Certainly the greatest rock guitarist of all time, the standard by which all others are judged, and I say that as one who wasn't necessarily a fan. As a teeneager, I bought his albums, but I found it difficult to relate him personally and the hippie-mysticism-flyingsaucersinspace mumbo-jumbo that seemed such an integral part of his lyrics. Still, like the greatest actors, or the best writers, or the most inspiring of painters, when he plucked those chords (whether it was with his teeth or his fingers), you felt that magically sublime stirring within the soul, which to me, as a layman and non-artist, is the surest sign of any great, significant art- the kind destined to last forever. Does it stir your soul and invoke the spiritual majesty of the Infinite? Hendrix did. The sad legacy of his life is that he was becoming even more creative and experimental at the time he died. Who can say to what heights he may have climbed had he lived?
