Back in mid-1967, neither Jimi Hendrix nor Buddy Guy had yet cemented themselves as Mount Rushmore-level guitar pioneers who delighted in breaking rules, bending convention, and blowing minds.
Hendrix was on the cusp of a blinding ascendancy that would see him become, arguably, the most influential electric guitar player who ever lived by the time of his tragic death just three years later. Guy, however, was – and would remain for decades – not nearly as famous as some of the A-list blues-rock guitarists who took cues from his stinging phrases, piercing volume, and embrace of feedback.
Back in 1967, you could forgive the man for snickering a little when compared to one of his younger, more famous blues guitar contemporaries. For instance, Eric Clapton, who decades later would refer to Guy as “the greatest living guitarist”, was already packing arenas with Cream by that time.
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Speaking to Guitar World in 1983, Guy recounted the first time he came across Jimi Hendrix’s name in 1967, via an excited concertgoer who was trying to pay him a backhanded compliment after a gig.
“He said, ‘You sound like Jimi Hendrix!’ I said, ‘Jimi who?’” Guy remembered. When the surprised fan asked the Chicago blues legend, “Don’t you know Jimi Hendrix?” he replied, “‘No, but if he and I play alike you should ask him if he’s heard of me.’”
It wasn’t long before Guy met Hendrix in person, with the latter supposedly telling him that he cancelled a gig to see Guy play. Not too long after came an after-hours Guy/Hendrix jam that was captured for posterity via some wonderfully grainy footage.
Ironically, given that Guy was often chided early in his career for playing too loudly, he felt the same of Hendrix when he first saw the latter play live.
“You’ll laugh, but I thought he used to play too loud,” Guy told Guitar World last year. “When I first came up, Muddy Waters and those guys had two little speakers at each corner of the blues club, and it was a clean sound.”
Waters and co. weren’t playing arenas, however. As rock shows began drawing people by the tens of thousands, and with amp technology in many ways still in its infancy, the first volume wars took hold.
“The clean sound went away because, with the amplifiers, it was a dogfight. It was just a rat race,” Guy told GW. “And then all the special effects came in, and Jimi, I think he was one of the greatest who ever took advantage of the special effects, because a lot of people used them after him.”
Today, Guy is a mainstay act on the ongoing Experience Hendrix tribute tour series. “I’m so grateful we had the chance to become friends,” he told GW last year. “It’s an honor to help keep his legacy alive.”
