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Jimi Hendrix: Tear Gas, a Kidnapping, Heroin Hostages, and the Great Escape · DISGRACELAND

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Disgraceland is a production of Double Elvis. The stories about
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: Jimmy Hendricks are insane. His last performance with the Experience
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: erupted into a riot. His drug habit often lured him
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: into the clutches of enemies, like the Mounties who arrested
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: him at the Canadian border, or the mafia wannabes who
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: kidnapped him and held him hostage in New York. He
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: was a natural escape artist who dodged childhood, poverty, prison time,
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: and even the United States Army, and he couldn't avoid
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: his faith with the Twenty Seventh Club. But before Jimmy
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: Hendrix haccumbed to his spot alongside Janis Joplin, Jim Morris,
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: and Ron Pigpen McKernan and the rest, Jimmy Hendrix made
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: great music. Unlike that music, I've played a few with
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: t top of the show that wasn't great music. That
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: was a preset loop for my mellotron called ubib Web
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: forty MK two. I played you that loop because I
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: can't afford the rights to love theme to Romeo and
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: Juliet by Henry Mancini. And why would I play you
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: that specific slice of Wherefore Art thou Cheese. Could I
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: afford it? Because that was the number one song in
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: America on June twenty ninth, nineteen sixty nine. And that
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: was the day Jimmy Hendrix narrowly escaped a riot by
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: catching a ride in a U haul, a memory that
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: would serve him well just months later when he had
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: to escape the clutches.
• 1:40
  Speaker 2: Of a pair of kidnappers.
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: On this episode, riots, drug habits, escape artists, mafia wannabees,
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: and the kidnapping of Jimmy Hendricks. I'm Jake Brennan and
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: this is disgraceland. Jimmy Hendrix didn't know where the driver
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: was taking him. He rested against the back door of
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: the U haul. Nol Redding, his bass player, sat to
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: the left of him, This drummer Mitch Mitchell to his right,
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: or was it the other way around. Jimmy couldn't see
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: shit in the dark. He could even tell if the
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: truck was moving right now. That's the thing about U hauls,
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: no windows, no direction. The three members of the Jimmy
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: Hendricks Experience were in their own little world inside the
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: U haul.
• 2:54
  Speaker 2: It was still silent outside. It was anarchy. A cloud
• 3:01
  Speaker 2: of tear gas swallowed the Denver Pop Festival.
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: Seventeen thousand people staggered through the haze, eyes burning, lungs tight,
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: drooling all over themselves like sick animals, and the cops
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: foolishly thought their plan would clear out the mile high stadium.
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: Big mistake. The gas loomed over the crowd. Nobody could
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: see three feet in front of them, thus nobody could
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: find an exit. Ten minutes ago, this was a mere riot.
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: Now it was more like a war zone. And Jimmy
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: technically didn't start the drama. The hippies did that for him.
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: People rioted at the gates and demanded free tickets long
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: before Jimmy even showed up.
• 3:37
  Speaker 2: The crowd was in a mood. So was Jimmy. He
• 3:41
  Speaker 2: was tired, listless.
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: He'sed up just because he could make his fingers fly
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: across his s frepboard. It didn't mean he wasn't bored
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: with his own band. It was the summer of nineteen
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: sixty nine, and there wasn't much peace and love flowing
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: among Jimmy, Nol and Minch anymore. The Jimmy Hendricks experience
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: was fresh out of good vibes. Jimmy's stage presence underlined
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: this fact. The band tore into Voodoo Child, that white,
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: hot bluesy bolt of lightning, moult lava psychedelia streaming from
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: jimmy six string. Not today today, It was Jimmy's battle cry.
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: They're gonna make a lot of money and buy this town.
• 4:22
  Speaker 2: He sang.
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: Wait, that wasn't anything near the actual words of the song.
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: It was a mighty fine fuck you to no one
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: in particular, but Denver took it personally, and Jimmie kept
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: it up. Gonna buy this town and put it all
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: in my shoe, he sang. And that really would the
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: crowd up. Then came the kicker. This is the last
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: gig will ever be playing together, Jimmy announced. It was
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: like he dropped a bomb. Fans raged, they threw themselves
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: forward and started climbing up the sides of the stage.
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: And that's all the cops needed to see. And they
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: brought up the tear gas canisters into the crowd like
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: free t shirts. Rebels began to drop like flies. It
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: was an amusing sight for Jimmy in his bitter mood.
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: We see some tear gas. That's the sign of the
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: Third World War, he said into the microphone. The scene
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: was a joke to Jimmy until it wasn't funny anymore.
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: The gas wafted in the band's direction. The cloud flooded
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: the stage.
• 5:26
  Speaker 2: There was no time to think.
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: The trio dropped their gear and rushed backstage. They needed
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: to get the hell out of there, but so did
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: seventeen thousand other people. The crowd bottlenecked at the exits,
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: stumbled over each other, swarming in circles. Making an exit
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: alongside all those people wasn't an option. There was only
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: one escape plan, climb into the back of the U
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: haul and plow through them inch by inch. So here
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: Jimmy Hendricks was nosing through a crowd in the darkness
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: slow that's crosstown traffic.
• 5:58
  Speaker 2: Only thin metal walls separated.
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: The band and from the bedroom outside. The tear gas
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: wasn't clearing anything. One fan vaulted himself onto the roof
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: just to stick his heead above the clouds. And then
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: another and another, and Jimmy could hear the roof start
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: to crackle in dent from above. People were getting wise,
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: and they suspected Jimmy was in the U haul. Jimmy,
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: that jackass who just mocked them, Who said he was
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: going to buy their town and shove it in his shoe.
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: He was leaving in a truck full of clean air.
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: Fans beat on the sides of the U haul. The
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: walls began to buckle, and Jimmy gritted his teeth. He
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: needed to get the fuck out of here in more
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: ways than one. He needed to get away from the
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: fans who said they loved him but didn't really, the
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: same ones who wanted to hear the same four songs
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: over and over again. He needed to get away from
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: the bandmates that he couldn't jive with anymore.
• 6:50
  Speaker 2: Noel was a prick.
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: To be fair, Jimmy was a prick right back. Midge
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: kept out of the way, but looked like a coward
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: in the process. Jimmy was playing sick of the experience
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: of being in the experience. The band had done what
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: they set out to do. They rewrote the rule book
• 7:07
  Speaker 1: for rock and roll, and then they lit it on fire, along.
• 7:10
  Speaker 2: With one of Jimmy's guitars.
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: Three mind blowing albums in under eighteen months, and their
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: latest record, Electric Ladyland, was a double LP, and it
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: shot to number one on the Billboard two hundred instantly
• 7:24
  Speaker 1: that just didn't happen with double albums. But Jimmy Hendrix
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: made something beyond records. He made revelations, divine experiences that
• 7:35
  Speaker 1: invented new ways to make a guitar sing and scream.
• 7:39
  Speaker 1: The promotional posters didn't call him Dylan Clapton and James
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: Brown all in one for nothing. The Jimmy Hendricks experience
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: was a snapshot of rock and roll history that no
• 7:50
  Speaker 1: one would be able to bury or forget. And that
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: was the issue. Everyone was holding on to, that snapshot,
• 7:57
  Speaker 1: treating Jimmy and his music like static, one dimensional beings.
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: There was nothing one dimensional about Jimmy Hendrix. He was
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: living inside of a kaleidoscope, dripping with intergalactic sounds and
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: colors that bled into every aspect of his being. His
• 8:12
  Speaker 1: playing was fast, fuzzy, textured, so far out. Jimmy wanted
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: to flow, but no one would let him. Everything was
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: now rigid. Play these songs, go on this tour, and
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: do these interviews, make these political statements or don't, depending
• 8:28
  Speaker 1: on who you're okay with. Pissing off, even setting his
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: guitar on fire, felt wrote and uninspired. These days, the
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: truck barely moving forward reminded Jimmy of that reality. He
• 8:41
  Speaker 1: would never move forward with the experience. He would be
• 8:44
  Speaker 1: stuck at a crawl at best when he wanted to
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: sprint somewhere. Slow is nowhere fast, And Jimmy didn't work
• 8:52
  Speaker 1: this hard to go nowhere. Drugs moved him when his
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: career couldn't. It started as a practical house taking cheap
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: and phetamines to lot more hours practicing and playing.
• 9:04
  Speaker 2: As a young.
• 9:04
  Speaker 1: Man, Jimmy rarely had the cash for grass, and smoking
• 9:09
  Speaker 1: mellowed him out anyway. Speed was the way to go.
• 9:12
  Speaker 1: Speed didn't make you dumb, It just made you go.
• 9:16
  Speaker 1: With enough red devils, Jimmy could buldoze through a set,
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: rushed to a studio, and still have the stamina for
• 9:22
  Speaker 1: a recording session in the wee hours of the morning
• 9:24
  Speaker 1: when the rates were cheaper. But man cannot survive on
• 9:27
  Speaker 1: speed alone. Not in London, not in Manhattan, neither, and
• 9:32
  Speaker 1: Jimmy paid his drug dues in both cities.
• 9:35
  Speaker 2: His taste expanded.
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: Pop was good, hashish was great, and heroin could be
• 9:41
  Speaker 1: a bitch, but that never stopped him from snorting summer
• 9:44
  Speaker 1: shooting it up. Cocaine was powdered lightning and LSD. Those
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: seductive little tabs.
• 9:51
  Speaker 2: They made him superhuman.
• 9:53
  Speaker 1: Jimmy could chop down mountains with a little acid on
• 9:55
  Speaker 1: his tongue. He could seduce the sky, hold it, kiss it,
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: and then puncture it with whatever jagged new riff entered
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: his mind. When Jimmy Hendricks needed to escape, there was
• 10:07
  Speaker 1: a chemical for that, and it was around somewhere. But
• 10:11
  Speaker 1: the company he kept, Jimmy didn't have to look far.
• 10:14
  Speaker 1: All he had to do was to ask the right person.
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: When Jimmy Hendricks did eventually ask the right person, it
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: was otherworldly. The warm glow of euphorias spread across his body.
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: He took slow, deep breaths in hell, start us, exhale, ashes,
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: purge the poison.
• 10:58
  Speaker 2: Just be man. Jimmy had to just be right now.
• 11:03
  Speaker 2: He was too doped up.
• 11:04
  Speaker 1: To do anything more than sit in space out. His
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: eyelids were clamped shut and his mouth dry as cotton.
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: His skin flushed with color. He poured all his energy
• 11:14
  Speaker 1: into forcing one eye open. Something shifted in front of him,
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: strange beings, amorphous blobs with mouths and noses. With those hands,
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: Jimmy couldn't tell.
• 11:26
  Speaker 2: He shrugged off the vision. His imagination had dreamt up
• 11:30
  Speaker 2: worse things before.
• 11:31
  Speaker 1: He slumped back into his chair with another deep exhile,
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: and then he pictured himself melting into the high and
• 11:37
  Speaker 1: dissolving into the dream.
• 11:40
  Speaker 2: He's awake? What who said that?
• 11:44
  Speaker 1: The voice disturbed Jimmy's perfect high. He brought his head
• 11:48
  Speaker 1: upright and forced both eyes open this time, and those
• 11:51
  Speaker 1: amorphous blobs sprouted arms and legs, and their faces slowly
• 11:56
  Speaker 1: came into focus. Were those things actual?
• 11:59
  Speaker 2: Peo? Real people?
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: Jimmy's eyes darted around the room, searching for other details
• 12:05
  Speaker 1: of the clues.
• 12:07
  Speaker 2: Shit, those men.
• 12:08
  Speaker 1: Were real, real as the straps that kept them tied
• 12:12
  Speaker 1: to his chair. Oh no, no, no, no, no, it
• 12:15
  Speaker 1: couldn't be, Jimmy jostled around in the chair. It's legs
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: scuffed the bare hardwood floor. There was no other furniture,
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: nothing to knock go over, and he used to his advantage.
• 12:26
  Speaker 1: Not a potential weapon in sight. It was just the
• 12:28
  Speaker 1: three of them, Jimmy and the two goons. One looked
• 12:33
  Speaker 1: amused and the other just scowled. Jimmy recognized these guys.
• 12:38
  Speaker 1: There was something hungry about the look in their eyes, animalistic.
• 12:42
  Speaker 1: Even he knew they're glare from somewhere. But where Not
• 12:47
  Speaker 1: at a show, not in the studio at Salvation. Yes,
• 12:53
  Speaker 1: he'd met them in Manhattan after a jam session. Jimmy
• 12:57
  Speaker 1: Hendricks found his own personal hell at Salvation. I'm telling you, man,
• 13:04
  Speaker 1: that's him. No way, Jimmy Hendrick doesn't just hang out
• 13:08
  Speaker 1: in public like a regular guy. The two goons bickered
• 13:12
  Speaker 1: at the corner of the bar. One was lanky s
• 13:14
  Speaker 1: felt as a gazelle, and the other was more stout
• 13:17
  Speaker 1: with ruddy cheeks. Both of them looked ready to fight
• 13:21
  Speaker 1: and better yet, ready to hustle.
• 13:23
  Speaker 2: For a few extra dollars.
• 13:24
  Speaker 1: And they came to the Salvation nightclub in Greenwich Village
• 13:27
  Speaker 1: after work on weeknights to let off a little steam.
• 13:30
  Speaker 1: The stout one always got testy when they went boozing together,
• 13:33
  Speaker 1: blame it on the stiff pores from their favorite barcep.
• 13:37
  Speaker 1: But tonight the stout man kept his temper in check
• 13:40
  Speaker 1: because his friend might just have a point. It was
• 13:44
  Speaker 1: fall nineteen sixty nine. Woodstock was a few weeks in
• 13:48
  Speaker 1: the rear view, but Jimmy's rifts were still ringing. In
• 13:50
  Speaker 1: America's years, Everyone and the brother knew about Jimmy Sunrise set,
• 13:55
  Speaker 1: which meant everyone and their brother knew what Jimmy did
• 13:57
  Speaker 1: to the national anthem, and to some addition, was heresy.
• 14:01
  Speaker 1: Anothers thought it was heroic, a slice of ultimate patriotism.
• 14:06
  Speaker 1: But no matter what you thought, one thing was for sure.
• 14:10
  Speaker 1: Jimmy Hendrix was hot. Shit. You think a regular guy
• 14:14
  Speaker 1: dresses like that. The tall goot jerked his thumb in
• 14:17
  Speaker 1: the direction of the man drinking by himself in a
• 14:19
  Speaker 1: corner when there's a butterfly at the bar. You notice
• 14:24
  Speaker 1: the stranger was decked out in an old British military jacket.
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: His afro was teased to the heavens. Scarves flowed down
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: the front of his shirt, which from this angle looked
• 14:35
  Speaker 1: like a blouse. The stout one peeked over his shoulder
• 14:39
  Speaker 1: and sighed in resignation. You're right, dudes, in a blouse.
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: Only rock stars wear blouses. Jimmy Hendrix was in the
• 14:48
  Speaker 1: corner of the bar, His skin was clammy and the
• 14:51
  Speaker 1: blouse clung to his back like glue. And Jimmy wasn't
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: here for the drinks, he was here for the drugs. Normally,
• 14:59
  Speaker 1: world class music didn't have to roam the streets looking
• 15:01
  Speaker 1: for a fix.
• 15:03
  Speaker 2: They had people to keep.
• 15:04
  Speaker 1: Them high and happy at all hours of the day.
• 15:06
  Speaker 1: But Jimmy Hendrix wasn't some delicate prima donna, and he
• 15:09
  Speaker 1: definitely wasn't about securing his own dope. He dressed like
• 15:13
  Speaker 1: a diva, true, in velvet pants and western hats, but
• 15:16
  Speaker 1: that didn't make him one. It was all part of
• 15:19
  Speaker 1: the experience, even though the actual experience was over. Jimmy
• 15:24
  Speaker 1: had a newd band, now called Gypsy's Sun and Rainbows.
• 15:27
  Speaker 1: Tonight he was a lone gypsy jamming under the moonlight
• 15:30
  Speaker 1: at Salvation, with the last of his stash already dwindling
• 15:34
  Speaker 1: in his bloodstream. He gets a sniff out a dealer
• 15:36
  Speaker 1: for himself, and quick Jimmy locked dies with the two goons.
• 15:41
  Speaker 2: He sized them up and they didn't look.
• 15:43
  Speaker 1: Like dealers, but he never knew anyone, and everyone was
• 15:47
  Speaker 1: pedaling dope these days. The lanky goon.
• 15:50
  Speaker 2: Japped his buddy in the ribs, quit staring, what's it
• 15:54
  Speaker 2: matter to you?
• 15:56
  Speaker 1: We could kidnap him. His buddy nearly spit out his skins.
• 16:00
  Speaker 1: Was a stupid idea.
• 16:02
  Speaker 2: What were they gonna do?
• 16:03
  Speaker 1: Trick Jimmy Hendricks gang up on him and stow them
• 16:06
  Speaker 1: away in an empty apartment, make his manager spring him with.
• 16:09
  Speaker 2: His hefty check book. Huh, the goon mauld it over.
• 16:14
  Speaker 1: Maybe it wasn't such a stupid idea. It could be
• 16:17
  Speaker 1: a stupendous idea if they pulled it off. That was
• 16:21
  Speaker 1: a big if.
• 16:22
  Speaker 2: But what was standing in their way?
• 16:24
  Speaker 1: Jimmy was alone, and he was clearly jonesing not to
• 16:28
  Speaker 1: mention one hundred and fifty five pounds soaking wet. If
• 16:32
  Speaker 1: they kept them doped up, he wouldn't even be able
• 16:34
  Speaker 1: to fight back with the little muscle he had. The
• 16:37
  Speaker 1: goons calculated the risks. They had no guns, no qualifications,
• 16:42
  Speaker 1: and they didn't know how to negotiate, but that almost
• 16:45
  Speaker 1: didn't matter. Any sum would do as long as it
• 16:47
  Speaker 1: came from Jimmy's deep pockets. Worn't on the street was
• 16:51
  Speaker 1: that Jimmy earned fourteen thousand dollars a minute at a
• 16:53
  Speaker 1: show at Madison Square Garden with the experience, and that
• 16:57
  Speaker 1: was for one show. If they did this right, he
• 17:00
  Speaker 1: could swipe his Woodstock paycheck in a snap, and this
• 17:02
  Speaker 1: could be some mafia livel shit. Jimmy locked eyes with
• 17:06
  Speaker 1: the goons again. He sat up from his bar stool
• 17:08
  Speaker 1: this time, dropped some cash on the counter and started
• 17:11
  Speaker 1: walking over. Oh shit, not now, not yet. Jimmy wandered
• 17:15
  Speaker 1: over to the end of the bar asked if they
• 17:17
  Speaker 1: had any dope he could take out their hands. His
• 17:20
  Speaker 1: voice was cool, but his eyes were desperate. Up close,
• 17:24
  Speaker 1: the colors of his clothes seemed even more vibrant against
• 17:26
  Speaker 1: the ashen color of his skin. For once, Jimmy Hendrix
• 17:30
  Speaker 1: didn't look so hot. This is going to be easier
• 17:33
  Speaker 1: than they thought. All the puzzle pieces were falling into place.
• 17:37
  Speaker 1: There were two of them, and only one Jimmy a
• 17:40
  Speaker 1: week Jimmy at that the lanky goon knew how junkies were.
• 17:45
  Speaker 1: They'd do anything to score again. It was written all
• 17:47
  Speaker 1: over Jimmy's face. Yeah, man, we got some goods back
• 17:51
  Speaker 1: at home.
• 17:52
  Speaker 2: He sold Jimmy. You up for a ride.
• 17:54
  Speaker 1: Jimmy nodded. He'd go anywhere if it meant getting high again,
• 17:58
  Speaker 1: and the goons could tell. Jimmy watched his new palace
• 18:01
  Speaker 1: just as closely. Their eyes were hungry like his. Maybe
• 18:05
  Speaker 1: not for drugs, maybe for something else, but that wasn't
• 18:09
  Speaker 1: any of his business right now. The two ushered him
• 18:13
  Speaker 1: into the back seat of their car and told him
• 18:14
  Speaker 1: to buckle up. Jimmy Hendrix was precious cargo, but only
• 18:19
  Speaker 1: if he was alive.
• 18:23
  Speaker 2: It was bastards. They were hungry. Jimmy knew it.
• 18:27
  Speaker 1: He could smell a bad vibe a mile away. Yeah,
• 18:31
  Speaker 1: they had drugs already, enough drugs to keep Jimmy doped
• 18:34
  Speaker 1: up and dumb for days. Apparently that was the plan.
• 18:38
  Speaker 1: They explained how they strapped him into his chair without
• 18:40
  Speaker 1: a fight. They explained how an entire day had passed
• 18:44
  Speaker 1: in an instant too. The men weren't in the room now,
• 18:47
  Speaker 1: but Jimmy heard them murmuring down the hall, not necessarily.
• 18:51
  Speaker 2: To each other. Jimmy strained to hear. We have him here.
• 18:55
  Speaker 1: You want to see him again, Jimmy sighed. You didn't
• 18:59
  Speaker 1: have the energy to get worked up. He was too mellow.
• 19:02
  Speaker 1: The plan was working. Dope did do the trick. His
• 19:07
  Speaker 1: body melted into the chair. There was no use fighting.
• 19:10
  Speaker 1: The high one side of Jimmy told him the panic
• 19:13
  Speaker 1: or if they broke his knees, slit his throat, robbed
• 19:17
  Speaker 1: him blind. Whoever was on the other end of that
• 19:20
  Speaker 1: phone better know what the hell they were doing on
• 19:23
  Speaker 1: the other side of Jimmy couldn't muster the energy. He
• 19:25
  Speaker 1: was dissolving, becoming one with the chair.
• 19:29
  Speaker 2: He heard a.
• 19:30
  Speaker 1: Few more words before he slipped back in unconsciousness.
• 19:37
  Speaker 2: We'll be right back after this. We're we're where.
• 19:45
  Speaker 1: There was no clock ticking, no television humming, no voices,
• 19:51
  Speaker 1: and no murmurs to overhear, just quiet darkness. Jimmy Hendrix
• 19:58
  Speaker 1: wasn't used to the silence. It burrowed into his ears,
• 20:02
  Speaker 1: clawed at. His mind was unsettling. He tapped his boots
• 20:06
  Speaker 1: on the hardwood floors to fill the dead air. He
• 20:09
  Speaker 1: would give anything for just a little music, a rhythm,
• 20:13
  Speaker 1: to help his mind wander away from here. Since the
• 20:15
  Speaker 1: last dose of dope had already worn off, his stomach growled,
• 20:20
  Speaker 1: not the kind of noise he hadn't mind. Those goons
• 20:23
  Speaker 1: hadn't bothered to feed him today. They just pumped him
• 20:25
  Speaker 1: full of dope every few hours. Jimmy kept track of
• 20:29
  Speaker 1: the time by watching the sun rise and sink a
• 20:32
  Speaker 1: needle in the arm at midday, in another just before sunset,
• 20:36
  Speaker 1: and then a little midnight snack.
• 20:39
  Speaker 2: After darkness fell.
• 20:41
  Speaker 1: It was as if they thought Jimmy could live on
• 20:42
  Speaker 1: drugs alone, like some kind of superhuman, and that was
• 20:46
  Speaker 1: the problem. Everyone thought Jimmy Hendrix was something other than human,
• 20:51
  Speaker 1: an angel, an alien, a rock.
• 20:54
  Speaker 2: Star from Mars.
• 20:55
  Speaker 1: But he was just like anyone else, and he really
• 20:58
  Speaker 1: needed a bite to eat, maybe a piping out played
• 21:01
  Speaker 1: a spaghetti or strawberry shortcake with cool whipped cream dripping
• 21:05
  Speaker 1: down the sides. Jimmy's belly gurgled again, and the hunger
• 21:10
  Speaker 1: nodded his stomach, as if his guts were eating themselves.
• 21:13
  Speaker 1: Jimmy knew the feeling well. Growing up in Seattle. Hunger
• 21:18
  Speaker 1: was just as common as joy or sadness. Hunger was inevitable,
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: a fact of life. He spent a lot of days
• 21:25
  Speaker 1: as a child, just like he was now alone in
• 21:28
  Speaker 1: a barren room, hungry, huddled in the dark because the
• 21:31
  Speaker 1: power bill had gone unpaid, totally alone except for the
• 21:35
  Speaker 1: bugs scuttling around the unkempt floor. The Hendricks family was
• 21:39
  Speaker 1: a specific kind of poor. To keep cardboard in your
• 21:43
  Speaker 1: shoes so they last longer kind of poor. Play a
• 21:46
  Speaker 1: guitar with one string kind of poor. The same kind
• 21:49
  Speaker 1: of poor that made you craftier than the other kids.
• 21:52
  Speaker 1: Jimmy learned when and where he needed to go if
• 21:55
  Speaker 1: he wanted to eat it all, split a sandwich with
• 21:57
  Speaker 1: a cute girl at school her sandwich. Of course, Jimmy
• 22:01
  Speaker 1: almost never had his own lunch, and then hit up
• 22:03
  Speaker 1: the local burger joint just before closing and ask if
• 22:06
  Speaker 1: they had any leftovers they could toss your way instead
• 22:08
  Speaker 1: of into the trash can. And if all else fails,
• 22:12
  Speaker 1: sit down with the neighbors for dinner. They'll always make
• 22:15
  Speaker 1: an extra plate, mainly because Jimmy looked so malnourished. Technically
• 22:19
  Speaker 1: he was malnourished many days. If Jimmy didn't eat with
• 22:24
  Speaker 1: the neighbors, he didn't need at all. The problem was
• 22:28
  Speaker 1: that Jimmy's father, Al preferred drinking to eating. He didn't
• 22:32
  Speaker 1: think twice about knocking back a few bottles or knocking
• 22:34
  Speaker 1: his own children around with his belt. Either home meant
• 22:37
  Speaker 1: hunger for Jimmy, it meant pain abuse. Home held nothing
• 22:42
  Speaker 1: for him, so Jimmy wandered. Sometimes he wandered into taverns
• 22:48
  Speaker 1: at night looking for Al not to bring his father home.
• 22:52
  Speaker 1: Jimmy knew better than that, but he was there to
• 22:55
  Speaker 1: retrieve the house key to let himself in when his
• 22:57
  Speaker 1: father didn't bother to turn up that night. Other times
• 23:01
  Speaker 1: he wandered into the homes of local musicians. It didn't
• 23:04
  Speaker 1: matter what they played or what genres they liked. If
• 23:07
  Speaker 1: you had an instrument, Jimmy wanted to jam. He had
• 23:10
  Speaker 1: a new guitar deflex. For years he clung to a
• 23:13
  Speaker 1: shitty acoustic mons during guitar experimenting with his warn tones.
• 23:17
  Speaker 2: But not anymore. He swept that.
• 23:19
  Speaker 1: Guitar out for a white supro Ozark when he was
• 23:22
  Speaker 1: just sixteen. He toted that thing all over town in
• 23:25
  Speaker 1: a paper dry cleaner sack. Jimmy even had the misfortune
• 23:29
  Speaker 1: of wandering behind the wheel of a stolen car twice
• 23:33
  Speaker 1: in the span of five days. He claimed he didn't
• 23:36
  Speaker 1: know the cars were stolen. The court didn't care. They
• 23:39
  Speaker 1: gave him two options, five years in an orange jumpsuit
• 23:43
  Speaker 1: or three years in an army uniform. Jimmy naturally picked
• 23:47
  Speaker 1: the lesser sentence. In May of nineteen sixty one, the
• 23:51
  Speaker 1: federal government shipped into California for basic training, miles away
• 23:55
  Speaker 1: from the hunger, the abuse, and the harrowing poverty. Jimmy
• 23:59
  Speaker 1: did just curb prison. He curbed his childhood. And now
• 24:05
  Speaker 1: Jimmy Hendrix thought he was stone free, well.
• 24:08
  Speaker 2: Sort of.
• 24:09
  Speaker 1: The consistent meals and clean clothes and basic training were great.
• 24:13
  Speaker 2: Being told when to eat and what to wear.
• 24:16
  Speaker 1: Not so great. There was order in the army like
• 24:19
  Speaker 1: Jimmy had never experienced before. Someone told him when to
• 24:22
  Speaker 1: wake up and when to go to bed, and how
• 24:24
  Speaker 1: to style his hair, and how to speak and how
• 24:26
  Speaker 1: to be spoken to. That regiment didn't give with Jimmy Hendrix.
• 24:31
  Speaker 1: He was used to his rules, his timetable, both of
• 24:35
  Speaker 1: which revolved around music. Leaving the army wasn't an option, though.
• 24:39
  Speaker 1: If Jimmy bounced before they agreed upon three years of service,
• 24:42
  Speaker 1: he'd get tossed behind bars, no questions asked. So he
• 24:46
  Speaker 1: needed to get sick, break something frighten his fellow soldiers
• 24:50
  Speaker 1: with madness. He came in with the big guns and
• 24:53
  Speaker 1: went right to the base psychiatrist said he had disturbing thoughts,
• 24:57
  Speaker 1: homosexual thoughts about his bunk mates. That didn't get him anywhere,
• 25:02
  Speaker 1: so he came back with new complaints. Again and again.
• 25:05
  Speaker 1: He bitched that he couldn't sleep, and then when he did,
• 25:08
  Speaker 1: he was gripped by night terrors. That he was love
• 25:10
  Speaker 1: sick over a fellow soldier to the point of losing
• 25:13
  Speaker 1: fifteen pounds, and then he wet himself regularly and his
• 25:16
  Speaker 1: chest spasmed with pain. Eventually, the bass doctor either got
• 25:20
  Speaker 1: freaked out or just fed up with Jimmy. He discharged
• 25:24
  Speaker 1: Jimmy for his original quote unquote concern about homosexual tendencies,
• 25:29
  Speaker 1: and by the summer of nineteen sixty two, Jimmy Hendrix
• 25:32
  Speaker 1: was out of the Army and back into the sweet
• 25:33
  Speaker 1: embrace of freedom. Come to think of it, Jimmy spent
• 25:37
  Speaker 1: his whole life trying to get free, and Jimmy was
• 25:40
  Speaker 1: so delirious he couldn't help but chuckle being kidnapped.
• 25:44
  Speaker 2: So what he was Harry Houdini. If he could escape
• 25:47
  Speaker 2: the clutches of the United States Army, he could get
• 25:49
  Speaker 2: out of this ship hole wherever he was.
• 25:51
  Speaker 1: He had to otherwise there would be no more music,
• 25:54
  Speaker 1: No more festivals and fans and tours that took him
• 25:57
  Speaker 1: in circles, No more riots and teargas, No more playing
• 26:01
  Speaker 1: the same songs on repeat like a well trained circus animal.
• 26:04
  Speaker 1: No more political organizations jumping down his throat demanding him
• 26:07
  Speaker 1: take sides. Shit, would that be so terrible? The positives
• 26:13
  Speaker 1: piled up in Jimmy's mind. No more setting guitars on fire. God,
• 26:17
  Speaker 1: that was getting old. He'd rather set himself on fire
• 26:20
  Speaker 1: at this point. And no more court dates staying here
• 26:24
  Speaker 1: kidnapped men, skipping his upcoming drug bus trial in Toronto,
• 26:28
  Speaker 1: Now that would be a relief. It was all innocuous
• 26:34
  Speaker 1: stuff at first, Vitamin C tablets, a bottle.
• 26:37
  Speaker 2: Of Alvocado cream shampoo.
• 26:39
  Speaker 1: The Royal Canadian Mounted Police rifled through Jimmy's luggage at
• 26:42
  Speaker 1: the border. Normally Mounties didn't hang around accustoms for drug bus,
• 26:47
  Speaker 1: but there was nothing normal about a rock star like
• 26:49
  Speaker 1: Jimmy Hendrix passing through Toronto. The experience had prepared for
• 26:55
  Speaker 1: this exact situation. Each member of the band scoured their
• 26:59
  Speaker 1: luggage for anything questionable ahead of time, remember, except Jimmy.
• 27:04
  Speaker 1: The officer pulled out a book called You Can Change
• 27:06
  Speaker 1: Your Life Through Psychic Power, the type of garbage of
• 27:10
  Speaker 1: the Mountes assumed any dirty hippie would read. They were
• 27:12
  Speaker 1: getting warmer. The Mountes knew that hippies didn't leave the
• 27:16
  Speaker 1: house without a solid stash. Jimmy Hendrix was packing plenty
• 27:20
  Speaker 1: of goods. At the Toronto airport on May third, nineteen
• 27:22
  Speaker 1: sixty nine. Namuni then pulled a glass vial out of
• 27:26
  Speaker 1: Jimmy's bag. Inside were six cell of Fame packages of
• 27:29
  Speaker 1: white powder, dark resin smeared across the inside of the vial. Boom,
• 27:35
  Speaker 1: two h bombs, heroin and hashish. Jimmy just shook his
• 27:40
  Speaker 1: head busted. The police arrested him on the spot. It
• 27:45
  Speaker 1: didn't matter how many times he claimed the drugs weren't his.
• 27:48
  Speaker 1: Nobody was going to believe that Jimmy Hendrix, the father
• 27:50
  Speaker 1: of psychedelia, was the victim of drugs being planted on him.
• 27:54
  Speaker 1: The cops didn't believe it, and Jimmy knew the courtroom
• 27:56
  Speaker 1: wouldn't either. They could lock him up for ten years easy.
• 28:00
  Speaker 1: Prison guards didn't care if you were gay, or if
• 28:02
  Speaker 1: you pissed yourself, or if you couldn't see. He couldn't
• 28:05
  Speaker 1: talk his way out of a jail cell, so given
• 28:08
  Speaker 1: the choice, Jimmy would take his current hostess situation over
• 28:12
  Speaker 1: a Canadian prison. At least his kidnappers gave him privacy
• 28:15
  Speaker 1: in heroin. The floorboards creaked down the hall. That must
• 28:22
  Speaker 1: be them now returning with another dose of heroin, or
• 28:25
  Speaker 1: maybe a savior was finally walking down the hall toward him,
• 28:30
  Speaker 1: someone coming with a fat check to spring him from
• 28:32
  Speaker 1: this room once and for all. In a few minutes,
• 28:36
  Speaker 1: Jimmy Hendricks would either be on his way home or
• 28:38
  Speaker 1: on his way to the moon with veins full of dope.
• 28:42
  Speaker 1: Either way it was fine with him, because one way
• 28:45
  Speaker 1: or another, Jimmy Hendricks was escaping. The fortune Teller's long
• 29:10
  Speaker 1: fingers ran through Jimmy Hendrix's hair. Her nails grazed the
• 29:14
  Speaker 1: top of his scalp.
• 29:16
  Speaker 2: She murmured in French.
• 29:18
  Speaker 1: She traced his facial features, then his forehead. She made
• 29:22
  Speaker 1: a fuss over how large it was. Someone in the
• 29:25
  Speaker 1: room translated for Jimmy said his forehead meant he was
• 29:28
  Speaker 1: an artistic genius. Jimmy's crew shared a couple of knowing smirks.
• 29:34
  Speaker 1: The oracle didn't know who Jimmy was or what he
• 29:36
  Speaker 1: did for a living. She had to be pretty legit
• 29:39
  Speaker 1: if she could see star power in a patch of skin.
• 29:42
  Speaker 1: She was one of the finest clairvoyants in Morocco, hired
• 29:46
  Speaker 1: by the King of Morocco himself. Incense wafted across the room.
• 29:51
  Speaker 1: Peace radiated from Jimmy's core like a warm glow. This
• 29:55
  Speaker 1: felt too good to be true. He put it all
• 29:58
  Speaker 1: together as the woman uttered more premonitions in French. This
• 30:03
  Speaker 1: was a dream, no, wait, a memory, yes, a memory
• 30:08
  Speaker 1: from his time in Morocco earlier that summer. She pulled
• 30:12
  Speaker 1: out a tarot deck and shuffled the cards with her
• 30:14
  Speaker 1: sleek fingers. She wanted to divine the future of this
• 30:17
  Speaker 1: apparent creative genius in her presence. Card won the star.
• 30:23
  Speaker 1: The oracle spoke in a whir of French something about
• 30:26
  Speaker 1: how the card meant grace and that Jimmy would be
• 30:29
  Speaker 1: surrounded by a large number of people soon. Jimmy nodded,
• 30:33
  Speaker 1: not much was true. Performing kept him near crowds all
• 30:35
  Speaker 1: the time. She flipped over the second card, the middle
• 30:39
  Speaker 1: of a traditional three card spread, but there would be
• 30:41
  Speaker 1: no third card tonight. The oracle held the middle card
• 30:45
  Speaker 1: in front of Jimmy's face death and Jimmy freaked out.
• 30:53
  Speaker 1: He sprang from his seat, screaming that he was going
• 30:55
  Speaker 1: to die, and he paced in circles, and the oracle
• 30:58
  Speaker 1: spoke another string of French. She tried to calm him,
• 31:01
  Speaker 1: but Jimmy couldn't hear her, saying that the death card
• 31:03
  Speaker 1: didn't literally mean that he was going to die. It
• 31:06
  Speaker 1: was just a symbol of natural endings and new beginnings.
• 31:10
  Speaker 1: It could mean one chapter of his life was ending
• 31:12
  Speaker 1: so that another could open. The death card could be
• 31:15
  Speaker 1: a good thing, a very good thing.
• 31:17
  Speaker 2: But it was no use.
• 31:19
  Speaker 1: Panic could seize Jimmy's body. The end was coming. It
• 31:23
  Speaker 1: was already on its way to him, hunting him down
• 31:25
  Speaker 1: following his footsteps. He needed to run and get the
• 31:29
  Speaker 1: fuck out of Dodge before the reaper found him before.
• 31:35
  Speaker 1: Jimmy awoke with a shudder, his body burned with anxiety,
• 31:39
  Speaker 1: sweaty palms. That wasn't some dream, That was a real memory.
• 31:44
  Speaker 1: That tarot reading really happened somewhere back in Morocco. Death
• 31:48
  Speaker 1: was coming for him. And now look at him, tied
• 31:51
  Speaker 1: to a fucking chair, ready for the taking. Everything would
• 31:55
  Speaker 1: not be fine. Everything was not cool, man, Not today.
• 32:00
  Speaker 1: Jimmy thrashed around in the chair for the first time,
• 32:02
  Speaker 1: and two days, three days, one week didn't matter. He
• 32:06
  Speaker 1: was a sitting duck for the reaper. As long as
• 32:08
  Speaker 1: he was sitting here and the legs of the chair
• 32:10
  Speaker 1: moaned against the hardwood floor, death was coming. Was gliding
• 32:16
  Speaker 1: up the steps, sniffing him out in a nameless location.
• 32:20
  Speaker 1: Death was smart like that, didn't need a map. He
• 32:23
  Speaker 1: could sense Jimmy for miles away. Here it was now,
• 32:28
  Speaker 1: and the jig was up. Maybe he'd go out with
• 32:30
  Speaker 1: a gun wound fast and easy. Maybe he'd get shot
• 32:33
  Speaker 1: so full of heroin he'd soar up to heaven and
• 32:35
  Speaker 1: never come back. Jimmy stopped tussling.
• 32:39
  Speaker 2: There was no use fighting it now.
• 32:44
  Speaker 1: His manager slipped through the door. Jimmy almost couldn't believe
• 32:48
  Speaker 1: his eyes. His manager had apparently negotiated Jimmy's safe release,
• 32:53
  Speaker 1: used some actual mafia muscle to spring Jimmy without paying
• 32:57
  Speaker 1: a penny. It wasn't Jimmy's time to go, Just as
• 33:00
  Speaker 1: time to go home. His manager untied Jimmy from the chair.
• 33:05
  Speaker 1: Jimmy walked back into the world in a daze, back
• 33:09
  Speaker 1: into the drama, back into the demands of the road
• 33:11
  Speaker 1: and the public. He slipped back into life like nothing
• 33:14
  Speaker 1: ever happened in that barren, silent room. But he couldn't
• 33:18
  Speaker 1: shake that feeling that he wasn't safe, that he was
• 33:20
  Speaker 1: within the reaper's grasp, that he could only cheat death
• 33:24
  Speaker 1: and danger so many times. Someday he would fail. Someday
• 33:29
  Speaker 1: death would catch up to him a day like September eighteenth,
• 33:33
  Speaker 1: nineteen seventy, in a bedroom in London, next to a
• 33:36
  Speaker 1: strange woman in a puddle of his own vomit. Jimmy
• 33:41
  Speaker 1: Hendrix escaped poverty, prison time, riots and kidnappers, but he
• 33:46
  Speaker 1: couldn't escape what he saw in the cards. And that
• 33:50
  Speaker 1: is a disgrace. I'm Jake Brennan and this.
• 33:56
  Speaker 2: Is disgrace Land.
• 34:10
  Speaker 1: Disgraceland was created by Yours Truly and is produced in
• 34:12
  Speaker 1: partnership with Double Elvis. Credits for this episode can be
• 34:16
  Speaker 1: found on the show notes page at disgracelampod dot com.
• 34:20
  Speaker 1: If you're listening as a Disgraceland All Access member, thank
• 34:23
  Speaker 1: you for supporting the show.
• 34:24
  Speaker 2: We really appreciate it.
• 34:25
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• 34:28
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• 34:32
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• 34:36
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• 34:40
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• 34:50
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• 34:52
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• 34:56
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• 35:01
  Speaker 2: He's a bad, bad man.