(Credits: Far Out / Sony Music Entertainment)
Mon 15 December 2025 19:40, UK
When it came to The Jimi Hendrix Experience, conversations usually surrounded their profoundly groundbreaking music and what had prompted such an elemental sound. Of course, most of this concentrated on the frontman and guitarist, who had blown up seemingly overnight after cutting his teeth for years on America’s bubbling underground circuit.
As is well-known, Hendrix was an amiable character who was more than willing to discuss the motivations behind his music, what he wanted from the future of his career, and perhaps most fascinatingly of all, those who inspired him. From the bluesmen of days gone by to an assortment of artists he would come to rub shoulders with, Hendrix discussed a number of greats in his short time in the limelight.
Demonstrating the breadth of Hendrix’s taste, he cited the Irish musician Rory Gallagher as the best guitarist in the world. When appearing on The Mike Douglas Show at the peak of his powers, Douglas asked Hendrix: “What’s it was like to be the best rock guitarist in the world?”
Hendrix responded: “I don’t know, you’ll have to ask Rory Gallagher”. Elsewhere, the likes of ZZ Top’s Billy Gibbons and Bob Dylan were others he championed. Hendrix spent a large part of his career paying tribute to hosts of other musicians whom he saw as similarly equipped adventurers in the musical landscape.
It wasn’t just the guitarists who found themselves being praised by Hendrix. The guitarist famously stayed up all night to learn ‘Sgt Pepper’ for The Beatles when they arrived at his show, and also performed a cover of Cream on the BBC, which saw him banned. However, when it came to bands, although Hendrix cited many as being brilliant, Hendrix and his Experience bandmates Mitch Mitchell and Noel Redding felt that The Kinks were the “greatest they ever saw”, according to Ray Davies.
The ‘Waterloo Sunset’ songwriter’s claim came when speaking to Mojo in 2023. This materialised in response to being asked if he was forced into exploring Englishness with his music due to The Kinks being banned from playing in the US between 1965 and 1969 and whether this age-old story has been taken too literally by commentators.
Davies said: “Yes, because I was writing English songs right from the start. My heroes were Chet Atkins, Big Bill Broonzy… So I wanted to make my own blues and I think I was heading in that direction anyway. But it was the American touring that pulled the plug on everything. Writing songs with English themes became a way of cocooning myself away. Protecting myself.”
He continued: “We were due to play Monterey, Woodstock, one of those big festivals, where everyone was emulating our style. The only person who gave us credit for what we did was Jimi Hendrix. He Mitch [Mitchell] and Noel [Redding] all said the greatest band they ever saw was The Kinks. A lot of our peers said we were finished, but we were still making records. You had to tour the States to get on American TV shows. If you didn’t get a foot on that continent, you couldn’t get promoted.”
The Kinks would certainly find some well-deserved fame in America, but there isn’t much doubt that they remained more pivotal to the British music scene than in the US. The group are perhaps the defining image of British rock and, perhaps for that reason alone, they became Hendrix’s favourite.
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