EPICENTER: ON STAGE WITH JIMI HENDRIX

Oct 25 2024

By John McDermott

A Classic Interview with Billy Cox

It is always a pleasure for me to spend time with Billy Cox talking about his friendship with Jimi Hendrix and the music they made. I have been fortunate to collaborate with Billy on a book project, as well as a number of album and documentary projects over the years. What is immediately clear to anyone who comes to know and understand Billy is that his admiration for Jimi’s remains as vibrant today as it did during the heady days when the Band Of Gypsys and The Jimi Hendrix Experience were redefining the possibilities of popular music. 

I had another opportunity to spend time with Billy when he joined the cast of the forthcoming documentary Blue Wild Angel: Jimi Hendrix Live At The Isle Of Wight. Filmed in a midtown Manhattan hotel, Billy shared his recollections of this memorable concert. For Cox, the journey to the Isle Of Wight was a significant one as it represented his first trip abroad. Prior to documenting his arrival on the Isle Of Wight, Billy took us back to the reformation of the Jimi Hendrix Experience in February 1970 and the journey which culminated in the group’s August 1970 performance at the legendary festival. 

Jimi Hendrix, Buddy Miles and Billy Cox on stage as the Band Of Gypsys, December 31, 1969

Photo: Jan Blom / © Authentic Hendrix, LLC

EXPERIENCE HENDRIX: Billy, in the aftermath of the Band Of Gypsys, you started rehearsing with Mitch and Jimi for a tour together as The Jimi Hendrix Experience. 

BILLY COX: Mitch is happy with me. I am happy with him and Jimi is happy with us both. We prepared for a complete American tour back-to-back-to-back. 

EH: The first show of the 1970 tour was at the Los Angeles Forum. Were you surprised by the level of popularity he enjoyed at that time? 

BC: No, because I knew that his music had stimulated a lot of people. It was a lot of fun playing with The Experience. Years later, some guy tried to say that we were called the ‘Cry Of Love’ band, which was a joke. That was just a statement Jimi made at one point about the message he wanted to get out about the tour. 

EH: Even as popular as Jimi Hendrix was in 1970, your road crew was pretty sparse compared with the massive undertaking most groups require for touring today. 

BC: Touring back then was not as sophisticated as it is today. Today, tours just go 100 miles here, 200 miles there. We covered the complete Unites States. We would fly to Texas and come back. You might fly to Seattle then fly again to Miami. I think it’s much more organized today. 

“It was incredible. It was almost as if they were all already out. People loved the new material and we didn’t get any negative reaction at all.”

~ Billy Cox

EH: Jimi worked a number of new songs into the 1970 set list. In contrast to “Purple Haze” and “Voodoo Child (Slight Return)”, these were songs you had recorded with Jimi in the studio. 

BC: We were doing new songs like “Freedom,” “Dolly Dagger,” and “In From The Storm”. We had created those in the laboratory and then we played them [onstage] to see the reaction. It was incredible. It was almost as if they were all already out. People loved the new material and we didn’t get any negative reaction at all. 

EH: What about the songs like “Spanish Castle Magic” from previous Experience albums. Did you enjoy playing them onstage? 

BC: The older songs were new to me. They were old to Mitch and Jimi, but they enjoyed the flavor that my bass playing brought to them. It was refreshing for them because I always did something extra or different in the songs. 

EH: Were the 1970 US concerts a continuation of the excitement Electric Ladyland had generated in your studio work or were they seen as necessary to keep the studio afloat? 

BC: We knew that we had these commitments, but we made up our minds to have fun while we are doing them. There were no free rides, so you had to do what you had to do. We made it enjoyable and the camaraderie we shared made the work fun. 

At that time, Jimi was on a roll. We were in the studio all the time. If we weren’t in the studio, we were touring. 

EH: After the group’s July 1970 performance in Seattle, you traveled to Hawaii. Had this time been set aside as a vacation for Jimi and the band? 

BC: Hell, we had practically covered every state by the time we went to Hawaii for R&R. We ended up in Maui and I think that was the best time of my life. Jimi rented a house for us, and we played ping-pong and dominoes. We watched TV, telling lies and jokes and having a great time for about three days before Michael Jeffery came and said, look we want you to be in this movie.’ 

They took Jimi up to this girl’s preparatory school and we didn’t see that much of him. We were relaxing but he was still working. I didn’t want to get in anybody’s way, but Mitch and I would come up and bring him some entertainment and act crazy until the serious stuff started and we would leave. That went on for a while and unfortunately, he was completely exhausted. 

EH: How did the band get to the Isle Of Wight? Did you all travel together? 

BC: Mitch had gone back to England. Gerry Stickles and I went to London four or five days later. Jimi followed us and got in on the 27th. I have a funny story [about] the trip on the way over. That was my first trip to Europe. We traveled Air India and Gerry Stickles said, ‘Get your rest Billy. Get your rest. You don’t want to get jet lagged. I couldn’t keep my eyes or my attention off of this young lady. Gerry kept saying, ‘Get your rest Billy.’ I didn’t know what jet lag was about, so I stayed up and pretty soon she was sleeping, and I was still talking. Well, I did more talking than sleeping and when I got to England five or six hours later, I found out what jet lag is [laughing]. It’s a terrible thing! 

EH: How did Jimi feel about returning to England? 

BC: While we were in London we stayed at the Londonderry Hotel. Jimi got in a couple days later. When he arrived, he said, ‘Man, I am worn out. I’m tired.’ 

EH: Did he have any reservations about the audience welcoming him at the Isle Of Wight? 

BC: When we got to the Isle Of Wight, Jimi said, ‘I don’t even know if I can do this.’ He was quite apprehensive. ‘You know, I’ve been gone so long they’ve forgotten about me.’ 

I was apprehensive because I didn’t know if they were going to accept me. Here I am black and I’m replacing Noel Redding. Jimi had anticipated disaster, but when we hit the stage, we hadn’t even played a note before the crowd started [cheering]. 

EH: Were you taken aback by the size [estimated at 600,000 people] of the audience? 

BC: Before I arrived on the island, I had no idea what it was going to be like. I had anticipated that it was going to be a job like Sicks’ Stadium [Seattle] or something of that nature. But it was a phenomenon like Woodstock. At that point in time, these things were happening all over the world, but I hadn’t anticipated anything that large in stature. 

“I sensed the crowd. It was overwhelming. It was monstrous.”

~ Billy Cox

[At the festival] I sensed the crowd. It was overwhelming. It was monstrous. 

It was nighttime. It was more by audio than video [laughs]. We heard [the audience] and it was just humungous. There was a lot of energy out there. I couldn’t even imagine what it would have looked like in the daytime. 

“This is what I had always dreamed. This is what music is all about, performing in front of a large audience that appreciated what you do.”

~Billy Cox

EH: After all of the hard work you and Jimi put in on the chitlin’ circuit, did you enjoy playing before such a massive crowd? 

BC: For me, those times on the road with Jimi and The Experience were incredible. This is what I had always dreamed. This is what music is all about, performing in front of a large audience that appreciated what you do. 

EH: With such an enormous audience on hand, did you feel the festival was properly organized or did it appear to be tottering on the brink of anarchy? 

BC: Backstage, the Isle Of Wight was not as chaotic as Woodstock had been. 

EH: Was there much talk in the dressing room between Jimi and the band about the audience or what you would play for them? 

BC: Jimi wanted to do “God Save The Queen” and “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band”, so we worked it up in the trailer and went onstage and did it. That’s how he was about doing things on the spot, but it worked out well. 

Jimi would say that we were going to do such and such a song that night but you never knew until you went onstage. We went by signals. If he wanted to play “Ezy Ryder” he would give you the signal [onstage]. You had better know those signals! 

EH: Did you have time to jam with or meet any of the other artists performing at the festival? 

BC: Not really because everyone had their own mobile trailer. I think Richie Havens came back to say hello but everyone else was in their own little cubicle. We went outside to listen to the music, but it was to the point where a lot of people weren’t as relaxed as they could have been. Because things were unorganized, people either were getting offstage, trying to get where they are going, going home, or just anticipating going on. So there wasn’t a lot of camaraderie in the backstage area. 

EH: Mitch spoke of the seemingly ceaseless technical problems you encountered when playing at major festivals. From your perspective, was The Experience compromised in any way at the Isle Of Wight by such problems? 

BC: Onstage the sound was perfect. Everyone could hear each other, and we had no problems really, except fatigue [laughing]. They weren’t too precise in their scheduling though. One time we were supposed to go but then they said no and so on. We just had to be very patient until our time came. 

“There was a social difference in the audience at Woodstock as opposed to the Isle Of Wight. Nevertheless, the peace and love that the Isle Of Wight audience had in their heart was a love for the music. They were really into the music.”

~Billy Cox

EH: Coming from the United States, did the English audience seem different in their reaction toward Jimi? 

BC: There was a social difference in the audience at Woodstock as opposed to the Isle Of Wight. Nevertheless, the peace and love that the Isle Of Wight audience had in their heart was a love for the music. They were really into the music. Yes, we had a war in Vietnam and the peace and love flower children. But over there, there was a commitment to the music and that was good. 

As for Jimi, whether I was in the group or Noel, The Jimi Hendrix Experience was the top group. Whoever was playing bass didn’t matter because Jimi was the hub of that group. He was unique. A phenomenon. I enjoyed playing with him but I also enjoyed watching him too. 

EH: Compared to the US dates you had previous completed; The Experience performed a longer than usual set. 

BC: I know that we played for more than two hours but to me, it felt like twenty-five or thirty minutes. 

A funny thing happened in the middle of “Foxey Lady.” Jimi did a split and [laughing] his pants split. I did everything I could to hold back from laughing! He took a break and Mitch just soloed and soloed until he came back. 

EH: Was it difficult getting off the island? By the time you left it was almost dawn and you had to play a gig in Stockholm that same evening. 

BC: I have heard and read before that the Isle Of Wight was the last thing we did but it wasn’t. I don’t remember how we got out of there but we did. We had more jobs to do. We did Sweden, Germany, and at the Isle of Fehmarn. Maybe six or seven more. But the [Isle Of Wight] was the last time he played England. 

FROM THE VAULT. This classic interview with bassist, Billy Cox was conducted in early 2000 during production of the documentary film, Blue Wild Angel: Jimi Hendrix Live At The Isle Of Wight. It was first published in the Fall 2000 edition of Experience Hendrix Magazine.

 # # #