Jimi Hendrix
In September 1965, two years before he released his debut album Are You Experienced, iconic rock guitarist Jimi Hendrix reportedly walked into a recording studio at 2 a.m. and told his future producer, Ed Chalpin, he wanted to record a song.
The song was The Ballad of Jimi, a mythical yet seemingly autobiographical ode to a guitar player named “Jimi,” who Hendrix called his friend. The song ended with these lines:
“Many things he would try
For he knew soon he’d die,
Now Jimi’s gone, he’s not alone
His memory still lives on
Five years, this he said
He’s not gone, he’s just dead.”
Almost exactly five years later, September 18, 1970, Hendrix died in London after choking on his own vomit while intoxicated by barbiturates.
