Before he shot to fame with his own band, Jimi Hendrix cut his teeth playing with a hodgepodge of other musical acts.
There was his time in Little Richard's band, where he was fired for repeatedly showing up late and wearing flashy clothes that upstaged the star. He also enjoyed a brief stint with the dancing duo Buddy & Stacey, and worked with the Isley Brothers, with whom he lived for a short while.
And then there' his unusual impromptu show performing with a 1960s British pop singer by the name of Engelbert Humperdinck.
It happened in spring 1967 during Hendrix's early days with the Experience. In attempt to build upon the guitarist's growing fame, the Experience were placed on a U.K. tour opening for a motley bill of performers that included Cat Stevens, the American pop group the Walker Brothers and Humperdinck, who was the headliner. The singer was at the start of a long hit-making career with his second single, "Release Me," a chart topper in the U.K. and a number four hit in the U.S. .
Humperdinck knew Experience bass guitarist Noel Redding, who had previously played in his group. He didn't know Hendrix, but he was aware of his talent and the excitement that was building around him.
“He had to tour with people who were well known, so he was on my bill,” Humperdinck recalls (via app.com). “He did an amazing job.”
The run of dates launched at the Finsbury Park Astoria, where Hendrix set his guitar on fire for the first time on March 31, 1967. It was later on the same tour that he had his impromptu show with Humperdinck.
“One day, my guitarist didn’t show up for the date,” Humperdinck explained in an interview on his YouTube channel. “And he said, ‘Don’t worry, man, I’ll play for you.’
“I said, ‘You can't be out in the open, playing. You know, you're a star in your own right.’
“He said, ‘I tell you what I'll do: I'll play behind the curtain.’
In his interview app.com, Humperdinck says it was his idea for Hendrix to play offstage. “He was a star,” the singer tells the outlet. “I couldn’t put him onstage, could I?”
Regardless of how it happened, Humperdinck was impressed by Hendrix's performance.
“It felt as though there were three guitars behind me that night,” he told Classic Rock. “That’s how great he sounded. He was so solid and made everything sound massive.
“Afterwards, I said to the audience: ‘I don’t think you people realize, but the great Jimi Hendrix has just been playing guitar for me.’”
Humperdinck recalled other interactions with Hendrix that left an impression on him.
“He was an unusual character even back then,” he says. “But he was a really nice human being.
“I happened to comment one day, ‘Jimi, that’s a nice jacket,’ and he wanted to take it off his back to give it to me. I wish I’d have taken it now, at least I’d have had something very special from a very special man.”
Odd as that last claim may sound, Hendrix was famous for his generosity, and gave away everything from his clothes to his guitars. He was also known to assist other musicians, such as the time he helped the Alice Cooper Band score their first record deal and gave Pink Floyd a boost in an interview with Melody Maker.
And while Jimi’s gig with a pop crooner like Humperdinck may have been offbeat, it wasn't the strangest gig Hendrix ever played.
