The first guitarist to inspire Jimi Hendrix: “It scared me to death”
In conversations surrounding the greatest guitarists of all time, there are several names that will always crop up. Jimmy Page for his enduringly memorable riffs. Angus Young for his schoolboy antics with the instrument. Robert Fripp for his atonal guitar licks. But there is one name that will always come out on top: Jimi Hendrix.
Gaining his love for the guitar in childhood, Hendrix would go on to become a session musician in the early 1960s, performing with legends like Sam Cooke. After honing a reputation as a sought-after guitarist, he ventured into solo writing and recording, making his debut with ‘Hey Joe’ in 1965.
From there, Hendrix would reinvent guitar playing forever. He played the instrument like a singer, with guitar lines that emulated human vocals. Using a Fuzz Face, a Dunlop Cry Baby Wah, and Marshall stacks, he also experimented with noise and feedback in tracks like the anti-war track, ‘Machine Gun’.
Hendrix’s guitar stylings and mammoth legacy have inspired countless others to pick up the stringed instrument or to play with pedals, to practice along to ‘Purple Haze’ and ‘Voodoo Child’, but who first inspired the legend himself to take up playing?
Before Hendrix paved the way for distortion and forged his legacy as the greatest guitarist of all time, he took initial inspiration from Muddy Waters. During a conversation with Rolling Stone, Hendrix remembered Waters as the first guitarist he became aware of, though his first impression of the blues singer wasn’t entirely positive.
“I heard one of his old records when I was a little boy and it scared me to death,” he recalled, “Because I heard all of those sounds. Wow, what is that all about? It was great.” Fortunately for guitar enthusiasts and Hendrix devotees everywhere, that fear turned into curiosity for the instrument. Fright turned into inspiration.
It’s easy to see why the thumping ‘Mannish Boy’ and the twangs of ‘Rollin’ Stone’ would have captured Hendrix’s attention. Waters was an essential figure in the Chicago blues scene, his influence extending far beyond Hendrix. From the Rolling Stones to Angus Young, his impact would forge many of those names who we consider amongst the greatest guitarists of all time.
Hendrix also shared his admiration for fellow blues guitarist Albert King, who he deemed “one of the funkiest I’ve heard”. It’s a quality you can hear from just one listen to ‘Born Under a Bad Sign’ or ‘I’ll Play the Blues For You’, and it’s easy to see how King might have influenced some of Hendrix’s more funky collaborations.
It’s difficult to imagine Hendrix being inspired by anyone, as the guitarist who inspires so many others with his own work, but it’s fitting that Waters was the one who first captured his attention. A fellow guitar great in the blues scene and beyond, his impact would extend far beyond his own work and into the stylings of innumerable guitarists that followed.
Getting over that initial intimidation of the instrument, Hendrix would do exactly the same. Between feedback and fuzz, he created new sounds with the guitar that would spark similar fear and awe in listeners for decades to come. Over half a century since his death, Hendrix remains one of the greatest to ever pick up the guitar.
Listen to ‘Mannish Boy’ by Muddy Waters below.