A new book by one of Jimi Hendrix's former roadies contends that the guitarist was murdered by his former manager. The sensationalist claim is made by James "Tappy" Wright in his new book Rock Roadie, in which he says that Hendrix's manager Michael Jeffrey confessed to "stuffing" the star with sleeping pills and alcohol after he learned that he was about to be fired.

Wright maintains that Jeffrey’s motive was to collect on a life insurance policy that he had taken out on Hendrix prior to his death, and that Jeffrey confessed in 1971, two years before he died in a plane crash, and one year after Hendrix was found dead in his London hotel room.

The book quotes Wright’s recollection of the confession, in which Jeffrey is alleged to have said: “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. That son of a bitch was going to leave me. If I lost him, I’d lose everything.”

The Hendrix estate has not commented on the allegations.