New York City’s West Eighth Street has a new name in honor of one of the city’s myriad musical luminaries: Jimi Hendrix Way. An unveiling ceremony was held today, June 10, on what would have been the pioneering guitarist‘s 83rd birthday.
The newly minted Jimi Hendrix Way is located in Greenwich Village, down the street from Hendrix’s legendary Electric Lady Studios, which he commissioned in 1968 and has . Attendees at the unveiling included Steven Van Zandt, Hendrix’s longtime engineer and producer, Eddie Kramer, and Hendrix’s sister, Janie. The ceremony also served as a kickoff for a new partnership between Electric Lady Studios and Van Zandt’s educational nonprofit, TeachRock.
According to Janie, getting her older brother’s name on the street he redefined the character of has been a long time coming. In fact, as she told the New York Times, her family started working towards the commemoration “soon after Jimi passed away” in 1970 at 27.
“We used to have a petition in Electric Lady Studios to sign that said, ‘Name this street after Jimi,’ and it seemed to go nowhere. We also tried to get Jimi’s face on a stamp, and that eventually happened, 12 years ago. All in due time.”
Read about the Jimi Hendrix Experience’s Electric Ladyland at No. 13 in The 200 Best Albums of the 1960s.
