrugged his shoulders, and
that was that. Them's the brakes, kid, Nah, them's ain't
the brakes, Jimmy insisted, dog torn man, how did him
(25:46):
threaten to annoy the ship out of him all night
long if he didn't get him five minutes with his
idol or Man made another attempt, and Billy shot back
the same response. I said, I was busy, Billy. This
kid is annoying the ship out of me. He only
be a loan and he brought his goddamn guitar. The
third time turned out to be the charm. Billy conceded
(26:06):
ushered the girls off his lap, and that Jimmy out
in the hallway, and Jimmy smile took over his entire face.
The face made fast friends. Billy felt his annoyance deflate. Obviously,
this was a fan and a dedicated one at that.
Billy's ego was in control now, so Jimmy and Billy
shook hands, and then the day loser questions him, how
(26:27):
do you make a sound like that. When do you
know how to bend a note? How do you know
you're bending the right note? How do you make that
scuffing sound and fingerpop in time? How many hours a
day do you play? Billy laughed, answered some of the questions,
told him some of the other answers would have to
wait until Jimmy had some more experience under his belt.
He examined the shitty acoustic guitar, which Jimmy knew was shitty,
knew he could do better. He was just so eager
(26:49):
to learn. And maybe Billy could just stop by his
house this week. They could sit down and he could
show him a thing or two. I went to midnighters
here in town for a whole week playing shows. Billy
saw the since Sarah in Jimmy's eyes, the realness. The
kid didn't care about the dressing room confidential going on
behind the door, didn't care about the girls, about the smokes,
about the tube radio powered hijinks. He wanted to learn
(27:11):
everything there was to learn about the guitar, as shitty
as his was. He wanted to take the mojo from
Ernestine's seventy eight and injected straight into the fret board
and he wanted Billy Davis to show him how sure
a kid? What's your address? What do you do in tomorrow?
Action June Jimmie Hendricks's crash course tutoring by the Billy
Davis is fantastical, mythical even, but it totally happened. Billy
(27:35):
went to Al and Jimmy's house a few times during
the week that the band was in Seattle, distilled the
lifetime of playing and noodling and learning into a couple
of afternoon sessions. A few years later, Billy laid down
the guitar on Jackie Wilson's time was classic You Love
Keeps lifting Me higher and higher, and in two thousand
twelve he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall
of Fame as a member of the Midnighters. But his
(27:56):
tutelage of a young Jimmie Hendricks likely was enough of
a country be your Ship. Jimmy's first attempt to insert
himself into the scene, be in the right place at
the right time, to learn what he wanted from who
he wanted was his success, and it gave him confidence,
or at least the lack of fear, to go out
and do it again. It came in handy as he
joined some of his first bands, first the Velvet Tones
(28:18):
and then the Rock and Kings. He'd hang around the
Spanish Castle legendary dance Hall, an hour outside of Seattle,
and offered to fill in for other bands if they
needed a player. The more he looked, the more he saw.
The more he searched, the more he found. Sometimes he
wouldn't even be looking. Sometimes these things just pulled up
in a car, opened the door, and stepped out in
(28:40):
front of him. Jimmy's younger brother, Leon burst through the
(29:07):
front door and recounted the story breathlessly. It was a
long black limousine. It was parked right outside to Carlton
having a grocery. Just as he was walking by, a
little Richard climbed out of it. It was Leon there,
of course, Leon was there. He stopped dead in his tracks,
mouth the game. Little Richard stepped out of that limo,
white tie on, white shirt, dark mohair suit, big gass hair,
(29:28):
pencil mustache, right here in Seattle. He took one look
at Leon and started to testify. Praise Jesus. This wasn't
the twoty fruity Little Richard or leather g string and
feather head dressed Little Richard. This was the god fearing,
life changing gospel spreading Little Richard. Little Richard was known
as one of the architects of rock and roll that
(29:51):
year in ninety seven. After years of wearing makeup and
singing tirelessly of sex charged liberation, he was looking for
and finding signs God. He infamously mistook the launch of
the Soviet Union spot Nick Jue as a red fireball
sent from the heavens. He was on tour in Australia
and saw armageddon and the sky through his big, gaudy
(30:12):
rings in a river boom. No more rock and roll.
It was all God's work from then on out, Old man, trouble,
please wash away all my fears. Leon was out running
a few errands for the house when Little Richard's limo
entered his life. Little Richard immediately invited Leon to come
to the Baptist church that night, where he'd be preaching.
Leon had never met a celebrity before, and Jimmy would
(30:34):
never believe it. The brothers didn't have church clothes per se,
but they did their best. Jimmy shirt was a little dirty,
his shoes torn, and the fancy church going crowd looked
at the brothers up and down when they arrived, like
they were orphans out of a Dickens novel? Who let
these street urchins in here? And they leaned their bikes
up against the exterior of the church. They found a
(30:54):
few seats up front, as close as they could get
to the pulpit, and Jimmy was reminded of the feeling
he got when he saw Elvis performed just a few
months earlier, the anticipation of seeing this person in the flesh,
this famous person who was on your radio all the time.
Unlike the Elvis show, though, Jimmy was going to be
only a few arms length the way from the start tonight,
(31:17):
Little Richard hit the stage, still with the big gass
hair and the pencil mustache minus the makeup, oversized purple
robe trailing behind him. As he prowled in front of
the packed house, his eyes blew up wide, just like
when he's sang Rock and Roll. He shook his head
and raptures twitches, just like you would in front of
a piano. With men, it's impossible, but with God, all
things are possible, he exclaimed. The crowd immediately responded with amens.
(31:41):
And other agreeable grunts ecstasy. Teary eyed, he went on,
he shall know the truth, and the truth shall set
you free. Jimmy closed his eyes, listen to Little Richard's
words and imagine that he wasn't talking about God in
the hereafter he knew what Little Richard was talking about.
He was talking about other truths, about long till Sally,
and about ripping it up, and about how the girl
(32:02):
can't help it. Jimmy imagine that voice booming and wooing
into the Baptist ceiling and transposed it onto the words
he wanted to hear. And after the sermon, Jimmy and
Leon stood in the receiving line to get their blessing
from the celebrity pastor to touch the hem of his garment.
For Jimmy, it was another one of his creative osmosis moments,
to stand next to greatness, observe it, decoded, become it.
(32:26):
Little did Jimmy know that only a few years down
the road, Little Richard would trade in his preaching robe
for his rock and roll shoes once more, only this
time he'd have a young Jimmy Hendrix playing guitar by
his side. I'm Jake Burning In this seven Claus Club
(32:57):
is scored and co written by me jacob En and
Zeth Lundi is the lead writer, editor, and co producer.
The twenty seven Club is mixed and engineered by Sean
Kalen and Matt Owdin, both of whom lent their considerable
music talent to the scoring of this series, as well
additional music and score elements by Ryan Spraker. The twenty
seven Club is produced by myself for Double Elvis in
(33:20):
partnership with I Heart Radio. Sources for this episode are
available at Double Elvis dot com on the twenty seven
Club series page. The twenty seven Club is released weekly
every Thursday. Season one features twelve episodes on Jimmy hendricks In.
Season two will feature twelve episodes on Jim Morrison. If
you like what you here, please be sure to subscribe
(33:40):
to the twenty seven Club on Apple podcast the I
Heart Radio, Apple or wherever you get your podcasts, and
if you'd like to win a free twenty seven Club
poster designed by the man himself, Nate Gonzalez, then leave
a review for twenty seven Club on Apple Podcasts or
hashtag subscribe to twenty seven Club on social media and
We'll pick two winners each week and announced them on
(34:01):
the Double Elvis Instagram page. That's at double Elvis. You're
gonna want to give that a follow, So get out
there and please spread the word about As always, you
can find me blabbing about other crazy rock stars on
my other podcast, dis Graceland, and you can talk to
me per usual on Instagram and Twitter at this Graceland pod.
One way or another, I hope to be talking to
(34:22):
you soon. Until then, what's up, Fear is
Host
Jake Brennan
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