Mitch Mitchell — the dude to Jimi’s right — has died. They’re saying it’s natural causes.

He was Jimi’s drummer, and the last surviving member of The Jimi Hendrix Experience.

He was 61.

(The dude to the left — Noel Redding — died about 5 years ago. He blew out his liver).

(You may have heard Hendrix suffocated on his own puke, but no one knows for sure; that was in 1970).

Mitchell was found about 3 a.m. Wednesday in his room at the Benson Hotel in downtown Portland.

Musicians and hotel rooms don’t mix very well.

He had just wrapped a leg of touring for “Experience Hendrix” tribute tour. I’ve never heard of “Experience Hendrix”, but I might have gone if I was aware of it. I guess he only played one song the night he died, and he looked pale and sick, and he needed help walking into the auditorium.

I went ahead and pulled out Electric Ladyland whilst banging out this entry, and by the time they were ripping thru “Crosstown Traffic”, I had my stereo playing much louder than my neighbors prefer, but fuck them.

They’re actually very nice Armenians, and I like them well enough.

One of the docs at the Multnomah County Medical Examiner’s Office thought Mitchell may have not sought medical help because “sometimes people don’t realize how sick they are.”

Funny — or not so funny — but doesn’t that make a whole bunch of sense?

Sometimes people just don’t realize how fucking sick they are.