How was the divide between Black music fans and Jimi back then being he was a rock star?
TaharQa: Rock star is what they called him, but he was really a blues guitarist and rhythm and blues artist. MT: How was he perceived in the Black community? TaharQa: Always remember the black community nurtured him. There were two Jimi’s. There was the Jimi that was definitely a smash, the Jimi Hendrix that the world knew-and there was the Jimi Hendrix that was nurtured by the community prior to his going to England. In the Black community, he was a hot guitarist and he was unbelievable when it came to R & B type of music. So that’s why he was very well received in the music world and the music community. Some of the greatest artists had great admiration for Jimi and that’s why he played with some of them. There was Ike and Tina Turner, Little Richard, the Last Poets and Wilson Pickett. Everyone in the music world knew him as a star before he was a star to the world because of his unique style of guitar playing. When he went out and did his own thing, that’s where the controversy came
