When Tennessee Williams met Jimi Hendrix

I'm sure that Tennessee Williams and Jimi Hendrix would have been great friends, now that I know a little bit about each of their lives, and that they were destined to meet one another in their afterlives.  

Hendrix, a much younger man, unfortunately dies before Williams and therefore is unable to warn Williams of the dangers of taking too many drugs and of mixing drugs with alcohol, as Williams might have warned Hendrix of the destructive nature of corporate greed when applied to the life of an artist.

Williams would have been good for Hendrix and Hendrix for Williams.

I hear Williams saying to Hendrix, "don't take that gig in London..." or, "you really don't have to make that record, it's just too much pressure..."

And Hendrix saying to Williams, "man, you can't keep drinking a quart of vodka and taking Seconal and shooting up that other shit..."

They're in New Orleans or, rather, in New York City, getting ready for an appearance on The Dick Cavett Show, sitting backstage in a room full of exotic potted plants. They like one another instantly, two geniuses, both of whom know they'll die before the other. 

The last thing Williams says to Hendrix is something about the role of Fate in history--to not discount it by thinking you can understand the present moment.

Hendrix then tells Williams that he, Williams, is the one who's had the luckiest life. 

Photograph: STAR movie theatre, Stayton, Oregon, 2016. From the author's private collection.