The Who were a fundamental part of the evolution of Rock and Roll music, and the band's guitarist and main songwriter, Pete Townshend, was always the central figure. Alongside Keith Moon, John Entwistle, and Roger Daltrey, he helped the band find its perfect sound. Townshend had the chance to be part of that revolution and to witness up close all the amazing artists who emerged in the wake of what American Blues and Rock musicians had started in the 1950s. Over the years, he spoke about many artists from that era, and there is one guitarist he said was so good it felt like he was from another planet. The guitarist that Pete Townshend said was from another planet That guitarist is Jimi Hendrix, who Pete Townshend had the chance to meet and hang out with. He praised the musician recalling, in an interview at the New York Public Library in 2012, the funny story of the 1967 Monterey Festival, in which The Who didn't want to play after Hendrix like the promoters planned. (Transcribed by Rock and Roll Garage) "We were invited and then I heard that Jimi (Hendrix) was going to appear. When we got there, for some reason we hadn't taken our big Marshall amps. Jimi had taken his, we hired some amplifiers over there. We were always doing things on the cheap and then Derek gave me the running order. It was that Jimi went on before The Who. I took Derek aside and I said: 'This is wrong'. He said: 'What you mean?'" "I said: 'Jimi Hendrix got to be the most profoundly important artist of this generation. I was thinking kind of in terms of  music variety. You know, the artist that closes the show is the most important. I wanted Jimi to be higher up on the list and he said: 'Oh, it doesn't matter'. I said: 'It does, I don't think it would be appropriate for The Who to follow Jimi Hendrix, he should be on after us." Pete Townshend continued: "He said: 'Come and talk to Jimi'. Jimi had just taken some very, very powerful LSD and he was standing on a chair playing. He was such an amazing player, if you saw Jimi Hendrix perform you would know what I mean. If you didn't, well, I'm sorry. Because he was something else, it's ok to hear the records but God, this guy in the flesh was just from another planet. He had the skills of a Shaman." "I never quite understood how he did what he did. He seemed to be able to come alive, create light and color. I never, ever took LSD to watch Jimi play, I was far too terrified just in my normal skin. But I used to see stuff, I think I'm slightly psychic, there's no question about that. But (he) was just the most incredible performer, elegant, graceful and beautiful. (...) When he was on stage he looked like a god." Afterwards, when Pete and the concert organizer talked with Jimi, The Who's member said he was a bit worried about going after him on stage. Hendrix's answer was: "Yeah, I would be" (laughs). But then they tossed a coin and Jimi lost, so he played after the band. Pete Townshend said no one could play like Jimi Hendrix https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G5Lvc1a76dU&pp=ygUVamltaSBoZW5kcml4IG1vbnRlcmV5 Jimi Hendrix changed the course of guitar playing and was responsible for how Rock, Hard Rock and Heavy Metal evolved in the following years. Obviously, being a huge inspiration for countless artists, many musicians tried to emulate his playing and to try to sound like him. However, as Pete Townshend told Guitar.com, he believes no one could play like the late guitarist. “Hendrix, although he played single lines, he was such an elegant, remarkable, decorative player as well, and just in a different league, I think. I’d like to say I was influenced by him. But who in their right mind would back that up today – even some of the shredders of the modern world – and say they could cover what he does?” “And even if you can, you can’t make it speak the way he did, and of course, the other thing, which is not shared often, which is unless you were there, you kind of missed 80 to 90 per cent of where the magic was. He was just such an extraordinary presence once he walked onto the stage with a guitar. It was kind of weird. It was almost like he was some kind of angelic, seismic, metaphysical force, who seemed to have light rays coming out of him, and then, as soon as he walked offstage, it would switch off.” “He was an extraordinary presence. And that definitely made what he did as a player penetrate in a soulful way as well as musically. So those early recordings – they were great, of course – but I always felt they were missing something. Like they’re missing one bite of magic,” Jimi Hendrix said. How Townshend met Jimi Hendrix Pete first had the chance to see Hendrix in England when the musician was promoting his first album "Are You Experienced". At the time he was managed by The Animals bassist Chas Chandler. Townshend told Rolling Stone in 2019, that it was a cosmic experience seeing him. He described him as a brilliant, wonderful and inventive guitar player. “Yeah, well, that was a cosmic experience. It was at Blaze’s, at a nightclub in London. He was really amazing. I think you had to have seen Jimi Hendrix to really understand what he was about. I met him, of course, because he was on our record label. He’d come to the studio, he came with his manager Chas Chandler who was the bass player of The Animals. Chas had left and gone into management, discovered Jimi Hendrix, put a band together." Pete Townshend continued: "Jimi was unfamiliar with the kind of way Cream and The Who work on stage with their equipment. He asked for some advice about amplifiers. So I said, ‘Well, I’ve been using Marshall, and I found this new amp, the high-watt, I would suggest you buy one of each.’ So he did. I think on Marshall but, anyway, he started to play, and of course, he was a brilliant player, a wonderful player – very inventive." "But he had the most beautiful voice. He wasn’t a great singer, but he had a beautiful voice, a smokey voice, you know, really sexy voice. And when I’ve seen him in the studio, he had this military jacket that I suppose was supposed to evoke the hippy era. It was covered in dust and dandruff, it just looked scruffy. I thought, ‘Well, this guy might turn out to be okay,” Pete Townshend said. Jimi Hendrix tragically passed away in 1970 at the age of 27. His amazing career as a musician lasted only 8 years, starting in 1962 and being a sideman for other artists, including Little Richard for a while. It was only in 1967 that the musician had the chance to release his first album with his own band. With the group he only had the chance to release four albums during his lifetime. The post The guitarist that Pete Townshend said was from another planet appeared first on Rock and Roll Garage.