Patti Smith Recalls Meeting Jimi Hendrix at Electric Lady

Before she became a Rock and Roll Hall of Famer, Patti Smith was a young unknown poet living in New York City's Chelsea Hotel with Robert Mapplethorpe. In August 1970, she had a party invite for the opening of a new recording studio, Electric Lady, on 52 Eighth Street in Manhattan. But just as she approached the building, she had second thoughts about going inside.

That was when she encountered the studio's new owner, Jimi Hendrix, on the stairs, an episode that she describes in her recent memoir 'Just Kids.' "When I told him I was too chicken to go in," wrote Smith, "he laughed softly and said that contrary to what people think, he was shy and parties made him nervous."

Smith said Hendrix spoke to her about his plans for Electric Lady: "He dreamed of amassing musicians from all over the world in Woodstock and they would sit in a field in a circle and play and play ... Eventually they would record this abstract universal language of music in his new studio."

Unfortunately, Hendrix died the following month, but Electric Lady would prove to be a pivotal setting for Smith's career. In 1974, she recorded 'Hey Joe,' which was a hit for the Jimi Hendrix Experience, and her own number, 'Piss Factory,' at the studio. Then in September 1975, Smith and her band were at Electric Lady again, this time to record the 'Horses' album.

"As I descended the stairs," she wrote, "I could not help but recall the time Jimi Hendrix stopped for a moment to talk to a shy young girl." She later adds, "Jimi Hendrix never came back to create his new musical language, but he left behind a studio that resonated with all his hopes for the future of our cultural voice."

'Just Kids' is available now from Ecco Books.