Jimi Hendrix: Voodoo Child Page #2

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"I'll try my best to make this Airborne

for the sake of our name,

"so that the whole family of Hendrix

"will have the right to wear

the Screaming Eagle badge of the US Army.

"To Daddy Hendrix, from your son.

Love James.

"PS:
Please send my guitar

as soon as you can. I really need it now. "

But the army is really a bad scene.

They wouldn't let me

have anything to do with music.

I was in the army for about 13 months

but I got injured on a jump.

One day, I got my ankle

caught in the skyhook

just as I was going to jump

and I broke it.

I told them I'd hurt my back too.

Every time they examined me I'd groan,

so they finally believed me.

I was lucky to get out when I did.

Vietnam was just coming up.

In the army,

I had started to play the guitar seriously.

So I thought all I could do is

to try to earn money playing guitar.

I went to Nashville, where I lived

in a big housing estate they were building.

Every Sunday afternoon, we used to

go downtown to watch the race riots.

We'd take a picnic basket because

they wouldn't serve us in the restaurants.

One group would stand on one side of the

street and the rest on the other side.

They'd shout names

and talk about each other's mothers

and every once in a while

stab each other.

Sometimes, if there was a good movie

on that Sunday,

there wouldn't be any race riots.

It took me some time to get better

from the injuries I had.

It was pretty tough at first.

I lived in very miserable circumstances.

I slept where I could

and when I needed to eat, I had to steal it.

I played in cafes,

clubs and on the streets.

That's where I really learned to play.

I started a group called King Kasuals

with a fella called Billy Cox

who played funky, funky bass.

I met a guy named Gorgeous George

and he got me on some tours.

So I started traveling around

and playing around the South.

The idea of playing guitar with my teeth

came to me in a town in Tennessee.

Down there you have to play with your teeth

or else you get shot.

Those people really were hard to please.

There's a trail of broken teeth

all over the stage.

What are you looking at?

What are you looking at?

There was a soul package

coming into town

with Sam Cooke, Solomon Burke,

Jackie Wilson, B.B. King and Chuck Jackson

and I got a little job

playing in the back-up band.

I learnt an awful lot

playing behind all those names every night.

"Dear Dad,

I hope everything is fine.

"Well, here I am again,

traveling to different places.

"I am on a tour that lasts about 35 days.

"We're about halfway through it now.

"We've been to all the cities

in the Midwest, East and South.

"I'll write soon, Jimmy. "

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