Jimi Hendrix Used to Make His Younger Brother Hide in the Bushes While He Snuck Into Girls’ Windows

Rock legend Jimi Hendrix only spent a few years in the spotlight before his untimely death in 1970, but some of his rockstar tendencies dated back to his younger years. Back in the day, he used to sneak out and meet up with girls by climbing through their windows — all with the help of his vigilant brother.

Jimi Hendrix’s brother used to stand guard while he snuck into girls’ windows

Philip Norman’s 2020 book Wild Thing: The Short, Spellbinding Life of Jimi Hendrix detailed Hendrix’s life before his fame, including many details from his childhood. As he grew into his love of playing guitar, so too did his penchant for meeting up with girls.

“Other adolescent males … were discovering how possessing a guitar massively increased their appeal to the opposite sex. But [Hendrix] never had any need of such a six-stringed aphrodisiac, nor did his poverty put any brake on his love life,” Norman wrote.

Hendrix’s brother Leon testified to his brother’s busy love life. “He dated all the prettiest middle-class girls in high school,” Leon said. “He’d take me with him when he went to visit them out in the suburbs. I’d have to wait outside in the bushes while he climbed in through their windows.”

Jimi Hendrix’s short-lived career

Though he’s a widely-admired music legend today, Jimi Hendrix’s mainstream music career only spanned a few years in the late 1960s. After rising to prominence as a backup guitarist for the likes of Little Richard and Ike and Tina Turner, Hendrix began developing his own sound, forming his own band, The Jimi Hendrix Experience.

The Jimi Hendrix Experience released their first album, Are You Experienced, in May 1967. The album was certified five-times platinum with over 5 million copies sold in the US, and is regarded by many as one of the greatest rock albums of all time. The Jimi Hendrix Experience followed up the hit LP with Axis: Bold as Love, released just a few months later in December 1967. In October 1968, the band released their third (and final) album, Electric Ladyland.

Hendrix’s band eventually parted ways as Hendrix continued to work as a musician in 1969 and 1970. He famously performed a closing set at the infamous Woodstock Music and Art Fair in August 1969. In 1970, Hendrix died of a barbiturate overdose at the age of 27, just a few weeks before another rock icon, Janis Joplin, died of a heroin overdose at the same age.

Jimi Hendrix’s romantic history

Throughout his years, Hendrix was known to be romantically linked to a few women. According to Express, his high school girlfriend Betty Jean Morgan’s name was painted on his guitar at the time.

AffairPost chronicled a few other women Hendrix was tied to throughout his life. In 1963, he began dating Lithofayne “Faye” Pridgeon. In 1965, he was dating Devon Wilson, who had earned the title of “Super Groupie” due to her being linked to several popular musicians including Eric Clapton, Mick Jagger, and Miles Davis.

During the peak of his career in the late 1960s, Hendrix was linked to Kathy Etchingham, who worked as a DJ at a club in London. Hendrix met Etchingham the day he arrived in London, and she eventually became his muse, rumored to be the subject of five of his songs: “1983… (A Merman I Should Turn To Be),” “Send My Love to Linda,” “Wind Cries Mary,” “Foxy Lady,” and “Gypsy Eyes.”

His final girlfriend, Monika Danneman, started dating him in 1969 until his death a year later.