Jimi Hendrix Used Gay Ruse to Avoid 'Nam; allegedly had an affair with Brigitte Bardot
Hoodoo
Associated Press
August 01. 2005
http://www.gainesville.com/
Jimi Hendrix might have stayed in the Army. He might have been
sent to Vietnam. Instead, he pretended he was gay. And with that,
he was discharged from the 101st Airborne in 1962, launching a
musical career that would redefine the guitar, leave other rock
heroes of the day speechless and culminate with his headlining
performance of "The Star-Spangled Banner" at Woodstock in 1969.
Hendrix's subterfuge, contained in his military medical records,
is revealed for the first time in Charles R. Cross' new
biography, "Room Full of Mirrors." Publicly, Hendrix always
claimed he was discharged after breaking his ankle on a parachute
jump, but his medical records do not mention such an injury.
In regular visits to the base psychiatrist at Fort Campbell, Ky.,
in spring 1962, Hendrix complained that he was in love with one
of his squad mates and that he had become addicted to
masturbating, Cross writes. Finally, Capt. John Halbert
recommended him for discharge, citing his "homosexual tendencies."
Hendrix's legendary appetite for women negates the notion that he
might have been gay, Cross writes. Nor, Cross says, was his stunt
politically motivated: Contrary to his later image, Hendrix was
an avowed anti-communist who exhibited little unease about the
escalating U.S. role in Vietnam.
He just wanted to escape the Army to play music - he had enlisted
to avoid jail time after being repeatedly arrested in stolen cars
in Seattle, his hometown.
"Room Full of Mirrors," titled after an unreleased Hendrix tune,
is being published this summer to coincide with the 35th
anniversary of his Sept. 18, 1970, death from a sleeping-pill
overdose. It is Cross' second biography of a popular musician who
died at age 27; "Heavier Than Heaven," a 2001 bio of Nirvana's
Kurt Cobain, was a New York Times best seller.
The new bio is culled from nearly four years of research,
including access to Hendrix's letters and diaries, along with
military records provided by a collector the author won't name.
Cross focuses on Hendrix's complex personal life and psyche more
than his music.
"It's not how much I know about Jimi's B-sides; it's how much I
know about the emotional arc of his life," Cross said in an
interview.
The portrait that emerges is similar, in many ways, to that of
Cobain. Both men grew up in poverty in Washington state, dreamed
from an early age of becoming rock stars, found themselves with
more fame than they knew how to handle and eventually retreated
into a haze of drug use.
Cross, who lives just north of Seattle, describes Hendrix's
troubled childhood. Jimi's father, Al Hendrix, and mother,
Lucille, both had drinking problems. Al, a landscaper, rarely
found decent-paying jobs and frequently split with Lucille. Jimi
and his siblings were often left by themselves, or in the care of
family friends. Jimi eventually flunked out of high school.
Before Hendrix even owned a proper guitar, he played air guitar
using a broom, then a beat-up hunk of wood with a single string.
When he was 16, his father bought him a right-handed electric
guitar that Hendrix had to restring to play lefty.
"Room Full of Mirrors" is filled with nuggets: After a show in
Seattle, he had a star-struck teenager drive him around his old
haunts; he allegedly had an affair with French actress Brigitte
Bardot, precipitated by a chance meeting at the Paris airport;
promoters at Woodstock refused to let him play an acoustic
guitar. (Cross doesn't cite a source for the Bardot liaison, and
says the actress didn't respond to his attempts to contact her.)
After his discharge, Hendrix formed a band with former Army pal
Buddy Cox and began touring Southern clubs on the "Chitlin'
Circuit." During those years, from 1963-65, Hendrix played to
black audiences with the King Kasuals and as a backup to Solomon
Burke, Otis Redding, Curtis Mayfield and Little Richard.
Unable to make a living in the States - primarily because of his
color - Hendrix went to England in 1966 and took London by storm
with his now-polished blend of soul, blues and rock. Within eight
days of his arrival, he floored guitar gods like Eric Clapton and
Jeff Beck. Hendrix remained in London for nearly a year, forming
the Jimi Hendrix Experience and releasing his first album.
On his way to the Monterey Pop Festival in summer 1967, he was
mistaken for a bellhop by a woman at the Chelsea Hotel during a
layover in New York.
It was a cold reminder of his ethnicity, Cross writes.
Hendrix was always uneasy being one of the first black stars to
attract a white audience; he wanted to be welcomed by blacks,
too. Following Woodstock, his friends tried to arrange a show for
him at the Apollo in Harlem, where his friends teased him about
his drug of choice - LSD - being a "white" drug. The legendary
theater refused, afraid the concert would draw too many whites.
--
It's a big old goofy world. - John Prine
deb...@comcast.net
Imagine Jimi's guitar with Jayne's warbling!
Hoodoo
> In 1965, Hendrix played guitar on a Jayne Mansfield single, "Suey"!
> Imagine Jimi's guitar with Jayne's warbling!
Better that than Yoko Ono's screeching!
Hoodoo
> In 1965, Hendrix played guitar on a Jayne Mansfield single, "Suey"!
> Imagine Jimi's guitar with Jayne's warbling!
Better that than Yoko Ono's screeching!
Jim Beaver
"Hoodoo" <hoo...@spamcop.net> wrote in message
news:42EE4071...@spamcop.net...
> Book: Hendrix Used Gay Ruse to Avoid 'Nam
>
>
> for a bellhop by a woman at the Chelsea Hotel during a layover in New
> York.
I never knew the Chelsea had bellhops. They sure didn't when I stayed there
last month. Of course, being mistaken for one doesn't mean they ever had
them.
Jim Beaver
King Daevid MacKenzie
> Hendrix's legendary appetite for women negates the notion that he might
> have been gay, Cross writes.
...but it does leave open the possibility of being bisexual, as Susie
Bright has suggested in one of her essays...
--
--
King Daevid MacKenzie, WLSU-FM 88.9 La Crosse, Wisconsin, USA
heard weekdays at http://whiterosesociety.org
"There is Christian and there is Elvis-from-the-waist-up Christian."
JAMES NEIBAUR
Delbert Stanley
>
> Associated Press
> August 01. 2005
> http://www.gainesville.com/
> is being published this summer to coincide with the 35th anniversary of
> his Sept. 18, 1970, death from a sleeping-pill overdose. It is Cross'
> second biography of a popular musician who died at age 27; "Heavier Than
> Heaven," a 2001 bio of Nirvana's Kurt Cobain, was a New York Times best
> seller.
It was eleven years to the day on a trip to the Great Northwest (U.S.)
that I visited Hendrix's grave in Renton outside Seattle. It was
quite a strange experience. I didn't know exactly where his grave was, so
I parked the car, and went into the cemetery's office building to get
directions. The helpful lady, probably use to getting this request all the
time pointed me to the gravesite.
Immediately I realized I probably didn't really need directions. Just an
ordinary sense of smell. Just follow my nose. There was a small grunge
crowd at the gravesite milling around. All were smoking. All decked out in
various stages and sizes of tatters, torns, and holes. Seattle afterall,
invented
grunge. The smell of weed was intense, too bad there was no purple haze.
Anyone going to rock concerts in the 60s, 70s to date know that these
affairs are as much dope fests as concerts. That's understood. That's
part of the experience, whether you like it or not. The promoters know it,
the bands certainly know it, parents know it, the cops know it too. It is
what is.
However, I wasn't quite prepared for this graveyard scene. I never took
zombies literally. Until now. There they were, real "live" ones! This was
fun.
There were about twelve, and three "civilians". This certainly was no
somber, teary eyed affair.
A civilian woman about 40ish laid some flowers, and says to me, I've
lived here all my life, and remember the day of the funeral. I was soooo
scarred. I had never seen that many black people in one place. I come
here all the time, his father was here last week.
There were three guys lying down passing around a bottle of Jack Daniels.
Paying tribute to the memory of Jimi with dope was probably just as apt as
a priest splashing around holy water amongst the faithful. Jack Daniels
though?
Noticing me one said "hey, you wanna take a picture". I said that I did.
I was glad he asked, I wasn't about to ask anyone to move, or press
the issue. They all got up and moved. I hurriedly took a couple of
close ups. If I can remember, Jimi's name was on a black plate
outline with gold colored trim. There was a guitar symbol on the
plate. A cutesy measure I guess for those departed who were
musically gifted guitar players. Most of the graves had grass, but
Jimi's was so visited that it was all bald from the constant traffic.
On one side of Jimi's grave I believe it said "Grandmother". On another
side, there was a grave for his father whose death date was to be
filled when he died. Otherwise, it was good to go. Perhaps it is
occupied now.
As I was leaving, a barefooted guy with long stringy "dishwater" blond
hair and no shirt on (the one with the Jack Daniels), says to me
"you see it?" "It ain't right man, it ain't right." I asked what?. He says
"DON'T YOU SEE IT MAN?"! "Look at it...LOOK MAN,
LOOK... jeez!. I couldn't figure it out and just shrugged my shoulders.
Exasperated, he again started shouting, and in slurred speech, said
"the guitar (on the tombstone) it is right-handed man,
JIMI WAS A FUCKIN LEFTY!
Since then I've learned that these affairs are quite normal. Jim Morrison's
grave in France (Pere Lachaise cemetery) can get quite raucous I hear.
Matthew Kruk
> ...
> "Room Full of Mirrors," titled after an unreleased Hendrix tune,
The tune is on the Rainbow Bridge album.
Hoges
Hoges
-----
"This country is in a weird, feeble, grotesque state and it's about
time it got out of it and the reason it could get out of it is...
ROCK MUSIC!"
--- Ken Russell
MWB
"Jim Beaver" <jumb...@prodigy.spam> wrote in message
news:GKsHe.82$sW1...@newssvr23.news.prodigy.net...
Jim, they were there. These people can spot a bad tipper a country mile
away.
Mark
Delbert Stanley
"King Daevid MacKenzie" <echoes...@charter.net> wrote in message
news:vGwHe.718$_41...@fe02.lga...
> Hoodoo sez:
>
>> Hendrix's legendary appetite for women negates the notion that he might
>> have been gay, Cross writes.
>
> ...but it does leave open the possibility of being bisexual, as Susie
> Bright has suggested in one of her essays...
Jimi had a mold made of his erect penis. Reportedly made by
a groupie who collected such artifacts from other rock stars
for her museum. Fact or Urban Legend? It is said Jimi was
quite pleased with his supersized version, and wanted to
leave something for posterity besides his music.
Hoodoo
> Jimi had a mold made of his erect penis. Reportedly made by
> a groupie who collected such artifacts from other rock stars
> for her museum. Fact or Urban Legend? It is said Jimi was
> quite pleased with his supersized version, and wanted to
> leave something for posterity besides his music.
Learn about the documentary film regarding this cultural phenomena -
Plaster Caster (2001)
http://imdb.com/title/tt0287634/combined
Official website of Cynthia Plastercaster -
http://www.cynthiaplastercaster.com/flash/home.html
Jim Beaver
"MWB" <mark.b...@verizon.net> wrote in message
news:lVAHe.7252$r12.7134@trndny04...
My reputation precedes me.
Jim Beaver
Hoodoo
> As I was leaving, a barefooted guy with long stringy "dishwater" blond
> hair and no shirt on (the one with the Jack Daniels), says to me
> "you see it?" "It ain't right man, it ain't right." I asked what?. He says
> "DON'T YOU SEE IT MAN?"! "Look at it...LOOK MAN,
> LOOK... jeez!. I couldn't figure it out and just shrugged my shoulders.
> Exasperated, he again started shouting, and in slurred speech, said
> "the guitar (on the tombstone) it is right-handed man,
> JIMI WAS A FUCKIN LEFTY!
Was the dude pointing that out as if it was a mistake in
presentation, or, did he seem to be unaware that Jimi was
left-handed and did play a right-handed guitar?
King Daevid MacKenzie
> Learn about the documentary film regarding this cultural phenomena -
>
> Plaster Caster (2001)
> http://imdb.com/title/tt0287634/combined
>
> Official website of Cynthia Plastercaster -
> http://www.cynthiaplastercaster.com/flash/home.html
...BOB GRANT??!!!? Of all people, why the hell would they want to
plastercast BOB GODDAM GRANT??!!!? He's not THAT kind of huge prick...
Bob Feigel
<echoes...@charter.net> magnanimously proffered:
>Hoodoo sez:
>
>> Learn about the documentary film regarding this cultural phenomena -
>>
>> Plaster Caster (2001)
>> http://imdb.com/title/tt0287634/combined
>>
>> Official website of Cynthia Plastercaster -
>> http://www.cynthiaplastercaster.com/flash/home.html
>
>...BOB GRANT??!!!? Of all people, why the hell would they want to
>plastercast BOB GODDAM GRANT??!!!? He's not THAT kind of huge prick...
Naughty-naughty!
---
"Like I told my wife, I said, 'Honey, I never drive faster than I can see.
Besides, it's all in the reflexes.'" - Jack Burton, Big Trouble in Little China
Wax-up and drop-in on surfing's Golden Years: http://www.surfwriter.net
Bob Feigel
<matthe...@telus.net> magnanimously proffered:
Just checked out the cast/crew list on IMDb
http://imdb.com/title/tt0069161/fullcredits
and there are so many of them I remember.
Baron Bingen was my business partner (along with David Stern) in Back
To Eden, Chuch Wein and Barry De Prendergast (who I knew as just
Barry Prendergast) were friends of Baron's and would show up, usually
at ridiculously late hours, at the Back To Eden house in Hollywood.
Herbie Fletcher, Paul Gebaur, Mike Hynson, Allan Schubin, Barry
Kanaiapun and David Nuuhiwa (misspelled on IMDb) were fellow surfers.
I cringed through the movie a couple of times for loyalty's sake. It
may be a cinematic embarrassment, but it was a masterpiece of
self-indulgence ... b