Remembering Jimi Hendrix

Last night on PBS I watched an American Master’s documentary on the life of Jimi Hendrix.  He is one of my favorite musicians and, in my opinion, the greatest guitar player who ever lived.  In 1968, when I was 17 years , my best friend and I, along with our teenage girlfriends, cut school and drove to the Cincinnati Gardens in my 1962 VW Beetle, to see the Jimi Hendrix Experience.  The tickets were $5.00.  I still have my ticket stub.  Our parents weren’t too happy but we became legendary in our high school.   Two years later we saw Jimi Hendrix again at the largest concert event I have ever attended.  It was called the Atlanta Pop Festival and there were approximately 500,000 people in attendance.  Hendrix played in the middle of the night on the 4^th of July.  He played his famous rendition of the Star Spangled Banner while fireworks went off in the sky and in my head.  It was a night burned into my memory.  More than forty years later I still listen to Jimi Hendrix music on a regular basis.  In my world, music has brought me more joy and happiness than just about anything.  Music brings people together.  If you are at a musical event where everyone is really in tune with the musicians and the music, it is a powerful experience.  Many music fanatics like me often joke about concert experiences where they “saw God”.  I understand this feeling.  Music can be a very spiritual experience.  I dearly love music and I could not live without it.  It fills my days and all the empty places in my life.