“I told her, ‘This is Purple Haze’, and she said, ’No, it’s not. I saw Jimi Hendrix live, and Purple Haze didn’t sound anything like that!” When Richie Kotzen learned a Hendrix classic wrong, his mom called him out

‘Musical differences’ have driven a wedge between many creative relationships, but in the new issue of Guitar World, Richie Kotzen recalls falling out with his own mom over the very first song he learned to play: Purple Haze.

It’s pretty telling of Kotzen’s early ambitions that the track he tackled first on the instrument was the signature tune of the man often held up as the world’s greatest electric guitar player – but we’ve always said aim for the stars.

“[The first song I learned was] Purple Haze,” recalls Kotzen. “I learned it in the open position, though, and it didn't sound like Purple Haze.”

While he probably didn’t need the feedback, Kotzen notes that, in this case, his mom had some pointers and, perhaps more annoyingly, first-hand experience of the electric maestro.

“I remember getting into an argument with my mother,” he tells GW. “I told her, "This is Purple Haze, and she said, ‘No, it's not. I saw Jimi Hendrix live, and Purple Haze didn't sound anything like that!’”

Richie Kotzen-all along the watchtower-monsters of rock cruise 2019 - YouTube

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Kotzen has no trouble with collaborators, having served alongside some sizeable names (and, quite probably, egos) at the ’80s/’90s shred rock face – not least, Poison, Mr Big and, later, in supergroup The Winery Dogs. However, it seems the criticism still stung the burgeoning virtuoso – as well, it might.

“I got very upset by what she said, as technically I was playing Purple Haze,” insists Kotzen. “But because it was in the open position, it didn't sound like it to someone who wasn't a musician…”

Let the record show that Kotzen certainly nailed his Hendrix licks in the years that followed, but we appreciate Kotzen’s humility in sharing the tale.

Not least, because ‘The problem is that you're not a musician’ is perhaps the best playing excuse we’ve ever heard. It certainly beats feigning RSI the next time we throw a solo at a covers gig… [Not that that would ever happen – Ed].

Elsewhere in the entertaining piece, Kotzen gamely recalls his first show, onstage disasters and why, when he was quite literally faced with the building burning down, he actually didn’t take any of his guitars…

For more from Kotzen, plus new interviews with Matteo Mancuso, Grace Bowers and Nita Strauss, pick up issue 586 of Guitar World at Magazines Direct.