Jimi Hendrix Was Murdered?

Jimi Hendrix's former roadie says the classic rock icon was murdered by his manager.

James "Tappy" Wright says Michael Jeffrey confessed to killing Hendrix after the rock star died in 1970 at the age of 27. Wright claims in his upcoming book, Rock Roadie, that Jeffrey was worried Hendrix was looking for a new manager because his contract with Jeffrey was going to expire, so Jeffrey went to his hotel room and gave him far too much wine and pills.

"I had to do it, Tappy," Wright quotes Jeffrey as saying in the book, according to the U.K.'s Daily Telegraph newspaper. "You understand, don't you? I had to do it. You know damn well what I'm talking about.

"I was in London the night of Jimi's death and together with some old friends... we went round to Monika's [Dannemann, Hendrix's girlfriend] 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.

"I had to do it. Jimi was worth much more to me dead than alive. That son of a bitch was going to leave me. If I lost him, I'd lose everything."

Wright further claims Jeffrey told him he took out a $2 million U.S. insurance policy on Hendrix, on which he was the beneficiary.

Hendrix died on Sept. 18, 1970 after choking on his own vomit, which was mainly made up of red wine. The circumstances of Hendrix's death have never been fully explained, but Dannemann told police Hendrix had taken (unbeknownst to her) Vesperax sleeping pills the night before his death.