Mitch Mitchell said in 1989, "If Hendrix had taken all the drugs the papers and rock books say he took, he'd never have lived as long as he did. Jimi was the kind of person who'd push things to the nth degree, but I never saw suicidal tendencies there. He's painted as this tragic figure, but he wasn't. He died tragically, but that's not the same thing."

Billy Cox, who knew him from his Army days, said it best, earlier that year...
"There are those who come before the public eye and are commercialized into the consciousness of the masses. We are told they are popular, and we echo, they are popular. Then there are a few who are so intuitively tuned into the universe that they are still influential even though they are beyond sight. This is immortality, and Jimi Hendrix is immortal. It is exciting to know that the world has yet to truly be exposed to Jimi's genius. Maybe the overshadowing rumors that are used by some to cloud his image will be replaced by an understanding of the man I knew - a child of the universe, a guitar master, a warm and gentle soul."