Michael Jeffery (manager)
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Michael Jeffery (died 5 March 1973) was a music business manager of the 1960s who is best known for his management of British band The Animals and American guitarist-composer Jimi Hendrix, whom he co-managed for a time with former Animals bassist Chas Chandler.
A former associate of noted British pop impresario Don Arden, Jeffery was and remains a controversial figure. He has been openly condemned by members of The Animals who blame him for the breakup of the band claiming that he worked the group into the ground and appropriated most of their earnings.
He was killed in 1973 in a mid-air collision over Nantes, France, whilst aboard an Iberia Airlines DC-9.
Jeffery has received almost unanimous criticism from biographers of Hendrix. Several have alleged that Jeffery siphoned off much of Hendrix's income and channeled it into off-shore bank accounts, that Jeffery had dubious connections to US intelligence services (it has been reported that insiders often claimed that he worked for MI5, British Secret Intelligence and that he had connections to European organised crime). When Experience bassist Noel Redding inquired as to where Jeffery was going with briefcases of the bands money, he was asked to leave.
Jeffery was played by actor Billy Zane in the movie Hendrix.
In October 2006 a $15m auction took place of items of Michael Jeffery's estate including the rights to many of Jimi Hendrix's hits including "Purple Haze" and "Voodoo Child (Slight Return)". Experience Hendrix, a company formed and owned by Hendrix's family, have said they will prove they own the titles to these songs and that they intend to sue. [1]
In May 2009 the UK media reported claims that Michael Jeffery had murdered Jimi Hendrix. James "Tappy" Wright, who was a roadie for Hendrix and The Animals in the 1960s, claimed he met Michael Jeffery one year after Hendrix's death and that Jeffery confessed to the murder by plying Hendrix with pills and a bottle of wine. [2]
In his new book "Rock Roadie", Wright claims that Jeffrey told him that he plied Hendrix with pills and alcohol in order to kill him and claim on the guitarist's life insurance.
Hendrix died in September 1970. His body was found in Monika Dannemann's flat in London, who was Hendrix's girlfriend at the moment.
Jeffrey allegedly made the confession to Wright in 1971, two years before he was killed in a plane crash.
Writing of the admission, Wright says: "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."
Jeffrey is quoted by Wright as telling him: "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."
The manager was allegedly worried that Hendrix was about to sack him. He had recently taken out a life insurance policy worth $2 million, with Jeffrey as beneficiary, reports Britain's Mail On Sunday.
"I had to do it. Jimi was worth much more to me dead than alive," Jeffrey is quoted as telling Wright. "That son of a b*tch was going to leave me. If I lost him, I'd lose everything."
At the time of Hendrix's death, a coroner recorded an open verdict, stating that the cause was "barbiturate intoxication and inhalation of vomit."
source: NME.com via news.yahoo.com; eddietrunk.com/
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