{"id":355741,"date":"2025-12-18T08:41:16","date_gmt":"2025-12-18T08:41:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/355741\/"},"modified":"2025-12-18T08:41:16","modified_gmt":"2025-12-18T08:41:16","slug":"they-played-their-whole-act-to-virtually-no-one-paul-mccartney-on-seeing-jimi-hendrix-perform-to-an-empty-club-and-those-rumors-about-their-supergroup-with-miles-davis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/355741\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cThey played their whole act to virtually no one.\u201d Paul McCartney on seeing Jimi Hendrix perform to an empty club \u2014 and those rumors about their supergroup with Miles Davis"},"content":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s often been rumored that Jimi Hendrix wanted to form a supergroup with Paul McCartney once the Beatles’ breakup became imminent. Rock’s two most-famous lefties teaming up sounds like a match made in heaven. But was there any truth in it?<\/p>\n

Supposedly, a cablegram \u2014 a now outdated form of telegram \u2014 was sent to the Beatle in October 1969, on the same day that the \u201cPaul McCartney is dead\u201d rumor<\/a> began to circulate. The offer is said to have come from producer Alan Douglas, who had put together Hendrix\u2019s second outfit, the Band of Gypsys.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The rumored group would have consisted of Hendrix, Miles Davis and his go-to drummer, Tony Williams, with McCartney supposedly the missing piece of the puzzle.<\/p>\n

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The unofficial fan site The Paul McCartney Project<\/a> says the former Beatle was invited to a recording session with the rest of the artists in New York, on October 22, 1969, the same day that he was traveling to Scotland to spend time with his family at his farm near Campbeltown.<\/p>\n

The notion may sound tempting, but McCartney told Howard Stern in 2018 he has no evidence of a cablegram or any invitation being sent. .<\/p>\n

\u201cI never received one,\u201d he said, adding, \u201cThere are lots of \u2018what ifs.\u2019”<\/p>\n

As McCartney went on to explain, he was a Hendrix fan.<\/p>\n

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“I certainly love Jimi. I was one of the first people to see him in London,\u201d he said, \u201cand it was mind blowing.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was in a club late at night called the Bag of Nails, which is actually where I met Linda [Eastman, whom he’d later marry], and it was empty. I heard this sort of clunking noise \u2014 the sound of a jack plug going into a big amp \u2014 and it was Jimi, Noel [Redding, bass<\/a>], and Mitch [Mitchell, drums]. It was the Jimi Hendrix Experience on the stage in the corner, and they played their whole act to virtually no one.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asked at what moment during the set he knew this mystery guitarist\u2019s talents were extraordinary, he replies, \u201cprobably the first minute. The first second that he started playing guitar.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThat was a Friday night, it was just me and some friends,\u201d he adds. \u201cBy Tuesday night, the word had got out. Now the club was steaming and packed for this new god in town.\u201d<\/p>\n

McCartney\u2019s potential Jimi Hendrix link-up was not the only time a member of the Fab Four was involved in a would-be supergroup. In 1971, John Lennon tried to pull Eric Clapton out of his darkness by forming a band with him<\/a> that could \u201cbring the balls back to rock n\u2019 roll.\u201d<\/p>\n

Both, tragically, never came to pass, and less than a year after the supposed offer was made, Jimi Hendrix was dead, all too soon.<\/p>\n

\n

\"Paul\n<\/p>\n

(Image credit: Getty Images)<\/p>\n

As for McCartney, the 1970s proved to be a hit-and-miss decade, from his solo work to his second group, Wings. Discussing the rumors of his death in his new book, Wings: The Story of a Band on the Run, he said that \u201cin so many ways, I was dead\u2026 a 27-year-old about-to-become-ex-Beatle.\u201d The chance to work with a jazz legend and arguably the greatest guitar player to have ever lived<\/a> would surely have filled the void left by the Beatles’ demise.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It\u2019s often been rumored that Jimi Hendrix wanted to form a supergroup with Paul McCartney once the Beatles’…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":355742,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[53],"tags":[88,216],"class_list":{"0":"post-355741","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-music"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/355741","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=355741"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/355741\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/355742"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=355741"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=355741"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=355741"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}