Randy California

Randy California earned his primary renown as the guiding force behind Spirit while still issuing the occasional solo recording as guitarist, singer, and songwriter. A prodigious guitarist, he joined Jimi Hendrix’s pre-Experience outfit the Blue Flames for performances in New York’s Greenwich Village throughout the summer of 1966, the period when Hendrix first gave him the stage name Randy “California.” Spirit itself came together in Los Angeles in 1967 as an eclectic unit inclined toward rock, jazz, and folk. Once the original five-piece lineup had completed four albums, the members parted ways in 1971. Following a grave riding accident and subsequent recovery, California delivered the solo album Kapt. Kopter and The (Fabulous) Twirly Birds in 1972, which contained uncredited contributions from Noel Redding and Mitch Mitchell, the rhythm section of Hendrix’s Experience. He returned to Spirit in 1974 and took over leadership of the group. Spirit placed ten albums on the charts from 1968 through 1976. Several later solo releases by Randy California appeared only in Europe. In January 1997 Randy California drowned after an undertow seized him while swimming off the coast of the Hawaiian island of Molokai; moments before his death he succeeded in rescuing his twelve-year-old son Quinn.