Sometimes Randy Hansen feels like two different people.
One side of him enjoys relaxing, painting and strumming his guitar at home in Auburn. A more wild, energetic and untamed side comes alive when he’s on stage paying tribute to his idol, Jimi Hendrix.
One of the best Hendrix tribute artists in the world, Hansen is headlining the Historic Everett Theatre on April 7. He’ll play everything from Hendrix’s greatest hits to songs released after his death in 1970.
“I always dig and try to play something they’ve never heard,” Hansen said. “Jimi wouldn’t want me to play all the hits. That’s not a tribute to him. A real tribute is to show people how great he really was as far as songwriting is concerned.”
Hansen, 63, tours around the world and has played in front of thousands in places as far away as Germany and Finland. His tribute performances have even received an official thumbs up from the Hendrix family.
He can play the guitar behind his back or with his teeth, sing in the same timbre as Hendrix, make skinny bell-bottom jeans seem like they’re still in style and rock a crowd to its feet.
But he tries to separate the legend from the tribute performer.
“I wanted to show Jimi Hendrix’s effect on me, rather than what Jimi was like on stage,” Hansen said.
Hansen grew up in Seattle, the same city in which Hendrix was raised. He toyed with becoming a horse jockey or a drummer like Ringo Starr someday.
He was 10 years old when his father was killed by a drunken driver in 1964. His next-door neighbor put a guitar in Hansen’s hands not long after the tragedy. He wasn’t allowed to play with the neighbor’s son until he took lessons and could play chords.
Hansen didn’t know it at the time, but that neighbor did him a favor.
“It was an escape from the fact that my father was gone,” Hansen said. “It took my mind completely off of it. When you play the guitar, you really need to be able to concentrate.”
Hansen was turned on to Hendrix by a friend in high school. The leader of the psychedelic rock scene quickly became his role model. Everything from Hendrix’s chord inversions to the way he played the guitar baffled and inspired him.
But Hendrix’s death at age 27 came as a big blow.
“I was totally devastated,” Hansen said.
Hansen kept his guitar by his side through the heartbreak. By the time Hansen was 18, he was a professional guitarist. The bands he joined didn’t have a singer, so Hansen often took that role, too.
He came into prominence with his Jimi Hendrix tribute a few years later. His act, Randy Hansen’s Machine Gun, shared the stage with the likes of Heart and The Kings from 1977-1980. His tributes were praised in popular magazines like Rolling Stone and Guitar Player.
Director Francis Coppola even hired him to record Hendrix-like riffs and noises for the 1979 epic war film, “Apocalypse Now,” which won the 1980 Academy Award for Best Sound.
Hansen has continued to perform tributes over four decades, either with The Randy Hansen Band or as a soloist. Right now he is on tour with bassist Kevin Adams and drummer Bill Ray.
As Hendrix was a master of improvisation, Hansen, too, approaches each show in a different way. He said it helps make each show better than the last.
Hansen said he’s also appreciative of the fact that fans understand he doesn’t want to be an exact Hendrix copycat. Only one time was that a problem for a concert-goer.
“I had enough confidence in our show that I said, ‘If you don’t like the show, then you can come backstage, and I’ll give you my paycheck,’” Hansen said. “After the show he came back backstage and he said, ‘You can keep your paycheck.’ ”
If you go
Randy Hansen’s Jimi Hendrix Experience is at 8 p.m. April 7 at the Historic Everett Theatre, 2911 Colby Ave, Everett. Classical guitarist Randy Haines opens the show at 7 p.m. Tickets start at $15.
Order tickets online at www.historiceveretttheatre.org. Learn more about Randy Hansen at www.randyhansen.com.
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