Creativity Quote by Noel Redding

Career-making accidents rarely look heroic in retrospect; they look like this: a working musician chasing one audition and stumbling into another band’s mythology. Noel Redding frames his entry into the Jimi Hendrix Experience as a practical detour, not a destiny. The phrasing is almost deliberately deflating: he “came to join” by “going for an audition” for Eric Burdon, who was “just forming” a rebooted Animals. It’s music-industry life at street level, where the next gig is a chain of introductions, timing, and someone else’s breakup.

The context does a lot of heavy lifting. Mid-’60s British rock is in churn: groups fracture, managers reshuffle talent, and “new” versions of established acts get assembled to keep the brand alive. Redding’s mention of the “original Animals” breaking up signals that ecosystem: the old guard splintering, the scene reconfiguring. His choice to name Burdon grounds the story in a credible, working circuit rather than psychedelic legend.

The subtext is a quiet correction to the way rock history is usually sold. The Experience often gets narrated like fate: Hendrix arrives, a trio materializes, lightning strikes. Redding’s memory insists on contingency. He wasn’t auditioning for greatness; he was auditioning for employment. That modesty also protects his agency: by emphasizing the route rather than the miracle, he positions himself as a musician navigating opportunity, not a satellite pulled into Hendrix’s orbit. It’s an origin story that resists mythmaking by reminding you how myths are staffed.