Was Jimi hendrix murdered?
Jimi Hendrix was murdered - and his manager confessed to the crime. That's the dramatic claim in a new book written by one of the guitarist's roadies.
Rock Roadie, by James "Tappy" Wright, will be published this month, and includes anecdotes of the crewman's life with stars like Elvis, the Animals and Tina Turner.
But he also says Hendrix's manager, Michael Jeffrey, drunkenly admitted to killling his client a year after the event in September 1970.
Wright, who worked with Hendrix from his early unknown days, says Jeffrey told him he'd gone to the star's hotel room and got him to overdose on drugs and alcohol. Jeffrey's contract was set to expire in December, and it looked as if Hendrix was going to move on to other management.
Jeffrey, who died himself in a plane crash in 1973, is said to have told Wright the whole story a year after Hendrix was reported as having choked on his own vomit. Insurance would have been the reason behind the murder - Jeffrey would be entitled to loss of earnings, but would have left with nothing if the contract simply expired.
Wright explains: "I can still hear that conversation, see the man I'd known for so much of my life, clutching his glass in sudden rage.
"He told me: 'I had to do it, Tappy. You understand, don't you? You know damn well what I'm talking about.
"'I was in London the night of Jimi's death and together with some old friends we went round to the hotel room, got a handful of pulls and stuffed them into his mouth, then poured a few bottles of red wine deep into his windpipe.
"'I had to do it. Jimi was worth much more to me dead than alive. That sone of a bitch was going to leave me. If I lost him, I'd lose everything.'"
Hendrix is a member of the tragic '27 Club', rock stars who died at that age, which also includes Kurt Cobain, Janis Joplin, Jim Morrison and Robert Johnson. Take our poll on the right - do you think Hendrix was murdered?
Rock Roadie by James Tappy Wright and Rod Weinberg will be published on June 25 by JR Books, hardback price £16.99. More details on the book
