Jimi Hendrix left us on Friday, Sept. 18, 1970. He was only 27. He pretty much lived the way he wanted to. But his time to die came much too early.
Forty years later, it's hard to express the shock and disbelief we music fans felt that morning as the word spread from London. Hendrix was a rock star, and rock stars just don't die at 27. Sure, there had been other rock ‘n' roll star deaths, probably the most famous involving “the day the music died,” the plane crash in Iowa that killed Buddy Holly, the Big Bopper and Ritchie Valens. But Jimi Hendrix had moved beyond being a mere rock star. He was a rock god. And gods just didn't die, so we thought.
The Chronicle ran a short United Press International story out of London in its Friday editions:
LONDON (UPI) — Jimi Hendrix, the American Negro-Indian many critics considered the world's finest electric guitarist, was taken today to St. Mary Abbot's Hospital where he was pronounced dead on arrival, a hospital spokesman said. He was 25 (sic).
ABC News reported: “The Jimi Hendrix experience is over.”
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