Jimi Hendrix roadie says manager confessed to murdering him

A former roadie of Jimi Hendrix's claims in his soon-to-be published memoir that Hendrix's final manager confessed to killing the legendary guitarist. London's Daily Mail reported that former Hendrix aide James "Tappy" Wright says in his upcoming book Rock Roadie, that a year after Hendrix's death in September 1970, manager Michael Jeffery confessed to him that he plied a semi-conscious Hendrix with enough pills and alcohol to kill him so that he could collect insurance money and not risk Hendrix breaking their management agreement.

Wright, who also roadied for Elvis Presley and Tina Turner, among others, said that Jeffery said in his confession: "I had to do it, Tappy. 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 (Hendrix's girlfriend) Monika's (Dannemann's) 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."

Jeffery, who died in 1971, had told Wright that he had taken out a $2 million policy out on Hendrix, which named him as the chief beneficiary.

The official cause of Hendrix's death was 'barbiturate intoxication and inhalation of vomit."

The events surrounding Hendrix's death have always been shady, especially when it comes to how Hendrix was found and who exactly called for an emergency crew -- neither things which are ever out of the ordinary in an O.D. case.

James "Tappy" Wright's memoir Rock Roadie will be released next month.