“I’ve been doing this all over Europe and every country except Australia and I’m very happy to come there,” Hendrix says. “I’ve always wanted to go there. We’ll have some bush tucker and do a walkabout! I’m gonna play my stuff, some Jimi stuff, some Micki Free stuff and we’re going to combine it all together. We’re not a Jimi Hendrix tribute band. We’re an awesome rock band that plays some Jimi. It’s like, when people first come to Seattle they play some Jimi Hendrix music out of respect.”
“I couldn’t be happier that we hooked up,” Free says. “I’m a Grammy winner, I was discovered by Gene Simmons of KISS and I’ve toured the world but the reason I’m coming on tour with Leon is I am not a Jimi Hendrix impersonating guitar player. I’m just a regular guy that has dug Jimi all my life that happens to be a mixed-blood Native American like Leon and Jimi, and we’re going to come to Australia to evoke the spirituality of Jimi and the songs with Leon’s song and mine, and have a fucking good time with rock’n’roll. That’s what we do. Leon is just fortunate enough to be a Hendrix and he’s got it in his blood! When we first met we laughed and said ‘We’ve gotta play together’. And we call it ‘The Hendrix Free Experience’ and we’re gonna lay it down for ya. The last interview asked us ‘What inspires you as a musician, and when do you know you’re done?’ We just laughed – right Leon? – and said ‘You’re never done’.” Hendrix agrees; “Right. The stuff that I’ve written, it’s a compulsion and an obsession at the same fucking time. We don’t even like to play our own older music. We want to make new music. If you’ve got somebody over there to play the digeridoo, tell them to call me! That’s what we’re looking for. We’re looking to experience other cultures and play some music for you guys,” Hendrix enthuses. “And have some fun, man,” Free adds.
“Sometimes I feel like a really stupid musician to get on guitar and play the songs of the greatest guitar player in the world,” Hendrix says. “Actually I write all my music on keyboards and I transport it to the guitar. But the guitar is the greatest instrument in the world and I can’t help it; I’m obsessed with it. I’m not trying to follow Jimi’s footsteps because that’s his music. Ever since I was a kid I wanted to be in a rock‘n’roll band. It came in the genes, the DNA, from there. So I got married, had a bunch of kids, they all grew up and it was time to start on my journey.” Then Leon says – with an audible smirk and maybe a little nod to the first line of Jimi’s Voodoo Child (Slight Return) – “I’m a Capricorn; I see a mountain that’s not climbable and I make it. I shit on the ground and plants grow!”
BY PETER HODGSON
