We didn’t have a particular roadmap, plan or grand scheme to what we were doing. “On Nothing To Do I was playing six- and 12-string acoustics, and electric guitar, too. And so the group was just going along, and as we got to the Givin’ It Back album, all of a sudden I was playing 12-string acoustic on Love The One You’re With.
Then I got a 12-string because I wanted to learn Classical Gas and Love Is Blue. “I first picked up the guitar after hearing José Feliciano’s version of Light My Fire. I first picked up the guitar after hearing José Feliciano’s version of Light My Fire I wanted to move to Philly!” Fire Lighter ‘Hey look, it’s him! He was just up there!’ Girls at my school didn’t act like that. “I was like, ‘Man, $50!’ I had this $50 bill, and I went to the backstage doors with my stage clothes still on, and as I came through the backstage doors, all these girls turned around and screamed at me like I was Justin Bieber. Kelly handed me $50 and said, ‘Go get a hot dog.’ “After we did the Isleys set, in between acts, everybody was saying how well I played. (Image credit: Don Hunstein) Not Just A Stage These were huge stars with big hits.” Prev of 9 Next Prev of 9 Next “So they asked if I wanted to play drums behind them! I was like, ‘Are you kidding me? Heat Wave? Dancing In The Street?’ This was 1966. “My oldest brother was asking the guys, ‘We gotta find a drummer ASAP – do you all know anybody?’ They said, ‘Yeah, Ernie.’ ‘Ernie? Get out of here.’ ‘Yeah, Ernie plays better than the guy who was playing with us!’ I started playing at around 12 years old and I played my first live gig on drums with my brothers when I was 14 in Philadelphia, because the drummer that they had had suddenly quit. You can see drummers in parades, so that’s what attracted me at first. My mom used to yell at him and make him breakfast! He was part of our household as much as he was part of the Isley Brothers band.” Drum Major “And I’d tell them that if they’d come by my house a year and a half or so before they would have seen him just about any old day. “After Jimi went to England and became ‘Jimi Hendrix’ I remember my buddies coming up to me in school and asking me, ‘You know Jimi Hendrix?’ (Image credit: Jason Moore/ZUMA Press/Corbis) Family Man I’ve said this before, but I know that if he’d been around when That Lady came out, he would have given me a bear hug and asked me, ‘Where in the hell did you learn that?’ Of course, I would have said, ‘From listening to you.’” Prev of 9 Next Prev of 9 Next “I mean, he already had that signature E chord that he used later in Purple Haze. I really liked hanging out with him, and I could tell he really liked me, probably because I was really curious about what he was up to. That’s how I knew him, even though I was just a kid. He was already an amazing player, but I think of Jimi Hendrix as a person I knew, rather than the icon. “He wasn’t the Jimi Hendrix we all know now, he was just Jimmy. I was a kid and when I’d hear him playing, I’d take my homework or whatever and I’d go hang out where Jimi was. “In fact, his first recording session was with the Isley brothers in ’64 on a song called Testify. When I’d hear him playing, I’d take my homework or whatever and I’d go hang out where Jimi was
He was with us and lived in our home for two years. “In 1963, when I was 11 and Jimi Hendrix was about 21, he played with The Isley Brothers. (Image credit: Don Hunstein) Hendrix At Home
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