Starting At Zero (19 page)

That’s why the kids don’t mind when you take fifteen minutes setting up for a concert. Guys come out and set up instruments, and they turn their backs to the audience, taking time to
get ready. The kids like it … it’s like watching something being born. They become like fathers to the music.

We’re making our music into a new kind of bible, a bible you carry in your hearts, one that will give you a physical feeling. We play unbelievably loud. Not piercing loud –
it’s another type of loudness that goes through your chest.

There’s so many tight-lipped ideas and laws around, and people put themselves in uniform so tightly that it’s almost impossible to break out. Subconsciously, what all these people
are doing is killing off all those little flashes they have.

We try to make our music so loose and hard-hitting that it hits your soul hard enough to make it open. It’s like shock therapy or a can opener. You hypnotize people to where they go right
back to their natural state, which is pure positive – like in childhood when you get natural highs. And when they come down off this natural high, they see clearer, feel different things.
It’s all spiritual. Except when the eardrums come in!

Everything is electrified nowadays, so therefore the belief comes through electricity to the people. That’s why the name “Electric Church” flashes in and out. If you say you
are playing Electric Church Music, people go “Gasp, gasp!” or
“Exclaim, exclaim!”

The word “church” is too identified with religion. A lot of kids don’t find nothing in church.

I
WAS SENT TO CHURCH WHEN I WAS A KID, and I remember when I got thrown out because I had improper clothes on. I had tennis shoes and a suit, and
they said, “Well, that’s not proper.” We didn’t have no money to get anything else, so I just got thrown out of church anyway. It’s nothing but an institution, so
they’re not going to find NOTHING there.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not trying to stop people going to church, but as long as I’m not hurting anybody else I don’t see why they should tell me how to live and what to
do.

I suppose human beings have to believe in something. People feel they have to be directed in some way, have to have something to follow, regardless of whether it’s true or not.

The only thing I believe in now is music. Music is going to break the way because music is in a spiritual thing of its own. It’s like the waves of the ocean. You can’t just cut out
the perfect wave and take it home with you. It’s constantly moving all the time. Music and motion are all part of the race of man. It’s the biggest thing electrifying the earth. Our
music is just as spiritual as going to church. We want it to be respected as such. Our scene is to try and wash people’s souls.

I
SEE FINGERS, HANDS AND SHADES OF FACES

Quite naturally things are going bad here, but the idea is to get your own self together. You have to live with peace of mind, and that has to be found within yourself. I think everybody should
believe in himself. I suppose, in a way, that’s also believing in God. If there is a God and He made you, then believing in yourself is also believing in Him. Once you carry God inside
yourself, then you’re part of Him. That doesn’t mean you’ve got to believe in Heaven and Hell and all that stuff, but it does mean that what you are and what you do is your
religion. When I get up on stage and sing,
that’s my whole life.

M
Y GUITAR IS MY MEDIUM, and I want to turn the world on. Music flows from the air. That’s why I can connect with a spirit. There’s no
telling how many lives your spirit will go through, die and be reborn. Like my mind will be back in the days when I was a flying horse. Before I can remember anything, I can remember music, stars
and planets. I could go to sleep and write fifteen symphonies.

My personal philosophy is my music. It’s almost all philosophy in a very hazy form, because it’s still part of a progression. It’s just like a little baby, and it hasn’t
even reached the stage for it to walk by itself. Music is my whole life. There is nothing but music and life – that’s all. They flow together so closely, it’s sort of like a
parallel. And that’s the effect I would like my music to have on the audience – if not an awakened state, then maybe in a hypnotic state.

The everyday mud world we’re living in today compared to the spiritual world is like a parasite compared to the ocean. One way to approach the spiritual side is facing the truth. If only
people wouldn’t concentrate on the superficial things they might find the real meaning and true happiness. That’s why the world’s screwed up today, because people base things too
much on what they see, and not on what they feel.

{IN APRIL AND JUNE 1969, THE EXPERIENCE, NOW THE HIGHEST PAID TOURING BAND IN THE WORLD, WENT ON ANOTHER MAJOR TOUR OF AMERICA.}

There was a time when I worried about money. I worried about whether I was getting all I was entitled to. I wanted to get money to hold me together, to do what I want to do in life. I wanted to
make money so I’ll have somewhere to live when I get bald, you know, when all these little curls fall out, when all this shit falls out.

Everybody wishes for more money. But people get so greedy with money that they choke themselves. They don’t want to give it up, and that makes it nothing but a drug, just like anything
else. As a matter of fact it’s one of the worst drugs.

That’s why I’m glad I just smoke!

I travel most places without any money, actually. I like to witness different types of life, rich and poor. If I starve tomorrow, it would just be another experience to me. I’d still give
money away to people if they needed it badly. What’s money except a piece of paper? Just like a marriage license.

Sometimes it gets to be really easy to sing the blues when you’re supposed to be making all this money. Because money is getting to be out of hand now. Too many musicians nowadays think of
the money and the image first, before they figure out what they’re trying to get across. They get a chance to make all this money, and they say, “Wow, this is fantastic!” and they
lose themselves, they forget about the other half of themselves. So therefore you can sing a whole lot of blues. Sometimes the more money you make, the more blues you can sing.

The money scene can turn you into a slave to the public, a zombie, a penguin. Who wants to be a big, lifeless pop idol anyway? This is where the kids get more distracted than the musicians
actually, with the fame and imagery and all that stuff. It’s like a circus that might come in town. “Oh wow! Watch that,” you know? And then they see you fade away, and they go
and feed upon the next thing.

The music’s better now, and people don’t even know. It’s right in their faces, and they don’t even know how to accept it, because they have to have gimmicks and imagery
to go by. That’s what made me cut my hair off, because of this being a slave to the public. I cut it short to protest.

{DURING THIS TOUR, MEMBERS OF THE BLACK PANTHERS MADE APPROACHES TO JIMI.}

They asked us to give benefit concerts for the Black Panthers, which I was really very happy for them to do. I was honored and all this, but we haven’t done it yet. Mike Jeffery is taking
care of that side of things, so I don’t know if we ever will. I just want to do what I’m doing without getting involved in racial or political matters. I know I’m lucky that I can
do that, because lots of people can’t. In the U.S. you have to take a stand. Either you’re a rebel or you’re a Frank Sinatra type.

When I was younger I wrote protest songs that were bitter. I don’t now, because there’s a lot of political things happening out there that I really have to get away from, or
I’d find myself in too much of a box situation. If I had anything to say, I’d have to say it to everyone. And I’d have to get really involved before I could say anything.

I don’t feel involved. I feel almost completely lost now, sometimes from almost everything. I feel sorry for the minorities, but I don’t feel part of one. I’m for the masses
and the underdog, but not for just trying to get the underdog to do this or that, because I tried before and got screwed so madly millions of times. So now I’m just for anybody who can do the
job.

R
ACE ISN’T A PROBLEM IN MY WORLD. I don’t look at things in terms of races. I look at things in terms of people. I’m not thinking
about black people or white people. I’m thinking about the obsolete and the new. There’s no color part now, there’s no black and white. The frustrations and riots going on today
are all about more personal things. Everybody has wars within themselves, so they form different things, and it comes out as a war against other people. They get justified as they justify others in
their attempts to get personal freedom. That’s all it is.

It isn’t that I’m not relating to the Black Panthers. I naturally feel a part of what they’re doing, in certain respects. Somebody has to make a move, and we’re the ones
hurting most as far as peace of mind and living are concerned. But I’m not for the aggression or violence or whatever you want to call it. I’m not for guerrilla warfare. Not frustrated
things like throwing little cocktail bottles here and there or breaking up a store window. That’s nothing. Especially in your own neighborhood.

BLACK IS GOLD IS PURE

AND THE TRUE KINGS OF THIS EARTH,

SO I SAY IT’S UP TO US TO STRAIGHTEN OUT THIS MESS.

WE GOT TO GO THROUGH HELL, AND THEN

THAT’S THE LAST OF THIS MISERABLE TEST.

BUT THE SUN KNOWS, AS THE WIND BLOWS,

AND THE FIRE GROWS

TOWARDS THE FAR SHORES, AND THE WATER FOAMS,

TO MAKE STEAMED BONES OF ALL THOSE

WHO DON’T BELIEVE

THAT BLACK IS GOLD IS THE KINGS OF THIS WORLD.

LET’S PRAY WE ALL AGREE,

WE’VE GOT TO STRAIGHTEN OUT THE FAMILY TREE.

LIFE IS FOR YOU AND ME TOGETHER,

THAT’S THE WAY IT WAS MEANT TO BE.

WHITE MAN, WATCH YOUR MOUTH,

BECAUSE OUR DRUMS THEY FACE THE SOUTH.

YOU BETTER ADJUST YOUR PLACE IN THIS WORLD

BEFORE YOUR HAIR IT STARTS TO CURL,

AND THE YELLOW, RED, AND BLACK OF THIS WORLD

WILL TEAR YOUR ASS AND SOUL APART.

{ON MAY 3, 1969, THE EXPERIENCE ARRIVED IN CANADA FOR A PERFORMANCE AT TORONTO’S MAPLE LEAF GARDENS. ALTHOUGH EVERYONE HAD BEEN WARNED TO TAKE EXTRA CARE BECAUSE OF
TORONTO’S REPUTATION FOR STRICT CUSTOMS CHECKS, A JAR CONTAINING PACKETS OF HEROIN AND A METAL TUBE STAINED WITH HASH RESIN WERE FOUND IN JIMI’S FLIGHT BAG.}

I’m innocent, completely innocent. It must have been a frame, or it was just a very bad scene, because it ain’t anything it was. I really don’t see how anyone can put a needle
into themselves. I had pneumonia when I was young, and I used to scream every time they put that needle in me.

Anyway, half the people don’t know what drugs and everything are nowadays. You’ve got winos and drunkards out in the streets begging for money, and nobody seems to care about this.
Some people will kill for a few cents to buy a drink. Matter of fact, they have big picnics where you can carry your cans of beer, go out there and get stoned sloppy drunk. And your mind is
completely numb, and you don’t think of nothing but how stoned you are.

One thing I am sure of, it’s wrong to classify all drugs under one heading. Pot is completely different from hard drugs. And smoking marijuana is way better than drinking. As a matter of
fact, it’s helped a lot of people. I think smoking pot will probably be legalized in five or ten years. This is just the beginning of the cold war between those who want pot and those who
don’t. It seems to me to be silly to be sent to jail for smoking a natural plant. They should carry out a big inquiry into the effects of pot, just to see how harmful it really is.

There’s a lot of drugs that slipped into the music scene from the simple fact that a lot of musicians think different than other people, they live different than other people, so therefore
they have different releases than other people. But everybody can’t dig it, because some people’s minds just aren’t that way. It’s nice for the people who have minds for
it.