A Room Full Of Mirrors – A Biography of Jimi Hendrix
Author Charles R. Cross
Published by Hyperion
Review By Robin Steeley
“I used to live in a room full of mirrors; all I could see was me. I take my spirit and I crash my mirrors, now the whole world is here for me to see”…Jimi Hendrix
‘Room Full of Mirrors’ was the title of a song that Hendrix wrote in 1968. The song was never officially released while Jimi was alive. He also created an odd bit of memorabilia stored at the home of his father Al Hendrix. Pulled out of the basement, was Jimi’s true to life “Room Full of Mirrors”, a frame full of broken shards of a shattered mirror, formed with clay in the exact position they would have held when the mirror broke. The shards all point toward the center, where an unbroken circle sits in the middle. Reading this book proves that the art, the song, the man hid many meanings, some of which are brought to light by this biography.
On the 35th anniversary of Jimi Hendrix death, his biography will be released to the public, written by New York Times bestselling author Charles R. Cross who also penned Kurt Cobain’s biography. The book is well researched and based on more then 300 interviews from close personal acquaintances. It tells the history of the great guitar player from his early childhood growing up in the Seattle projects, losing a parent, and struggling against racism as a starving musician and finally his rapid rise in the London underground music scene, and eventually he would headline Woodstock in 1969 before his death a year later from an accidental overdose.
The music of Hendrix was a soundtrack to the youth of his generation. The book gives colorful history and contains more personal information, much more history then other biographies about the guitarist. There could have been more emphasis perhaps on how he became so talented, and on his early career and subsequent rise to stardom. It gives us insight into his outrageous life, the epitome of sex, drugs and rock and roll in an era that embraced it fully, but the book also gives you a solid idea of the struggles Hendrix went through with his growing notoriety. An interesting inclusion is the never previously seen documents and private letters; they give you a new insight into what his personality was really like. Overall, ‘Room Full of Mirrors” offers you an up close and personal look at the life of one of rocks most powerful legends.
About the Author
Charles R. Cross, author of the New York Times bestseller Heavier Than Heaven: A Biography of Kurt Cobain and three previous books, was editor of The Rocket, the Northwest music and entertainment magazine, from 1986 through 2000. He writes for numerous newspapers and magazines.
