Noel Redding

I was the first guy to join the band with Hendrix.

We had no sleep or days off or anything like that and then, when the band became big, Hendrix became a star and looked down at us lot.

On Ain't No Telling I came up with the bass solo.

My lady, Deborah McNaughton is doing a documentary on me.

My personal favourite is Jeff Beck. All the others are wonderful as well.

Hendrix rehearsed different drummers, before we met Mitch Mitchell.

I suppose the old natural stuff would be ok, the old mushroom, but I wouldn't advise anyone to do it.

Well, the first day we went through three songs, very basically.

I took up violin because my best mate had taken it up, so I did likewise.

I'd gone professional when I was about seventeen.

I came to join the Experience by going for an audition for Eric Burdon who was just forming the New Animals at that point, after the original Animals had broken up.

The Fat Mattress consisted of people I'd played with before joining the 'Experience and it was put together as a song writing situation.

Everybody was starting to grow long hair and wear pink suits and purple glasses and stuff and then, I suppose, some people thought we were crazy, but we weren't really crazy because we're all still here!

The first band I was in, I think was called The Strangers. I got the sack because I was too small!

At the age of nine, playing the violin at school, and then onto the mandolin.

I wouldn't know how I would have coped with The Beatles' sort of fame.

But people are now realising why I was playing bass with Hendrix.

It was rehearsing in the studio, at which point they were setting up the sound, and once we'd got the thing together they'd actually record it, without us knowing sometimes!

Well, I'd had the Fat Mattress earlier as a writing outlet for songs and that.