Micky Dolenz Shares The Time Jimi Hendrix Got Booed
via jillmoratto / Youtube
Recently, Micky Dolenz chatted with Jimmy Fallon about his time with Jimi Hendrix and suggested that the guitarist opened for the Monkees. In an unfortunate turn of events, neither that idea nor Hendrix himself was well received by the crowd.
Dolenz caught the guitarist before he became “the” Jimi Hendrix, a rock legend known by everyone. Someone in the rock star’s entourage had mentioned Hendrix to him when they were in New York, and the rock star decided to check out Hendrix’s performance at Café A Go Go. One of the first things to go back to Micky about Hendrix was how Jimi would play the guitar with his teeth, so it seems that his stage acts and unconventional playing were at the forefront of his notoriety. Thus, after seeing Hendrix perform at the cafe, Dolenz suggested the young musician open for his group.
“[He was] a wonderful, wonderful guy,” Dolenz told Fallon. “I was in New York before he was ‘Jimi Hendrix,’ and somebody said, ‘You gotta go down to the Cafe A Go Go, see this guitar player playing with John Hammond’s band.’ I went down there, and sure enough… and they said he was known as this guy that plays guitar with his teeth.”
“We were looking for an opening act, and I suggested [to] them [that Hendrix should be the opening act] … [However] opening for the headlining act can be a problem sometimes for the opening act.”
On the other hand, there were occasions when the crowd wasn’t as excited to see the opening act, and when Jimi Hendrix performed some of his future singles before the Monkees, the irate audience started booing him.
“Well, it was, I’m not kidding, it was, [imitates Jimi singing] ‘Purple haze come in my brain,’ [imitates the audience booing] ‘We want Davy, we want the Monkees!’ [imitates Jimi singing] ‘Foxy Lady…’ [imitates the crowd yelling] ‘Micky!’ It was embarrassing.”
Even though Hendrix received some jeers from an uninterested crowd, it’s safe to say that things did improve for him as his career progressed.
https://youtu.be/h26gllvhMyQ
