Hendrix murder claims broke dad's heart

Hendrix: New album

Jimi Hendrix's sister Janie says the family have never known whether the guitar icon was murdered – but that the doubt was a cause of heartache for their father Al.

When he died in London in 1970, aged 27, rumours began circulating straight away that his apparent asphyxiation was more than just an accident. And last year, Hendrix roadie James 'Tappy' Wright accused the performer's manager, Mike Jeffery, of killing him for contract insurance money.

Janie, adopted by Al when her mother married him, was a child when Hendrix died, but tells CelebrityAccess.com that the family never got over the constant rumours.

She says: "I remember hearing the conspiracy theories when I was a kid. They were really heartbreaking for my father. It was very painful for him.

"My dad was 50 and he lost a 27-year-old child. When someone asked him if he thought Jimi was murdered he said: 'Whether he was or he wasn't, we can't bring him back.'

"Do I know if he was murdered? Do I want to point fingers? Almost every person who was involved with Jimi is dead now. There's no way of proving if it's true or not.

"I do know he didn't commit suicide. While it was asphyxiation, if something happened before that, I don't know."

Manager Jeffery died in a plane crash in 1973, while Chas Chandler of the Animals, who also helped with Hendrix' business affairs, died in 1996.

Al Hendrix passed away in 2002 and Janie now runs Experience Hendrix, the company which looks after the guitarist's legacy and financial interests.

She says: "It's kind of like the Kennedy family curse. This is the Hendrix curse. I think I'm an honourary attorney. The last deposition I did, my attorney asked, 'Do you know how many depositions you've taken?' I said, 'Maybe 20'. He said, 'Over 100'.

"I contemplated being a lawyer, but treating people in a mean way or twisting things around just isn't for me.

"Jimi made music. You have to have someone that you trust. I talked with Bootsy Collins and he said, 'I'm a musician. The moment I have to start handling the business part is the moment I lose focus on the music part'."

A brand-new Hendrix album, Valleys of Neptune, will be released next month, featuring 12 previously unreleased recordings from 1969. It's the first of what Janie says is a decade of 'new' material, and was engineered by Eddie Kramer, who worked with the guitarist in the 1960s.

She says: "It's an incredible album. It sounds as if it was recorded this year. It's fresh. It's as if Jimi was here with us today, still creating music."

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