We’re huge fans of PBS Digital’s Blank on Blank series, which brings vintage interviews with cultural icons to life through gorgeous animation. The latest installment focuses on Jimi Hendrix’s final interview, and it might be their best one yet.
Recorded in London by Keith Altham, the interview took place on September 11, 1970 — exactly one week before Hendrix died. The entire video is worth a watch, as the laid-back interview touches on a wide array of topics: politics, fashion, burning/smashing guitars, the relationship between fantasy and reality, and so much more. It’s also the origin of Jimi’s famous “just call me helium” quote, inspired by the heaviness of the day’s music:
There are too many heavy songs out there these days, the music is getting too heavy, almost to the state of unbearable. I have this one little saying. If things get too heavy, just call me helium, the lightest known gas to man.
Previous editions of Blank on Blank: Tupac, Jerry Garcia, Kurt Cobain, Louis Armstrong, Wilt Chamberlain, Jim Morrison.
