With all members now deceased, the Jimi Hendrix Experience is in the midst of a legal battle.
Rolling Stone reports that Dorothy Weber, the lawyer representing Experience Hendrix LLC (the guitarist's estate), and Sony Music Entertainment have filed a lawsuit preemptively arguing that the estates representing the late bassist Noel Redding and drummer Mitch Mitchell do not have the right to sue them with copyright claims. The lawsuit was filed last Tuesday, the 18th.
The request comes after a letter Sony received from British lawyer Lawrence Abramson, alleging that the record label owed performance royalties to the estates of Redding and Mitchell for approximately 3 billion streams of the Experience's music.
Hendrix's representatives claim that all the musicians signed documents in the 1970s waiving any claims and agreeing not to initiate legal battles. Both sides received financial compensation in the settlements.
The Jimi Hendrix Experience broke up in June 1969 after Noel Redding left the group. Mitch Mitchell performed a few more times with Jimi Hendrix , who was found dead on September 18, 1970, at the age of 27, in London. The official cause was asphyxiation from his own vomit, due to excessive barbiturate use. Mitch died in 2002 at the age of 57 from cirrhosis of the liver. In 2003, Noel died at the age of 62, also from cirrhosis.
