Jimi Hendrix Encyclopedia

An appearance by The Experience on the Ed Sullivan Show was proposed by Sullivan’s son-in-law, Bob Precht; unfortunately, the event was snubbed before ever making it off the ground. In John McDermott’s “Hendrix: Setting The Record Straight,” Bob Levine recalls, “Sullivan Productions really wanted to have Jimi on. Ed Sullivan had to get him one way or another, so Sullivan, Precht, [Michael] Jeffrey and I sat down to talk. Sullivan wanted to have the Vienna Ballet dance to his music, with Hendrix in front of a big orchestra, done on location in Europe. Jeffrey figured out the money he would need and agreed to the concept verbally. He left the meeting to speak to somebody—I don’t know who—and when, a day or so later, I told him he was supposed to follow up with Bob Precht her replied, ‘We aren’t going to do it.’ I asked if he had spoken to Jimi and he said, ‘No, I am not going to let Hendrix do that. I’ve got my reasons.’ Jimi would have loved to have done it.”

Bob Precht Ed Sullivan Show John McDermott Media the experience