What would Jimi Hendrix be doing if he lived to 80?

It was September 18, 1970. I was a freshman in college. That morning, I was in my dorm room listening to an FM radio music station. The disc jockey broke into a song with a bulletin. Jimi Hendrix was dead. I left my room to walk around the dorm. I ran into a friend who idolized Hendrix. When I broke the news, he fell to his knees in tears and grief.

Back in those days, I wasn’t much of a Hendrix fan. Sure, I recognized his obvious talent, but I was more of a Beatles and singer-songwriter music type of guy. It wasn’t until I left college that I discovered Jimi. I started hanging out with some Hendrix fans who made me take a deep dive into his music. At that point, I was hooked and have never looked back. Better late than never, I guess.

The reason for this retrospective is today is Jimi Hendrix's birthday. He would now be eighty years old. It’s hard for me to wrap my head around this considering he died at such a young age (27) and has been gone for so many years. It made me wonder, what would Jimi Hendrix do if he was alive today? What would his music sound like? Would he still be active in the music business?

When you see that his contemporaries are still working, it's easy to imagine that Hendrix would be doing the same thing. Both Eric Clapton and Jeff Beck have recently finished tours. Buddy Guy, who is eighty-six years old, is getting ready to start what he calls his “Damn Right Farewell Tour.” Then there are bands like The Who and The Rolling Stones that are still going strong. Even the two surviving Beatles, Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr are still playing live and recording an occasional new album.

I like to think Jimi would be more like another guitarist of the Woodstock era, Carlos Santana. For the last decade, Santana has been playing a series of residencies in Las Vegas. He just announced his 2023 series, at the House of Blues, in Las Vegas. Can you picture Jimi doing this and hanging out in Vegas? Me neither, but so many classic rock musicians do this, so why not him?

To be honest, I can't really picture him doing any of this. He was one of those legendary talents that had his star burn so bright for a small period of time that the only logical end is what happened five decades ago. No matter though, it's fun to think about what might have been…it’s sad at the same time.

Anyway, Happy Birthday, Jimi. I’m sorry it took so long for me to get what you were all about…but eventually, I became experienced.