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An AUTHENTIC Jimi Hendrix autograph

While browsing this website today, I noticed the number of Jimi Hendrix forgeries that seem to be floating around out there, and they are horrendous. A number of people were asking others if they could possibly authenticate their autograph, so I hope this may help in some way.

I received a Jimi Hendrix autograph on June 19, 1969 on a stairwell of Toronto's Old City Hall during a recess in Jimi's trial for heroin possession which I attended that day. Seems he was busted at Customs while entering Canada for his concert at Maple Leaf Gardens (which I also attended) in May of '69. I recall Jimi was an hour and 15 minutes late, and was actually booed when he came on stage for it. At the time, nobody knew of the troubles he had 'experienced' at the Toronto International Airport just hours earlier. He certainly made up for his lateness with an incredible display of concertship that evening.

On the day of his trial, Jimi entered the Courthouse wearing a pink headband, pink shirt, black furry vest, black leather pants, and a black fur cape which dragged behind him while he walked. I distinctly recall the Judge asking him to "show the Court some respect" by removing his headband, which he did. The lawyers were going through some paperwork with the Crown Prosecutors, so the Judge called for a short recess. Jimi walked out of the Court and sat on some stairs and lit a cigarette (yes, it was allowed in those days!) while a small group of fans gathered around to talk to him, myself included. I realized that I had nothing for him to sign, so I purchased at a Courthouse concession stand a 5 cent Kleenex pack, which at the time had a cardboard backing inside. I threw away the Kleenex, and asked him if he would sign the piece of cardboard, which he graciously did.

The one thing that stood out during that half-hour encounter in the hallway, of all things, was how beautiful and white his teeth were. Strange. He was very soft-spoken, almost shy, but he was funny, and we all shared quite a few laughs with him while he dragged away on his Kent cigarettes. A nice guy, and a perfect gentleman.

Only years later did I realize that I had nobody but my buddy Steve, who was also there that day, who could verify the authentication of my autograph. I recall he told me years later when I asked if he still had his autograph, him telling me "no, I gave it to some chick for her birthday" and that he was still kicking his ass to this very day for doing so. He said if I ever needed him to verify it with an affidavit, he would.

Funny enough, two decades later, I spotted a story on a local paper's website about his Court trial in 1969. At the end of the piece, there was a link that said 'click here to view pictures of that day', which I did. Here was a slew of pics taken inside the Old City Hall that day by a photographer from the Toronto Star newspaper, and in the very first picture sat 'yours truly' directly behind Jimi in the Courtroom!! Unbelievable! I now had my authentication. I called the Star and they said I could purchase the pics by coming to their offices, and I would have purchased several more except for the fact that they were very pricey. However, I did score a few of them, and nice ones too I might add.

I just wanted to post a picture of the autograph which I got that day so that it could be compared to any fakes that someone may have been unfortunate enough to receive.. Although this has faded over the years from being tucked away in an envelope, it indeed is an authentic Hendrix.

And by the way, Jimi was acquitted on the heroin possession charge due to the fact the the Crown could not disprove Jimi's claim that the drugs had been placed in his travel bag by a fan, and of which he knew nothing about.

Justice prevailed in Jimi's case that day.

And just further, this autograph is dedicated to my son, and is not for sale.

Lucky kid.

Peace out.

1 member likes this

Comment by Ryan on July 8, 2012 at 7:02am: Hi. My name is Ryan and I was just Roger Godelled on this posting. Mr. Cyrkin, please don't ban me again. I was revolver before you accused me of being from some town in CA that I have never heard of. I live in Fairport NY and have emailed you my phone number for verification. I can skype you with me in front of the village sign if you insist. All I wanted to do was discuss Hendrix autos since I am not very astute in verifying his auto. I would hope that you wouldn't just ban people willy nilly around here. All you have to do is look at my registration info and call me if you'd like. I thought I had escaped being banned from the cool click after high school.

Comment by Steve Cyrkin, Admin on July 8, 2012 at 8:28am: Ryan,

I'm sorry. The log had that IP address showing up around the same times you were online. I didn't think that the person we had to ban would keep coming here constantly.

Comment by BallroomDays67 on July 8, 2012 at 10:23am: Where do you think that it looks "rough and rugged in spots"? That's actually how I would describe the Bonhams set. Do you have a copy of the catalog?

Comment by Ryan on July 8, 2012 at 2:57pm: I think the copy is just bad. The best wishes part by Mitch looks a bit shaky. The catalog is viewable on Bonhams site. Honestly, if someone is that good at forgeries, I would think that we would see a whole lot of similar ones around. And, I would just give up the search since I would always doubt the authenticity of any piece.

Comment by Steve Cyrkin, Admin on July 8, 2012 at 3:14pm: Interesting. I don't know Hendrix well, but I'm not comfortable with the Bonham or the Christie's.

Comment by BallroomDays67 on July 8, 2012 at 3:27pm: What don't you like about the Christie's set? It looks really good to me.

I would say that the Bonhams set is good, but not great. The "h" in "Mitch" and "drix" in Hendrix in particular weren't done very well.

Comment by Steve Cyrkin, Admin on July 8, 2012 at 4:50pm: You could be right, Ballroom. I only did a couple minutes of research, mostly on Mitch and Noel, so it's a good bit of gut reaction by me.

Christie's "Cheers Noel Redding" seems to lack any speed and spontaneity, and doesn't look to me like it was by the same person who signed the same thing on Bonham's Redding. And the "e" of Bonham's "Redding" looks way off.

Christie's "Best Wishes Mitch" seems a little more spontaneous, but still doesn't feel natural to me. And look at the bends where it would be natural to sweep...most notably in the underscore, but also the B and W of Best Wishes. I'm not comfortable it's in the same hand, either. So right away I'm concerned that at least one set isn't good.

And the Bonham set looks like it could have been done by one person.

Looks to me like most of the effort on both was put into Hendrix's autograph, which makes sense of course.

Comment by Steve Cyrkin, Admin on July 8, 2012 at 4:59pm: I love these kinds of discussions, but I'm wrong enough that if humble pie had calories I'd be 500 pounds.

Comment by BallroomDays67 on July 8, 2012 at 5:54pm: I get what you're saying about the Noel autograph. It does look a little shaky to me, but spontaneous nonetheless. One thing that I noticed is that the Christie's "N" starts from the top, while the Bonhams "N" starts from either the middle or the bottom. All of the other authentic ones I've seen start from the top. the Christie's Mitch looks really good to me, especially the "i" and the "c". However, the "ch" in the Bonhams Mitch doesn't look right at all.

I totally agree that the Bonhams set looks like it was done by one person.

Comment by Ryan on July 8, 2012 at 7:43pm: I guess I will just give up on Hendrix for now. I have been studying Beatles for like 20 years so I can pick them out most of the time pretty quick. I have no clue on the Hendrix. I tend to agree with all of your points. Then again, these artists were human and not robots so there must be some variation between every example. Too much money to spend on these items if no one knows for sure.

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