Jimi Hendrix made himself into an icon, thanks to a series of highly influential recordings
and era-defining live performances. When he died suddenly at 27, the rock guitarist left behind one
of the most enduring legacies in music. This is the story of Jimi Hendrix's tragic death.
Given his unbelievable natural ability, it's tempting to think that Jimi Hendrix was born
to be a rock superstar. But the reality was that during those brief few years in which
Jimi Hendrix had taken the world by storm, the guitarist had worked himself to the bone.
Hendrix's career began on the East Coast, where he played for a number of bands before finally
being discovered by the British musician Chas Chandler, bassist of the Animals. Chandler saw
Hendrix's enormous potential and took him off to England to form the Jimi Hendrix Experience.
It was British audiences who first warmed to Hendrix when he couldn't catch a break in America,
and his seemingly effortless cool both onstage and off
masked a grueling schedule of touring and recording, aimed at elevating Hendrix to
the international rock music pantheon. But by 1970, Hendrix was almost completely used up.
"Go on stage, that's all in the world, that's your whole life."
That Jimi Hendrix had pushed himself too far was reflected by his poor health, but
also in his complex financial situation and his numerous,
clashing social entanglements. All of these would come to a head in 1970,
piling enormous strain on a musician at a moment of great physical and emotional weakness.
"Yeah, well sometimes it gets to be really easy to sing the blues."
According to ABC, Hendrix himself was well aware of the precariousness of his situation,
telling a reporter in an interview at the time:
"I'm not sure I will live to be 28 years old."
According to The Independent, Hendrix told friends and journalists that he felt directionless and
unable to trust any of the people around him. Hendrix's social circle was shifting and unstable,
and the person he shared the last of his life with was, reportedly,
a new acquaintance named Monika Dannemann. Dannemann's behavior
around the time of Hendrix's death has been the cause of much speculation.
Monika Dannemann was a German figure skater who became close to Jimi Hendrix — her musical
idol — after meeting him following his 1969 concert in Dusseldorf. The two subsequently spent
several days and nights together on Hendrix's European tour. But as noted by Rocks Off, many
commentators have argued that Dannemann's account of her relationship with Hendrix is unreliable.
Dannemann claimed that she and Hendrix were engaged, deeply in love, and had been in a
committed relationship for 18 months at the time of his death. However, many in Hendrix's
social circle have contested this, claiming that their relationship was far more casual,
as evidenced by Hendrix's liaisons with numerous other women in the final months of his life.
Whatever the exact nature of their relationship might have been,
Hendrix did turn to Dannemann that fateful night. Details are sketchy, but the official
story goes that Dannemann had come to London to reconnect with the legendary guitarist.
She was staying at the Samarkand Hotel in Notting Hill while attempting to pin down Hendrix.
Hendrix had been previously taking amphetamines, and, finding he was unable to sleep at Dannemann's
hotel suite, took 9 of her Vesparax sleeping pills — 18 times the recommended dose.
As the circumstances of Hendrix's tragic death flooded the newspapers in the days
and weeks following, Dannemann, as the last person to see the rock star alive,
was given a huge amount of visibility — and notoriety. The Independent had
this to say about Dannenman being the last face Hendrix saw before he died:
"With some, that fact bestowed on Dannemann instant quasi-religious status. To others,
she was forever the focus for suspicions surrounding the circumstances of Hendrix's death."
Like her claims as to the nature of her relationship with Hendrix, Dannemann's
testimony concerning what exactly happened the night of Hendrix's death was wildly inconsistent.
In some stories, Dannemann claims to have left the hotel room early in the morning to buy cigarettes,
and her account of what she found on her return changes. In ABC'S recounting of Hendrix's death,
the network had this to say about Dannemann's ever-changing story:
"Having found Hendrix unresponsive, either dead or near death,
[Dannemann] claimed she rang an ambulance some time between 9 a.m. and 11 a.m.
Later, she insisted Hendrix was alive as he was loaded into the ambulance."
Some have speculated that Dannemann may have purposefully delayed calling for an ambulance
to give her time to clear the hotel room of narcotics and cover up evidence of drug-taking.
According to The Independent, Hendrix's friend Eric Burdon has claimed this was the case,
and that he helped to clean the apartment, but his story has also changed in the intervening years,
making his recollections suspect.
As fans around the world struggled to come to terms with the death of Jimi Hendrix, arguably
the greatest hero of the '60s counterculture, wild stories concerning his death — and who
might have instigated it — began to circulate. Quite possibly, these stories had their root in
the unreliability of Dannemann's account of the events of Hendrix's death, as well as that of
other members of Hendrix's inner circle who were supposedly "in the know," such as Eric Burdon.
One of the most notorious theories was that Hendrix was in fact murdered by his manager,
Michael Jeffrey, from whom Hendrix was attempting to extricate himself at the time of his death. The
story made headlines in 2009, thanks to a book written by former roadie James "Tappy" Wright,
which claimed that Jeffrey had confessed to the murder in private prior to his own death
in a plane crash in 1973, per The Guardian. The Guardian also reported that Jeffrey told Wright:
"We went round to [his] hotel room, got a handful of pills and stuffed them into his
mouth [...] then poured a few bottles of red wine deep into his windpipe."
Other suspects that have been posited by conspiracy-minded Hendrix fans
include the mafia — who had reportedly kidnapped Hendrix the previous year during a drug sale,
according to a 2011 story in Rolling Stone. A 2008 story in Newshounds even suggests that the FBI
may have played a role in the rock icon's death. Both allegations, however, are unsubstantiated.
Check out one of our newest videos right here!
Plus, even more Grunge videos about your favorite stuff are coming soon.
Subscribe to our YouTube channel and hit the bell so you don't miss a single one.