“Jimi Hendrix came in with an frail Duo-Sonic. I had exact place collectively a Strat I’d strung up left-handed, and I went, ‘I’ll commerce you.’ I became as soon as docked three weeks’ pay”: Jeff ‘Skunk’ Baxter recalls the questionable guitar deal he made when h

Forward of Jeff ‘Skunk’ Baxter became the revered Steely Dan guitar player and renowned session hand that worked with the likes of Joni Mitchell, Donna Summers and Dolly Parton, he started his profession working at a guitar store.

It became as soon as a vocation that gave him the chance to fulfill infinite electric guitar heroes, who’d all search suggestion from the shop he worked at repairing, developing and promoting instruments.

Les Paul, Frank Zappa, Eddie Deal, Mike Bloomfield and Sam Brown all frequented the guitar stores he worked at, as did Jimi Hendrix, who as soon as came thru the doors of Jimmy’s Song Store in Manhattan with a busted Fender Duo-Sonic.

Because it so happened of abode, Baxter became as soon as on-hand to again Hendrix’s guitar needs, and the 2 ended up shaking fingers on a rather questionable commerce that saw the teenage store employee catch punished by his manager.

“Jimi Hendrix had a band called Jimmy James and the Blue Flames, and he came into Jimmy’s music store with an frail, beat-up Duo-Sonic,” Baxter remembers in a novel interview with Rick Beato.

“If I am appropriate, he became as soon as taking half in with Joey Dee and The Starliters, however I judge he exact obtained off the road with Small Richard. He had his beat up Duo-Sonic and he wished to commerce it.

“I had exact place collectively an very supreme looking out white Stratocaster – a appropriate-handed Strat that I’d strung up left-handed and intonated and the entirety – for an particular particular individual that by no manner had showed up. So, it became as soon as sitting there.

“I went, ‘Ok, I’ll commerce you even.’ So Frank and Jim Squillaci [his managers] docked me three weeks pay’ attributable to they said that became as soon as not a appropriate deal. And these guys are businessmen.”

Guitar deals apart, Baxter’s likelihood stumble upon with Hendrix that day would reward to be the delivery up of a prolonged friendship.

“Jimi then invited me to realize benefit all the draw in which down to hear the band,” he goes on. “The bass player became as soon as unhurried, so I obtained a huge gamble to play a tune or two. After that, we became chums, in a sense that… you more than likely have chums that you just don’t look for a extremely very prolonged time, however as quickly as you sit down with them, or not it’s timeless, yeah? It is supreme. So it became as soon as the identical thing with Jimi.”

Head over to Rick Beato’s YouTube channel to peek the paunchy interview.

In diversified Baxter information, the Steely Dan guitarist not too prolonged previously recalled how he recorded his traditional Scorching Stuff solo on a low-mark guitar he bought appropriate sooner than the session.