Query: Jimi Hendrix was trained as a paratrooper for air assault operations.

Relevant passages:
Jimi Hendrix <=SEP=> James Marshall `` Jimi '' Hendrix ( born Johnny Allen Hendrix ; November 27 , 1942 -- September 18 , 1970 ) was an American rock guitarist , singer , and songwriter . Although his mainstream career spanned only four years , he is widely regarded as one of the most influential electric guitarists in the history of popular music , and one of the most celebrated musicians of the 20th century . The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame describes him as `` arguably the greatest instrumentalist in the history of rock music '' .   Born in Seattle , Washington , Hendrix began playing guitar at the age of 15 . In 1961 , he enlisted in the U.S. Army and trained as a paratrooper in the 101st Airborne Division ; he was granted an honorable discharge the following year . Soon afterward , he moved to Clarksville , Tennessee , and began playing gigs on the Chitlin ' Circuit , earning a place in the Isley Brothers ' backing band and later with Little Richard , with whom he continued to work through mid-1965 . He then played with Curtis Knight and the Squires before moving to England in late 1966 after being discovered by Linda Keith , who in turn interested bassist Chas Chandler of the Animals in becoming his first manager . Within months , Hendrix had earned three UK top ten hits with the Jimi Hendrix Experience : `` Hey Joe '' , `` Purple Haze '' , and `` The Wind Cries Mary '' . He achieved fame in the U.S. after his performance at the Monterey Pop Festival in 1967 , and in 1968 his third and final studio album , Electric Ladyland , reached number one in the U.S. ; it was Hendrix 's most commercially successful release and his first and only number one album . The world 's highest-paid performer , he headlined the Woodstock Festival in 1969 and the Isle of Wight Festival in 1970 before his accidental death from barbiturate-related asphyxia on September 18 , 1970 , at the age of 27 .   Hendrix was inspired musically by American rock and roll and electric blues . He favored overdriven amplifiers with high volume and gain , and was instrumental in utilizing the previously undesirable sounds caused by guitar amplifier feedback . He helped to popularize the use of a wah-wah pedal in mainstream rock , and was the first artist to use stereophonic phasing effects in music recordings . Holly George-Warren of Rolling Stone commented : `` Hendrix pioneered the use of the instrument as an electronic sound source . Players before him had experimented with feedback and distortion , but Hendrix turned those effects and others into a controlled , fluid vocabulary every bit as personal as the blues with which he began . ''   Hendrix was the recipient of several music awards during his lifetime and posthumously . In 1967 , readers of Melody Maker voted him the Pop Musician of the Year , and in 1968 , Rolling Stone declared him the Performer of the Year . Disc and Music Echo honored him with the World Top Musician of 1969 and in 1970 , Guitar Player named him the Rock Guitarist of the Year . The Jimi Hendrix Experience was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1992 and the UK Music Hall of Fame in 2005 . Rolling Stone ranked the band 's three studio albums , Are You Experienced , Axis : Bold as Love , and Electric Ladyland , among the 100 greatest albums of all time , and they ranked Hendrix as the greatest guitarist and the sixth greatest artist of all time .