the line-up of performers slated to play this fall’s unprecedented second leg Experience Hendrix tour will include Brad Whitford. The Aerosmith guitar great played his first Experience Hendrix tour dates in 2008 and was part of the EH line-up for dates played earlier this year. Whitford has has been an integral part of Aerosmith for the past 39 years and, like the previously announced Experience Hendrix players, has a strong affinity for the musical legacy of Jimi Hendrix as well as a very personal connection to it. "I got to see Hendrix play in ’68 in Boston Garden with Mitch and Noel Redding and it was like, ‘Wow.’ I bought a Fender guitar the very next day," he recalls.
For the forthcoming dates that start October 26 in Pittsburgh, Whitford is joining a line-up of iconic musicians including Kenny Wayne Shepherd, Susan Tedeschi, Robert Randolph, Jonny Lang, Steve Vai, Los Lobos’ David Hidalgo and Cesar Rosas, Eric Johnson, Ernie Isley, Living Colour, Mato Nanji of Indigenous, Chris Layton of Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble and The Slide Brothers a/k/a Chuck and Darick Campbell of Sacred Steel. "Since the first time I heard him, and right up until today, [Hendrix] has been an important influence on me — on all of us," Whitford noted.
The new run of dates for Experience Hendrix, the continuing concert tour that has wowed audiences revisiting the music and inspiration of Jimi Hendrix is the first time the tour will have gone out twice within a single calendar year. The Experience Hendrix tour crisscrossed the country this past March for a string of sold-out concerts and returns with a new set of U.S. and — for the first time — Canadian dates this month and next. Fender Musical Instruments Corp. is the tour’s lead sponsor as was the case with last spring’s Experience Hendrix tour. Participating sponsors also include Dunlop Effects Pedals, Marshall Amplifiers and Mapex Drums. Jimi Hendrix was indicted in Fender’s Hall of Fame this past August with EH Tour member Kenny Wayne Shepherd performing at the event held near Fender’s headquarters in Tempe, AZ. Learn more at experiencehendrixtour.com.
