"I was lying in bed, and a purple flame came out of the sky...."

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/23/arts/music/23hend.html?8hpib

Ax in Hand, a Hendrix Sings of Jimi's Legacy
By COREY KILGANNON

Jimi Hendrix's younger brother, Leon Hendrix, says he took up the guitar several years ago after a purple flame shot out of the sky and possessed him in bed, revealing a vision of his brother floating above him.

"I could see Jimi up there, beckoning," he recalled. "He was saying, 'Come on, baby brother. It's time. You're ready.' Since then, I feel like he's sanctioned me to carry on his musical legacy."

And after a lifetime of living the blues - including foster homes, drug addiction and other hardships - Mr. Hendrix, 56, says he finally has a reason to sing them: he was recently cut out of his brother's $80 million estate.

His father, Al Hendrix, died in 2002 and left the estate largely to his daughter, Janie Hendrix. In September 2004, Mr. Hendrix lost his legal appeal for a portion of it in Seattle, the family's hometown.

To avenge the defeat, he says, he took up the guitar, after wasting decades on drugs, alcohol and woman-chasing. He says he summoned his brother's spirit and is now booking club gigs, teaming with the drummer Buddy Miles, who played in Jimi Hendrix's Band of Gypsies.

He is also taping the performances for possible use in a television movie he is shopping to producers, and he has completed his second self-produced CD, "Keeper of the Flame."

"Here's how it all started," he explained during a recent interview in New York. "I was laying in bed, and a purple flame came out of the sky and set the whole room buzzing. My whole body started shaking, and I had an old guitar in the corner that some lady traded me for some dope. The flame knocked all the dust off the strings and I just reached over and grabbed it, and ever since I've been playing like a madman possessed."

Mr. Hendrix wore stylish glasses and a black cowboy hat over his long, flowing, graying hair. He said that the prospect of being compared to his brother was so daunting that "it took me 50 years to get the strength to pick up a guitar."

"Sometimes I say, 'Have I lost my mind? How could I dare pick up a guitar after Jimi?' " he said. "Plus, I always considered it sacrilege."

But with the help of steady guitar lessons, he said, he is writing songs by channeling his dead brother's spirit into his lyrics and guitar solos.

"Sometimes if I'm playing, I'll ask Jimi to help me," he said. "I'll say, 'What do I do now?' And he tells me, 'Reach for it.' "

Mr. Hendrix has six children and five grandchildren, but he still looks very much the virile rock star, and in some ways bears an uncanny resemblance to his brother. The sight of his hands cradling and strumming a guitar, his slender fingers adorned with rings, is eerily familiar. Like his brother, he plays the blues on a Fender Stratocaster plugged into stacks of Marshall amplifiers, and during a solo he can grimace and gesticulate like Jimi. (Unlike Jimi, however, he does not play left-handed.)

But the similarities stop once the music starts. Mr. Hendrix admits that he has none of his brother's technical wizardry, although he adds that he is constantly improving.

"When I'm onstage, I see all these people looking at me expecting another Jimi, but I won't play none of his tunes," he said. "Sometimes if I'm having a bad gig, I'll play 'Red House' or 'All Along the Watchtower' to perk the crowd up, but that's it."

"They offered me 20 grand a night to play Vegas, but they want 'Purple Haze' and 'Foxy Lady,' " he said. "I just can't play that stuff."

Jimi Hendrix died in 1970 in London at 27. His estate was awarded to Al Hendrix, who created a will allotting 24 percent to his other son, Leon. Al Hendrix rewrote the will in 1997 to exclude Leon, who received nothing but a souvenir gold record.

Stating that Janie Hendrix had taken advantage of their ailing father to disinherit him and his family, Mr. Hendrix sued, but in September a Kings County Superior Court judge rejected his claim, noting that his father had cut Mr. Hendrix out of the will largely because of his recurring drug problems and unemployment, and his continual demands for money and threats to sue for it.

Janie Hendrix, 43, Jimi and Leon's stepsister, whom their father adopted, has formed a multimillion-dollar company called Experience Hendrix. She has called Mr. Hendrix unstable.

Mr. Hendrix says he was essentially Jimi's only true family. Their mother died when they were both children, and Al Hendrix often left Jimi to care for Leon, who was almost five years younger.

"He was my big brother, my best friend, my surrogate dad," he said. "He was in charge of me: fed me, took me to school, taught me sports." Mr. Hendrix recalled watching his brother graduate from a one-string ukulele to an old acoustic guitar to a $40 Sears electric guitar. While Jimi never taught Leon guitar, he said, he would fall asleep each night listening to Jimi's incessant practicing and go along to band rehearsals and gigs and, later, on tour.

And Mr. Hendrix misses few opportunities to capitalize on this brotherly connection. Many of his song titles and lyrics are direct references. He put on "Keeper of the Flame" last week in the Greenwich Village apartment of a friend, Mike Quashie, and sang along with the first track, "Jimi and Me," a blues shuffle with a heavy-metal edge.

"Gonna tell you a little story, 'bout two brothers born," he sang in a rough rumble. "One would bless the earth with song. The other, be forewarned."

"My mama said, 'Your turn will come,' " he sang. " 'Let your brother go before, he'll open up all them doors.' "

Leaning back on a couch in the apartment, Mr. Hendrix shook his head to the music, and just before the guitar solo kicked in, he sang along with his ad-lib on the recording - "Come on, Jimi. Help me, Jimi" - and played air guitar, wincing along with his sturdy but simple blues licks.

"Oh Jimi, can you hear me?" he sang. "I can always hear your name. I can feel your spirit in my song tonight."

"My band and I did odd jobs to get the money together to record this," he said later. "I'm just scraping by. All I got is a guitar and six strings."

He was drinking red wine and smoking Merit cigarettes. After smoking one halfway down, he would put the unused butt back in the pack for later. A collector had brought some guitars over and handed several Stratocasters to Mr. Hendrix to try. Mr. Hendrix plucked one and said, "I hate when people hand me guitars that are out of tune, because I'm tone-deaf."

The collector offered to buy a certain blue Stratocaster from Mr. Hendrix, who responded: "The blue one? It's in the pawn shop right now." People began laughing, and Mr. Hendrix said, "Hey, Jimi did it too."