Pete Townshend recalls Jimi Hendrix was broke before he died

Pete Townshend helped to form The Who back in 1964 and besides being the band’s guitarist he also became over the decades their main songwriter. On the road with the band for more than decades, the musician had the chance to see many incredible artists and become a good friend of them. One of the fantastic musicians he had the chance to meet was the late legendary guitarist Jimi Hendrix, who tragically passed away too soon in 1970 at the age of 27.

Although he was one of the most important guitarists in the world at the time already, Pete said in an interview with NME that Hendrix told him he was broke just a few days before he died.

Pete Townshend recalls Jimi Hendrix was broke before he died

Pete talked about that when he was explaining that musicians like him never made music because of money, because records actually didn’t give the bands much money, according to him. “Look at the legendary Jimi Hendrix, I saw him in LA in the last two weeks of his life. He was happy, he was really nice to me, and he hadn’t been always in the past. I said, ‘How you doing?’ and he said, ‘Pete, I’m broke’. He was huge, and he was broke. [But] we didn’t give a fuck about the money.”

“I lived in a little house in Twickenham by the Thames, I was happy to be by the water. I had one car. I had a tiny little studio, I was really happy. I had a beautiful wife, lovely kids, great friends and never wanted for anything really, except some time to myself and some time to have with my family. So today I’ve got a sense that I’m lucky to be here and be fit enough to walk around the block and to work with younger musicians, to do some producing and mentoring,” Pete Townshend said.

Hendrix was a sideman for many artists before he finally formed his own group Jimi Hendrix Experience, alongside Noel Redding and Mitch Mitchell. With that line-up, the band released three praised studio albums and in 1970, Hendrix recorded with other artists the album “Band of Gypsys”. Since then many unreleased Hendrix recordings were released by his estate and record companies.