Under the Hood: Noel Redding on Meeting Jimi Hendrix

In the early 1960s a young Seattle native named James Marshall Hendrix was a sideman for musicians like Little Richard and the Isley Brothers when he decided to strike out on his own. He relocated to London, where former Animals bass player Chaz Chandler helped him find the musicians that would eventually make up the Jimi Hendrix Experience. From the House of Blues interview archives, Experience bassist Noel Redding remembers the first time he met Hendrix.

I went to audition as a guitar player for the new Animals ’cause the Animals had just broken up. And that’s when Chaz Chandler, god bless him, came up to me and said, “Can you play bass?” So I was handed this bass guitar. And I’d never played a bass in me life before. And there was this American gentleman there, and we played three tunes with no vocals. And then he said to me, would I like to join his group? And that was James Hendrix.

- Noel Redding