For one ex-soldier, ’twas all a ‘Purple Haze’ - Entertainment, Music - Navy Times

For one ex-soldier, ’twas all a ‘Purple Haze’

Billy Cox remembers ducking into the rec center at Fort Campbell, Ky., one rainy day in 1961.

A paratrooper in the 101st Airborne Division, Cox was drawn in by the crazy riffs pouring from the guitar of a soldier inside. Cox, who fancied himself a bassist, went over and introduced himself.

Pvt. James Hendrix, a skinny supply clerk from Seattle, was glad to meet a fellow musician and invited Cox to check out a bass and jam with him.

His friends, he said, called him Jimi.

Hendrix was soon kicked out of the Army for constantly falling asleep on duty, the price of too many late-night gigs.

“His mind apparently cannot function while performing duties and thinking about his guitar,” his first sergeant noted in the discharge paperwork.

Cox and Hendrix, however, remained fast friends, forming their first band together — the King Kasuals — and performing throughout the Nashville area.

The rest is rock history. Cox, who remained one of the guitar virtuoso’s best friends until Hendrix’s untimely death in 1970, is still a regular player in the Nashville scene and tours with the Hendrix Experience, a tribute band.

GI’S PLAYLIST

If you want to fuel your inner rock star with the musical genius of those who have worn the uniform before you, load this playlist of former military maestros and, in our opinion, some of their best performances:

“I’ve Been Everywhere”; “Hurt”

Staff Sgt. Johnny Cash served in Germany during his Air Force service from 1949-54 as a Russian communications interceptor.

“Amazing Grace”

Sgt. Elvis Presley served in the 3rd Armored Division in Germany in the late 1950s.

“Machine Gun”; “All Along the Watchtower”

Pvt. James Hendrix didn’t make it as an Army paratrooper, but it didn’t take long for the left-handed genius who strung his Fender Stratocaster upside down to get promoted to rock god.

“Vietnam Blues”

Capt. Kris Kristofferson, the son of an Air Force major general, was a Ranger-tabbed helicopter pilot in the 8th Infantry Division in the early ’60s.

“Super Freak”

Seaman Rick James spent a year in the brig in 1966 after going AWOL to Canada while in the Navy.

“Ripple”; “Fire on the Mountain”

Pvt. Jerry Garcia didn’t last a year in the Army before getting booted out in 1959. He kept on truckin’, however, going on to form the Grateful Dead, rated by Rolling Stone Magazine among the “Greatest Artists of All Time.”

“A Better Place”

George Strait taught himself how to play guitar while serving as a payroll clerk in the 25th Infantry Division in Hawaii before leaving the Army in 1975 after his four-year hitch.

“Lethal Weapon”

Pfc. Tracy Marrow served in the 25th Infantry Division in the early ’80s before becoming Ice-T.

“U Can’t Touch This”

Before donning his trademark baggy pants and becoming MC Hammer — and later on, just Hammer — Aviation Storekeeper 3rd Class Stanley Burrell wore Navy blues while stationed at Moffett Field, Calif., with Patrol Squadron 47 in the early ’80s.