LEON HENDRIX Says He Is Channeling His Dead Brother's Spirit Into Lyrics And Guitar Solos
April 22, 2005Corey Kilgannon of The New York Times has issued the following report:
Jimi Hendrix's younger brother, Leon Hendrix, says he took up the guitar several years ago after a purple flame shot out of the sky and possessed him in bed, revealing a vision of his brother floating above him.
"I could see Jimi up there, beckoning," he recalled. "He was saying, 'Come on, baby brother. It's time. You're ready.' Since then, I feel like he's sanctioned me to carry on his musical legacy."
And after a lifetime of living the blues - including foster homes, drug addiction and other hardships — Mr. Hendrix, 56, says he finally has a reason to sing them: he was recently cut out of his brother's $80 million estate.
His father, Al Hendrix, died in 2002 and left the estate largely to his daughter, Janie Hendrix. In September 2004, Mr. Hendrix lost his legal appeal for a portion of it in Seattle, the family's hometown.
To avenge the defeat, he says, he took up the guitar, after wasting decades on drugs, alcohol and woman-chasing. He says he summoned his brother's spirit and is now booking club gigs, teaming with the drummer Buddy Miles, who played in Jimi Hendrix's BAND OF GYPSIES.
He is also taping the performances for possible use in a television movie he is shopping to producers, and he has completed his second self-produced CD, "Keeper of the Flame".
Read the rest of the article at NYTimes.com.
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