“I don’t hear one note where I influenced him!”: Steve Cropper dismisses claims that he was one of Jimi Hendrix’s biggest influences
Booker T and the MG’s guitarist Steve Cropper has dismissed claims that he was one of Jimi Hendrix’s greatest influences in a new interview.
The pair first crossed paths in 1964, after Hendrix stumbled into the Stax Studios in Memphis, where Cropper was working as a producer and session guitarist.
Addressing a fan inquiry about his supposed impact on Hendrix’s playing, Cropper tells Uncut: “I don’t hear one note where I influenced him! He didn’t play like me – he’s his own man.”
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While the R&B legend did not see himself as a direct influence on Hendrix’s iconic style, he acknowledged a mutual respect and friendship with the late musician. “But it’s true in one aspect,” Cropper added.
“We played a college gig [with the Isley Brothers at DePauw University in 1965] where they had different bands at opposite ends of the hall. When one band would quit their last number, we’d pick up. And we did that back and forth all night long. I’d go over and watch him play, then I’d look down and see him watching me play. So Jimi was a good friend.”
The guitarist also shared a poignant memory of his last encounter with Hendrix, saying: “He was so high when I last saw him, he barely recognised me. I grabbed his buddies and said, ‘Get him sober, you gonna kill him.’ He died about three weeks later.”
Hendrix’s bassist Billy Cox previously said of Cropper’s influence: “Jimi was in his infancy at that particular time. Steve and Booker T and the MG’s were [producing many of] the R&B songs being played at that time, and we copied that before we came into our own persona.”
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Source: www.guitar-bass.net
