Love guitarist Johnny Echols had known Jimi Hendrix since the early 60s. Back then Hendrix was “a quiet introspective… so-so guitar player”. In this extract from our exclusive interview with Echols, he reveals how prior to Hendrix’s death in 1970, Jimi and Arthur Lee were hatching plans to form their own supergroup with Traffic’s Stevie Winwood…
“I won’t sugar coat it. There’s nothing to hide…” Read MOJO’s interview with Johnny Echols in full!
Johnny Echols: “I first met Jimi in 1964 at the California Club, where I was in the house band. At that time, he was just Jimmy James, playing with the Isley Brothers, and he’d come down to audition with the O’Jays. A little later, Billy Preston, Little Richard and I went to a recording session, which was the first time I really talked to him. He was a quiet, introspective person, and I would’ve called him a so-so guitar player, a journeyman.
We weren’t making a lot of money, going from club to club, and rather than sending his clothes to the cleaners, Jimi would spray them with Right Guard – you’d know he was coming from 20 feet away because he reeked of the stuff.
Jimi really hit it off with Arthur, and Arthur got him to play on an R&B single he cut with Rosa Lee Brooks [in 1965], called My Diary. A couple of years later, in San Francisco, a friend told us about this incredible guitar player called Jimi Hendrix, and we obviously didn’t put it together it was the same guy. A few nights later [on July 2, 1967], we went to the Whisky A Go Go to check him out, and Arthur goes, “Man, that’s the dude that played with us!”
Before, he wore cardigans and skinny ties, with the processed hair. Now he’s in full hippy regalia, with the fringed jacket and the boots, and he’s on-stage using this Cry Baby wah-wah pedal, which I’d tried and couldn’t figure out, and he was doing feedback, distortion, stuff guitarists just didn’t do. Incredible!
When he was on break, Arthur and I went to the dressing room, and we chatted. I said, Damn, what happened? Did you make a trip to the crossroads? I was kind of playing with him. He smiled and said, ‘No, man, I made a trip to the woodshed!’ Meaning that he had just practised and practised.
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Jimi was an acquaintance of mine, but he was a friend of Arthur’s. After Love had gone their separate ways, Jimi and Arthur recorded together again [three tracks at London’s Olympic Studios in March ’70, including The Everlasting First from the reconstituted Love’s False Start], and they were talking about putting together a supergroup with Stevie Winwood as the vocalist, Buddy Miles on drums, and some other players, but it never got any further because Jimi passed away.”
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