Here's How Much Jimi Hendrix Was Worth When He Died
There are precious few statements that all music fans can wholeheartedly agree on, but it's probably fair to say that "Jimi Hendrix was a very good guitarist" is one of them. In fact, you'd be hard-pressed to find a notable publication that doesn't consider him one of the greatest players in history, or even the absolute best one: Editor Choice has him as No. 1 on their Greatest Guitarists of All Time list, as do Rolling Stone and Louder. Indeed, there's no question about the fact that Hendrix was an absolute pioneer and a mighty talent who effortlessly summoned funky riffs and sometimes surprisingly heavy sounds that were more than just guitar music — they summed up an entire era. What would Woodstock have been without Hendrix' iconic performance? What would lesser guitar players obsess over if he hadn't ever recorded "Little Wing?" What else would Hendrix have had up his sleeve, had he not tragically died at the age of 27? The world will never know.
Hendrix' life was as short as his impact on music was staggering. But did he ever have time to truly capitalize on his popular music and amazing talent? Let's see just how much the rock star was worth when he died.
Jimi Hendrix wasn't worth a fraction of what he would be now
It would be tempting to imagine Jimi Hendrix as a tragic figure who died before he could reap the vast rewards of his music's popularity. According to Amy Lamare of Celebrity Net Worth, that line of thinking would also be fairly accurate, seeing as they say that Hendrix only had about $20,000 on his bank account when he died, which would be roughly $150,000 in today's money. While this is by no means a bad nest egg for a 27-year-old, it's worth noting that Hendrix was already a world-famous, esteemed musician — again, he did play at Woodstock. As such, Lamare estimates that songwriting credits, record sales and concerts made the guitarist's overall net worth something around $5 million in today's dollars.
While Hendrix was certainly a recognized operator at the time of his death, he was also just three studio albums and one live album into his recording career. In comparison, Jim Morrison of The Doors and John Bonham of Led Zeppelin both died at a young age, yet had more than double the amount of albums to their name. Considering the relatively small amount of songs he had time to give us, it's downright amazing to think that as of 2019, the Hendrix estate's net worth was estimated to be somewhere around $175 million.