Tech Billionaire Paul Allen Plays 'Like Hendrix': Quincy Jones

SEATTLE, WA - Paul Allen, the Microsoft co-founder whose hobbies include collecting Star Trek memorabilia and owning professional sports teams, is apparently a secret guitar hero on par with Jimi Hendrix. That's according to Quincy Jones, who told a interviewer this week Allen "sings and plays just like Hendrix."

Jones - who like Allen and Hendrix is from Seattle - said that he once attended a party on Allen's 414-foot yacht, Octopus, with musicians Stevie Wonder, Sean Lennon, and David Crosby. Wonder called Allen up on stage and, well, see for yourself:

"He's good, man," Jones told Vulture interviewer David Marchese.

Add Allen's guitar skills to the heap of different ventures he's involved in. Allen owns Vulcan Inc., one of the biggest real estate companies in Seattle; he owns the Seahawks, Portland Trail Blazers, and Seattle Sounders; he operates a brain research institute, restored the one-of-a-kind Cinerama movie theater in Seattle (and stocked it will sci-fi memorabilia) - oh, and he wrote some of Microsoft's first computer programs.

According to Allen's biography, "Idea Man," he started playing guitar at age 16. He learned by mimicking Jimi Hendrix.

If you want to hear more, check out Allen's last album, "Everywhere At Once," with his band, the Underthinkers.

Photo by Don Ryan/Associated Press