Gibson Les Paul Custom Electric Guitar Formerly Owned by Jimi Hendrix and Played by Larry Lee at the Woodstock Music & Arts Fair, August 18, 1969

This 1955 Gibson Les Paul Custom electric guitar, commonly called a “Black Beauty,” was played by guitarist Larry Lee as part of Jimi Hendrix’s band Gypsy Sun and Rainbows at the Woodstock festival in Bethel, New York, on August 18, 1969.  

Jimi Hendrix (1942-1970) was an American guitarist, singer, and songwriter who gained mainstream prominence in the late 1960s with hits such as “Hey Joe,” “Purple Haze,” “All Along the Watchtower,” and “Fire,” and is now celebrated as one of the most influential electric guitarists of all time. 

While a part of the 101st Airborne Division in late 1961, Jimmy Hendrix (as he was known at the time) formed a Rhythm-and-Blues combo called the King Kasuals with Army buddy Billy Cox, and began playing around Nashville, Tennessee. In 1962, Hendrix met guitarist Larry Lee, and along with Billy Cox, joined the group Bob Fisher & the Bonnevilles, briefly touring the southern “Chitlin’ Circuit,” a series of venues in the southern United States welcoming to Black musicians during the Jim Crow era, in support of the Marvelettes and Curtis Mayfield and the Impressions. According to Lee, he purchased the guitar around this time, in Nashville, jointly with Hendrix. 

A week before the Woodstock festival in August 1969, Hendrix invited Lee, who had just returned from an Army tour in Vietnam, to play at the event with his new band Gypsy Sun and Rainbows. At the time, Lee didn't have a guitar, so Hendrix gave him back the Les Paul, which Lee played during the set.