54 | Steel Notes Magazine steelnotesmagazine . com | June 2014
Hollywood . She brought Scottie Niles with her , who later joined The Knack and found great success with “ My Sharona ”.
One night Mercy came to our door with a shopping bag filled with her belongings . She gave us some sob story and asked if she could spend the night . Marquise said it was alright . Well , we let her in and she stayed and stayed and stayed . Jimi ’ s girlfriend , Devon Wilson ( she was the inspiration and subject of Jimi ’ s mega hits “ Foxy Lady ” and “ Dolly Dagger ”) came to our Hollywood house . Keith Richard ’ s had given Devon my phone number because that was the number Mercy gave out as hers . Marquise and I had gone to work at Thee Club and when we came home we had Devon and Eric Burdon ’ s lovely ex-wife , Angela , as house guests .
Devon had every kind of drug imaginable in her suitcase . Mercy helped herself to Devon ’ s drug stash and disappeared into the bathroom , immediately putting herself completely out of commission . Meanwhile the distraught Devon told Marquise and I that she was at a party in London the night before and that she had put a dose of drugs in Jimi ’ s coffee . She said , “ The only time he was lovey dovey was when we were on the drug .” She was dismayed when he suddenly left the party , so she went home alone . It is also very sad that he had already spent the day drinking wine and getting stoned . When he drank down the coffee , he was more than likely thinking it would wake him up . When Devon got the phone call from Eric Burdon that Jimi had OD ’ d she immediately fled from London with Angela . Devon feared she would be implicated in Jimi ’ s death and ended up all the way on the other side of the world in our house .
Devon never slept . Marquise and I were with her when the first mention of Jimi ’ s death came over the radio . They took forever trying to determine the cause of death before they released the news . “ He apparently drowned on his own vomit !” That was what they said . The inside story was somewhat more romantic in a crazy rock and roll kind of way .
Two days later , Devon Wilson gave Marquise Jimi ’ s jacket as “ Thanx !” when she left with Arthur Lee of Love . Three months after that Devon fell to her own death from a window at the Chelsea Hotel in New York City . Foul play was suspected . “ C ’ mon Devon ...
Gimme a little piece of that Heaven .” Prophetic lyrics in Dolly Dagger .
Jimi Hendrix died much too young on September 18th , 1970 . On October 10 . 2012 I finally received confirmation of his jacket ’ s authenticity in the form of this letter from Bill Morgan , owner of North Beach Leather :
HI MARLOWE--GREAT STORY- -WE MADE JIMI SEVERAL
PIECES--IT WAS IN OUR
HOLLYWOOD STORE ON SUNSET BLVD . AT A TIME WHEN WE WERE REALLY COOKING-- MAKING STAGE PIECES FOR THE LA SOUND GROUPS- -BYRDS, BUFFALO SPRINGFIELD , IRON BUTTERFLY , JOHNNY RIVERS , SONNY AND CHER , RICKY NELSON , ET AL--I FORGET THE DETAILS OF THE PURPLE OUTFIT E / C THE COLOR AND SEEING IT WAS OUTRAGEOUS--I BELIEVE IT WAS MADE IN SF WORKSHOP BECAUSE THAT WAS BEFORE WE ESTABLISHED OUR
54 | Steel Notes Magazine steelnotesmagazine . com | June 2014