“I remember watching Jimi when I was younger, while he was in the room with me. I’d have my social studies book, but I was listening and watching him”: Ernie Isley lived with Jimi Hendrix – then took his place to write hit after hit in his brothers’ band

Ernie Isley plays his Fender Zeal Stratocaster onstage wearing, taking a solo – playing the guitar behind his head might have been one of the tricks he picked up from Jimi Hendrix's visits to the family home.

A disciple of Jimi Hendrix. A mad scientist with pedals at his feet. A Strato-dreamer. A guitar icon. The Ohio-born, New Jersey-raised Ernie Isley is all those things and much more.

It didn’t hurt that young Ernie watched his older brothers rise to fame on the back of hits like Shout, Twist and Shout and Testify, the latter of which featured a young Hendrix, who joined the Isley Brothers in 1964.