The sad reason Jimi Hendrix and Arthur Brown's supergroup ended before it even began

9 September 2026, 14:56

We almost had one of the most explosive supergroups of all time.

Jimi Hendrix and Arthur Brown were two of the most colourful stars of the 1960s.

Their music and image was explosive and psychedelic, and over the years Arthur Brown has spoken about how they nearly formed a supergroup together.

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Hendrix's press officer Tony Garland apparently rang up Brown to let him know that "Jimi has a proposition".

The plan was to have a very special performance taking in visual projections, classical music and Arthur with operatic vocals.

Jimi Hendrix and The Experience were to be part of the show alongside Brown and his own writing partner and keyboard player Vincent Crane, while his drummer Drachen Theaker was excluded.

Arthur Brown - Fire 🔥 (1968)

But Crane was spiked with LSD during The Crazy World of Arthur Brown's first US tour, going into psychosis and being kept at Banstead Hospital for five months.

"Five months was too long for Hendrix to wait," Brown told The Daily Telegraph. "So it didn't happen."

Of his interactions with Hendrix, back in 2021 Arthur told Classic Rock: "Pete Townshend saw us playing at the UFO club and he picked us up for Track Records, who also had Hendrix.

"So Jimi came down to see us play, and we ended up doing various gigs and TV spots together."

The Jimi Hendrix Experience - Purple Haze (Live at the Atlanta Pop Festival)

He continued: "At one time Jimi proposed that we put a band together, with me, my keyboard player Vincent Crane and The Experience.

"In the background he wanted tapes of Wagner and a number of big visual screens. It would be a mixture of classical, rock, jazz and R&B.

"But there were two things that prevented that. One was that shortly after we came up with the idea, Vincent went into a mental home. And although I loved Jimi, I wanted to go in my own direction. So I missed out on it."