It’s often been rumored that Jimi Hendrix wanted to form a supergroup with Paul McCartney once the Beatles' breakup became imminent. Rock's two most-famous lefties teaming up sounds like a match made in heaven. But was there any truth in it?
Supposedly, a cablegram — a now outdated form of telegram — was sent to the Beatle in October 1969, on the same day that the “Paul McCartney is dead” rumor began to circulate. The offer is said to have come from producer Alan Douglas, who had put together Hendrix’s second outfit, the Band of Gypsys.
The rumored group would have consisted of Hendrix, Miles Davis and his go-to drummer, Tony Williams, with McCartney supposedly the missing piece of the puzzle.
The unofficial fan site The Paul McCartney Project says the former Beatle was invited to a recording session with the rest of the artists in New York, on October 22, 1969, the same day that he was traveling to Scotland to spend time with his family at his farm near Campbeltown.
The notion may sound tempting, but McCartney told Howard Stern in 2018 he has no evidence of a cablegram or any invitation being sent. .
“I never received one,” he said, adding, “There are lots of ‘what ifs.’"
As McCartney went on to explain, he was a Hendrix fan.
"I certainly love Jimi. I was one of the first people to see him in London,” he said, “and it was mind blowing.
“I was in a club late at night called the Bag of Nails, which is actually where I met Linda [Eastman, whom he'd later marry], and it was empty. I heard this sort of clunking noise — the sound of a jack plug going into a big amp — and it was Jimi, Noel [Redding, bass], and Mitch [Mitchell, drums]. It was the Jimi Hendrix Experience on the stage in the corner, and they played their whole act to virtually no one.”
Asked at what moment during the set he knew this mystery guitarist’s talents were extraordinary, he replies, “probably the first minute. The first second that he started playing guitar.
“That was a Friday night, it was just me and some friends,” he adds. “By Tuesday night, the word had got out. Now the club was steaming and packed for this new god in town.”
McCartney’s potential Jimi Hendrix link-up was not the only time a member of the Fab Four was involved in a would-be supergroup. In 1971, John Lennon tried to pull Eric Clapton out of his darkness by forming a band with him that could “bring the balls back to rock n’ roll.”
Both, tragically, never came to pass, and less than a year after the supposed offer was made, Jimi Hendrix was dead, all too soon.
As for McCartney, the 1970s proved to be a hit-and-miss decade, from his solo work to his second group, Wings. Discussing the rumors of his death in his new book, Wings: The Story of a Band on the Run, he said that “in so many ways, I was dead… a 27-year-old about-to-become-ex-Beatle.” The chance to work with a jazz legend and arguably the greatest guitar player to have ever lived would surely have filled the void left by the Beatles' demise.
