Billy Cox was born on October 18, 1941, in Wheeling, West Virginia, and later moved with his family to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, during his early teen years. Cox originally met Hendrix back in 1961, when both were serving in the U.S. Army and stationed in Fort Campbell, KY, when Cox was drawn in by guitar playing coming from inside a Service Club on the base, which turned out to be Hendrix. Both left the military at around the same time, which led to the duo forming the R&B outfit the King Kasuals, with steady gigs on the Chitlin' Circuit, the black club scene in the south. While Hendrix soon left for New York and international fame, Cox stayed behind, building his craft as a working R&B bassist, including stints in the house bands for television programs like Night Train and The Beat.
Cox's true breakthrough came in 1969, when Hendrix called his old friend Cox, who joined him in New York as his studio bassist, several months before bassist Noel Redding left the Jimi Hendrix Experience. Following the break-up of the Experience, Cox performed with Hendrix's interim group, informally called Gypsy Sun and Rainbows, which played at Woodstock and two low-key New York gigs. Hendrix then formed another short-lived group with Cox and Buddy Miles, that recorded Band of Gypsys, the live album that he owed former manager Ed Chalpin as part of a legal settlement. That New Year's performance at the Fillmore East became one of the most celebrated live rock recordings of the era, cementing Cox's place in rock history alongside Hendrix and Miles.
Cox went on to play with Hendrix through the final chapter of his career, in the reconstituted Experience trio known as the Cry of Love Band with drummer Mitch Mitchell, working on First Rays of the New Rising Sun, Hendrix's fourth studio album, which was cut off by Hendrix's death. After Hendrix died in 1970, Cox played with others, including the Charlie Daniels Band, as well as session work and live dates. In the decades that followed he remained closely tied to the Hendrix legacy, appearing on posthumous releases and, beginning in 1995, participating alongside Mitchell, Redding and Miles in Hendrix tribute tours. In 2004, Miles reunited yet again with Cox of the Band of Gypsys to re-record songs from the original live album of 1970 with guitarists Eric Gales, Kenny Olsen, Sheldon Reynolds, Andy Aledort and Gary Serkin, resulting in the album The Band of Gypsys Return, released in 2006. As the last surviving member of both the Jimi Hendrix Experience and the Band of Gypsys, Cox has spent much of his later career honoring that legacy directly. He has continued to play with Experience Hendrix, a semi-regular touring Hendrix tribute band featuring top guitarists and former Hendrix collaborators. He has also toured under his own name with the Billy Cox/Band of Gypsys Experience, hitting the road with his own band on multi-city tours, showcasing not only Hendrix classics but his blues roots drawn from performances and recording sessions with legends like Slim Harpo, Little Milton, Gatemouth Brown and Freddie King. Recognized as a Musician Hall of Fame inductee, Cox is synonymous with any reference to Jimi Hendrix and Rock n Roll History, continuing to carry forward Hendrix's musical vision decades after their partnership began in the Army. For this archive, Billy Cox holds a modest but meaningful place. Wayne Dennon photographed Cox in concert on a single occasion in 2010, capturing a artist whose entire career has been a bridge to one of rock's most mythologized moments in music history. The 13 photographs from that show remain part of the site's collection, having drawn 14,668 views from visitors who return again and again to see a living link to Woodstock and the Band of Gypsys preserved through Wayne's lens.
