{"id":4070,"date":"2025-07-29T12:12:01","date_gmt":"2025-07-29T12:12:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/terry-reid-jimi-new-york-miles-came-round-150617\/"},"modified":"2025-07-29T12:12:01","modified_gmt":"2025-07-29T12:12:01","slug":"terry-reid-jimi-new-york-miles-came-round-150617","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/terry-reid-jimi-new-york-miles-came-round-150617\/","title":{"rendered":"Terry Reid: \u201cI was with Jimi in New York and Miles came round\u2026\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"
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News reached us earlier this month that British rock original Terry Reid has sadly been forced to postpone his upcoming European tour due to an ongoing battle with cancer. Now his friends have set up a GoFundMe page to help raise money for his treatment \u2013 click here to read more and donate<\/a>.<\/strong> We wish Terry a speedy recovery.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Below, you can read our Audience With Terry Reid from the October 2023 issue of Uncut (Take 317): from helping to assemble Led Zeppelin, to getting loaded with Bowie, to Chuck Berry stealing his amp, Superlungs has seen it all\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n

Terry Reid is sanguine about being forever known as the man who turned down Led Zeppelin. But he\u2019d rather be known as the man who put together<\/em> Led Zeppelin. \u201cJimmy [Page] asked me what he should do with the band,\u201d explains Reid, Zooming in from his home in Indio, California. \u201cHe needed a singer who could sing around those guitar licks, and not everybody could do that. I\u2019d seen Robert with John Bonham, so I said to him, \u2018Not only is Robert perfect, you\u2019ve got to get the drummer \u2013 he\u2019s an animal!\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

It turns out that Reid might be the greatest rock matchmaker of all-time. The Jimi Hendrix Experience? That was him too. \u201cMitch [Mitchell] called me up and said, \u2018Hey Terry, you know this guy who\u2019s around town \u2013 big afro hair and he wears all this women\u2019s\u2019 clothing? He\u2019s putting a band together and he wants me to audition for him.\u2019 Now, I\u2019d heard Jimi [play], so I went, \u2018Get your arse down there right now!\u2019 And the rest is history.\u201d<\/p>\n

With his infectious laugh and warm \u2018Los Anglian\u2019 burr, you can see why Terry Reid was mates with everyone. He may not have joined a big band himself, but he\u2019s got no regrets. \u201cWhen you\u2019re in a band, you\u2019re committed to that style. You\u2019re not gonna be able to play any of that Brazilian music you like, cos they don\u2019t do that. And all those folk things you like, well forget that.\u201d So Reid ploughed his own furrow, making a couple of terrific 1970s solo albums that have only recently begun to get their dues. And he\u2019s still playing and singing with whoever he likes, in whatever style he fancies, collecting amazing stories along the way\u2026<\/p>\n

What was Hendrix like as a friend?
Andrew Verne, Berwick-upon-Tweed<\/strong><\/p>\n

A very sweet guy. Misunderstood by everybody, really. He was the quietest, calmest guy, but you would never think that when he hit the stage. He was always trying to outdo somebody! He had an apartment in London and he\u2019d throw parties. All these hangers-on would turn up at his place and drink all his drinks, do all his drugs. I went over one night and it was so full of people that they were out of the door and in the street. Jimi couldn\u2019t handle it, but he couldn\u2019t bring himself to tell them to leave, so he came over to my place and crashed over there. Everybody just horded on him, because he really was that great. I still haven\u2019t heard anybody who can play that good, emotionally. I never heard him play a wrong note \u2013 he\u2019s so fluid when he\u2019s playing that he doesn\u2019t hit wrong notes, everything fits together. Before he passed, he was working on an album with Miles Davis. Boy, I would be really interested to hear what came out of that. Because I was [with Jimi] in New York one time and Miles came round. They were in the other room playing, and it was nothing like \u201cPurple Haze\u201d\u2026<\/p>\n

You played every date on The Rolling Stones\u2019 1969 US tour, joined on alternating dates by either BB King, Ike & Tina Turner or Chuck Berry. What was the scene like backstage before these performances?
Diane Strauss, via email<\/strong><\/p>\n

Have you got a week?! We\u2019d arrive at a hotel and there were already parties going on. Keith [Richards] had parties going on all over the planet! And playing with BB King was just amazing \u2013 what a gentleman. You realise where he came from and the years he put in and what he actually stood for. And that the blues was not a miserable thing, it\u2019s a sign of hope. And then you\u2019ve got Chuck Berry. Now you\u2019re talking about a whole different ball of wax! One night he said to me, \u201cOh man, I got another gig tonight \u2013 let me go on before you.\u201d I wasn\u2019t too comfortable with having to follow Chuck Berry but you can\u2019t say no, can you? Anyway, he comes off-stage, gets in his car and he\u2019s taken my Twin Reverb with him! I never did see it again. But we had a lot of fun on that tour.<\/p>\n

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