Ronnie Wood needs a coffee. He has just arrived at the Handel Hendrix Museum in Brook St, London, to introduce his latest paintings of Jimi Hendrix and his forthcoming conversation with music journalist Paul Sexton calls for a spot of caffeination.
Steaming cup in hand, hair as wonderfully jagged and bouffant as ever, he is ready for a riveting trip down memory lane. Because, as it turns out, the Rolling Stones lead guitarist not only knew Hendrix well, played music with him and painted him repeatedly — but even shared a flat with him and his dog.
'It was like somebody swivelled the Earth a little bit more on its axis'
Wood says he first met Hendrix at London club The Speakeasy in 1966. Word about the American had spread quickly, with Eric Clapton telling Wood he ought to see this new talent in town. What he heard blew the Rolling Stone guitarist’s mind: ‘It was like somebody swivelled the Earth a little bit more on its axis.’
He recalls that the American didn’t like his own singing voice: ‘And I said, you don't have to worry about your singing voice, Jimmy, when you play guitar like [that].’ Hendrix did play the guitar with his teeth, but that’s not what Wood is referring to: ‘Everyone takes a leaf out of his book, including me. I have little flourishes where I think, “Oh, that's like a Jimi riff”... But when it comes to interpreting the blues and rock and roll, like Jimi did, no one did it like him.’
He and Hendrix kept bumping into one another and even played together when Wood, who was then touring the USA with the Jeff Beck group, had temporarily switched to the bass: ‘There used to be a gathering place for everyone after the gigs and the Jeff Beck group were no exception. We got up and played a bit, me and Rod and Jeff, and then Jimi would turn up …and he'd say, “Hey, Jeff, let the bass player play, man, let him have a solo.” Every time Jimmy got up with us, he'd let me have a solo.”
It’s after Hendrix had begun making waves in London that the two shared a flat in Holland Park belonging to singer P. P. (Pat) Arnold. Not that it was a regular flatmate experience: ‘Food was never an option. We had a few peas to shove around the plate. I think that's about it. Everybody in rock and roll just shoved a few peas around the plate.’
Instead, they would play guitar, with the otherwise quiet Hendrix doing so both right- and left-handed: ‘Bobby Womack did that, too, but Jimmy was so fluent with it, without being deliberately showy. The guitar was like having a beautiful dog to him, you know, he did tricks, playing with his teeth or playing over the neck, upside down. Then he ran out of ideas and eventually set his guitar on fire. Follow that.’
'A bit like Mick, he's pretty hard to capture and so it's always a challenge'
However, there was also a real dog in the picture, which, as it happens, was not house-trained. As a result, says Wood, the flat sharing only lasted a few nights ‘because his dog would poop all over the house and Arnold threw us out’. Heading out on tour, Hendrix gave the pooch to Wood: ‘Loopy was the name. It was a Basset Hound, ears dragging on the floor. Lovely dog. I kept [her]. She was a girl.’
Hendrix fascinated his one-time flatmate — who had trained at Ealing Art College and has long pursued an artistic as well as a musical career — as much for his face as for his skill — ‘a bit like Mick, he's pretty hard to capture and so it's always a challenge.’ Which is why Wood has continued to paint Hendrix over the years. His two most recent portraits take pride of place, together with prints of earlier works, in one of the exhibition rooms at the Handel Hendrix Museum, the same house in which the legendary American musician lived for three months on the top floor.
In Wood’s pictures, a forever young Hendrix — he died on September 18, 1970, when he was only 27 — looks intense as he plays the guitar, but also relaxed, almost innocent, in a seated portrait, hat tilted on his head. Colours are always bright and that’s deliberate: ‘There's a picture of him somewhere…where he's wearing bright clothes. That's the Jimmy I knew,’ says Wood.
‘He always was wonderful — spread of colour everywhere, jewellery. He wasn't showing off, it was just a natural thing…He just loved to swing a saree on the bed and tie a handkerchief around his kneecap, wearing silly hats and stuff — because he could wear hats. I can't wear hats.’
The night Hendrix died is etched in Wood’s mind: ‘I was at Ronnie Scott's …and he was walking away with his arm around a girl, and I said, “Hey, Jimmy, say goodbye,” and he kept walking. I said, “Jimmy, say goodbye.” So he turned around and he went, “Bye.” And that was goodbye…My goodbye.’
‘Ronnie Wood: The Jimi Hendrix Portraits’ is at the Handel Hendrix House, 23 Brook Street, London, until April 11, 2027