When Jimi Hendrix Lost Everything, He Called the 101st Airborne

In 1965, an unknown session guitarist named Jimmy James signed a three-year contract for $1. Eighteen months later, he was Jimi Hendrix, and that single piece of paper sparked a $15 million lawsuit that threatened to take everything he had recorded. Cornered, exhausted, and forced to deliver a live album to a man he despised, Hendrix didn't hire the best studio musicians money could buy to bail him out. Instead, he reached back to his roots. He called his old army buddy, bassist Billy Cox, and drummer Buddy Miles. They had just two weeks to write and rehearse brand-new material. The result? The Band of Gypsys, a funk-and-blues powerhouse that played four legendary shows at the Fillmore East to ring in 1970, recorded an iconic live album, and fell apart less than a month later. This is the story of the greatest band Jimi Hendrix ever built, the legendary performance of "Machine Gun," and how a $1 mistake accidentally forced a rock masterpiece into existence. What's the band, or the record, that changed everything for you, and who did you first hear it with? Let us know in the comments.