The Jimi Hendrix Experience I went to see him play, I thought that was it, the game was up for all of us, we may as well pack it in." The group came to prominence in the US after the June 1967 Monterey Pop Festival, one of the first major rock music festivals. The band's performance ended with Hendrix famously setting his psychedelically painted Fender Stratocaster on fire. After the festival they toured with the Monkees, but left the tour two weeks later, reportedly due to lack of audience response. With the Experience, Hendrix recorded several hit singles, such as "Hey Joe", "Purple Haze",
Jimi Hendrix abilities with those of saxophonist John Coltrane. Guitar virtuoso Greg Koch has stated that Jimi Hendrix was his biggest influence. Hendrix also influenced industrial artist Marilyn Manson, blues legend Stevie Ray Vaughan, Metallica Kirk Hammett, instrumental rock guitarist Joe Satriani, Frank Zappa/David Bowie/Talking Heads/King Crimson/Nine Inch Nails hired gun Adrian Belew, and heavy metal virtuoso Yngwie Malmsteen, who said: "[Hendrix] created modern electric playing, without question ... He was the first. He started it all. The rest is history." Hendrix received several prestigious rock music awards during his lifetime and posthumously. In 1967, readers of "Melody Maker" voted him the