We don't hear Randy California's name mentioned often these days so as it's his birth date today, born 20th Feb 1951, it might be a good time to remember... boy could he play.
He was in Hendrix's band The Blue Flame as a 15 year old and was considered to join The Experience in it's formative years in the UK, but his parents thought him too young to leave school (ouch that must have hit the kid).
He went on to form Spirit a few years later.
Randy never made it through to the new century, died on 2nd January 1997 when rescuing his 12 year-old son after he was sucked into a riptide in the surf off Hawaii.
Here's the multi layered psychedelics of his "Hey Joe".
