Jimi Hendrix was a guitar-playing revelation and blew the minds of those who heard him on both sides of the Atlantic in the late 1960s. However, despite admiring what the new kid on the block could do, Buddy Guy has confessed he didn’t love everything about Hendrix.
Guy, raised on Louisiana and Mississippi blues greats like John Lee Hooker and B.B. King, was from a slightly different school than Hendrix – who brought something completely new to the table.
“Well, you know, after I met Jimi Hendrix… you’ll laugh, but I thought he used to play too loud,” Guy says in the new issue of Guitar World. “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.”
Hendrix, on the other hand, wasn’t quite so clean. He was, in truth, a product of changing times.
“When the British guys started playing, they had stacks of Marshalls,” Guy explains. “And when I got to know Jimi, I’d go see him and say, ‘Before you go in there, you ain’t gonna hear nothing.’ That type of sound just took over.”
Ironically, Guy was told early in his career that he abused the volume dial of his amps too much. But in his days playing blues clubs, tucked away with a small amp in the corner of the room, he made some quiet innovations. That included embracing feedback after a lady's dress accidentally whipped his guitar during a break.
Jimi Hendrix would continue reinventing the blues.
“The clean sound went away because, with the amplifiers, it was a dogfight. It was just a rat race,” Guy recalls. “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.”
Guy first met Hendrix in 1968, when the latter is said to have cancelled a gig to watch his hero play, and they struck up a fruitful friendship.
“I'm so grateful we had the chance to become friends. It's an honor to help keep his legacy alive,” he tells Guitar World, alluding to his decision to play the 2025 Experience Hendrix Tour. The lineup included stars from across generations, including Zakk Wylde, Samantha Fish, and Christone ‘Kingfish’ Ingram.
Guy has since said that he won't retire until the blues gets a higher profile, and his role in the blockbuster smash Sinners certainly helped with that mission.
Find Guy’s full interview in the latest issue of Guitar World, which features a bumper cover story on Guns N’ Roses, with work on a new album confirmed.
Head to Magazines Direct to pick up a copy.
