The defining image of Jimi Hendrix was a guitar on fire at Monterey Pop. The reality was a shy, soft-spoken man who practiced obsessively, heard music in colors, and pushed electric guitar technique further in four years than anyone had in the previous four decades.

This episode traces Hendrix from Seattle, where he played a broom before owning a guitar, through the chitlin’ circuit and his rapid ascent to a fame he never seemed comfortable with.

• He was left-handed and played a right-handed Stratocaster flipped upside down
• His Star-Spangled Banner at Woodstock became a defining moment of the 1960s
• He served in the U.S. Army’s 101st Airborne before pursuing music
• He recorded Are You Experienced in just three months