They're All Gone

The LA Times reports today that John "Mitch" Mitchell, the drummer for legendary guitarist Jimi Hendrix, died Wednesday in a Portland, OR hotel room. He was 61. The county coroner said it was apparently natural causes.

Mitchell was the last surviving member of the Jimi Hendrix Experience, a trio of Mitchell, Hendrix, who died in 1970 at age 27, and bassist Noel Redding, who died in 2003.

Over 18 months, the band released three of the most incredible albums in rock history: "Axis: Bold as Love," "Electric Ladyland," and "Are You Experienced?" As a young guitarist growing up in the late 1970s, I went back and listened to those albums with my friends while we smoked and smoked and smoked. "Purple Haze" and "Manic Depression" indeed.

Hendrix shocked the world when he emerged on the scene in 1966 (yikes, that was a long time ago). He made it OK to be weird, OK to improvise. He also made it OK for black artists to play rock music instead of pure soul or pure R&B. Sly Stone, Prince, Vernon Reid (Living Colour), Lenny Kravitz, Nile Rodgers, Slash (Guns 'n Roses), even American Idol judge Randy Jackson (who played with Journey) owe a debt of gratitude to Hendrix. Not to mention every flamboyant rock guitarist of any race: Allan Holdsworth, Eddie Van Halen, Stevie Ray Vaughan (RIP), Jimmy Page, Kevin Eubanks (The Tonight Show band), Hiram Bullock (his solo on Sting's version of "Little Wing" just blows me away), Jon Butcher, and even the pop stylings of John Mayer.

With Mitchell's passing, that incendiary band is all gone. RIP, Mitch.