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was done by car and they often endured hours together in the backseat
of a rented station wagon.
No show on the entire tour had Jimi more nervous than the Feb-
ruary 12 booking at the Seattle Center Arena. He had not set foot in his
hometown for seven years and the circumstances of his last visit could
not have been more different: Back in 1961, he d been on leave from
the army and in uniform. So much had occurred in his life since then
and much had changed within his family. With his father s remarriage,
Jimi had a new stepmother along with five stepsiblings. His brother
Leon had been a kid when Jimi left home; he was twenty now, and a
handsome young man, though he still hadn t settled into adulthood.
Leon had become a street hustler, working out of a downtown pool
hall, a fate that had probably awaited Jimi if he had stayed in Seattle. If
all of that wasn t enough, the Seattle show despite being a last-minute
booking, advertised with just a week s notice was sold out.
The week before the concert, promoter Pat O Day phoned Jimi
and asked if there was anything special he wanted to do in Seattle. Jimi
said he wanted to play a free show for students at Garfield High School.
O Day replied that he would try to set that up. Jimi also came away
from the conversation with the impression that he would be receiving
the ceremonial key to the city, though O Day doesn t recall this being
discussed. Nonetheless, when Jimi did an interview that week with the
Sunday Mirror, he referred to what he thought was this upcoming
honor, saying how surprised he was that his luck in Seattle had so dras-
tically changed: The only keys I expected to see in that town were of
the jailhouse, Jimi remarked. He had left Seattle in 1960 facing a five-
year jail term for riding in a stolen car. He was coming back as a hero to
play a sold-out show.
When their plane arrived on the afternoon of the concert, Jimi
was the last person off. Leon, like the rest of the family, hadn t seen him
in years, and was surprised at his big brother s appearance: He had on
R OOM F UL L OF MI R R OR S 215
this giant hat, and a red velvet shirt. He had all this hair and he looked
just wild! Leon, in contrast, wore a stingy-brim hat and straight-
legged pants. Jimi was startled by Al s appearance his father had aged
considerably and had shaved off his mustache for the first time in his
life. It was also the only time Jimi had ever seen his father wear a tie.
Prior to arriving in Seattle, he had mentioned to one interviewer that he
was fearful his father might grab him and cut off his hair. Instead, Al
took Jimi s hand, put his other hand on his back, and said, Welcome
home, son. It was a warm reunion, and the new marriage appeared to
have softened Al. Jimi met his new stepmother, June, and took a liking
to her.
While the rest of the band went to their hotel, Jimi was whisked
to Al s house, where he held court for friends and neighbors. Some of
the gathered throng began drinking Al s bourbon, but before Jimi took
a sip, he asked Al for permission, a sign of how much, even at twenty-
five, he still deferred to his father. Aunt Delores and Dorothy Harding
came by, and Jimi began telling stories of swinging London. He
looked so grown up, Delores recalled. He was like a hippie! Jimi
asked Leon about his friends from the neighborhood and found that
many including Terry Johnson and Jimmy Williams were serving in
Vietnam. African Americans made up a disproportionate percentage of
the soldiers in Vietnam, and it was never far from Jimi s mind that he
might have been stationed there had he not left the service.
When it came time for Jimi to get ready for the night s concert, he
asked Ernestine Benson to curl his hair. The problem with my life to-
day, he told her, is that I have to take a pill to sleep, and a pill to per-
form. This kind of confession, which illustrated the downside of
fame, was rare for Jimi, but with someone like Ernestine, he simply
couldn t lie. When he complained of touring, she feared he might start
to weep. She helped curl his hair, but also offered him advice: You got
to take some time off. Though Jimi was an adult now, Ernestine came
away feeling as though he wasn t all that different than the latchkey
child she had once watched over he seemed just as lost.
At the show that night, Jimi s entire family was seated in the front
216 C H A R L E S R . C R O S S
row. Linda Jinka, one of Jimi s new stepsisters, held up a sign that read,
Welcome home Jimi, love, your sisters. While the seating was
arranged to honor the family, it put them directly in front of the speak-
ers, and Al watched some of the deafening show with his fingers in his
ears. As for the performance, the band played a standard nine-song set
with the greatest crowd reaction coming on Foxy Lady and Purple
Haze. Jimi named off the area s high schools and got the biggest
round of applause when he mentioned Garfield. Tom Robbins re-
viewed the show for the Helix and called Jimi a black dwarf cowboy
Oscar Wilde in Egyptian drag with a voice like raspberry preserves
thick and sweet. Still, Robbins found Jimi s showmanship worth ap-
plauding: Despite the shallowness of much of his sound, Hendrix is a
hotly exciting performer. What he lacks in content, he makes up in
style. He is, in fact, a master stylist; an outrageous exponent of high
black showmanship. He is Adam Clayton Powell on DMT and freaking
fine, thank you. Most in the audience were less discerning: Jimi was
simply a hometown kid who had made good, and would have been ap-
plauded simply for walking onstage.
An after-show party was held at the ritzy Olympic Hotel. As the
most posh hotel in town, it was a far cry from the Seattle fleabags with
one gas burner where Jimi used to live as a child. Jimi ordered steak
from room service and insisted his family do the same on his tab it
may have been the first time in Jimi s life he ever bought his father a
meal, and that alone offered great personal satisfaction. Jimi gave Leon
fifty dollars, and told Al that if he needed anything to let him know.
Around midnight, Jimi s manager reminded him of his appearance
scheduled at Garfield High School at 8 AM, just a few hours away. Dis-
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