Purple Haze Purple Haze "Purple Haze" is a song written by Jimi Hendrix and released as the second record single by the Jimi Hendrix Experience on March 17, 1967. As a record chart hit in several countries and the opening number on the Experience's debut American album, it was many people's first exposure to Hendrix's psychedelic rock sound. The song features his inventive guitar playing, which uses the signature Hendrix chord and a mix of blues and Eastern modalities, shaped by novel sound processing techniques. Because of ambiguities in the lyrics, listeners often interpret the song as referring to a psychedelic experience,
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