The American Rock Band Jimi Hendrix Called “Embarrassing” and His Failed Stint as Their Opener

Jimi Hendrix might’ve helped define rock and roll of the late 1960s and early 1970s, but that doesn’t mean he was a fan of all his contemporaries doing the same thing—especially not the American rock band Hendrix called “embarrassing” in a revealing 1966 interview.

Ironically, Hendrix would go on tour with the band he described as a bunch of “fairies” as their opening act one year later. Given Hendrix’s feelings and the audiences’ reactions to Hendrix’s outlandish, raucous sets, we’re not sure who had the worst time: Hendrix, the headliner, or the crowds.

Jimi Hendrix Called This Band “Embarrassing” And America “Stupid”

In the early fall of 1966, music journalist Steve Barker sat down with a still-rising Jimi Hendrix to discuss his artistic influences, the international music scene, and the guitarist’s thoughts on other notable contemporaries. Unsurprisingly, Barker and Hendrix’s discussion soon moved to the Beatles, who were well into their height of fame by this point. “I think it’s good,” Hendrix said. “They’re one group that you can’t really put down.”

While Hendrix admitted that the Beatles were “too much” and beyond artistic reproach, he certainly didn’t feel that way about the United States’ musical response to the Fab Four. “It’s so embarrassing, man, when America is sending over the Monkees,” he lamented. “Oh, God, that kills me! I’m so embarrassed that America could be so stupid as to make somebody like that. They could have at least done it with a group that has something to offer. They got groups in the States starving to death trying to get breaks, and then these fairies come up.”

The Monkees were decidedly bigger fans of Hendrix than he was of them. In a 2020 Forbes interview, The Monkees’ drummer and vocalist Micky Dolenz recalled the first time he ever saw Hendrix perform in New York City’s Greenwich Village. “He was a very theatrical act, of course,” Dolenz said, describing the guitarist as a “nice kid, early to mid-20s, a couple of years older than me, very quiet. I don’t want to say he was naive because he was streetwise in terms of the business and other ways, but certainly not at all like his persona onstage.

How Jimi Hendrix Ended Up On Tour With The “Dishwater” Band

In the late 1960s, Jimi Hendrix was still a rising artist cutting his teeth in a highly competitive music industry. Consequently, he sometimes had to fulfill performance obligations at the request of his management team. One such obligation came in the form of an opener slot for the band he had called “embarrassing” just one year before. Micky Dolenz explained to Forbes that the decision was largely his idea, though he later regretted it.

“We were about to tour, and we were looking for an opening act. I said to the producers of the show that Jimi would be great for opening, because he was very theatrical like we were. I guess my producers liked the idea, and Jimi’s producers liked the idea, because sure enough we ended up on the road together. It was wonderful,” Dolenz recalled. But once the touring troupe added an audience to the mix, things became less wonderful.

In a 2023 interview with The Telegraph, Dolenz said that Monkees fans overwhelmingly disliked Jimi Hendrix’s opening set, which was far more psychedelic and jarring than the Monkees’ onstage offerings. “Jimi and the guys would be out there, performing with all this amazing, theatrical virtuosity, y’know? Playing “Purple Haze,” “Foxey Lady,” guitar behind his neck, playing with his teeth. But the kids in the audience were just screaming: ‘WE WANT MONKEES! WE WANT MONKEES!’ night after night. It must have been incredibly frustrating for Jimi (via Louder Sound).

Hendrix’s manager pulled him from the tour, creating a cover-up story that blamed the decision on the Daughters of the American Revolution. Hendrix’s team said the DAR deemed the guitarist’s performances too vulgar for the Monkees audiences.  “I think they’re replacing me with Mickey Mouse,” Hendrix later quipped.

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