Jimi Hendrix Died at 28 (1942-1970)

Jimi Hendrix, whom millions of fans considered the world's finest pop star, died of what police sources said was an apparent overdose of drugs.

The 24-year-old American musician of Cherokee Indian and [African-American] stock was found deeply unconscious at the home of a blonde girl friend in the Notting Hill section. He was pronounced dead after being taken in an ambulance to St. Mary Abbots Hospital.

His body was taken from the hospital to a southwest London morgue for an autopsy.

Hendrix, whose wild performance often ended with his smashing his guitar and amplification equipment, seemed to write his own epitaph when a year ago he told a reporter:

"I tell you when I die I'm going to have a funeral. I'm going to have a jam session. And, knowing me, I'll probably get busted at my own funeral."
Article on Jimi Hendrix's death in the NY Daily News on September 19, 1970.

A year earlier he was arrested in Toronto, Canada, for possession of hashish and heroin, but was acquitted. During the trial he said he used marijuana, hashish, LSD and cocaine but never heroin. His most popular song, Purple Haze, was descriptive of drug culture.

After the trial, he had said: "This I really believe: anybody should be able to think or do what they want as long as it doesn't hurt somebody else."

The tall, rangy Hendrix, one of the highest paid performers in the world, had been a star attraction at big rock festivals from New York's Woodstock to England's Isle of Wight. His records had sold in the millions.

Born James Maurice Hendrix in Seattle, Washington, he was a high school dropout who had served as a paratrooper in United States forces. After his discharge due to a parachute injury, he made his way to New York where he was discovered by Chas Chandler, bass guitarist with Eric Burdon's original Animals.
Jimi Hendrix playing in Copenhagen on September 3, 1970.

Despite his reputation for wildness, Hendrix was an accomplished musician who had taught himself to play guitar, organ piano, drums and bass.

Hendrix last week of his life completed a highly successful tour of Germany, and another tour there had already been arranged.

He had been living at the Cumberland Hotel in the West End with his manager, Gerry Stickells.

Burdon, a close friend of Hendrix, had told that Jimi had spent the night with the girl friend and "she found him in a coma the following morning and had called for an ambulance."

Friend Meic Stevens believes Hendrix possibly choked and lost his life because he didn’t understand how to drink the substance. Speaking openly for the first time since Hendrix’s death, Stevens said the guitar great was blending red wine with lager, and drinking the mixture out of a pint glass.

‘I was with Jimi Hendrix the night he died,” he told the Daily Mail. “He had been drinking red wine with me – even though he had never drunk red wine in his life before.”

The 69-year-old added he and Hendrix were out with Marmalade stars Gary Farr and Jimmy Cregan, plus Eric Clapton, living it up at the Scotch of St James bar in Mayfair.

“[Hendrix] was drinking lager or some kind of beer and he just poured the wine in to the pint glass. I don’t think he had ever drunk red wine before – he didn’t know how to drink it,” Stevens said.

“…He seemed okay. He seemed to be alright. But the next day I woke up late and somebody phoned and said Jimi’s dead. Apparently he choked on his own vomit.”

Hendrix’s U.S. manager recently refuted claims the guitar great was murdered, which makes this red wine story even more possible. We think it still sounds fishy that Hendrix died because he “didn’t know” how to drink wine.