I also tried to listen to his music and also fell in love with it like I did to other African American rock musicians including Little Richard, Chuck Berry who first did the rock version of iconic Johnny B Goode reggaefied by reggae chieftain Peter Tosh. I also took interest in BB King and other rock and blues artistes. While listening to Jimi, I also gulped the many tales of his life and times.
When news of the death of Nigerian superstar MohBad rent the air at the age of 27, my thoughts flew first to star guitarist and rock music play maker, Jimi Hendrix and to all the members of the Club 27. I mean the gathering of international stars who died at that age. Jimi Hendrix died September 18, 1970 after stunning the world with a peculiar sound and guitar play. Then I followed with Amy Winehouse, Janice Joplin, etc. Incidentally and interestingly too, most of them if not all died from overdose of drug substances.
But as the controversial news of MohBad continued to inundate our air space, I started trying to match the many coincidences and relationships between the duo of Jimi Hendrix and MohBad.
The duo’s September death first hit me as I began to look into similarities and differences. Next was the drug related death.
However, I was able to project and conclude that there are many similarities between Jim Hendrix and MohBad when the Police after their ‘thorough’ investigation opened up on what killed MohBad a few weeks ago.
And like a famous Greek philosopher exclaimed when he found an answer to a nagging problem, I concluded that Jimi Hendrix and MohBad, Nigeria’s afro beats crooner whose music is currently bombarding the air space worldwide are kindred spirits for whom their drug related death came in September.
Just follow me as I start to point out one after the other the many links and coincidences between the two artistes and agree with me that they may together be playing heavenly music at the moment.
Jimi Hendrix and MohBad were first born children to their parents. Jimi was first out of five children of Allen Hendrix just like MohBad who also had two siblings – Blessing and Adura – and three other step siblings was the first born son of the six children of Pastor Joseph Aloba.
In comparison, the childhood of Jimi Hendrix and MohBad were tough. While Al Hendrix spent time always looking for a job, (he even gave out his children for adoption and fostering), he also had serious accommodation issues like Joseph Aloba who had done many things from Carpentry to recording and pastoring a church. While managing his life, Al Hendrix lived and lost accommodation, shared residents and dormitories with others just like Joseph Aloba who had moved his family from Shasha to Oshodi, Lagos and then to Ikorodu. MohBad sang severally about those times.
While Al Hendrix lived a turbulent marriage with his absentee wife Lucille Jeter with whom he had three other children after Jimi and later divorced, MohBad’s dad had a most turbulent marriage with his also absentee wife with whom he bore two other children, Blessing and Adura. She was later separated from Aloba just like Al and Jimi’s mother did before her death for neglecting his children.
EXTREME TALENTS
Another trait of comparison to note between Jimi Hendrix and MohBad is that both were blessed with extremely incredible talent that many years after their demise, the world continues and may continue to talk about them, listening to their musical offerings. At the time of his death in 1970, Jimi Hendrix was already being revered as a prodigious guitarist credited to have created or contributed to the rise and growth of the psychedelic rock era. His masterfully crafted song ‘Hey Joe’ still thrills years after he died. Young guitar players world over at a time had the chords to battle with as they progressed in their rock music education. Late Nigerian guitarist Fela Dey always reminded of ‘Hey Joe’ because he would masterfully re-enact it at the snap of the fingers. No wonder he was known as the Jimi Hendrix of Nigeria. Before his death in 1970, left handed guitarist Jimi had made three albums and left his performance at the 1969 Woodstock Rock festival as a memento of his talents to the world. He earned the highest performance fee at the first edition of Rock music’s biggest festival featuring almost all stars ever imagined. He is described as one of the most influential electric guitarists in the history of popular music and one of the most celebrated musicians of the 20th century.
For Mohbad, many sang his songs without knowing the singer until his death. Songs like Peace, Sorry, etc come to mind. He was noted for his unique style of meaningful compositions retracing his chequered life with a certain cool mien and mellow voice. He also sang about his death on many occasions like …its one life to live and I live it well cause man don’t want to live in regrets…Walking dead,
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