![Why Jimi Hendrix Got Fired Halfway Through His First Gig](https://townsquare.media/site/295/files/2015/02/Experience-Hendrix-Legacy.jpg?w=980&q=75)
Why Jimi Hendrix Got Fired Halfway Through His First Gig
If at first you don't succeed, try, try again. And while you're trying again, think about Jimi Hendrix, who made it halfway through his first guitar gig before being fired on Feb. 20, 1959.
The show was a bit of an odd fit from the start. Hendrix, 16 years old and living in Seattle at the time, had been invited to audition for a local band — whose name has sadly been lost to history — during its two-set performance at the Temple De Hirsch Sinai synagogue. As Jewish Currents noted, the future guitar legend wasn't the only person in the building who'd later go down in musical history: The temple's music director at the time, Samuel E. Goldfarb, co-wrote "The Dreidel Song."
Hendrix and Goldfarb would never get around to bonding: The Jewish Currents report says Hendrix's "wild playing and show-off style (dropping to his knees, sticking out his tongue, flailing his arms) got him fired before the second set." This wouldn't be the last time his flamboyant style cost him a paycheck, either. As the post goes on to note, Hendrix would also end up being fired by Little Richard and Ike Turner. Clearly, he needed to be the star of his own show.
Of course, things worked out pretty well for Jimi Hendrix once he started his solo career. This show remains a little-discussed footnote in an amazing legacy.
Still, novelist Lily Brett may have opened a window into his feelings about the firing in her novel Lola Bensky, a semi-autobiographical book that drew on Brett's own experiences as a teen music writer to tell the story of a young girl who rubs shoulders with some of rock's biggest stars. "It didn't go well. I was fired between sets," Hendrix recalled in the book. "I was trying to play from my soul, and the other band members thought I was showing off."
See Jimi Hendrix Among the Top 100 Albums of the '60s
Check Out Jimi Hendrix’s Guitar Hero Yearbook Picture
More From Eagle 102.3
![10 Unbelievable Supergroups That Actually Almost Happened](http://townsquare.media/site/366/files/2022/02/attachment-rem-nirvana.jpg?w=980&q=75)
![Rock Stars Celebrating Birthdays in November](http://townsquare.media/site/366/files/2020/10/Kiedis-Hammett-Kennedy.jpg?w=980&q=75)
![Micky Dolenz Recalls the Monkees’ ‘Weird’ Tour With Jimi Hendrix](http://townsquare.media/site/295/files/2021/06/attachment-Monkees-Hendrix.jpg?w=980&q=75)
![10 Times Rock and Metal Tour Lineups Didn’t Make Any Sense](http://townsquare.media/site/366/files/2021/07/attachment-avril-lavigne-rage-against-the-machine-def-leppard.jpg?w=980&q=75)
![How an Unused Jimi Hendrix Album Cover Led to Journey’s Scarab](http://townsquare.media/site/295/files/2021/06/attachment-HendrixJourney.jpg?w=980&q=75)
![Watch Slash, Phil Collen + Robert DeLeo Cover Jimi Hendrix’s ‘Fire’](http://townsquare.media/site/366/files/2021/06/phil_collen_slash.jpg?w=980&q=75)
![How Old 15 Different Rockers + Bands Were When They Made Their Masterpieces](http://townsquare.media/site/366/files/2021/02/rockers_ages_at_time_of_making_their_masterpiece_photo_collage.jpg?w=980&q=75)
![Neal Schon Covers Beatles, Prince and Hendrix on New Solo Album](http://townsquare.media/site/295/files/2020/12/Neal-Schon.jpg?w=980&q=75)
![The Stories Behind All 85 Posthumous Jimi Hendrix Albums](http://townsquare.media/site/295/files/2020/10/Posthumous-Hendrix.jpg?w=980&q=75)