Jimi Hendrix’s Last Days and Lost Music: New Issue of Rolling Stone

On August 26th, 1970, Jimi Hendrix celebrated the official opening of his Electric Lady Studios in Manhattan’s West Village. It would be the last time he ever set foot in his beloved recording sanctuary; he died three weeks later in London at age 27 after ingesting a powerful dose of the sedative Vesperax. But a month prior to the party, the man Rolling Stone would later name the Greatest Guitarist of All Time laid down a few special tracks, including a jam with Steve Winwood on “Valleys of Neptune,” in Electric Lady’s Studio A. That song, in a different incarnation, is now the centerpiece of a new collection of previously unreleased Hendrix gems called Valleys of Neptune. In the new issue ofRolling Stone on sale at newsstands today, David Fricke dives into Hendrix’s last days and lost recordings, tracing the epic plans and earthly troubles that marked the guitar god’s final months.