Jimi Hendrix Chokes to Death on His Own Vomit

September 18, 1970

Jimi Hendrix‘s girlfriend awakes at 11 a.m. to find him unresponsive, but still breathing. She called an ambulance and he was pronounced dead at the hospital at 12:45 p.m. The coroner would rule that the legendary singer had aspirated his own vomit and died of asphyxia while intoxicated with barbiturates. His girlfriend later revealed that Hendrix had taken nine of her prescribed Vesparax sleeping tablets, 18 times the recommended dosage. He had been the highest-paid act at Woodstock the previous year.