Before guitarist Tony Iommi created Heavy Metal music with Geezer Butler, Bill Ward and Ozzy Osbourne in Black Sabbath one of the heaviest bands around was the Jimi Hendrix Experience that influenced a whole generation of musicians.
BBC Radio segment “My Hendrix Rock” special gathered famous musicians opinions on Jimi Hendrix and their favorite songs of the late guitarist. Two of them were Black Sabbath guitarist Tony Iommi and the late singer Ronnie James Dio (Rainbow, Sabbath, Dio).
Which Jimi Hendrix songs Tony Iommi and Ronnie James Dio liked the most:
Tony Iommi “Purple Haze”
Black Sabbath guitarist Tony Iommi chose “Purple Haze” and gave his opinion on Hendrix, saying: “Well, I think he came up with something at the time that got so much excitement in it, his style of playing, playing upside down… And just the aggression and the way and he would do stuff behind his neck. Just things that didn’t happen.”
Just like Jimi Hendrix, Tony Iommi is also a left-handed guitar player. Black Sabbath coincidentally released their second album “Paranoid” right in September 18, 1970, the day that Jimi Hendrix died.
Ronnie James Dio “All Along the Watchtower”
“Anything by Jimi, I couldn’t mention anything by Hendrix, he was another of my heroes, he invented the guitar as far as I’m concerned, the guitar the we know, we rockers. He was just absolutely unbelievable. I could have chosen ‘Purple Haze’, which would have done exactly the same thing, anything, anything… I chose ‘All Along The Watchtower’, I think it’s a great song, his treatment of it was superb and so much different than (Bob) Dylan‘s and what he did to that song was just fantastic for me,” Ronnie James Dio said.
Born in New Hampshire, United States, Ronnie James Dio fronted many successful groups like Elf, Rainbow, Black Sabbath and his own band Dio. He is remembered as one of the best vocalists of all time due to his powerful voice and for popularizing the “metal horns” hand gesture.
Jimi Hendrix death
Although the details of Hendrix’s last day and death are widely disputed. He spent much of September 17, 1970, in London with Monika Dannemann. That was the only witness to his final hours. Dannemann said that she prepared a meal for them at her apartment in the Samarkand Hotel, 22 Lansdowne Crescent, Notting Hill, sometime around 11 p.m., when they shared a bottle of wine.
She drove Hendrix to the residence of an acquaintance at approximately 1:45 a.m. Where he remained for about an hour before she picked him up and drove them back to her flat at 3 a.m. Dannemann said they talked until around 7 a.m., when they went to sleep. She awoke around 11 a.m., and found Hendrix breathing, but unconscious and unresponsive.
She called for an ambulance at 11:18 a.m. Hendrix was taken to St Mary Abbot’s Hospital, an attempt was made to resuscitate him but he was pronounced dead at 12:45 p.m.