On the heels of the SXSW premiere of biopic All Is By My Side starring Andre 3000, USPS honors legendary electric guitarist Jimi Hendrix with a limited edition “Forever” stamp.
The stamp colorfully resembles a vintage 45 rpm record sleeve, showing Hendrix playing a guitar wearing one of his trademark military jackets.
“Jimi Hendrix helped found three new genres of music — heavy metal, jazz fusion and funk — and in doing so, left behind an indelible mark on pop music and popular culture generally,” said Joseph Corbett, CFO and executive vice president at the postal service, in a release.
Hendrix, a Rock and Roll Hall Of Famer, is on the first stamp of the 2014 USPS Music Icon series. The Janis Joplin stamp will be unveiled later this year. In 2013, Ray Charles, Lydia Mendoza and Johnny Cash all had commemorative stamps.
The special stamp was revealed yesterday during SXSW’s first-day-of-issue ceremony. Hendrix died in 1970, when stamps were only six cents. Stamps sell today for forty nine cents. The special edition halkmark can be purchased online and at select post offices.