Setting the stage: "It's lonely out here by myself" -- September 1966: Swinging London -- October 1966: A meeting of the gods -- November 1966: "The best guitarist in the world" -- December 1966: At home with the blues -- January 1967: "Wild man of Borneo" -- February 1967: Making a media darling -- March 1967: "The black Bob Dylan" -- April 1967: Hendrixmania -- May 1967: "The group they love to hate" -- June 1967: Setting the world on fire

A compelling portrait of rock's greatest guitarist at the moment of his ascendance, Stone Free is the first book to focus exclusively on the happiest and most productive period of Jimi Hendrix's life. As it begins in the fall of 1966, he's an under-sung, under-accomplished sideman struggling to survive in New York City. Nine months later, he's the toast of Swinging London, a fashion icon, and the brightest star to step off the stage at the Monterey International Pop Festival. This momentum-building, day-by-day account of this extraordinary transformation offers new details into Jimi's personality, relationships, songwriting, guitar innovations, studio sessions, and record releases. It explores the social changes sweeping the U.K., Hendrix's role in the dawning of flower power, and the prejudice he faced while fronting the Jimi Hendrix Experience. In addition to featuring the voices of Jimi, his bandmates, and other eyewitnesses, Stone Free draws extensively from contemporary accounts published in English- and foreign-language newspapers and music magazines. This celebratory account is a must-read for Hendrix fans