10/27/2025
Trust the process!
Jimi Hendrix left the army with $400 in his pocket - by morning, he had sixteen dollars and was 2,000 miles from home.
July 1962. Private James Hendrix had just been discharged from Fort Campbell after thirteen months in the 101st Airborne.
A broken ankle from a bad jump and persistent back pain had earned him an honorable discharge and $400 in mustering-out pay. Enough money to get home to Seattle and start fresh.
He made it as far as Clarksville, Tennessee - about twenty miles from base.
"I thought I'd have a look in at Clarksville, stay the night and go home the next morning," Jimi later explained. "I went to this jazz joint and had a drink. I liked it and stayed."
Depending on how Jimi told the story, he either got "foolish good-natured" and started handing out bills to anyone who asked, or he called it "benevolent" partying. The details changed, but the result was always the same: when he woke up the next morning, he had sixteen dollars left.
Seattle was two thousand miles away. A bus ticket cost more than sixteen dollars. Calling his father for help meant explaining how he'd blown nearly four hundred dollars in one night.
Jimi was stranded.
He remembered that just before leaving the army, he'd sold his guitar to another soldier in his unit. So Jimi went back to Fort Campbell, found the guy, and convinced him to loan the guitar back.
"All I can do is try to earn money playing guitar," he realized.
He started immediately - playing in cafes, clubs, on street corners. Living in rough circumstances. Sleeping where he could. Sometimes stealing food when he had to. Eventually forming a band called the King Kasuals with Billy Cox, who'd also been in the 101st Airborne.
If Jimi had been careful with that $400, if he'd bought that bus ticket home, he might have ended up back in Seattle with a regular job.
Instead, one night in Clarksville forced him to become a professional musician.
No safety net. No backup plan.
Just a borrowed guitar and the absolute necessity to make money playing it.
