{"id":521103,"date":"2026-04-09T08:43:14","date_gmt":"2026-04-09T08:43:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/521103\/"},"modified":"2026-04-09T08:43:14","modified_gmt":"2026-04-09T08:43:14","slug":"jimi-hendrix-was-the-best-guitarist-to-ever-live","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/521103\/","title":{"rendered":"Jimi Hendrix was the best guitarist to ever live"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Jimi<\/p>\n

(Credits: Far Out \/ Estate of Jimi Hendrix \/ Public Domain)<\/p>\n

Wed 8 April 2026 19:15, UK <\/p>\n

November 25th, 1966, a young guitarist from Seattle took to the stage, white Stratocaster in hand and a smile on his face. Long story short, Jimi Hendrix<\/a> had no idea how much he was about to change the world. <\/p>\n

Hendrix had already been making waves in America, but these were mere ripples compared to what he did in the UK, as it was his move to London which really aided his rise to fame<\/a>. There was no escaping his talent, as he played for bands such as The Isley Brothers in the US, but whenever he tried to establish himself as a solo artist, the critique was always the same: nobody knew how to market him. <\/p>\n

The man was animalistic in his approach to the six-string; he wasn\u2019t just technically proficient, but he was one of the most chaotic performers on the planet. Audiences everywhere were captivated by the way that he played, but in a world driven by record sales, this style of playing wasn\u2019t necessarily going to sell albums. <\/p>\n

Linda Keith, Keith Richards\u2019 girlfriend at the time<\/a>, was a huge fan of Hendrix before he went to the UK, and had seen him perform on plenty of occasions. After experiencing the magnitude of a Jimi Hendrix gig, she couldn\u2019t believe that nobody had picked up the guitarist yet, and wanted to try to help him land a record deal. <\/p>\n

\u201cI couldn\u2019t believe nobody had picked up on him before, because he\u2019d obviously been around,\u201d she said. \u201cJimi was astonishing, the moods he could bring to music, his charisma, his skill and stage presence.\u201d <\/p>\n

When she learned that The Rolling Stones\u2019 manager, Andrew Loog Oldham, was going to watch Hendrix play, she decided to help him out by lending him one of her boyfriend\u2019s top-of-the-line guitars<\/a>. \u201cI must admit the circumstances were less [than] savoury,\u201d she said, \u201cI never actually told Keith that I had taken the guitar because he was away on tour. Jimi used that guitar for [the auditions] and there on in. I doubt Keith ever knew it was missing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite having a great guitar to play, it didn\u2019t help, as Oldham opted not to work with Hendrix. Sure, he could play the guitar, but despite that encapsulating live show, Oldham didn\u2019t think anybody was going to buy his records, and so opted to leave the Seattle-born guitar player. It was looking like no one would ever be interested in working with Hendrix, that is, until The Animals\u2019 bassist, Chas Chandler<\/a>, heard him play. <\/p>\n

\"Former<\/a>Credit: Alamy<\/p>\n

Chandler is probably the only person who could have signed Jimi Hendrix, as it took another musician who was transitioning into the managerial side of the music industry to recognise that while Hendrix\u2019s songs might not have been the most radio-friendly, catchy numbers, there was no doubt about his potential or how special he was. The two of them spoke, and the former convinced him to fly to London, where, at the height of innovative rock music, he would be able to play to audiences that would no doubt be obsessed with his style, and Hendrix agreed. After borrowing $40 from a friend to pay for plane tickets, he was on his way, crossing the ocean, wide-eyed and ready to cement himself as the greatest guitar player of all time, and he really was the greatest guitarist in the world. <\/p>\n

Give fans of rock music a pub to sit in, a pint to drink and a topic to discuss, chances are it will take less than ten minutes before they\u2019re debating who the greatest guitarist is, and while there are a number of names which usually come up during these discussions, including the likes of Jimmy Page, Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, Slash, Ritchie Blackmore, and Angus Young, all excellent choices, none of them holds a candle to Hendrix, and they would be the first to tell you that. <\/p>\n

Before Jimi Hendrix played his first solo gig in London on November 25th, he took part in an impromptu performance with Eric Clapton and Cream<\/a>. \u201cHe asked if he could play a couple of numbers,\u201d recalled Eric Clapton, \u201cI said, \u2018Of course\u2019, but I had a funny feeling about him\u201d. <\/p>\n

At the time, Eric Clapton was one of the most exciting guitarists on the scene. Having already played in The Yardbirds and starting to put together the initial foundation of prog rock with Cream, he wasn\u2019t the kind of artist people just jammed with on a whim. If it had been anybody else that night, Clapton would have played them off the stage, but not Hendrix. After they jammed a few songs together, Clapton knew he had seen the future, as the new bar for guitar greats was raised to the height of Hendrix. <\/p>\n

\u201cHe played just about every style you could think of, and not in a flashy way,\u201d said Clapton, \u201cI mean he did a few of his tricks, like playing with his teeth and behind his back, but it wasn\u2019t in an upstaging sense at all, and that was it\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHe walked off, and my life was never the same again\u201d.<\/p>\n

Eric Clapton<\/p>\n

He continued, \u201cIt was funny, in those days, anybody could get up with anybody if you were convincing enough that you could play. He got up and blew everyone\u2019s mind. I just thought, \u2018Ahh, someone that plays the stuff I love in the flesh, on stage with me\u2019. I was actually privileged to be [on stage with him]\u2026 It\u2019s something that no one is ever going to beat; that incident, that night, it\u2019s historic in my mind but only a few people are alive that would remember it.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

A month later, Jimi Hendrix would play his first official solo gig in London, and in the year that followed, he would rise to the top and be considered one of the greatest guitarists in the world. While those names mentioned earlier are all worthy contenders for said mantle, they would all agree that the only person it could ever truly belong to was Hendrix. His approach to the guitar<\/a>, his animalistic playing style, and the effortless way he improvised over scales and could make them either hellish or angelic in nature was unlike anyone who had come before and anyone who has come since. <\/p>\n

\"Eric<\/a>(Credits: Far Out \/ Chris Hakkens)<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s consider some of the guitarists who are commonly included in the greatest of all time debate and see what they thought about Hendrix. For instance, when Jimmy Page was talking about his favourite guitarists, he said the debate seemed slightly frivolous. \u201cWe\u2019ve lost the best guitarist any of us ever had,\u201d he said, \u201cAnd that was Hendrix\u201d, while also admitting that he would never listen to Hendrix\u2019s music when writing because he knew he would find himself too influenced by it. <\/p>\n

Jeff Beck was at one of those early Hendrix gigs<\/a>, and the moment the Seattle guitarist took to the stage, he knew he was witnessing the evolution of the instrument he loved, recalling, \u201cHe came on, and I went, \u2018Oh, my God\u2019. He had the military outfit on and hair that stuck out all over the place. They kicked off with [Bob Dylan\u2019s] \u2018Like a Rollin\u2019 Stone\u2019, and I thought, \u2018Well, I used to be a guitarist\u2019.\u201d <\/p>\n

AC\/DC have always been praised as a band who use simplistic chord sequences but shapes them in a way so that they sound unique, blues-infused and heavy as hell. Those riffs also provide the perfect backdrop for Angus Young to solo over, as he goes crazy with those flippant fingers, playing face-melting solos all over the world. Young admits that a lot of his soloing technique comes from Jimi Hendrix, as he was inspired by him from a young age, and wasn\u2019t just obsessed with what he played, but how he played it. <\/p>\n

\u201cAnd around when I was about 13\/14, that\u2019s when Jimi Hendrix appeared on the horizon,\u201d he said, \u201cAnd when I first heard the song \u2018Purple Haze\u2019, I was totally enthralled. \u2018How\u2019s he doing that?\u2019 I was just so impressed with it. When along came Hendrix, you kind of went, \u2018Woah! This is another level on guitar\u2019. So I was very much a fan of that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Genres like the blues aren\u2019t just made up of technically proficient guitarists, but also musicians who can play notes in a way that nobody else can. Given Hendrix\u2019s style was an evolved version of the blues, he carried this ethos with him, as even if the solo he was riding over was pretty simple in nature, there is nobody out there who could play it in the same way he could. Steve Vai spoke about this side of Hendrix, saying you can learn how to play songs like \u2018Little Wing\u2019 all you like, but you\u2019ll never make it sound like Hendrix did. <\/p>\n

\"Steve<\/a>(Credits: Far Out \/ Klaus Hellmerich)<\/p>\n

\u201cAlthough learning to play a Jimi Hendrix song for most contemporary guitarists may not pose a tremendous challenge, playing them just like Jimi has never quite been achieved,\u201d he said, \u201cHis touch on the instrument, sense of groove, choice of notes and overall ability to control audio chaos in innovative ways was remarkable.\u201d<\/p>\n

OK, last one. While Hendrix was capable of playing the guitar better than anybody else and tapping into a style that felt both accessible and alien, he also carried himself incredibly well. Being a rockstar doesn\u2019t just mean playing, but it also means looking good while doing it. Slash admitted that out of every musician on the planet, scratch that, person, nobody has ever looked as cool while playing<\/a> as Hendrix did. <\/p>\n

\u201cI remember when I was a kid, probably about 13 or 14 years old, there was a Hendrix movie that used to play at weekends along with The Song Remains The Same,\u201d the Guns N\u2019 Roses guitarist recalled, \u201cThere\u2019s definitely a fascination with Hendrix\u2019s persona, his demeanour, which seemed very, very cool. I don\u2019t think you could get too much cooler than Jimi Hendrix.\u201d<\/p>\n

That was a lot of names, but the point remains, it\u2019s hard to have a genuine debate on who the best guitarist to ever live was, when every other musician who is usually brought up in such a debate all look towards the same man: Jimi Hendrix. It\u2019s also worth noting that he was only ever a mainstream guitarist for about four years, and so the fact that people still talk about him, and the fact that he\u2019s still considered one of the best, decades after his death and after only being in the public eye for a short time, further evidences his dominance over the guitar. <\/p>\n

The beauty of music is the subjectivity of it, and so we can never definitively say who the best guitarist ever is; however, it\u2019s a little bit like those toothpaste adverts you see on TV. If nine out of ten guitarists recommend Jimi Hendrix, then it\u2019s probably Jimi Hendrix, right?<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

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