Today on TBT Slight Return® would like to share one of our proudest moments- “Driving South”  to Nashville to record a cover of Jimi Hendrix’s  “Stone Free/3rd Stone From The Sun” with legendary bassist, band mate  and best friend of Jimi- Billy Cox!  Mark Kassa and Slight Return photographer/video director Bill Von Linsowe drove to Tennessee to Toybox Studio-  owned/operated by  Joel Bunkowske (the studio was designed under the advice of Jimi Hendrix’s producer Eddie Kramer).  Billy met us there. We walked in and Billy was warming up by playing “Machine Gun”- it gave me goosebumps witnessing my favorite Hendrix song of all time!  He told us some great stories about Jimi.  One of the most memorable  is  how they wrote the song Dolly Dagger. It all started by Billy imitating the sound of a doorbell on his bass.  He also told us how Jimi was a relentless worker and they would go into the studio at 8am and not leave until 9am the next morning!  Billy recorded his bass lines on our track and he did the vocals on  “Stone Free”.   He  isn’t on the original recordings- but we’ve got him on ours! I was humbled by the fact that Billy was so complimentary about my guitar playing.  Bill V was moved to tears as Billy Cox was recording his parts, neither of us could believe it was happening.  The highlight of the trip was when he asked me  to stay in Nashville, record an album with him and go on tour, sadly, previous commitments prevented me from accepting the offer.  Bill V yelled at me all the way home to Detroit because I couldn’t accept the offer.  I felt bad about it, but feel eternally grateful that I was given the opportunity.  Billy Cox was a great person to work with, first class all the way.  He took some photos wearing my Slight Return, Welcome To The D, and The D apparel and autographed my 1969 original Shin-ei Univibe.    Great memories.  Here is the track we recorded.