Billy Cox

Sometimes... maybe every time, it is a great thing to meet one of your heroes.

I met Billy Cox.

Billy played bass with Jimi Hendrix. They met in the early 1960's when the two were serving in the 101st Airborne at Fort Campbell, KY. Hendrix joined the service as an alternative to the two year jail sentence he was looking at after being arrested for stealing a car in his hometown of Seattle. He made 26 jumps before being discharged after breaking an ankle. We can only imagine what sort of affect these parachute jumps had on the music Hendrix went on to record.

below:
Hendrix (left top) Billy Cox (front n' center)
The King Casuals, Memphis, TN - sometime 1962?

The pair played together in a number of R&B bands on the chitlin' circuit until Hendrix finally moved to New York City in 1964. He continued to play with a variety of soul and R&B acts such as the Isley Brothers, Ike and Tina Turner, King Curtis, Curtis Knight and Little Richard. Below is the earliest know video of Hendrix backing up Buddy and Stacey in 1965: (note the young left-handed guitarist on the far left side)



Hendrix reached international super stardom with the release of Are You Experienced? in May of 1967. After two years of hard touring and hard living, Hendrix sought some true friendship and a musical partner in his chaotic world. He recruited Billy to play bass, replacing Noel Redding, in 1969. That summer, the two spent some time at a rented house in upstate New York with Mitch Mitchell on drums as well as musicians Juma Sultan, Jerry Velez and Larry Lee. The loosely organized group jammed day and night, working up new material. Although a veteran of the blues and R&B scene (he toured with many national acts, most notably Freddie King), Billy had never played to an audience as large as the one at his first gig with Hendrix in August of 1969: Woodstock.

Billy was Hendrix's bass player from that point on. From the moment he joined the band, he was a major influence in the development of the music Hendrix would write in the later stages of his career... and when I say 'later stages,' I mean the last 18 months. Hendrix's meteoric rise to fame began in the fall of 1966 and was he was dead in September of 1970. Billy was an essential part to the development of such riff heavy songs as 'Izabella,' 'Who Knows,' 'Machine Gun' and 'Freedom.'

I met Billy one morning while working at Rudy's Music Stop in NYC. Some guy was hanging out front of the store at 10:25am as we were opening. Usually if someone is hanging out that early they're about to waste your time. As it turns out, this fella just wanted a Boss OC-2 Octave pedal. Ok... no big deal, quick sale. I grabbed the last one from the stockroom downstairs, ran up behind the counter and wrote up the bill of sale. It was then that I finally took a solid look at my customer.

It's Billy Cox.

Holy crap.

Gulp. I smile and trying to play it cool say, "Don't I know you from somewhere?" He smiles, extends his hand and simply says, "Billy Cox."

"!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" says my brain. I mumbled something about what a great influence he's been and what an honor it is to meet him. "Um... that'll be $119.95 please."

It made my day.

Billy, Hendrix and Mitch Mitchell - The Cry of Love Tour '70:

Band of Gypsys, NYE '69/'70:

I was on cloud 9 for a week. No one else at the shop recognized Billy. He struck me as a really sweet and humble guy. Lucky me. After the death of Hendrix's drummers, Mitch Mitchell and Buddy Miles last year, Billy Cox is the last living core musician to have played with the gifted guitarist.

Thanks Billy.