Johnny B.Goode
2007-10-19 08:03:06 UTC
It's more than a slight return for Jimi Hendrix
The rock legend's estate focuses on projects meant to reveal the man
behind the myth.
By Geoff Boucher, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
October 13, 2007
"Are you any relation?" You can imagine how often Janie Hendrix has
heard that question from strangers who see her last name on her credit
card or a restaurant reservation list. The answer is yes, she's the
sister of the late, great Jimi Hendrix. There's often a second,
unasked question in the eyes of those strangers: How could the guitar
demigod have an actual human being as a relative?
"There's this view of him that he was some alien that just appeared on
Earth and started playing guitar," said the woman who is president and
chief executive of Experience Hendrix, the family-run company that
acts as steward for the icon's legacy and image. "People know the
music, of course, but they don't know what Jimi was really like as a
person. They don't picture him calm and happy, they don't know about
the wonderful sense of humor and the little trickster sensibility he
had about him."
Documenting the voice of Jimi the Man as opposed to the sound of Jimi
the Legend is the emphasis of "Jimi Hendrix: An Illustrated
Experience," which Janie Hendrix cowrote with longtime Hendrix scholar
John McDermott. More than yet another biography, the $45 volume is a
lavish archival package with reproductions of his original drawings,
diary entries, handwritten lyrics and previously unpublished
photographs. There's also a 70-minute audio CD with interviews and
rare tracks.
McDermott is a legacy gatekeeper of sorts in his post as the catalog
manager of Experience Hendrix. He's also the author of two books and
countless essays on the star who died at age 27 in September 1970. He
said that while a small library could be filled with Hendrix tomes at
this point, this new collection is special for its presentation of
primary documents.
"I think it does humanize him, and, despite all the tremendous
influence he exerted on music, he was truly outside the mainstream and
a cult figure during his life," McDermott said. "Only at the very
height of his popularity did he appear in a mainstream medium with his
appearances on 'The Dick Cavett Show.' It was a very small window into
his personality and views of the world and life. With this, our goal
was to give those types of insights and get out of the way and narrow
the space between the fan and Jimi."
With the 40th anniversary of the Summer of Love this year, there has
been a surge in all things Hendrix, and there's more coming. Next
Tuesday, a seven-date East Coast tour kicks off in Washington, D.C.,
celebrating the music of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame member. The
concerts will feature Buddy Guy, Robert Randolph, Kenny Wayne Shepherd
and others. Also appearing: drummer Mitch Mitchell and bassist Billy
Cox, who backed Hendrix at Woodstock.
There are more echoes of the past. On Tuesday, a major new documentary
titled "The Jimi Hendrix Experience Live at Monterey" made its world
premiere at the Egyptian Theatre. The documentary, available next
Tuesday on DVD, is a blend of footage from the firebrand June 1967
performance that made Hendrix a sensation in the U.S. and built on the
searing success he had already enjoyed in Europe.
All of these projects have Janie Hendrix "feeling pretty excited"
about the vigor and reach of Experience Hendrix and the $80-million
estate of the rock star. That hasn't always been the case.
Controling a legacy
Jimi Hendrix died with no will, and his estate went to his father, Al
Hendrix. In the years that followed, though, the elder Hendrix ceded
control of many major decisions to others, and the results left
Hendrix devotees grumbling about the way the icon's music and image
were handled. Al Hendrix wrested control back in federal court, which
led to the creation in 1995 of Experience Hendrix, which most
observers credit with a more reverential handling of the musician's
legacy. Then Al Hendrix died in 2002 and more legal conflict followed.
At the center of the battle were two children of Al Hendrix: Janie,
whom Al Hendrix adopted when he married her mother (making her a half-
sister to Jimi) and Leon Hendrix (Jimi's half-brother). Leon had been
excised from the will by ailing Al Hendrix. In the court fights that
followed, Leon claimed that Janie manipulated her ailing and naive
father to push Leon out and that she paid herself an exorbitant
salary; Janie, meanwhile, claimed that her father had left Leon out of
the will because he fretted that his son's gambling and addictions
would undermine the future of the reinvigorated estate. A judge found
in favor of Janie Hendrix and, in June, the Washington State Supreme
Court declined to review that King County Superior Court decision.
The legal issues aren't resolved, however, and Janie Hendrix is still
bristling over the recent use of Jimi Hendrix's name to sell vodka, a
venture affiliated with Leon. "Sadly, this all still goes on. People
try to use his image in ways that aren't approved and aren't
appropriate," she said. "But that happens, you see with other estates
and other stars. You have to do the right thing, and sometimes the
right thing is to fight."
Janie Hendrix said there is enough material to keep a steady stream of
"exciting projects" for another decade. She's circled spring of 2008
for the release of a project built around Jimi's February 1969
performance at the Royal Albert Hall in London. The concert was filmed
for a theatrical feature that never materialized, but the project also
has footage shot by a crew that followed the star for "about a month."
"We have Jimi as he hasn't been seen before, and not an actor playing
Jimi. This is him as he was, with his guard down and on the road,"
Janie Hendrix said. "We feel fabulous about this project. You see him
flying coach, going into hotels -- and it's him checking himself in,
he's carrying his own bag, there's no people handling it for him --
you see people asking him for autographs. His charm comes across, the
pressure he's under and just his life in moments backstage."
She said there will be a theatrical release as well as a DVD and pay-
per-view release for the project.
"It will be huge for us, and it will be huge for Jimi and his legacy,"
she said. "The music is alive and well, and we want to make sure the
memory of the real Jimi is alive and well also."
The rock legend's estate focuses on projects meant to reveal the man
behind the myth.
By Geoff Boucher, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
October 13, 2007
"Are you any relation?" You can imagine how often Janie Hendrix has
heard that question from strangers who see her last name on her credit
card or a restaurant reservation list. The answer is yes, she's the
sister of the late, great Jimi Hendrix. There's often a second,
unasked question in the eyes of those strangers: How could the guitar
demigod have an actual human being as a relative?
"There's this view of him that he was some alien that just appeared on
Earth and started playing guitar," said the woman who is president and
chief executive of Experience Hendrix, the family-run company that
acts as steward for the icon's legacy and image. "People know the
music, of course, but they don't know what Jimi was really like as a
person. They don't picture him calm and happy, they don't know about
the wonderful sense of humor and the little trickster sensibility he
had about him."
Documenting the voice of Jimi the Man as opposed to the sound of Jimi
the Legend is the emphasis of "Jimi Hendrix: An Illustrated
Experience," which Janie Hendrix cowrote with longtime Hendrix scholar
John McDermott. More than yet another biography, the $45 volume is a
lavish archival package with reproductions of his original drawings,
diary entries, handwritten lyrics and previously unpublished
photographs. There's also a 70-minute audio CD with interviews and
rare tracks.
McDermott is a legacy gatekeeper of sorts in his post as the catalog
manager of Experience Hendrix. He's also the author of two books and
countless essays on the star who died at age 27 in September 1970. He
said that while a small library could be filled with Hendrix tomes at
this point, this new collection is special for its presentation of
primary documents.
"I think it does humanize him, and, despite all the tremendous
influence he exerted on music, he was truly outside the mainstream and
a cult figure during his life," McDermott said. "Only at the very
height of his popularity did he appear in a mainstream medium with his
appearances on 'The Dick Cavett Show.' It was a very small window into
his personality and views of the world and life. With this, our goal
was to give those types of insights and get out of the way and narrow
the space between the fan and Jimi."
With the 40th anniversary of the Summer of Love this year, there has
been a surge in all things Hendrix, and there's more coming. Next
Tuesday, a seven-date East Coast tour kicks off in Washington, D.C.,
celebrating the music of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame member. The
concerts will feature Buddy Guy, Robert Randolph, Kenny Wayne Shepherd
and others. Also appearing: drummer Mitch Mitchell and bassist Billy
Cox, who backed Hendrix at Woodstock.
There are more echoes of the past. On Tuesday, a major new documentary
titled "The Jimi Hendrix Experience Live at Monterey" made its world
premiere at the Egyptian Theatre. The documentary, available next
Tuesday on DVD, is a blend of footage from the firebrand June 1967
performance that made Hendrix a sensation in the U.S. and built on the
searing success he had already enjoyed in Europe.
All of these projects have Janie Hendrix "feeling pretty excited"
about the vigor and reach of Experience Hendrix and the $80-million
estate of the rock star. That hasn't always been the case.
Controling a legacy
Jimi Hendrix died with no will, and his estate went to his father, Al
Hendrix. In the years that followed, though, the elder Hendrix ceded
control of many major decisions to others, and the results left
Hendrix devotees grumbling about the way the icon's music and image
were handled. Al Hendrix wrested control back in federal court, which
led to the creation in 1995 of Experience Hendrix, which most
observers credit with a more reverential handling of the musician's
legacy. Then Al Hendrix died in 2002 and more legal conflict followed.
At the center of the battle were two children of Al Hendrix: Janie,
whom Al Hendrix adopted when he married her mother (making her a half-
sister to Jimi) and Leon Hendrix (Jimi's half-brother). Leon had been
excised from the will by ailing Al Hendrix. In the court fights that
followed, Leon claimed that Janie manipulated her ailing and naive
father to push Leon out and that she paid herself an exorbitant
salary; Janie, meanwhile, claimed that her father had left Leon out of
the will because he fretted that his son's gambling and addictions
would undermine the future of the reinvigorated estate. A judge found
in favor of Janie Hendrix and, in June, the Washington State Supreme
Court declined to review that King County Superior Court decision.
The legal issues aren't resolved, however, and Janie Hendrix is still
bristling over the recent use of Jimi Hendrix's name to sell vodka, a
venture affiliated with Leon. "Sadly, this all still goes on. People
try to use his image in ways that aren't approved and aren't
appropriate," she said. "But that happens, you see with other estates
and other stars. You have to do the right thing, and sometimes the
right thing is to fight."
Janie Hendrix said there is enough material to keep a steady stream of
"exciting projects" for another decade. She's circled spring of 2008
for the release of a project built around Jimi's February 1969
performance at the Royal Albert Hall in London. The concert was filmed
for a theatrical feature that never materialized, but the project also
has footage shot by a crew that followed the star for "about a month."
"We have Jimi as he hasn't been seen before, and not an actor playing
Jimi. This is him as he was, with his guard down and on the road,"
Janie Hendrix said. "We feel fabulous about this project. You see him
flying coach, going into hotels -- and it's him checking himself in,
he's carrying his own bag, there's no people handling it for him --
you see people asking him for autographs. His charm comes across, the
pressure he's under and just his life in moments backstage."
She said there will be a theatrical release as well as a DVD and pay-
per-view release for the project.
"It will be huge for us, and it will be huge for Jimi and his legacy,"
she said. "The music is alive and well, and we want to make sure the
memory of the real Jimi is alive and well also."