In a new conversation with NME, Pete Townshend revealed Jimi Hendrix was broke just before he died.
After discussing the changes in the music scene in terms of earning money and how making music has never been about money, the guitarist remembered talking with Hendrix just before he passed away:
“Look at the legendary Jimi Hendrix, I saw him in LA in the last two weeks of his life. He was happy, he was really nice to me, and he hadn’t been always in the past. I said, ‘How you doing?’ and he said, ‘Pete, I’m broke.’ He was huge, and he was broke. [But] we didn’t give a f*ck about the money.”
Townshend continued, sharing his own perspective:
“I lived in a little house in Twickenham by the Thames, I was happy to be by the water. I had one car. I had a tiny little studio, I was really happy. I had a beautiful wife, lovely kids, great friends, and never wanted for anything really, except some time to myself and some time to have with my family. So today I’ve got a sense that I’m lucky to be here and be fit enough to walk around the block and to work with younger musicians, to do some producing and mentoring.”
Pete’s Other Memories With Hendrix
Townshend also had a chance to perform with Hendrix at the Saville Theatre. Still, the rocker has one regret from those days. In an earlier interview with Ultimate Classic Rock, Pete stated:
“What I did for Jimi – which I always regretted doing for Jimi – was that his manager brought him to meet me at a recording studio when he first arrived. And he asked me what equipment to buy. I told him that I’d been using a mixture of an amplifier called Sound City, which was a Marshall substitute, with a Marshall, to get this really kind of slabby sound.”
The musician told the rest of the story:
“And then, a couple of weeks later, we did a show with him at the Saville Theatre with him allegedly supporting us. I wish I’d never given him the tip! I was thinking, ‘Oh my God, this guy’s brilliant enough without being a thousand watts loud!’”
Still, in March, Townshend also said when he spoke with the New York Times that he would tour with the Who to make some money. He doesn’t enjoy performing as he used to do.