Red wine could have killed Jimi Hendrix, says close pal Meic Stevens

Late iconic guitarist Jimi Hendrix may have choked on his own vomit and died because he did not know how to drink red wine, his close friend Meic Stevens has revealed.

It had long been claimed that Hendrix, one of the best-loved guitarists in the history of rock, died aged 27 from choking on vomit after a drugs overdose in 1970.

But in 2009, the doctor who attempted to revive him at the now closed St Mary Abbotts Hospital in Kensington admitted it was ‘plausible’ that he was murdered because he ‘drowned in red wine’.

Speaking publicly for the first time about the night leading to Hendrix’s death, Stevens said the star was mixing red wine with lager and drinking the concoction from a pint glass.

“I was with Jimi Hendrix the night he died. He had been drinking red wine with me - even though he had never drunk red wine in his life before,” the Daily Mail quoted him as telling in an interview for Radio 4 documentary Free Wales Harmony.

The singer-songwriter claimed Hendrix was intrigued that he was drinking Louis St George Burgundy and wanted to try it.

“[Hendrix] was drinking lager or some kind of beer and he just poured the wine in to the pint glass. I don’t think he had ever drunk red wine before, he didn’t know how to drink it,” he said.

“But he seemed okay. He seemed to be alright. But the next day I woke up late and somebody phoned and said Jimi’s dead. Apparently he choked on his own vomit,” Stevens added.