Former Jimi Hendrix band mate accuses author of 'revisionist history'
Rock legend Jimi Hendrix did not fake being gay in order to get out of military duty, according to a former band mate. But Hendrix’s biographer insists he has the true story.
ERNEST A. JASMIN; The News Tribune
Published: September 15th, 2005 04:06 PM
Contrary to the story told in a new biography of rock legend Jimi Hendrix, the Seattle-born guitarist did not pretend to be gay to get out of the U.S. Army, according to former band mate Billy Cox.
“That is a lie,” Cox said during an appearance Wednesday night at Seattle’s Experience Music Project to promote the new “Jimi Hendrix Live at Woodstock” DVD.
Cox met Hendrix in 1961 when both served in the Army and were stationed at Fort Campbell, Ky. And later he performed in Hendrix’s backing group, Band of Gypsys. He was responding to the new Hendrix biography, “Room Full of Mirrors” ($24.95, Hyperion) written by Seattle rock historian Charles Cross.
In a telephone interview Thursday, Cross clarified the sources used in the book – including military documents and a Hendrix childhood friend – and accused Cox and others of “revisionist history.”
Hendrix was discharged for medical reasons, Cox said. “He had hurt his leg at one point and then he hurt his back,” he said, also suggesting that military medical reports could easily be falsified. “You just take a picture of it and crop it and put it in there.” he said. “There’s misinformation from people who weren’t there.”
Janie Hendrix – the musician’s step-sister and director of Experience Hendrix, the company that manages the late rocker’s estate – also criticized “Mirrors.”
“A lot of the rumors you hear (from) the so-called biography aren’t true,” Hendrix said during her introduction of the DVD screening.
The Web site www.thesmokinggun.com also posted several pages of military documents online last month that allegedly support the notion that Hendrix faked his way out of the military by pretending to be gay.
Cross suggested that Cox made his comments as an employee of the estate. Though Cox is not an employee of Experience Hendrix per se, he does occasionally receive consulting and performance fees from the estate, Janie Hendrix said Thursday.
The contentious portion of “Mirrors” is located in Chapter 8 where, Cross writes, Army Capt. John Halbert recommended that Hendrix be discharged because of his “homosexual tendencies.”
The author provided copies of documents he said had been filed by psychiatrists who saw Hendrix while he was enlisted, some of which have been posted on The Smoking Gun site. He said the events chronicled in his book were also corroborated by other sources, including an interview with Hendrix’s childhood friend Terry Johnson.
Johnson did not know of the psychiatric documents when he told the author that Hendrix had advised him to feign being gay in an attempt to get out of serving in the U.S. Air Force, Cross said.
“I’m sure Jimi didn’t tell Billy Cox everything,” Cross said. He also accused Experience Hendrix of glossing over the facts to bolster the Hendrix image. “Their sort of revisionist history of things has to be taken with a grain of salt,” he said.
Renowned record producer Eddie Kramer was also on hand to answer questions after the DVD screening on Wednesday. He and Cox reminisced about Woodstock and speculated that the rock legend might have experimented with a variety of today’s popular musical styles and technologies, including sampling, had he not died 35 years ago.
Kramer recalled his disappointment when scores of fans left in the middle of Hendrix’s legendary Woodstock performance, which is perhaps best remembered for his flamboyant rendition of the “Star-Spangled Banner.” “It took years to realize this was an important part of history,” he said.
Kramer said Hendrix fans can look forward to the release of much previously unseen film footage and many unheard songs over the next decade.
“We have a large vault that contains a lot of reels of tape,” Janie Hendrix said Thursday. “Jimi was a real workaholic when it came to his music.”
http://www.thenewstribune.com/soundlife/story/5180814p-4709784c.html
