Relatively new to superstardom, even Jimi Hendrix felt nervous when he made his Arizona debut almost 60 years ago.
Hendrix had exploded onto the scene at the Monterey Pop Festival in June 1967, a month after The Jimi Hendrix Experience’s first album, “Are You Experienced?,” was released. He’d spend that whole summer on his first U.S. tour, which never made it to Arizona, although a Tempe stop was within sight.
Out promoting the “Axis: Bold As Love” album, which had just come out in the U.S. in January 1968, the band’s first North American tour opened with a few shows in San Francisco before arriving at the Sun Devil Gym – known today as Physical Education Building West – on Feb. 5 on the ASU campus.
