Yesterday, July 30, 2010 was the 40^th anniversary of the Jimi Hendrix Rainbow Bridge Concert, which took place during the filming of the movie of the same name. Directed by the late Chuck Wein, a stage was constructed at the base of the Haleakala Volcano near Rainbow Ridge on the Island of Maui, where 300 locals were lured up the mountain by the “coconut wireless” to watch what would become a historical event, one of Jimi’s last performances.

Brainchild of Mike Hynson, the idea first formed when he wanted Hendrix to score the music for a surf demo he was making for shaper, Bill Bahne. The story, alone, of Hynson following Hendrix around from concert to concert is funny enough, and how it resulted in the legend performing in the movie is unimaginable. But Hynson wanted Hendrix for one reason; Jimi’s music jived perfectly with the freedom you experience on a surfboard.

“Jimi was really anxious to try surfing only for the pure pleasure of the feeling,” remembers Hynson. “He loved the uncontrollable nature of its expression. When Jimi and his entourage came through the door at Seabury Hall, Les Potts was so excited he invited Jimi to go surfing with us. But we all knew it was impossible. His manager would never allow it. Too much risk involved. I did take him out paddling around in the ocean, though.

The best thing about hanging out with Jimi was that I got to know him as a person,” adds Hynson, “not just as an idol. He’d sit in his room for hours and practice his guitar. When Billy Cox and Mitch Mitchell arrived, they set their equipment up and rehearsed some of their new songs. “We'll go through that three times,” Jimi would always say afterwards.”

Director, Chuck Wein was a protégé of Andy Warhol and had already made a dozen films back in New York. He also worked with Otto Preminger who praised him for writing the best dialogue he ever read. But Chuck decided to go off the cuff with Rainbow Bridge. Hence, he was basically responsible for the honesty and importance of the infamous attic scene where Hendrix started talking incessantly with him and Pat Hartley. No lines, this was the real thing. “You could say Jimi was depressed when he arrived at Seabury,” said Chuck, “but after being in the Islands a few days he began to rejuvenate.”

Watching the dailies one day in the school chapel, Jimi and Melinda Merryweather sat in the front pew. “He fiddled with his guitar,” she recalled, “then said when he returned to New York he was going to run the surfing footage and let the surfers write the music by the way they rode the waves. When they took off, he’d take off, when they carved down the face, he’d carve down the strings of the guitar, and when they flew off the lip, he’d fly off the lip. He envisioned the surfers scaling down a musical staff as if they were the notes.”

On August 1^st Jimi left to play the Honolulu International Center. This was his last American concert, then he returned to Maui for two more weeks. Playing music for hours on end at his vacation rental by the airport, he reenergized himself for his European dates. When Jimi left for good on August 13^th, Melinda and Michael Jeffrey, Jimi’s manager, took him to the airport. Watching him jet off to New York in his private plane, he pointed up to a rainbow in the sky.

Artist, Lance Jost was introduced to Michael Jeffrey at Hynson’s house to possibly create the credits for Rainbow Bridge. Once Jeffrey saw Lance’s portfolio, though, he was so blown away he asked him to paint a mural for Hendrix’ new studio instead. While the gang was over in Maui for the summer, Lance was getting ready to take off for New York.

“Imagine me,” recalls Jost, “a 29-year old unknown artist deeply entrenched in 60’s Laguna Beach culture not only getting a commission from Hendrix, but having the opportunity to transform his studio by painting a 100-foot long mural of the interior of a spacecraft for the Electric Lady Recording Studio in the heart of Greenwich Village.

The anticipation of meeting Hendrix at the San Diego Sports Arena on July 25^th to show him my portfolio and get his approval was electric enough. Loaded to the teeth with cosmic artwork, I nailed it! Now all I needed to do was pack my bags and take off for New York City.

On Saturday, September 19th I was running one last errand before boarding the plane for New York when I ran into a friend in Laguna. “Hey, Lance, did you hear that Hendrix died?”

As a side note, if you want to see some really fascinating videos of Hendrix at Rainbow Bridge, go to www.youtube.com and enter 'Rainbow Bridge' or 'Last 24 Hours 4' in the search.