Fight over fate of Hendrix home

SEATTLE —  The house where rock star Jimi Hendrix played air guitar with a broom and began listening to the music that would shape his career faces demolition unless activists win a campaign to save it.

The city had been prepared to destroy the home -- where Hendrix lived from the ages of 10 to 13 -- on Tuesday, when the King County Superior Court issued a two-week restraining order at the request of the home’s owner, Pete Sikov. The court hears his arguments for a permanent injunction on July 19.

To those who want to save the house, the battle has become a symbol of the city’s ambivalent attitude toward one of its most famous sons. Hendrix, a singer and acclaimed guitarist known for such songs as “Are You Experienced” and “Purple Haze,” died of a drug overdose in 1970 at age 27.

Seattle officials say the issue is public safety. The dilapidated home has become an eyesore and a magnet for squatters and drug dealers in a residential neighborhood, said City of Seattle spokeswoman Katherine Schubert-Knapp.