Remembering Randy California Randy Wolfe died on this day in 1997, saving his son from drowning while in Hawaii, but losing his own life in the process. Randy had a friend named Jimmy, who he had met in a music shop. Both guitarists, Jimmy formed a band and Randy joined him. They were called “Jimmy James and the Blue Flames”. Jimmy started calling Randy “Randy California”, as that was where he was from, and because there was another Randy in the band. After a small measure of success, Jimmy decided to move to England, to explore the possibilities there. He wanted Randy to join him, but Randy, still a teenager, was prevented by his parents from going along. Jimmy did well at forming a successful band while in England. Along the way, he changed the spelling of his name to “Jimi”, and called the band “The Experience”. Randy went on to form his own band, called “Spirit”. Spirit also did pretty well. Their greatest success came from their second album, which contained a rock classic entitled “I Got a Line on You”. Who knows what The Jimi Hendrix Experience would have been like, had Randy joined his friend on his trip to England. Maybe Randy would have stolen some of Jimi’s thunder.
Posted on: Fri, 02 Jan 2015 19:59:22 +0000
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