New Jimi Hendrix Book Compiled From Interviews

More than 40 years after his shocking death, Jimi Hendrix remains among the most revered rock-era guitarists. Now, the noted Hendrix historian Steven Roby focuses on Jimi's words as much as his music. Drawn from more than 50 interviews with a wide range of U.S. and European media outlets, the newly published book Hendrix on Hendrix lets Jimi tell his own story -- and brings fans as close to an autobiography of the musician as we'll ever see.

Roby on what makes his Jimi Hendrix book different: "Well this is the first ever to document Hendrix at the peak of his career -- from '66 through 1970 -- in his own words. My role in the book is just to kind of be a tour guide, if you will, and set the stage for Hendrix's interviews. And it starts with his first press interview in 1966, shortly after he arrived in England to form the Jimi Hendrix Experience, right up to the end -- his final interview given about a week before he did.

Roby on how Jimi Hendrix evolved as a personality as revealed in his interviews: "I spent months listening to the recordings very intently, just to get the transcription as perfect as possible -- Hendrux tended to mumble. But you know, he was really bubbly, really open, in 1967 when he was first starting out. But I started to see a shift in '68, '69, and right up to that lasy interview where he was just very sombre and quiet. I think he kind of felt that maybe something was coming."