Big Thrill For Jimi's Proud Dad -- Al Hendrix, Family Envision New Releases Of Rock Star's Music

For Al Hendrix, a soft-spoken man who's quick with a smile but shy with words, regaining son Jimi's legacy is a dream come true.

The 75-year-old man keeps tapes of his son's songs in his car, listening everywhere he goes.

Now, 25 years after he became the legal heir to all of Jimi Hendrix's creations, settlement of a 2-year-old lawsuit has put Al Hendrix back in control of the revolutionary guitarist's creations.

"Yabba dabba doo," Hendrix said yesterday after being told details of the settlement.

Hendrix sat in the air-conditioned comfort of his attorney's Seattle office, 26 floors above the city where he's spent a lifetime working as a gardener.

Which of the songs he now owns will Al Hendrix listen to first? "Foxy Lady?" "Purple Haze?" "The Wind Cries Mary?"

"It depends on my mood," Hendrix said.

Members of the Hendrix family called the mood elation and the settlement - which could bring at least $5 million a year in royalties - a victory.

For Jimi Hendrix music fans, the transaction of ownership back to the Hendrix family will keep music coming, but on the family's terms.

"Management will shift to a substantial extent from other places of the world back to Seattle," said Yale Lewis, Hendrix's attorney.

Lewis would not specify who would control the family interests. He did indicate that Janie Hendrix-Wright, Al Hendrix's adopted daughter, and Bob Hendrix, a nephew, will take a role in managing the legacy.

"Jimi, if it were up to him, he would want the music to be in the family," Hendrix-Wright said.

The family regains ownership of copyrights to all songs, unmastered recordings and products based on Jimi Hendrix's image - including posters, paintings and famous concert photographs.

One defense attorney said the rights to Hendrix's music alone are worth between $50 million and $75 million.

There still are many unreleased recordings of Hendrix jamming through feedback-fed sessions, in which he crafted songs that lifted him to the cutting edge of rock in the late 1960s.

Hendrix-Wright said the family has several projects in mind, including the release of new material from Hendrix's recordings.

The settlement, which is to be signed Friday, was finalized Monday during a conference with U.S. District Judge William Dwyer, who'd been mediating the dispute since last year.

The litigation began in 1993 when Al Hendrix, who received ownership of the tapes when his son died in 1970, filed a complaint against Leo Branton Jr., a longtime family lawyer and friend.

Hendrix alleged that Branton, who represented Al Hendrix from 1970 until 1992, had transferred ownership to a handful of corporations without his client's consent.

Alan Douglas, who'd created new releases using Jimi Hendrix's work after his death, and a handful of corporations that had gained ownership of the rights, also were defendants in the suit.

The defendants will pay some reward to Al Hendrix when the rights to the legacy are turned over Aug. 11, Lewis said. Hendrix also will pay a set fee to defendants in the future, once he begins to realize profits on the royalties. Amounts of all payments have not been disclosed.

Branton will gain ownership of two pieces of real estate. He otherwise will have no role in managing the estate.

"I thought at all times I did a fantastic job for Al Hendrix," Branton said. "Even before he filed the lawsuit, I made him a millionaire."

It is unclear how the settlement will affect the fate of "The Experience Music Museum," a longtime project of Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen. Hendrix memorabilia will be a key part of the museum.

Allen, who was not a party to the suit, lent nearly $6 million to Al Hendrix early in the lawsuit. Allen's spokeswoman said the two men still have a close relationship.

But now that Al Hendrix is in position to authorize Allen's use of Jimi Hendrix property, he says he doesn't want to be involved at all in the museum project.

"He (Allen) can do his thing, and we'll do ours," Hendrix said.

The settlement closes one lengthy chapter to the future of Jimi Hendrix's legacy. But a 25-year-old Swedish man who claims he is Hendrix's son is fighting for the ownership of music copyrights.

A U.S. District Court judge in Los Angeles earlier this year ruled against the claim of the man who's legally changed his name to James Hendrix.

But attorney Lawrence Segal says his client will not give up the fight to get control of currently renewable copyrights.

A further ruling on that case is pending in the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals.