Earlier this month, we published Steve Barker’s January 1967 interview with Jimi Hendrix, who was then recording “Purple Haze.” Steve interviewed Jimi a second time on November 8, 1967, following a concert in the Manchester University Students’ Union. A few sentences from this conversation appeared in the February 1968 issue of Unit, a small student magazine. The version below is the first time the entire interview has been published.
At the time of this interview, Jimi was in a flurry of activity. In the two weeks leading up to the interview, …

Bob Weir’s long, strange trip with the Grateful Dead began on New Year’s Eve, 1963, when he followed the sound of a banjo into a Palo Alto music store. There, by chance, he met bluegrass veteran Jerry Garcia, waiting for a student. The 16-year-old Weir played folk guitar, and the two enjoyed a marathon jam session. They decided to form an acoustic band – Mother McCree’s Uptown Jug Champions – with Ron “Pigpen” McKernan, who doubled on harmonica and drums. Inspired by the Beatles, the musicians switched to electric instruments …

During the 1960s Jorma Kaukonen created some of the purest psychedelic guitar solos on record. His electrifying guitar playing on Jefferson Airplane’s Surrealistic Pillow – especially on the Top-10 single “Somebody to Love”– became part of the soundtrack of the Summer of Love era and helped define the San Francisco sound. Guitarists also revere Jorma for another track on that album: His beautiful acoustic instrumental “Embryonic Journey” introduced a generation of fingerpickers to dropped-D tuning and inspired many people – myself included – to buy their first guitars.
Kaukonen originally played country …

First, a quick background check: Barry “The Fish” Melton played lead guitar on the San Francisco scene’s first psychedelic record, and went on to play the Monterey and Woodstock festivals. His new “neo-psychedelic” release with Parisian guitarist/vocalist Stephan Missri and band is, in a word, extraordinary. It’s trippy, politically and socially conscious, and brilliantly played. Deadheads – Garcia freaks in particular – will love Melton and Missri’s flowing solos, epitomized by the Jerry-esque joyride of “Jamasutra Mantra.” Like the early Allman Brothers Band and Steve Hunter-Dick Wagner with Lou Reed, …

Following their stunning performance at the 1967 Monterey Pop Festival, Big Brother and the Holding Company hit the top of the album charts with Cheap Thrills. This psychedelic masterwork featured the astounding vocals of Janis Joplin and the groundbreaking guitar work of James Gurley and Sam Andrew. “Piece of My Heart” remains one of the era’s defining singles. Many of those who were on the scene cite James Gurley as the father of psychedelic guitar in San Francisco.
Barry “The Fish” Melton, guitarist on San Francisco’s first commercially released psychedelic record, …

In its earliest incarnation, Big Brother and the Holding Company specialized in emotionally charged, anything-goes instrumentals. After Janis Joplin joined the band, they hit their commercial peak with 1968’s Cheap Thrills album. Janis went solo later that year, but Big Brother continued to make albums and tour until 1972.
My interview with Sam Andrew and James Gurley took place on September 30, 1978, in San Rafael, California. Both guitarists had come to town to participate in Big Brother and the Holding Company’s first reunion since disbanding. Earlier that day, I’d done …

If it weren’t for Jimi Hendrix, Joe Satriani may never have become a rock guitarist. Hearing Jimi, Joe explained early in his career, was a life-changing event: “I was just completely floored. The first time I ever heard him on the radio, it was like a psychedelic event. I was just a little kid, but it seemed like the whole room was spinning. Before that there were all these really smoking jazz guys, but very few of them touched me. Wes Montgomery, to me, was perfect. First time I ever …

By mid 1969, Jimi Hendrix was anxious for change. He’d spent nearly three years recording and touring with Jimi Hendrix Experience and had become the most famous black musician in the world. He wanted to take his music in a new direction, but record company and management pressure – especially from personal manager Michael Jeffrey – blocked his way.
On April 11, 1969, the Jimi Hendrix Experience began its final tour. At its opening show in North Carolina, Experience bassist Noel Redding’s side band, Fat Mattress, was the opening act, a …

Astute collectors proclaim it the most valuable celebrity-owned guitar in history. Mitch Mitchell remembered it as “the guitar Jimi used to take back to the hotel with him.” For his historic Woodstock performance, Jimi Hendrix used a 1968 Fender Stratocaster, Serial No. 240981. Among collectors, this right-handed guitar is commonly known as “the White One,” due to its Olympic White finish. With Jimi’s death, this guitar became the possession of Mitch Mitchell, who kept it out of sight for 20 years.
In 1990, Mitchell brought the guitar to the Fender Artist …

I spent the morning of Saturday, January 12, 1985, at a hotel in San Francisco, interviewing Yngwie Malmsteen, the extraordinary Swedish metal guitarist, for his first English-language cover story. As soon as that meeting was over, I switched cassettes in my tape recorder and headed over the Golden Gate Bridge to meet Grateful Dead spokesman Dennis McNally at a restaurant in San Rafael. Dennis led me to the home of a Grateful Dead supporter who, it turned out, was letting Jerry Garcia live in her basement. My mission: Interview Garcia …