Janie Hendrix describes brother Jimi’s musical legacy

VIDEO - NBC News' Olivia Santini recently sat down with Janie Hendrix, the sister of legendary guitarist Jimi Hendrix and one of the keepers of his musical archive since 1995. Janie describes her brother's musical legacy and his 'latest' project "People, Hell and Angels," ...

Luther Vandross was outed as gay after his death.

NBC News’ Olivia Santini recently sat down with Janie Hendrix, the sister of legendary guitarist Jimi Hendrix and one of the keepers of his musical archive since 1995. Janie describes her brother’s musical legacy and his ‘latest’ project People, Hell and Angels. 

Below are some selected excerpts of what she shared during the interview, which Santini produced exclusively for theGrio.com: 

“Jimi had a great saying,” Janie said. “He said ‘hear my music.’ So we listen.”

“Jimi wanted to be able to touch all groups and all ethnicity’s […] [He] was all about – writing lyrics, creating your own music, living the life and then being able to interpret and incorporate that in your music […] And not sampling but creating your own sound – which is what he did – ’cause he borrowed some notes from Muddy Waters.”

“Definitely Jimi would have listened to hip-hop. He loved all the genres of music.”

“Fortunately for us, his dreams and vision continue on through his music, through his studio, through his drawings. We still have lots of photographs of him that show the different facets of his personality – laughing, having fun […] But I definitely think he had vision, he had drive. He was definitely a businessman. It’s just not everybody knows that side of him.”

Follow NBC News’ Olivia Santini on Twitter @Cali28fornia

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