Jimi Hendrix

Born Johnny Allen Hendrix in Seattle. His father is in the Army, stationed in Oklahoma. His mother Lucille is 17. She drinks. The marriage doesn't last. His father renames him James Marshall when he returns from service. Jimi gets his first guitar at 15. A one-string ukulele he finds in a garbage can.

Enlists in the 101st Airborne. Gets discharged after about a year. His sergeant writes that he has no interest in the Army. Moves to Nashville, plays the Chitlin' Circuit backing the Isley Brothers, Little Richard, and Curtis Knight. Little Richard fires him for being too flashy. He can't read music. Plays left-handed on a right-handed guitar, strung upside down.

Chas Chandler of the Animals sees him play in a New York club and brings him to London. Within months, Hendrix forms the Experience with Noel Redding and Mitch Mitchell. Three UK top-ten hits in a row: "Hey Joe," "Purple Haze," "The Wind Cries Mary." He's been playing guitar for eight years and nobody in England has heard anything like it.

Monterey Pop Festival. He sets his guitar on fire on stage. The crowd goes silent, then erupts. Pete Townshend of The Who is watching from the wings. The Who had gone on right before and smashed their instruments. Hendrix and Townshend had argued backstage over who would follow whom. Hendrix won the coin toss.

Woodstock. He's billed as the headliner but goes on at 8 a.m. Monday morning because everything ran late. Most of the 400,000 audience has already left. The remaining crowd watches him play "The Star-Spangled Banner" through distortion and feedback. It becomes the defining sound of a generation's anger and grief.

Dies in London from barbiturate-related asphyxia. He is 27. He choked on his own vomit after taking sleeping pills. He'd been the world's highest-paid rock musician. Rolling Stone called him "the greatest instrumentalist in the history of rock music." He'd been playing professionally for nine years.