Jimi Hendrix Facts you didn't KNOW ABOUT - Told by Friend Billy Cox

hi this is Joe chambers thanks for watching musicians Hall of Fame backstage vault series the vault series is a series of interviews that we shot starting back in 2004 two years before the musicians Hall of Fame and Museum opened to the public if you like what you see please be sure to hit like subscribe and the notification bill so you don't miss any of our new content thanks for watching today's guest is bass guitarist Billy Cox billion Jimi Hendrix lived here in Nashville over on Jefferson Street about a mile from here they walked right by this building we're filming that right now many times they've played all over Middle Tennessee there's been so many documentaries about Jimi Hendrix made over the years not as much talk about what happened here in Nashville you may learn a whole lot from this interview from Billy without Billy who knows what would have happened with Hendrix hope you enjoy it penny cogs I was born in Wheeling West Virginia and moved and my father was a minister and we left there when I was 12 years old to Pittsburgh Pennsylvania where I did my grade school in high school and from there went to the military at which time I met Jimmy I was 19 years old when I joined the military and Jimmy was about the same age yeah I was at in Fort Campbell it's in 61 and we went to a movie one of John Wayne movie and we we criticized all the way through because big military men we saw the flaws and however we enjoy the movie and I think it was a sands of Iwo Jima and it was time we left the movie theater and it was raining outside and I wound up on the doorstep of service Club number one was some people I didn't even know and I heard some plane coming from inside the service club the window was up maybe couple of inches I turned to the guy next to me I said that's pretty unique playing and he says it don't sound too good I don't want to repeat what he said but he was listening with the human ear and I think I was more listening from another perspective at which time I went in introduced myself he says we'll check out a base with your service card you know this Jam so I did that and immediately we became compadres in this dis music because hey he was playing the mute the sounds and the music of that time and I knew most of those songs by heart and ever you know played them that much but we rehearsed to the point where we said hey let's let's form a group and we form a group at Fort Campbell we played at a lot of the functions and then we later got discharged and we wound up in Clarksville and when's the ending after starve to death came back to Clarks when we wanted to appear in Nashville Tennessee and the story goes on all the way I could talk for hours on this thing but however we he went on then he called me one day says look he said up he was in New York at that time he says this guy's gonna send me to Europe make me a star and I told him about you I said Jimmy I've fallen on hard times I've got three strings on the basis of fourth was tied in the square knot and I'm renting an amp he says lad you have really fallen like that so he said that's alright I'm going to Europe I'm gonna make it and I'll send for you and he did it took him maybe two and a half years but he did that and I thank you for that so that was 60 the latter part 60 61 62 63 64 65 and I think he made he went out on the road and got with some other entertainers and then he gets stranded and we're sent for him at that time 20 bucks could get you on a greyhound to anywhere in the United States and yeah that was the time period that we were well we stayed in that one man we talked to King casuals and we traveled around the chitlin circuit and these clubs were call the children's certain because they served fish and children and those are the two meals that they served and they were some of them had pot belly stones in the middle of them and they were Winchester Manchester tella home a Murfreesboro Murfreesboro there was a you think there was the Elks and Murfreesboro and a little red Club in the back of the woods of what have you but we remember my Manya we weren't that we weren't famous but we were kind of popular because Jimmy did a lot of his antiques on stage and people a lot of them people didn't know what the clapper walk out they said menace but they knew he was unique in some sort of a way they later found out how unique he really was prior to that we came to Nashville playing at the club del Morocco on Jefferson Street from there went to the new era and then went from there to the club Barron and then we played at some clubs down sound like the Jolly Roger which you have in the musicians Hall of Fame that that picture and in fact you had the exact replica well that director it is the stage that we played on and at the Jolly Roger downtown in printers alley after Jimmy move on to his fame I remained here so Jimmy said that when you guys this is where he really learned how to play guitar in the LA Free Press 1967 what was a daylight with you and Jimmy likes a youngster will go wrong we lived on Jefferson Street up above Joyce's house of glamour now that spot has they think the city dedicated that spot for historical but it's over table where the overpass for forty years agos across Jefferson Street funny story that the lady owned that house was miss Harris I think and she had some kids Jimmy this girlfriend lived upstairs and you turn the stairs look there was this better so I'm knocked out we were at the del Morocco which three blocks down the street Sam and Jimmy supposed to be yeah huh so pretty soon a half an hour goes by he's having our Lake a cement I'm running up there and getting shot go up knock on door mr. Harrison yeah I said Jimmy yes yes yes let's go you up there so I go with knock on heaven and so Jimmy looks at me he said you know I woke up and dream the gig was cancelled so I went back to sleep I said he dreamed the gig was canceled so he went back to sleep but an average day was I wake him up and knock on his door and some time he's laying there with his guitar on his stomach where he had practice all night till he fell asleep after the gig and then we'd get up and get a little bite to eat and when hang on he's walking down the street playing his guitar he was it he put 25 years in in five years he put 25 years in his guitar because it was a night day affair and he knew where he was going and what he wanted to do in life so he was preparing himself and I saw that happen and a lot of times I would profit but what he did I oh well this court here Jerry oh you know so he develop but he stayed up all night long just practice in fact in fact and we would play maybe sometimes 2:00 to 2:30 in the morning he go go to it from there but when him and Joyce his girlfriend is four springs from when she would come in he didn't do a lot of any walk down the streets playing him people weren't used to seeing that here's the guy that seasoned timers time we would walk down the street go to a movie show picture show and go inside and he's fluttering with no I am but he's getting his fingers together come out he's still playing so you know people have names for people that do things like that they don't understand that was here that I was here in Nashville I was right behind him most of us how we were together a lot of times they'd see me no I didn't walk down a super Bobby but when they see him that most time you see me or they say they called me Jimmy call him Billy you know we came here together and they when they came to the club's they saw us on stage you know so we we had a lot of time we were about the same age and we came up the same time with the same type of family and we had a lot a lot in common and the thing that was really great about coming to Nashville was the fact that he listened to WLAC with all silent John Richburg Herman grizzard Ernie's record mark but he said to sometimes have coming to wave and then it was decent and to come right back up and stay out maybe ten minutes he said right in the middle of the song he was enjoying it would decent now I'm up in West Virginia my father's a preacher can't bring that crap in the house so I built a crystal radio set with the earphones plugged it to my Springs the first time I took that pin and put along the top of that crystal I'm down for a royal crown and I spilt it out of all south so we list eyeless Lee we were listening at the same time to a lot of the songs of that era from our home so we had an upbringing kind of kind of the same that's why we gravitate each other sold to us by King Curtis by that time we booked a TM cheese or a big thing that Steve cropper and all the fellas songs of that that at that time and there were great songs and we perfected them a lot of times when you have a most musician testify the fact eveness you might not know song if you're playing and in the club and you don't 45 on 15 off and you're doing that all week long the first two or three nights you're practicing about the fourth fifth night you know you are so it see it was a practice play practice perfect practice perfect practice play Jimmy couldn't afford new gadgets so he got what he could if he could find something but there weren't that many gadgets out there was a wah-wah pedal but he never had a wall I think he used one from somebody let him use it but never had one so I made him a cord because he still danced and moved about on stage he was very good dancing so I built him a corridor was maybe 100 foot long but I lose lose I lost one one thousandth of a second so I came down to 75 feet same thing when I got to about 60 feet it didn't lose that much but he couldn't see that first one I built he could go out the door the clover club wasn't that large but then finally I got down about 50 or 60 feet I've got a little better but he could he just did but he could come off the stage and get on the dance floor and do some things and people thought that was very unique at that time there were artists going to Tennessee State University now mind you this club was maybe half a mile from Tennessee State so we had people who came in from Carla Thomas for instance she was a at that time she was a junior a senior and she'd come in and she'd sang with us and we couldn't believe this here she is he's had hit records but she's going to college so that that was very then the guy who owned the club he had various artists in at the del Morocco and then when we got to the new air of there was this guy here who I had a very good budget yet we were opening bands for a little richard wilson pickett midi collier in fact many fell in love with it and so we see we had some dates she had everything charted out so we had some dates with her and down in Clarksville Indianapolis Evansville some very places with her um I think there's still the helpline or something yeah the Elks was on 16th and Charlotte and it moved to where the club Baron used to be a jewelry Birkhead we were also work with Joel like Joel managed it was kind of like the overseer him a Mickey cracker for the Jolly Roger so he came at Jefferson Street over and became Justin opened up the Baron Club Baron well the Elks now is in the spot where the club Baron used to be great story one night we finished our gig Sam Cooke and the Jackie Wilson are in town so after we finish the gig we sell Jack they're back they're coming to be coming down to the club week so anyhow we go down and listen to the Imperius it was a band there and next thing we know here comes Jackie Wilson and Sam Cooke coming in the door pandemonium breaks out they hit the stage and so they you know such a lot of guys I didn't know me and Jimmy off somehow we wound up on stage here we know all your songs boom they kicked off songs and man I think they did bring it on home to me boy we take that so we did about four or five songs and it was really great Sam Cooke terrorism man I was a really great I was said to take me with you taking everybody you didn't make that statement but later on Jenny while they're playing doing some stuff with Jackie Wilson when he left Nashville because see Jimmy was constantly yearning for his his fame and he knew what he wanted where he wanted to go but he didn't know how to get there so he had one guy said well I got this early let's come on down and he's coming up it doesn't sound stable Jenny I think we'd be stay away from that he'd go they'd he wound up strand hey man I'm stranded well I hate to say I told you so for my brain back then another guy he'd go well I'm going up here then he'd wild up in st. look at her so after he finally did that fiver see then I braked it would he come back he'd stayed play with the King catch this group I was with he finally went that last time he way he was with Jimmy with Little Richard well what happened I'm sitting on my front doorstep with some friends and we look up and there's a silver eagle pulling up and up out jumps Jimmy and Little Richard and Roberta comes through says you must be your billet coffee better see ya you said well look you said I need a bass player come on get shoveled I said I can't do that so I'll give these guys Lisa weeks no using you'll know why am i said where are lugar but you know I got to do the right thing he said well well if you know go you're gonna miss out Jimmy so well that's you I told you our Billy would so they got back in the bus I did so filing when maybe four five six months later that he I think when he left Richard that's when he was discovered down and in the in the village and went on to his fame because it's like I say it to a 3d knew that he was destined for fame he had prepared himself for that there were people in that area that I'd like playing guitar there was people yeah people in various you know maybe every block so there was a guitar player something but a lot of them were not as good as Jimi so he didn't have to worry about that you know people just wanted to play guitar and some older fellows where I really like to they play harps harmonica and mind you at that time Jefferson Street had about eight club upstairs blues clubs then you go to south nice to hear there's about five or six East nights is about four or five so musicians if you were a musician and a decent music at that time you always get a job working and one of these clubs Rd a blues club so there wasn't no no problem with that as today I bet there's there are no clubs on Jefferson Street except the Elks and that's about it maybe another one but it's so small they don't have bands so that goes to show you what it's happened in a matter of 40 years it was people were friendlier especially now Jefferson Street on the west ian was Tennessee State University on the southern men was Fisk and Meharry and the students all mingled and commingled together you didn't need a car something happened and when the interstate came through and displaced so many people I think that left that void there so they don't have that anymore like it was but like you say that was a countable carnival atmosphere and so I lovin the people who have got their bachelor's master's degrees Kent and PhDs have can attest to the fact that that did go on really a mile maybe yeah and yeah there's a lot of clubs and a lot of things happening Friday Saturday and Sunday night was a grand night you know and you didn't hear a lot about a lot of crime and things happening like that because everybody was in one Accord it was about having a good time and it was about the music and I think also back then there were there were drugs but not as prevalent as it is today I think we were we drank [Laughter] how in the world did you go from a Seventh Circuit to Woodstock I mean that had to be covered it was a cultural shock for me because of you know you're used to little two three four hundred people and then from there to two or three hundred thousand what a transition but it was great and I really enjoyed that that portion of my career then Jimmy got into some financial difficulties and we decided to give these people now because he didn't have the funds available to him in order to settle this lawsuit so the banda gypsy came about with myself him and a buddy miles and then that ban was short-lived and then the baylor bass player of no reading left the group and so that left at the base position opened for myself to come in and tour with the experience what was your first when you hooked up with Jimmy words you made him at and how long did you have to rehearse before Woodstock and and what was it like to work with Mitch Mitchell went to New York and we immediately went into the studio the next the very next day and started working on some things that there were some patterns of some little riffs that he used to work on here years ago and you know the way that we kind of complemented each other with them and I've heard how heard him say people would lock us up if we played this you know because it was so it was so different from what was going off that particular time so we had an opportunity to do some of that for instance dolly dagger it's like dude I was out on the patio at the house in Woodstock and I can't everyone was sleeping I was the first one thought I'd have no cornflakes I played dude there's a big being all of a sudden Jimmy rolls those plans keep flat don't stop keep as he runs down there there's PJ's underwear really and I said dude either he said it did it I said oh he's nothing about doing on this house dad and then I get stuck he's a dad now that was the introduction for dolly tag so we went on offense so that's how we work you did things like that then prior to that he years ago just like I say there were little little patterns or they call them riffs that we had done and we just enjoy playing with the guitar up against the base and they sounded pretty good that was his style mium it's clicked right off from the back you know and even up to - you know last year he rolled on we read a road on the same bus and then he came here proud of that maybe he stayed maybe a year and a half's here with in Nashville we just had a good time so ma'am it's always got along he was a great job and a great person and very intelligent how about fire well any other yeah right he was good and I think that attributed to his knowledge of jazz the various Art Blakey and gods of that nature who he listened to also and then he combined that with the Rd flavor and there you got the Mitch Mitchell and and he was incredible on drums up to the very musical trying to do yes I did after I really decided - well I had formal training on the violin and jumping I was kind of like the utility man in Spain and what was your first paid job I don't know I you know at that time I never really concerned myself with you know money it was about that particulars about the art and freedom of just playing and if I look back I think maybe the first big paying job was Jimmy and myself played at Bert high school prom in 1961 in Clarksville Tennessee and they paid us $30 a piece that was a lot of money that was equal to maybe $350 that was the first big pay $15 $15 apiece maybe $20 that was about it on the chitlin circuit that's like Manchester Winchester so long well all those gigs I got and then a lot that we had the various booking agents or various guys who knew these club owners had got us in and got us our money and most of them we plant where they paid us we didn't have any problems with them so you know when we were at when we came first came to Nashville where we played at the club El Morocco and I think we they gave us room and board and 25 embassy was 35 I don't know room aboard maybe 35 40 $50 a week something of that nature that's all we got for the week but that was pretty good you know tell us we didn't have to that's right yeah love forever 20 bucks 20 cents yeah 15 I know a lot of guys at Motown tell me they were making final in the song when I first started that same thing was true here in the common thread is all you guys this one to play but they were in the studio right right yeah babe they were doing some other boys your first what was your first time in the studio I'm think it was a guy here in town being in Nashville called Charlie doll and he called Jimmy and I into the studio to do some things and he came out pretty good but nothing no big hits and then later on we worked for some other guys who put the little studios together and then halls Island knew that we sounded a pretty good so we he was cutting Clarence frogman Henry he had him under contract plant rod when he was from now New Orleans and he played had that New Orleans beat and I called Jimmy in for the session I said well I know this guitar player could probably handle this and so he came in and so the pulse that got through about three or four takes he called me cytokines you could think it's on clearly to quiet down he's a little too loud 50 years 40 years ladies says I wish I'd have kept those tapes he said I raced him off those tapes I said well that's a break well during that period of time it was some things that just just didn't when Jimmy I don't know maybe well I'll talk about he everybody knows about it he had signed this contract with his guy and the guy said we'll look no big deal just sign this for a dollar and you know that's for you working here but that really Jimmy didn't do a lot of reading that that was a commitment he had made not knowing that he was treatment and consequently he was being sued after he got famous for fifteen million dollars which he didn't have but your friends are your friends when you're up and they're your friends when you're down that's real friends I hate Fairweather friends I like friends that are more that are stable and so we were stable besides they're looking at if you got a problem I got one too let's see we can resolve he asked some other people too anyway all that ain't my problem and then he asked buddy miles thought he might say anything to help because you've been good to me so we wound up with a band of gipsies and we rehearsed for that about two weeks didn't think we were gonna make it because all the song most songs were new like machine gun power soul and things like them but we did we live with those songs for two weeks and when we did the Fillmore East New Year's Eve we did two shows New Year's Eve and to shoot two shows New Year's Day they were incredible they're all for those shows were incredible because we did it and you know I can tell the young kids are they you play advance people you guys you don't like get out of that van cause it's gonna affect the music but a few guys Howard one accord man that means it's gonna be beautiful so we were in one Accord and the bandage if she's made a very monumental statement that it's lasted even today and I was proud of being a part of that group and then after Jimmy made his transition I decided to hang up my face for a minute or two and there's one guy who made me just get it down to it and go back to playing it up was Charlie back so I joined up with Charlie he was working on that album uneasy rider he's working that and then a while they're working on this album called whisky island with him and we had a good ride I enjoyed that and some stayed with him for I don't know maybe a year and a half something like that then form own group did some other things and had fun doing that is there anything that you want to tell the guys said how do you get to Carnegie Hall you got to practice practice practice that's all I could say and and and love what you're doing and love the people that you're doing it with and that that transcends and all that other stuff and it shows in the music just be a part of what you're doing and enjoy it and my father made a statement so many years ago I said sure whatever your occupation is and you enjoy doing it you'll never work a day in your life [Music] you

Channel: Musicians Hall of Fame & Museum

Views: 393,985

Rating: 4.9141736 out of 5

Keywords: Jimi Hendrix, Billy Cox, Joe Chambers, Nashville, Music City, Fender, Country Music Hall of Fame, Musicians Hall of Fame, Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Guitar, Songwriting, Musicians, Singer, Rock Guitarist, The Jimi Hendrix Experience, Foxy Lady, Destroys Guitar, Electric Ladyland, Voodoo Child, Woodstock, The Dick Cavett Show, Stratocaster, Gibson Flying V, Gibson Les Paul, Jaguar, Marshall Amps, Super Lead Amplifier, Elvis Presley, Little Richard, Chuck Berry, Electric Blues, Rock

Id: 8ntJRAaVKx0

Length: 31min 31sec (1891 seconds)

Published: Fri Jun 19 2020