Great story in the LA Times today about Jimi Hendrix impersonator Anthony Aquarius, complete with a soundtracked video slideshow of him busking in Hollywood:

Sometimes a stroll down Hollywood Boulevard is a step back in time. To 1969, to be exact.

It’s that way when Anthony Aquarius plugs in his battery-powered amplifiers, straps his electric guitar on upside down and belts out “Hey Joe” to startled passersby.

Aquarius sounds like Jimi Hendrix. He looks like him too — right down to the lanky gait, bushy hair and flamboyantly colored clothes.

Hendrix, an iconic figure from the late 1960s, is regarded by some as the best rock guitarist ever. He still is revered for his heavily amped sound and freewheeling strumming technique.

Hendrix played left-handed but used a right-hand guitar that he held upside down. So does Aquarius. Hendrix could play with his teeth and with the guitar behind his back. Aquarius can too.

“I realized a long time ago, when I was real little, that I sounded like Jimi,” Aquarius says.

“To look like him I had to draw mustaches on myself when I was 13 or 14. Back then Jimi wasn’t as hot as he is today. People would tell me to stop playing like him.”

Aquarius moved to Silver Lake last summer from Youngstown, Ohio. These days he performs on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, about a block from where Hendrix’s own star is encased in the sidewalk’s terrazzo.

“I try to stay between Highland and Las Palmas. There’s too much noise up by the [Grauman's] Chinese Theatre — too many people, too chaotic. Down here it’s a little more subtle and quiet and I can get into the music more.

He’s actually quite good, so be sure to visit the LA Times story and watch the slideshow. And, if you’re ever in the LA area and see the guy, for God’s sake put some money in the bucket!