In a new memoir, former Jimi Hendrix roadie James 'Tappy' Wright claims that the big-haired, pot-smoking, axe-shredding lefty was knocked off by his manager Michael Jeffrey.

Wright claims that Jeffrey confessed the dastardly deed to him. "I can still hear that conversation, see the man I'd known for so much of my life, his face pale, hand clutching at his glass in sudden rage," he writes of the confession.

According to Wright, Jeffrey said "I was in London the night of Jimi's death and together with some old friends . . . we went round to Monika's hotel room, got a handful of pills and stuffed them into his mouth . . . then poured a few bottles of red wine deep into his windpipe.

"I had to do it. Jimi was worth much more to me dead than alive," the confession supposedly continued. "That son of a bitch was going to leave me. If I lost him, I'd lose everything."