Billy Cox: Our 1989 Jimi Hendrix Interviews (Audio)

On Jimi’s Journeyman Years, Love for the Blues, and Much More...

This Talking Guitar podcast features back-to-back, previously unreleased interviews in which bassist Billy Cox offers amazing insights into his friend and bandmate Jimi Hendrix. Some quotes from these conversations appeared in my May 1989 Guitar Player cover story on Jimi Hendrix.

Some quick background: Billy Cox was Jimi’s closest friend. They first met in the Army and then lived together in Nashville. After Jimi found worldwide fame with the Experience, he hired Billy to replace Noel Redding. That’s Billy playing bass alongside Jimi at Woodstock, the Band of Gypsys concerts, and on Jimi’s later recordings.

Billy and I spoke by phone for the first time on February 23, 1989. A few days later, Billy’s wife Brenda contacted me and said Billy had more to say, so we did a follow-up interview. This podcast begins with the first interview. Before we spoke, Billy prepared a handwritten statement that he shared with me.

In the second interview, Billy relates a wealth of details about Jimi’s journeyman years as an R&B player, his favorite blues musicians, Jimi’s first guitars, how they’d back blues artists in Nashville clubs, and their band, the King Kasuals. He reveals that Jimi was such a compulsive player that people nicknamed him “Marbles.” Billy remembers their friendship with great fondness and, in an aspect of Jimi that’s rarely been covered, talks about Jimi’s spiritual beliefs. The second voice you’ll occasionally hear is Billy’s wife Brenda. I hope you enjoy these!

A special thanks to Billy and Brenda Cox for being so gracious and accommodating all those years ago, and to my podcast producer and engineer, Nik Hunt.

Lots more Jimi Hendrix on Talking Guitar!

How Jimi Hendrix Learned to Play Guitar; The Jimi Hendrix Experience’s First Performances; When Jimi Hendrix Upstaged Eric Clapton; Jimi Hendrix’s “Purple Haze”;; Jimi Hendrix’s “Red House”—The Story of a Song; Noel Redding on “Red House”; Jimi Hendrix’s “The Wind Cries Mary”; The Jimi Hendrix Experience at Monterey; Jimi Hendrix: The Road to Woodstock; Jimi Hendrix at Woodstock’ Jimi Hendrix’s Woodstock Setup; Roger Mayer on Making Effects Pedals for Hendrix, Beck & Page (Podcast); Joe Satriani: “When Jimi Hendrix Played the Blues”; Stevie Ray Vaughan: Our 1989 Interview About Jimi Hendrix

For more about Jimi’s first nine months in London, check out my book Stone Free: Jimi Hendrix in London.

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