British drummer Mitch Mitchell, who found fame in the sixties with the Jimi Hendrix Experience has been found dead in a hotel room in Portland, Oregon, at the age of 61. He had just spent four weeks on the road with the 2008 Experience Hendrix tour, and was due to return home to the UK on Wednesday, when his body was found. Authorities told reporters that his death appeared to be the result of natural causes, but that an autopsy would take place.
Mitchell began his career as a session musician, working with the likes of The Riot Squad and Georgie Fame before joining up with Jimi Hendrix and Noel Redding in 1966 to form The Jimi Hendrix Experience. He is credited with pioneering a lead drumming style later known as 'fusion' during his time with the band, and during those years also worked with contemporaries such as Eric Clapton, John Lennon and Keith Richards. Following Hendrix's demise he formed Ramatan with April Lawton and Mike Pinera, who later went on to form Iron Butterfly. The band failed to achieve commercial success, however, and in subsequent years, Mitchell was to be found doing guest appearances and session work.
Janie Hendrix, step-sister of Jimi and chief executive of Experience Hendrix said of Mitchell: "He was a wonderful man, a brilliant musician and a true friend". A fellow tour member, blues-rock guitarist Kenny Wayne Shepherd, said that Mitchell was to drums what Hendrix was to guitar, adding: "Today many of us have lost a dear friend, and the world has lost a rock 'n' roll hero".