Memorial Page for Jimi Hendrix (née Johnny Allen Hendrix)

Jimi Hendrix (born 27 November 1942 in Seattle, Washington; died 18 September 1970 in London) was an American guitarist, singer and songwriter. Within a few short years he fundamentally changed what seemed sonically possible on an electric guitar, and he remains one of the most influential instrumentalists in the history of popular music.

A childhood in poverty

Hendrix was born Johnny Allen Hendrix; his father, James "Al" Hendrix, changed the name to James Marshall Hendrix in 1946. The family lived in poverty and moved frequently, and his parents struggled with alcoholism. His mother, Lucille, died of cirrhosis of the liver in 1958, when Jimi was fifteen. At four he was given a harmonica; in 1957 he found a ukulele, and that same year his father bought him a used acoustic guitar for five dollars. Being left-handed, Hendrix restrung it upside down – a quirk that shaped his later playing. An electric guitar followed in 1959.

Military service and first bands

After leaving high school, Hendrix enlisted in the US Army for three years in May 1961 and was assigned to the 101st Airborne Division at Fort Campbell, Kentucky; he was honourably discharged in June 1962. He then worked as an in-demand backing guitarist for Little Richard, the Isley Brothers and other acts on the so-called Chitlin' Circuit, gradually developing his distinctive style in his own small bands.

London and the Jimi Hendrix Experience

Linda Keith, an acquaintance of the Rolling Stones, discovered Hendrix in a New York club and drew the attention of former Animals bassist Chas Chandler. Convinced he could turn the song "Hey Joe" into a hit, Chandler flew to London with Hendrix on 24 September 1966. That same month, the Jimi Hendrix Experience was formed there with drummer Mitch Mitchell and bassist Noel Redding. During early performances in Germany in November 1966, Hendrix destroyed his guitar on stage for the first time – a moment his management deliberately turned into a trademark of the show. The first single, "Hey Joe," reached number four on the British charts in February 1967, and the debut album, Are You Experienced, reached number two.

Monterey and the Experience's peak

On 18 June 1967 the Experience played the Monterey Pop Festival in California before an American audience that barely knew Hendrix at the time. At the end of the set he set his guitar on fire and smashed it – a gesture he later described as "a kind of sacrifice." The albums Axis: Bold as Love (1967) and the double album Electric Ladyland (October 1968), which reached number one in the US charts, followed. On 29 June 1969 the Experience played its final show together in Denver.

Woodstock

On the morning of 18 August 1969, Hendrix played with a newly formed band at the Woodstock festival before the roughly 25,000 people who remained of the original 400,000. His radically distorted rendition of the US national anthem, The Star-Spangled Banner, laced with wah-wah and tremolo effects, was widely read as a musical comment on the Vietnam War and became one of the most quoted moments in festival history.

Final concerts and death

In the summer of 1970 Hendrix toured Europe with shifting lineups. On 30 August he played the Isle of Wight Festival before one of the largest audiences of his career, and on 6 September 1970 he gave his final outdoor concert ever at the Love and Peace Festival on the German island of Fehmarn.

On the night of 18 September 1970, Hendrix took a large dose of his girlfriend Monika Dannemann's sleeping pills at the Samarkand Hotel in London; she found him unconscious the next morning. He died shortly afterward in hospital, aged 27. A later investigation found that Hendrix had choked on his own vomit after consuming alcohol and sleeping pills. He was buried at Greenwood Memorial Park in Renton, near Seattle; in 2002 his remains were moved to a newly built family memorial there.

Hendrix left behind a comparatively small body of work — only a handful of studio albums released in his lifetime — and yet an influence still felt today in the playing of practically every guitarist who came after him. His use of distortion, feedback and effects expanded the sonic vocabulary of rock music so fundamentally that many of his innovations have long since become standard parts of the electric guitar's basic repertoire.