These 5 Guitarists Are the Greatest Disciples of Jimi Hendrix

The Voodoo Child’s musical offspring.

There’s no denying the immense influence Jimi Hendrix had on guitar playing. All you have to do is give a listen to some of the top rock bands pre-1967 and observe what their guitarists sounded like, and then what they sounded like post-1967.Why 1967? Because that was of course the year that the Jimi Hendrix Experience unleashed their classic debut, “Are You Experienced”, upon the world.Over the years, there have been quite a few guitarists who studied the guitar stylings of Hendrix more so than others. Here, we count down five of the top guitarists who were most obviously touched musically by James Marshall Hendrix.

Velvert Turner

The most obscure name on this list is also the only one who actually was friends with Hendrix: a chap by the name of Velvert Turner. Heck, Velvert even took guitar lessons from Jimi at his New York City apartment! And his influence was undeniable throughout the 1972 self-titled released by the Velvert Turner Group.

Frank Marino

There have been countless rumors or tall tales linked to certain rock performers over the years. One of which was Frank Marino was “visited by the spirit of Jimi Hendrix” during a hospital stay, and as a result, began playing guitar in a very Hendrix-y manner. The Canadian guitarist has dispelled the story as mere hogwash over the years, but there’s no denying that Hendrix left his musical mark, especially on the ’70s work of Marino’s band, Mahogany Rush.

Robin Trower

You wouldn’t necessarily think that a guitarist from prog rockers Procol Harum would deep down, have a serious hankering for Hendrix-like guitar. But this certainly turned out to be the case with Robin Trower, especially on his classic 1974 solo offering, “Bridge of Sighs,” featuring outstanding soulful lead vocals by the late/great James Dewar.

Randy Hansen

Ever since the late ’70s, one of the world’s top Jimi tributes or impersonators has been Randy Hansen. Hailing from the same hometown as Hendrix, Seattle, Hansen was lucky to catch a performance by his idol shortly before his passing in 1970 and obviously left quite impressed, so much so that Hansen has been sought out on more than one occasion to either provide Hendrix-y guitar work to movie soundtracks [1979’s “Apocalypse Now”] or actually appear in them [2002’s “Sonny”], in addition to issuing his own albums.

Stevie Ray Vaughan

Undoubtedly, the best-known “Jimi disciple” would have to be Stevie Ray Vaughan. While there is no denying Hendrix’s influence, SRV was also equally affected by some of the great blues guitarists, namely Albert King, and rolled them all up into his own unique style, which combined blues licks played with a higher degree of technique.

Stevie Ray is also often credited with offering up two of the best Jimi covers of all time: “Voodoo Child” off his 1974 album, “Couldn’t Stand the Weather,” and “Little Wing” off the 1991 posthumous release, “The Sky Is Crying”.