April 11, 1969

Dorton Arena, Raleigh, North Carolina
With Fat Mattress

Spectrum, Philadelphia
With Fat Mattress

Set List:
Fire
Red House
Foxey Lady
I Don’t Live Today
Hear My Train A Comin’
Stone Free
Star Spangled Banner
Purple Haze
Voodoo Child (Slight Return)

Jimi Hendrix leads The Experience through a rousing performance at the Philadelphia Spectrum in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on April 12, 1969.

Photo: Chris Jones / © Authentic Hendrix, LLC

Ellis Auditorium, Memphis, Tennessee [Two Shows]
With Fat Mattress

Set List: [Second Show]
Fire
I Don’t Live Today
Hear My Train A Comin’
Sunshine Of Your Love
Stone Free
Foxey Lady
Star Spangled Banner
Purple Haze
Voodoo Child (Slight Return)

Burdened with an exhaustive schedule of personal appearances, the tense relationship between Hendrix and bassist Noel Redding further deteriorated. Frustrated, Hendrix reached out to old friend Billy Cox, with whom he had served in the US Army and performed on the famed R&B ‘chitlin’ circuit’ prior to leaving for New York.

The bassist reunited with Hendrix backstage at this Experience concert in Memphis. “We met when the Experience played in Memphis,” Cox explains. “He told me that he wanted me to be his bass player. He said that things weren’t in the order the way he wanted them and would I come as a friend and help him out. He said he’d take care of me and everything would be okay and so I gladly accepted. I went back to Nashville, closed my publishing company, dropped everything else and left for New York.”

Three days after the backstage meeting in Memphis, Cox joined Hendrix at the Record Plant recording studio in New York.