Andy Fairweather Low has recalled how an impromptu jam with Jimi Hendrix – during which the legendary electric guitar great played bass guitar – later resulted in an invitation to record with him on a classic track.
The Welsh rhythm guitarist was a founding member of Amen Corner, and later became the go-to gun-for-hire for numerous big artists, including George Harrison, Eric Clapton, and Joe Satriani. But it was during his Amen days that Low first crossed paths with Hendrix, who was famously never one to shy away from an opportunity to jam.
“He’d been on [British TV show] Top Of The Pops, so the word is out,” Low says in the new issue of Guitarist when asked about his relationship with Hendrix. “Amen Corner had a residency at the Speakeasy, and one night Jimi is there and wants to play. So he borrows Clive [Taylor]’s bass, flips it upside down, and we do Otis Redding’s I Can’t Turn You Loose.”
Just one jam, though, was never going to quench the virtuoso’s thirst.
“Next night, he wanted to play guitar, so he took Neil [Jones]’s guitar, flipped it upside down, I took the bass,” Low recounts. “So, it was Dennis [Bryon, drums], me and Hendrix. I have to say it was three o’ clock in the morning and I wasn’t very good! You gotta learn somewhere, though, eh?”
Low’s bass-playing talents might not have been quite up to scratch, but it still seems he left an impression on his jam mate, and they’d soon cross paths again.
“Then it’s 1969,” Low picks up the story. “I’m in New York and I get a phone call. 'Jimi’s in the studio. Would you come down and do some vocals?’ He’s recutting Stone Free. So we go down, Roger Chapman [of Family] is also there, so we did it.”
Stone Free, a counterculture anthem, was first released as a B-side to Hey Joe in 1966, but it was re-recorded and re-released three years later in the US with Low and Chapman's backing vocals. However, Hendrix biographer Keith Shadwick called the rendition “disciplined but spiritless” in his book, Jimi Hendrix: Musician – and it seems that Low would tend to agree with him.
I have to say it was three o’ clock in the morning and I wasn’t very good!
Andy Fairweather Low
“It’s not a good version,” Low accepts. “There’s only one version of Stone Free.”
Hendrix’s impromptu jams over the years have become the stuff of legend. Speaking to Rick Beato in late 2023, Andy Summers recounted his “outrageous” jam with Hendrix and Mitch Mitchell, while Jimi’s jam sessions with Jonny Winter and Stephen Stills were released in 2018.
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Low’s interview with Guitarist also revealed that he was the seventh choice guitarist for Harrison's band for a tour of Japan in 1991, behind Gary Moore and Alvin Lee.
