This Lunch Staple Was Jimi Hendrix's Last Meal

One of those enduring questions that journalists are fond of asking celebrities is what they'd choose to have for their last meal. It may seem somewhat silly, but year after year, decade after decade, the question keeps resurfacing in interviews. Still, Gordon Ramsay was game enough to answer (he'd opt for a four-course meal, the better to delay death), as was Adele (she'd go with McNuggets, a Big Mac, and fries, which might have the opposite effect). If your exit is unexpected, however, your last meal won't necessarily be anything special. Elvis Presley died after binging on desserts (not as a direct result, however), while Bonnie and Clyde were ambushed with sandwiches in hand. Jimi Hendrix, too, passed on after eating a sandwich — a tuna one, in his case.

Again, the tuna sandwich isn't what killed Hendrix. He overdosed on booze and barbiturates, which were probably the last things he consumed on September 17, 1970. The sandwich was his final meal, however, and it was prepared for him by a German figure skater named Monika Dannemann. The couple had been seeing each other on and off over the past year, but spent just four days living together in her London apartment before Hendrix's death.

Jimi Hendrix was just 27 years old at the time of his death, thus landing him a spot in the infamous 27 Club composed of prematurely deceased rock stars. Brian Jones of the Rolling Stones had also died at this age, and Janis Joplin and Jim Morrison were soon to follow suit. More recent additions have included Kurt Cobain and Amy Winehouse, neither of whom saw their 28th birthdays. In Hendrix's case, his death doesn't seem to have been something he anticipated, nor was eating a tuna sandwich likely to have been on his bucket list. If given his druthers, he might have preferred living to a grand old age — he'd be in his 80s now — and dying only after enjoying more of his favorite foods.

We don't know if Hendrix had any one specific meal he preferred above all others. He was known to have enjoyed spaghetti and soul food-style greens, and his favorite desserts included banana cream pie and strawberry shortcake. One Redditor relates how Hendrix would also regularly order a plate of ground beef, vegetables, and rice from an unnamed New York restaurant, possibly in 1969 when he lived in an apartment on West 12th Street. Hamburger rice, as his go-to dish was known, wasn't on the restaurant's menu, but was something they'd make especially for him.