“I said, ‘The only way we can play 40 minutes is if we include Purple Haze.’ This guy grabbed me and said, ‘You got a lot of nerve!’” Billy Gibbons once covered Jimi Hendrix hits while supporting Hendrix on tour – and the guitar hero watched

Jimi Hendrix and Billy Gibbons.

Billy Gibbons has opened up on the time he proved he had cajones of steel when, while supporting Jimi Hendrix on tour, he played two of the electric guitar legend’s biggest hits in front of the man himself.

The bold play took place while Gibbons was submerged in psych rock sounds with his pre-ZZ Top band, Moving Sidewalks. Speaking on the Rock & Roll High School YouTube channel, Gibbons says he was “mystified” to have been offered the opportunity to support Hendrix across the States in the late 1960s.