Is this any way to toast Jimi?

In the glossy magazine ad, Jimi Hendrix scowls into the camera, looking every bit the rock 'n' roll bad boy.

And I guess that's the way you're supposed to feel after a few sips of Hendrix Electric Vodka. All purple and hazed and experienced. But I could never bear to buy a bottle. Jimi Hendrix died in 1970 after ingesting sleeping pills and red wine, and choking on his own vomit.

So anything alcoholic isn't the best way to honor the Seattle native's gift. And I'm not alone.

"Does anyone besides me think this is in bad taste?" read one posting on Slashfood.com. "Doesn't put me in the mood for a cocktail."

Said another: "I thought the bottles looked interesting at first until I thought 'casket shaped' and I was all done."

But Hendrix Electric Vodka is just the beginning of a branding bonanza. The vodka is the brainchild of Craig Dieffenbach, a former real-estate developer who heads Electric Hendrix LLC, which, he said, has commercial rights to use Hendrix's name and image.

Dieffenbach is promoting the Electric Hendrix brand like crazy, hosting name-dropper parties from Miami to Aspen to Vegas.

"Jimi was a huge partier," Dieffenbach said Monday. "He was the poster boy for the counterculture movement worldwide — and that did not include teetotaling."

Like it or not, vodka is smart business. A recent Wall Street Journal story said vodka accounts for one-fourth of all new liquor brands, more than any other spirit.

But is this any way to honor Hendrix's spirit?

"It's just inappropriate," said Jimmy Williams, 64, who describes himself as Hendrix's best friend (Jimi would be 65 this year). "We don't want to sound judgmental about people who use alcohol, but Jimi died of alcoholism."

What's worse, he said, Dieffenbach does not have the right to use the Hendrix name. "But we don't want to have a court battle over that. It's ad nauseam, it's continuous."

On the Jimi Hendrix Foundation Web site, Williams said it was "unfortunate and disrespectful" to use Jimi's memory to sell alcohol or an energy drink (www.jimihendrixfoundation.com).

Dieffenbach says his conscience is as clear as the vodka he's selling.

And he has other projects in the works: Hendrix Electric Spoon, a 24-hour restaurant at the Hard Rock Hotel in San Diego. Hendrix Electric leather jackets, made by the same company that he says dresses Keith Richards.

It was he, not Williams, who paid to move Jimi Hendrix's childhood home to Renton. He also helped fund a belated funeral for Jimi's mother, Lucille Hendrix — including a proper tombstone.

"I understand some people are going to take issue with the product," Dieffenbach said. "But if you think about what Jimi was, and what he believed and did, the vodka is right in line with something Jimi would have approved."

I wouldn't dare speak for the dead. But I guess when there's money to be made, all bets are off.

Nicole Brodeur's column appears Tuesday and Friday. Reach her at 206-464-2334 or nbrodeur@seattletimes.com.

And the wind cries money.

A clarification of information in this article, originally published February 6, 2007, was added February 9, 2007. A previous version of this story contained an inaccurate statement by James E. Williams, the president and CEO of the Jimi Hendrix Foundation. Jimi Hendrix did not die of alcoholism, as stated by Williams in Nicole Brodeur's column. Williams said he misspoke; and that Hendrix died after ingesting sleeping pills with alcohol.