"The late Lightnin’ Hopkins might be a name you recognise but perhaps not aware of his incredible full story. Hopkins is undoubtedly one of the most influential guitarists of all time, and Jimi Hendrix, an artist revered as the greatest to ever hold the instrument, is one of the many who sought inspiration from him.
Stevie Ray Vaughan’s brother, Jimmie, went as far as saying without Lightnin’ Hopkins, then there’d be no Jimi Hendrix. Meanwhile, B.B. King once said: “Lightnin’ Hopkins may not have known many notes, but he knew the right ones, and he knew where to put them. Some genius with four doctorates in music theory won’t be able to do in a lifetime what Lightnin’ did in a minute, to tell you the truth”.
Allegedly, when Hendrix said his famous quote, “The blues is easy to play, but hard to feel,” he was reportedly discussing Hopkins’ track ‘Woke Up This Morning’, which he believed was a perfect example of everything the blues should strive to achieve.
Furthermore, in 2018, Hendrix’s record collection – which he left behind in his Mayfair apartment – surfaced in a gallery and showed just how highly he rated Hopkins. In fact, the only person who he owned more copies of than the late Texan was Bob Dylan with Jimi storing Earth Blues, The Roots Of, Soul Blues, Something Blue, and Lightnin’ Strikes by Hopkins.
- Joe Taysom, Far Out
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