Jimi Hendrix's Real Name: Johnny Allen Hendrix (Later James Marshall Hendrix)

Quick answer: Jimi Hendrix was born Johnny Allen Hendrix on November 27, 1942, in Seattle. His father, James "Al" Hendrix, later renamed him James Marshall Hendrix, and "Jimi" is his own spelling of Jimmy. He redefined the electric guitar with the Jimi Hendrix Experience. He died in London on September 18, 1970, at 27 (Official Jimi Hendrix site; Britannica).

Real name and early life

The official Hendrix family biography states that he was "born Johnny Allen Hendrix at 10:15 a.m. on November 27, 1942, at Seattle's King County Hospital" and "was later renamed James Marshall by his father, James 'Al' Hendrix." The Library of Congress name authority files him as "Hendrix, Jimi," with variants including "Hendrix, Johnny Allen" and "Hendrix, James Marshall." It also notes misspellings such as Jimmi and Jimmy.

The LOC record summarizes his early years. He was a self-taught left-handed guitarist who learned to play a right-handed guitar upside down. He served as a paratrooper with the U.S. Army's 101st Airborne Division and formed an R&B band at Fort Campbell, Kentucky, before his discharge in 1962. Britannica notes that his honorable medical discharge exempted him from service in the Vietnam War.

Career highlights

Britannica says Hendrix spent the early 1960s as a freelance accompanist for acts including Little Richard and the Isley Brothers. In 1965 he led Jimmy James and the Blue Flames in New York. He was discovered in a small New York City club and brought to England in September 1966. There, with bassist Noel Redding and drummer Mitch Mitchell, he formed the Jimi Hendrix Experience. By November the band had its first Top Ten single, "Hey Joe."

The debut album Are You Experienced? followed in 1967. That June he played the Monterey International Pop Festival in California. Back in the U.S. in 1968, he released the double album Electric Ladyland. Billboard and Rolling Stone named him artist of the year in 1968, and in 1970 he formed Band of Gypsys.

Final months and death

His active career as a featured artist lasted only about four years. The Experience's final performance was on September 6, 1970, at the Fehmarn festival in West Germany. Twelve days later, on September 18, 1970, he died in London of a barbiturate overdose, according to Britannica. He left a large stockpile of unfinished recordings that others later completed. The Jimi Hendrix Experience was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1992.

Name notes for searchers

Johnny Allen Hendrix is his birth name, and James Marshall Hendrix is the name his father gave him later in childhood. "Jimi" is a stylized spelling of Jimmy, his nickname. "Jimmy James" was a stage name from 1965.