not really....they were the first "metal" band but i believe in a british mag. they called steppen wolf "heavy metal". and i think gene simmons some where in time tried to claim it himslef like he does with anything metal or rock n roll.
How do you know that? Been in an alternative reality? What did they win? The status of real pioneer of metal because they used the words in a song?
I'm pretty fond of his music actually, but I say it's not sure there wouldn't be heavy metal without him.
well if you didnt i would think your wrong but i feel that he brought in alot of guitar technique but i doubt if he didnt bring it then metal would of never been born.
It's one of those things we can never know for sure, there is no way to go back and take Hendrix out of the picture, to see what would happen and then some say that the first heavy metal song was the Kinks with "You Really Got Me," where they were the first to use a heavy fuzz riff guitar. But to me Jimi Hendrix "Purple Haze" is the arch typical Heavy Metal song except that the subject matter isn't dark enough. If Hendrix wrote that song today, I think most people would class it as Heavy Metal, yet he wrote and played it long before Heavy Metal was a genre. There really is no difinitive answer to this question it's just fun to talk about.
BLACK SABBATH first band i can think of that downtuned, had a bassist play a solo that fucked you from all sides and obviously the godfather of metal. DEEP PURPLE comparibly less metal but still one of the first. theres a yin yang thing about Zeppelin and Sabbath, someone should get Ozzy to sing for Zeppelin and Robert plant to sing for Sabbath, then we'll get a result that proves nothing at all but i think that would be cool.