North American syndicated rock radio show, InTheStudio: The Stories Behind History’s Greatest Rock Bands, celebrates the 50th anniversary of Are You Experienced, the landmark debut from the Jimi Hendrix Experience.

It’s hard to imagine that in three short years James Marshall Hendrix reinvented the sound of the guitar and popular music so much so that it resonates today half a century later. But, what is harder to believe is how close we might have been to never hearing Jimi Hendrix if it wasn’t for a chance discovery by Animals bassist Chas Chandler.

Hendrix biographer John McDermott tells InTheStudio producer and host Redbeard what he believes Chandler’s greatest contribution to Rock was: “What I always find so intriguing about the Hendrix phenomena is that (Chas) Chandler, was coming off a string, of I think ten Top 40 records with the Animals, but yet recognized a star greater than he. And he took a struggling guitarist from the Village and introduced him as the greatest guitar player in the world and overwhelmed people like Paul McCartney, Eric Clapton and Keith Richards and people that were Chas’ own contemporaries in the United Kingdom. And from there, it just snowballed. When Hendrix came to Monterey, at that point, it was all so obvious. How could we have missed it? But a year before Hendrix was playing for peanuts in Greenwich Village, struggling to get noticed.”  

Listen to the program at this location.

(Pictured at top: Album cover back shot by Karl Ferris, 1967)