11 September 1970
London, Cumberland Hotel, Marble Arch, England

Interview by Keith Altham (Jimi’s last) edited and published as ‘A Few Last Words’ in Record Mirror (3 October 1970) Jimi’s got the giggles. One short line doesn’t appear to be circulating on tape: “Even the Bible does that. You have to give people something to dream on”, it only seems appears in Keith Altham’s written transcript? Anyone? : 

 [Tape cut]
KA: Take…..One and a half…. Everybody subsequent to the Isle of Wight Festival and-eh, 
prior to it has been talking about the new, subdued, mature Jimi Hendrix 
JH: Phew-ha-ha 
KA: And I wonder if you could tell us why this is, an’-and maybe where it started from?
JH: Well, there was a period that I-hah, stopped talking so much, uh, because, like, you 
know, I was goin’ through-uh, certain things here and there, an’, like-ah. Oh I don’t know, really. Maybe just, I guess it was some thing else to talk about or some thing, whatever
KA: Uh, it seem…
JH: I was…
KA: It does seem…
JH: ‘Cause, like, I just got very quiet for a while. I just, I just, like, you know, just did the 
gigs and just, like, stayed in. Just tried to stay away an’-know all that, you know. It’s probably one of those things. ‘Cause, like, I was changing, I-ha-ha felt like I was changing and gettin’ into, like, heavier music an’ it was gettin’ unbearable with three pieces, you know. And, like, I always wanted to expand and all this, but I think I’ll go back to three pieces again now. And get another bass player, and I’ll probably be loud again ha-ha-ha, loud 
KA: But it does appear, doesn’t it, I mean that, em, the days of the baubles and 
bangles and the freaky hair style…
JH: Oh-ha-ha-no
KA: …have all disappeared, and are you not worried in a sense that maybe your quieter 
approach now, may lose a little of the mystique that there was with Jimi Hendrix, which attracted people to begin with? 
JH: Yeah, but see, everybody goes through those stages that-uh, the first, like, the first 
time around then you’d wear all these different things, you know. Like, I see some other groups, just like-ah ‘Mountain’ and ‘Cactus’ and whatever, you know, like, they’re getting into them things so you see that in some of their new pictures now, now their hair is getting longer and they’re ha-ha wearing more jewellery, and strangling themselves with all these, you know, beads and jewellery and stuff. But it’s…I don’t know ... I just did that ‘cause, like, I felt like I was being too loud ha-ha or something. ‘Cause my nature just changes, you know.

KA: You were quoted in one paper as saying, in fact, “That you’d never wanted to be a 
visual thing”.
JH: W-well, I don’t want it to be basically, just only hyped up on all the visual thing, you 
know. I wanted the people to, like, listen too. I don’t know if they were or not though. After a while I started getting aware too much of what was going down. I started lettin’ it bring me down a little bit so I just start cutting my hair and ha-ha, then start rings disappearing one by one ha-ha.
KA: Are you in fact saying that that kind of freak thing was really a kind of publicity hype? 
‘The Jimi Hendrix…
JH: No! No, no. I have, eh… you know, like, I like. A-all ‘they’ do is just let me do my own 
what I want to do, my own kind of scenes. Uh-like, one time I said, ‘Maybe I should burn a guitar tonight? I really feel, well, ha-ha-ha, you know? Or maybe I should smash a guitar or something like that. An’ ‘they’ says, ‘Yeah, yeah!’ I said, ‘you really do think I should?’ They said, ‘Yeah, that’d be cool!’ So, okay. So, like, I just work up enough anger as of where I could do it, you know. But, like, I didn’t, you know, I didn’t think too much of the hype scene and all that because, like, I dug, you know, wearin’ all those different things, you know. It was fun. And I still do, but I, y’know-like, I don’t see very many-ha-ha other people doin’ it, so, like, it has, it gives me a dumb or a stupid tendency to hold back from my own desires and so forth, for some unknown reason, I don’t know.
KA: So the anger maybe has dispersed a little?
JH: Oh, yeah. That’s always happening though. But, like, I didn’t know it was anger until 
they told me that it was, you know, like, with destruction and all that. But I believe everybody should have, like, a, a room where they can get rid of all their, you know, all their ah, releases, where they can do their releases at. So my room was a stage heh-heh-heh, know. 
KA: Now, what is gonna happen now? I mean, y-you apparently from the Isle of Wight 
Festival you were qouted as saying, prior to the Isle of Wight, that if it really happened big for you you’d carry on for a while. Were you satisfied with the results of the Isle of Wight?
JH: Well, I was so mixed up there, and a tiny bit, so confused that, like-uh, 
I didn’t get a chance to really base any of my future on that one gig, you know, except when I played ‘God Bless The Queen’-ha-ha-ha… 
KA: [Supressed laughter]
JH: …if you know what I mean. But, like-uh. I don’t know, um, I-I couldn’t base my 
whole thing on what I’m gonna do after that, you know, by just that one job there. I was probably happy just to play there, you know. And I was wonderin’ if we was gonna be recep’, you know, if they was gonna dig us, then quite naturally I’d go on and try to get it together.”
KA: Now Billy Cox has split?
JH: Yeah, ha-ha-ha.
KA: So you’re gonna, eh… Whatever happens you’ve gotta find a new bass player. Is that 
correct? 
JH: Yeah, yeah, I guess so.
[Knocking at door]
JH: Oh, it’s that damn maid, wait a minute….
KA: So, do you intend to form another small unit, or are you hoping to get something 
bigger together for…?
JH: I really don’t know, I think I’ll get another small one together I guess. It’s really hard to 
Decide, you know. I’d like to have both if I could, like use one for touring and then sometimes I could do another tour with the big one, you know, whatever. 
KA: Now again you were quoted in one paper eh, as saying that you wanted to do less 
personal appearances. 
JH: Yeah, right. An’ then I think it would count more, if we did less, you know personal 
appearances. We’re tryin’ to get a tour of England together now, but, like, that’s definitely gonna call for another bass player, you know [Tape cut] … and-uh…

KA: Do you personally feel that the excitement has gone out of things? I mean aprec’…
JH: No, I was feeling like that before because I was thinking too fast, you know. It seems 
like, you know, a person has the tendency to get bored, because, like, he always wants to try to do all these acco’-accomplishments, you know. Like starting on ideas like that, and never quite finishing them out, you know. Well, some people should just be lent, you know, to start ideas and other ones should ha-ha carry them out
KA: Mhmm
JH: But, like um, I don’t know. It’s really hard to say right now. It’s whatever, it’s whatever 
happens. I-I can feel like a… We could do tours with a small group again, you know, want another bass player. I’d probably get very wild though and wrapped up into that other scene again, you know. Like, with the hair and so forth, or the visuals, probably a-huh. But it’s all depe’-you know, it’s really hard to know what people want around here some times. All I’m gonna do is just go on and do what I feel, but, like, right now huh-huh I don’t, I can’t feel anything right now because, like, there’s a few things that’s just happened, you know, and so, like, I just have to, like, lay back and think about it all.
KA: Do you feel any kind of compulsion to prove yourself as ‘King Guitar’…
JH: Uh-no-no
KA: … which is the kind of label that people have slapped on you?
JH: I don’t know. Well, I was just playing loud, that’s-that’s the only difference ha-ha-ha. 
No, I don’t try to fight that-I mean I don’t try to really let that bother me. ‘Cause they say a lot of things about people that, if they let it bother them, they wouldn’t even be around today, you know, tuh. ‘King Guitar’ an’ all that, wow, that’s a bit heavy. 
KA: Who are the people that em… I mean you ha’-you’ve already expressed eh,  
appreciation in one paper of Pink Floyd, what are the, the things that you admire about Pink Floyd and the things they’re doing. 
JH: Oh yeah, well they’re doing like a different type of music, they’re doing more of like a 
s-space type of thing. I mean inner space, it seems like, you know. [sighs] And like a… you know, technically, you know, they’re gettin’ into electronics and all this. Yeah, they do like a space type of thing, like a inner space type of thing and-uh, you know,  sometimes you have to lay back by yourself and appreciate them, you know. That’s the type of music they’re into, so it’s good. But, like, I think I’d want to make mine a little more easier, with a better s’, you know, with a, like, with a solid beat probably. More beat.
KA: You seem torn between the idea of getting together a big band uh, in which you can 
step back, and a smaller unit… 
JH: Yeah.
KA: … a kind of rock and roll thing, where you can eh, project your own musical thing. I-Is 
that a real problem for you? 
JH: I don’t know. I think this.. thinkin’ about the rock ‘n’ roll thing so much is… well 
everybody goes through that, it’s the idea of thinkin’ they might lose friends, so they might ha-ha not want to get back, you know, together an’ stuff, something similar to that, only with probably even a better beat an’-uh, you know, more music. 
KA: Would it be, I mean is it… 
JH: What, like a…
KA: …would it be practical for you to get together and maybe an organist and a vocalist, 
so that you…
JH: Yeah, that’s okay, man
KA: …can step back as a guitarist? 
JH: Well that’s exactly what I want to do, actually. That’s what I have to do. All I’ll do is go,  
like, probably get a, two guitars, counting myself, an organist, and a singer, you know, and drums, quite naturally, and bass. If I can get something like that, that would be out of sight [Tape cut]

KA: I remember talking to eh, Alvin Lee of ‘Ten Years After’ some weeks ago, and he said 
of you, in fact, that you’d never really been truly appreciated or um, analyzed as a song writer, eh. Do you feel that, that maybe your image got in the way of that? To an extent?
JH: No
KA: I mean, do you feel that-that lack, that you’ve never been truly eh, criticized as a song 
writer?
JH: Well, probably it’s a good thing because I’m still trying to ge-get that together, you 
know, all I’m writing is just what I feel, that’s all, and not really using too many good-uh... You know, I don’t really round it off too good, you know, ‘cause I just keep it almost naked almost, you know (laughs). And, like uh, probably, you know, the words are so bland… blank and everything, that they probably didn’t want to get into that. And, like, when we go to play, you know, you flippin’ around and flashin’ around an’ everything, and then they’re not gonna see nothin’ but what their eyes see, you know. Forget about their ears. So, like, well I was tryin’ to do too many things at the same time, which is my nature (laughs), you know. But I was enjoyin’ it, and I still do enjoy it, if I ever… I mean by just thinkin’ about it… first 
KA: But there again, I mean your…
JH: Eh, I just hate to be in one corner. I hate to be put as only a guitar player, or either 
only as a song writer, or only as a tap dancer, or something like this, so you know (laughs). I like to move early, an’, you know, I like to fool around. 

KA: Is it important for you to achieve recognition as a song writer?
JH: I don’t know, really. I guess it would be if I wanted to just lay back and predominantly 
write songs when I can’t go on a stage anymore.
KA: You, you were quoted in one paper as saying that you wanted… you didn’t really care 
what you did, as long as you turned people on, right?
JH: Yeah
KA: Now, what do you want to turn people on to, apart from your music? Is there any 
moral or political intent in the kind of things you want to write? 
JH: Oh no, I li-ike for them to get easier in their mind a little bit, ‘cause there’s too many 
heavy songs out nowadays. Music is getting, you know… or at least it has been getting too heavy, like, you know. Almost to the state of unbearable, you know. I have this one little saying, “When things get too heavy just call me helium, the lightest known gas to man! (laughs). But then again…
KA: (Suppressed laugh) So where are your um, your inspirations for songs coming from 
[‘at the’ (tape drop out)], present time? And where are you turning to for your directions? 
JH: I don’t know
KA: As a writer?
JH: From my point, it’s recent experiences (laughs). Eh, what I try to do is, like, look 
at the totality of that and give them the other half, you know. First of all you have the, the one half, then the second half, the um, you know, the ah-ah, solution there, whatever it might be, which is the second. First of all you have the experience, then you have the use of it all, you know. And, like, I was just tryin’ to go through a lot of changes and then I could write the nice parts about them, you know? But right now it’s takin’ a while (laughs).

KA: (Suppressed laugh) Do you feel at all concerned that, uh, I mean... you-w’-you we’, 
you have been quoted as saying in the past that music,”Music will…the next, ah… 
JH: Should be classic?
KA: No, “The-the, that the next eh, wheel, as it were…
JH: Yeah
KA: …the next circle of music that - we’re now at an end of something – w’-the next ah,  
stage of music, popular music will change The World”. And do you really believe that, or do you believe that music is a reflection of The World?
JH: Yeah, well, it’s always a reflection, but, like, if they… see then… Well the reflection of 
the world is blues, that’s where the mus’… that’s where that part of the music is at. But then you got this other kind of music that’s tryin’ to come around. It’s not ‘sunshine music’ necessarily, it’s, you know, but it’s like a more easier type of thing, with less words, you know, and more meaning to it, you know. Y’know, you don’t have to be singin’ about love all the time in order to ah, give love to the people, you know. You don’t have to keep flashing those words ‘love’ all the time. But I don’t know, I mean I was just feeling all nice and enthusiastic when I said that (laughs)
KA: (Suppressed laugh)
JH: Right now I can’t take back on that ‘cause it is a nice thought. I think that there’s 
no reason why I couldn’t, if it’s organized like a… 
KA: Do you want to do that personally, or not? I mean do you…
JH: Oh, I’d like to be a part of it
KA: …do you wanna change The World?
JH: Well, I’d like to take part in it, changin’ reality probably…
KA: One thing…
JH: …not the way I know it necessarily, but the way that it would get along a little better as 
of where old and young don’t clash so much together.
KA: An’ what are the things that you would you like to see changed?
JH: Oh, I don’t know, more colour in the streets probably. I mean, you know (laughs)
KA: (Suppressed laugh)
JH: I don’t know (laughs), I really don’t know. Whatever happens, it should have a chance 
to be, like, brought into the open. If there’s a new idea, a new invention, or a new gas, or a new whatever, you know, or a new idea of thinking, it should be brought at least into the open, you know, and be respected as, as being new and probably a ch’-you know, a decent change or a help for the-heh, you know, like the-heh, human race or whatever. Instead of, keep carryin’ these same old burdens around with you. And you have to be a freak in order to be different, you know. And even freaks, they are very prejudiced. You have to have your hair long and talk in a certain way in order to be with them, you know
KA: (Suppressed laugh)
JH: And in order to be the other idiot, you have to have your hair short and wear ties. So 
we’re trying to make a third world happen, [in Groucho voice:] ‘ you know what I 
mean?’ (laughs).
KA: Y’-I mean it does seem that people like [John] Sebastian, for example, want to try and 
change The World, doesn’t it? That…
JH: Yeah.
KA: …that their intention is to make The World a better place.
JH: Oh yeah.
KA: Do you feel that same kind of need?
JH: Yeah, but all, it has to come w’-from within-inside though, you know, I guess. I guess a 
person would have to change himself in order to be a livin’ example of what he’s singin’ about or something, you know. In order to change The World, well then, like, I guess he’d have to really get his head together first before he can say anything (laughs) to The World, to change it, you know. 
KA: I think certain people think of your music essentially as, as a angry music, as…
JH: No it isn’t
KA: …raging perhaps against the establishment principles, that-that…
JH: Oh, that’s not ragin’ against it, just the thing, w’-if it was up to me, there wouldn’t be 
no such thing as the establishment, (laughs) you know. So, I guess… But see that’s nothing but blues, that’s all I’m singing about. 
KA: Do you ha’…
JH: It’s nothin’ but today’s blues.
KA: Do you have any politics, in fact, yourself?
JH: Not really. I was gettin’ ready to get into all that, but, like… I mean, you know, well,  
everybody goes through that (laughs) stages too.
KA: Yeah
JH: I’m just…You know, it all, it all comes out in the music, most of the time. We have this 
one song called ‘Straight Ahead’ tuh, and it just says like, “Power to the people, freedom of the soul, pass it on to the young and old”, and, “We don’t give a damn if your hair is short or long communication’s comin’ on strong”, an’ all this kind of stuff, you know. [Tape cut] 

KA: Have you had any problems with the Black Panther movement in the States an’ that?
JH: Any problems? No, it’s just the idea of ah [sighs], you know, there’s a lot of political, 
you know, things happening out there that I’d really have to get away from, because, then I’d find myself in too much of a ‘box’ situation, you know. 
KA: Ji’…
JH: Like I say, I’d, I’d rather just proo’-you know. If I had anything to say I’d have to say to 
everybody, instead of just the one little thing, I mean not little thing, but Bla’… 
KA: Have they ever demanded of you that you play a concert for the Panthers? 
JH: Well, actually they asked us, which I was really, you know, I was happy for them to ask 
us, I was honoured and all this, you know, But we never did do it yet, we haven’t (laughs) done it yet. Ah, Mike Jeffery’s, he’s taking care of that (laughs) side of it…
KA: (Supressed laugh)
JH: … so I don’t know, whatever.
KA: When you look back on things like ‘Hey Joe’ now, I mean eh, how do you feel about 
those musically? 
JH: Oh, I think they’re… all right, I guess (laughs), you know. I don’t have nothin’ to regret 
at all in the past, except that I might’ve unintentionally, might have hurt somebody else or something. Then plus the music, I think they are all nice, you know. I don’t look, kind of, down on me, that’s for sure. I just look at ‘em as changes. 
KA: I mean, it has been said of you that you invented psychedelic music…
JH: Ho-ho-ho-uh 
KA: …and that… 
JH: A mad scientist approach
KA: What do you, an’ what do you feel about that, I mean do you feel that’s, that’s fair? I 
mean was your music a written i’... originally, or your… 
JH: Intending quite psychedelic type of things?
KA: …early music written for psychedelic purposes?
JH: I really don’t know, I have to tell the truth. Are You Experienced, one time I just heard 
that recently, you know, an’ I kind o’ like, almost like-um, I-ha-ha don’t know, seemed like I must be high or something. Eh, you know, when I heard it, it was like, ah, I said, “Damn! I wonder where my head was at, when I said all those things,” you know (lights a match). But, like, I, I don’t, I don’t consider that no invention of psychedelic, it’s just  askin’ a lot of questions, some of them
KH: Uh…But I mean things like ‘Purple Haze’ for example did tend to have a, a, a rather 
psychedlic dream…
JH: Oh. Yes
KH: … like quality about ‘em, didn’t they though?
JH: Yeah. Well, I just said, as I said without a hard beat what’s happening, you know. I 
says, “Damn, wait a minute, I feel, you know, excuse me while-ha-ha I do this,” you know,  for a second-hah, you know, you feel youself, like, goin’ in different strange areas an’ all this, like eh-most curious people do. An’ I just happened to put it on ‘Purple Haze’. Even the Bible does that. You have to give people something to dream on, it was actually a long, long thing, you know I was take-I told you before, didn’t I? yeah
[Does anyone have the bit above, about the Bible (in italics) on tape?}
KA: You don‘t think of yourself as a psychedelic writer?
JH: Well, I-I think maybe it’s more that than anything else. I’m tryin’ to get more so into 
other things, you know. But the way I write things, I just write ’em in, with a clash between reality and fantasy mostly. You have to use fantasy in order to-uh, show different sides of reality, just how it can bend, as of where reality is nothing but each individual’s own way of thinking. And then the establishment grabs a big piece of that, you know, and the Church of England and so forth, on down the line.
KA: How much is there still…
JH: Is…
KA: I’m sorry, go ahead
JH: No, go ahead on
KA: I was gonna say, how much is there that’s still eh, in can from…
JH:  You mean real…
KA: …the eh, Jimi Hendrix Experience that was, or Billy Cox and Mitch Mitchell, I mean… 
JH: With psychedelics d’you mean?
KA: Eh-yeah, of-of a-albums…
JH: Albums
KA: …and tracks to come, then what’s gonnna happen next on a-or as an album from you, 
you know?
JH: Well, I think we’re gonna have this thing called ‘Horizon’ (sighs), ‘Between Here and 
Horizon,’ or something that pertains to that, you know. And, like-eh, that goes into certain things like ‘Room Full Of Mirrors,’ that’s more of a, of a mental disarrangement that a person might be thinkin’. This says something about, “Broken glass used to be all in my brain” and so forth. And-ah, Then we had other one’s called ah… Oh, I told you about that. Oh, then we have this other one called ‘Astro Man,’ it says something about, “Talkin’ about livin’ in peace of mind, well ‘Astro Man’ will (laughs) leave you in pieces,” and so forth and so on
KA: (Surpressed laugh)
JH: And-uh and the ‘Valleys Of Neptune Arising.’ But all these are-are psychedelic? I don’t 
even know what that word means, really. It’s, what is it, it’s like ah... what you say one thing then mean another, you mean, something like that? Or you can get about three different meanings out of one thing, d’you mean? Is that where that’s at?
KA: Well, I think psychedelic to most people has eh, connotations with LSD.
JH: Oh, you mean strictly LSD? You mean with that type of consciousness?
KA: Yeah, with dream…
JH: Oh
KA: …ah….
JH: Oh right! Oh yeah, well you have to give them a little bit of it to dream on, because so 
they can hear it over again, ‘cause they might be in a different mood. Well, dreams come from different moods, you know. And so it’s nothin’ but m-m-moody, ‘Moody Bl-[Moody Blues?] you know (laughs) 
KA: You… o-one of the other things that you’ve said quite recently, is that eh, your music, 
your next music would-might be, or would be influenced by people like eh… 
JH: Johan Strauss
KA: …Wagner eh…
JH: Yeah, oh yeah I dig that.
KA: …and Strauss? Eh, I mean…
JH: Yeah, well I-I think, the way things are going right now, materially that’s gonna take 
time. But like spiritually and, you know, and in the head and all this, it’s always there, and it gets better and better all the time. One of these days I’ll just finally release all that out, you know. But, like, uh, the way things’ve been goin’ lately I think it’s gonna have… It’s gonna take a lot more time (laughs). We had this one little ‘bolero’ type of thing [Hey Baby], it’s kind of nice, but then it breaks down into a very simple pattern of, you know, asking this one question, like, “Where you comin’ from” or “Where you goin’ to,” an’, but like. And then this little girl answers, you know. But, like, it’s not really into the really big mass movement music that I want to do, you know.
KA: Do you wanna get involved in symphonies and…
JH: Oh yeah.
KA: …sort of symphonic orchestras, and that kind of thing..
JH: Yeah, I really, you know. But I have to get involved in my own kind of way ‘cause I 
always want to respect my own judgements and different things, you know. S-so therefore I have to re-respect my, my own time, an’ ever get in those. When I finally do get into it the whole World’s gonna know about it.

KA: I mean that’s really eh, along the lines of …
JH: [Hiccups] Excuse me
KA: …max (laughs) along the lines of mixed media, you see
JH: Yeah, right! That’s... 
KA: Now if people…
JH: …Well, that’s more universal than this, pertains to this one little thing, isn’t it? or it’s…
KA: But there’s… But the drawback people have eh-eh, have said about mixed media, is 
that eh, the people who you’re mixing your medias with…
JH: [Lecherous laugh] 
KA: …tend not to be able to relate to you, I mean y’-eh-uh…
JH: As a person you mean?
KA: …although you go halfway to them with your music, they won’t go halfway to you... 
JH: Here’s what we’ll do…
KA: …that is the classical musicians, really.
JH: Oh, I see what you mean. Well I-I don’t plan to make it that stiff. I plan with w’-w’-if I 
had the proper timing, that it would be w’. It’d be th’-just like what er’-what every step is - the m’-m’, the eh, you know, m’-mixture of the past and the future, like. You know what I mean? 
KA: Yeah 
JH: Well, that’s the way our music is anyway. I don’t even want to talk about it. But I mean 
technically (laughs). But you know what I mean. I don’t plan to squat there with a ninety piece orchestra and play you two and a half hours of classical music. I don’t plan that at all. I’m playin’ for both those things for you it’s rock and class, classics…
KA: You…
JH: …without, without even knowin’ that it’s rock and classic, with it bein’ a whole ‘nother 
thing then. 
KA: You’ve talked quite a bit about um, audio visual importance too... about the, eh-the 
importance of having a film with your music. Now are you thinking in terms of the days when we can fit a cassette into the top…
JH: Yeah
KA: …the side of our television and play music and a film together? 
JH: Yeah
KA: Or-or I mean…
JH: Plus I’m thinking about days when finally people will be able to, a lot of people 
are making more money than they ever had nowadays, so that when they get there flat, they can o’-they always find theirselves old extra room. So like this little room can be like the total audio-visual environment type of thing. Like you can go in there and you just lay back and the whole thing just blossoms out with this colour and sound type of scene, you know. Well, it’s like a destruction room where you go on… or it’s just like a tea room where you’re gonna have tea. You can go in here and just like jingle out your nerves or something, you know. And, like, well, that’s, that goes with a cassette, yeah, it goes in with a cassette, you know, you put in your favourite star and all of a sudden this music and the audio, I mean the visual scene comes on. And plus on stage, if we ever did anymore stage things with this new band, I mean with this new thing, it would have to, it would definitely have to be a, you know, audio-visual. And then plus it’d probably only be about five thousand people a performance, because we’d like to get this geodesic dome and, like, have the whole thing just lay it out perfect. It’d probably take a week, when you come in town, like on a train or something, it’ll be travelled by train and then it’d take about a day or two, about three days to set the whole thing up. And then you’d get a performance in the la’-next three days or something, of just a handfulls of people coming in. And I think that’d be dynamite. Because then you could work, and then everybody‘d get more of an effect from it, instead of putting a big block screen behind you.

KA: Now what about the subject of festivals now? Do you think the Isle of Wight is, as 
some people have said, the last of the big festivals?
JH: I don’t know why they’re always tryin’ to kill the festivals, really? I mean, unless they’re 
gonna keep puttin’ them on like they always are. The Isle of Wight was great, you know, people millin’ about, diggin’ each other, especially with it being the Isle of Wight with all, so many mixtures of different countries, you know. And the only static you’re gonna get from festivals is from the ah…Not from the people themselves, but from the other people that can’t understand the idea of mixing so many different people together, you know, under the name of music, peace and love. And so, like, because this is completely different than that World War Two set-up, you know. And-and in the World War Two all these countries were completely against each other, almost, complete opposite. Now we’re gettin’ ‘em all together, through the idea of music, you know.
KA: But it does appear, doesn’t it, that a very militant faction has now, a political 
motivated faction… 
JH: No. Well… 
KA: …has got involved in these festivals…
JH: Well… 
KA: …like there French Maoists.
JH: …with any, with any new, with any new civilization, you try to, you know, that you 
might find yourself involved in, or you might see growing, with any new civilization they have to have their own officers (laughs) and police and governments and all that, so it’s not all that political, not really. You know, you just take the best from all-eh-y’, you know, from all politics, or all religions, or all countries. You just do the best with that and then you… In the meantime we’re just forced to be gathered in pastures right now, you know (laughs). 
KA: Yeah, but I mean these people that turned up ah, at the Isle of Wight Festival, and 
demanded that eh, the music be free, and that the festival for free… 
JH: Oh yeah, well, they learnt that from the papers, they learned all that from the papers, 
ri’. They don’t… How come they don’t do that with Monterey? They didn’t do all that kind of mess with Monterey. See festivals shouldn’t eh, worry about getting so many people. It’s a big ego trip now. “Five hundred thousand people came”. Oh wow! That’s great!’ Well, with the, with that five hundred thousand, that’s w’-way larger than the average city, for instance, in England. And every city in-in the world always has a gang, a street gang, or their so-called out casts, you know. So you’re gonna get that with five hundred thousand people. That’s a city right there. You know, so you’re gonna have to have gate crashers, you know, you’re gonna have the other side of everything. 
KA: Mmm
JH: : [Tape cut]…see you and probably can’t even. [Tape cut].. live... It’s up to the people. 
If they really want to keep it going they’ll keep it going. If they don’t, well then they’ll appreciate the music itself. But see, you can’t mill about when you’re at a rock ‘n’ roll theatre, you know? Remember when you used to have gigs in the theatre? You can’t really mingle too much, you know, you just have to sit there and just have these in …
KA: Don’t you feel in a sense when the thing becomes that huge, that the music has 
become incidental, anyway, when there’s five-hundred thousand people… 
JH: Yeah, oh, definitely 
KA: …comin’ to see you…
JH: Yeah
KA: …and probably can’t even hear you lot…
JH: Well see, I know, I can understand that part. It’s not only the music, but it’s, the music 
draw, I mean, well, the artist, the artists and their names and so forth, draws the people there. But the whole idea is, is the people to dig themselves and so forth, you know, just mingle around meetin’ different other people. That’s groovy. That’s why they should give more to a festival, they should have not only music, but theatre an’-uh, you know, selling things, and circuses or so forth. 
KA: Hmm, freak shows.
JH: Yeah! Definitely, definitely. Freedom in Denmark! Slurp! Slurp! (laughs).
KA: (Suppressed laugh)

KA: Now, what about the prices of admission at concerts? Because I see that you 
previously expressed concern about the charges that-uh, sh’, kids were being-uh, taken for to see your concerts in the States, but at the same time most of your concerts in the States, I thought, were self-promoted? Now, I would have thought that you could control the prices your self. 
JH: Not really, because, not the way ‘they’, the people who lay it down, who’s ever self 
promotin’ it. Self promotion only with my name only, that’s, that’s all I have (laughs) to do with it mostly. Because they explain that they have to sell the tickets at a certain amount in order to make a certain cover or something, you know. But all they explain to me is, you know, something else, I don’t understand really. 
KA: But I mean surely, you could turn round and say, “All right, well, if you’re gonna 
charge six dollars,” or whatever it is to get in to see Jimi Hendrix, “I won’t play.” 
JH: Yeah, I can do all that too, but see, there’s contracts and all that you sign 
sometimes, and commitments you make. And then regardless o’ how much they 
charge, regardless o’ how much they charge sometimes you don’t even get a chance to look into all of that. All you can do is express your opinions about it and hope the next time it will be better, you know. 
Like I think that’s why they’re arrangin’ a tour in England. That’s why they’re takin’ so long in doin’ that is because, to get the prices at least at a compromising-heh-heh, you know, between us and the promoters. You know…
KA: What would you say…
JH: Yeah, but it’s so, always so hard now
KA: I mean, what would you say would be a reasonable fee for you to do a concert
before, shall we say, ten thousand people, for example?
JH: How much would I get paid, or how much will the tickets cost you mean?
KA: Well, how much would you consider to be a reasonable fee for you and your band, if it 
was a three piece band?
JH: Hmm, for ten thousand people? Oh, I don’t know, it’s pretty hard to say that though, I 
could say how much maybe the people should pay to get in maybe.
KA: Well, how much would the’-should be…?
JH: Say about a dollar and a half, I guess.
KA: Which in terms of English money would mean what please?
JH: Ah, a dollar and a half is…
KA: About seven and six?
JH: Yeah. I think so, six and six
KA: Mhmm
JH: How much do they pay around here
KA: Yeah
JH: How-how much do they pay-ah about here, when they go to concerts here?
KA: Well, I think it just depends on where you’re sitting, you know, I mean that’s how they, 
you know, effectively
JH: Well, all right. Well what’s the highest that it could go? 
KA: Wait in dungeon
JH: Do they ever go to twelve?
KA: Two pounds or three pounds
JH: Wow, well, that’s just silly. No, as long as they keep it under ten. I think it should, 
that they should’t go any higher than ten shillings 
KA: What do you think that they
JH: ‘Cause after all it is music and they have to pay us twice as much, or three times as 
much to buy the LP. 
KA: Well what do you think about the concept of free music. I mean free concerts?
JH:  Oh, I can dig that, I can really dig that.
KA: But can you play them?
JH: We should be able to, there’s no reason why we shouldn’t. We should only collect 
enough as to where we can pay the expenses from the last town to the next town, you know. Do our own kind of things, because we have time, you know, there’s, there’s no big rush. Well see, sometimes the music people, I mean that’s the other end of the business, you know, they put you into these big rushed things as to where you don’t get a chance to even reply to all that. But we can do, there’s no reason why we can’t do free concerts here. But, like, we would blow, you know, we would get, we would blow a lot of money if we had to pay for everything, like the theatre. If we can get enough money as of where we could like ah, have the-uh, people altogether pay for the theatre (laughs) and our fare and our hotel, ah, to then-uh, you know, lend me just expenses. That’s all they would have to pay, so the tickets would really drop down in price so it’d actually be free, it’d be donation-like.
KA: Do you feel personally that you’ve got enough money now to live comfortably with out 
necessarily making more money as a sort of professional entertainer?
JH: Ah, I don’t think so, not the way I’d like to live, because like I want to get up in the 
morning and just roll over in my bed into a indoor swimming pool and then swim to the breakfast table, you know, come up for air and get a, maybe a drink of orange juice or something like that. Then just flop over from the chair into the swimming pool, and swim into the bathroom and, you know, go on and shave and whatever.
KA: You don’t want to live just comfortably, you wanna live luxuriously?
JH: No! Is that luxurious? (laughs) I was thinking about, of a tent, maybe, (laughs) overs’ 
       over-over (laughs) overhanging a str’-a mountain stream! (laughter).