Half a century after his death, Jimi Hendrix (1942-70) is celebrated as the greatest rock guitarist of all time. Drawing upon interviews with friends and family, Philip Norman offers a fresh portrait of James Marshall Hendrix, a shy boy from Seattle, plucking at a broken ukulele while fearing a father who would hit him for playing left-handed. Norman chronicles the four years in which Hendrix totally rewrote the rules of rock stardom—reaching a climax at Woodstock—but also his early death at a London hotel and his posthumous fame.