Experienced

'Jimi's genius . . . documented by one of the few men who was there.' Joe Perry, Aerosmith'A backstage pass to Jimi's talented, tormented life, a life lived large and led at a furious pace. Eric Barrett riffs like one of the master's iconic solos.' Bob Spitz, author of The Beatles: The Biography and The Rolling Stones: The Biography'Barrett witnessed the highs and lows of Jimi Hendrix at his peak, and offers firsthand insight into a complicated, troubled genius-as well as epic tales about his own encounters with other rock megastars.' Alan Light, former editor-in-chief of Spin and Vibe magazines; author of Don't Stop: Why We (Still) Love Fleetwood Mac's Rumours ***Jimi Hendrix's road manager and confidant, Eric Barrett, breaks fifty-five years of silence. Eric Barrett was there when Hendrix set Woodstock ablaze, when paranoia crackled through Toronto Airport, when his music electrified a sea of 600,000 at the 1970 Isle of Wight Festival, and in the quiet hours backstage when he revealed the insecurities behind his genius. Hendrix confided in few people. Barrett was one of them. Experienced is Barrett's long-awaited, unflinching memoir: the definitive inside account of Hendrix as friend, bandleader, and phenomenon. It strips away the mythology to reveal the man in all his brilliance and contradiction - volatile, generous, insecure, incandescently creative, and always in pursuit of the next sound. His final years were tested and defined on British soil. Taking readers into performances that veered between transcendence and chaos, Barrett captures a Hendrix rarely seen, nervous before British crowds and afraid that the country that had once embraced him might be moving on. While his journey with Hendrix forms the backbone of Barrett's narrative, his later decades on tour with artists including David Bowie, George Michael and Paul McCartney add another dimension: a sweeping sense of how Hendrix's short life set the template for rock 'n' roll excess - and survival - through the decades. The result is not just another rock memoir, but a once-in-a-lifetime backstage history of music's most transformative years, told through the prism of Barrett's life inside Hendrix's turbulent orbit. This is the Jimi Hendrix story from the man who lived it - a revealing portrait of brilliance, pressure and tragic decline.