New information has emerged concerning the circumstances surrounding the untimely death of rock legend Jimi Hendrix on September 18, 1970. The 27-year-old guitarist and singer, who was staying at the time in the London flat of a German girlfriend, Monika Dannemann, died in his sleep from choking on his own vomit.
It has been widely reported that Hendrix had taken a lethal combination of barbiturates and alcohol before going to bed. However, This Publication has received a pirated tape recording of a secret interview given by Dannemann in early 1971 in which she maintains that in fact Hendrix had not consumed any drugs at all that night.
"Jimi was tired of getting high all the time," she recounts, "and had decided to give up all drugs and alcohol for a while. On the night of September 17th he'd been totally sober for five days. He told me he was exhausted and wanted to go to bed early. At about midnight he complained that he couldn't sleep because it was 'too quiet' in my apartment -- you know how he was used to always being in a rock concert or a loud party -- so I turned on the radio in his room.
"I remember it was tuned to BBC4 and they had a Bubble Gum festival on that night. At about 5:30 am, which is the time the coroner estimates that Jimi died, I remember waking up in the next room and hearing the end of 'Yummy Yummy Yummy' by the Ohio Express and then the beginning of 'Seasons in the Sun' by Terry Jacks. Then I went back to sleep, and when I woke up he seemed to be unconscious.
"I called an ambulance and the paramedics told me he had died. Gosh, what a horrible way to go. Although I guess it beats choking on someone else's..." [tape suddenly ends]
