Postal service to celebrate music legend with forever stamp

Marissa Paiano, special to wtop.com

WASHINGTON — The United States Postal Service will be unveiling a new stamp March 13 featuring the man Rolling Stone has called the greatest guitarist of all time: Jimi Hendrix.

The Jimi Hendrix Forever Stamp was created by Rudy Guttierez with acrylic paint and colored pencils in carefully chosen colors and designs to pay homage to the 1960s,” says USPS.

The stamp sheet contains 16 stamps and resembles a 45 rpm record sleeve with a painting of Hendrix’s face complemented by vibrant swirls and small icons referencing his song lyrics and other aspects of his life.

The stamps themselves feature images of Hendrix preforming with text below them describing his musical accomplishments.

They are divided into four blocks on the sheet to look like a kaleidoscope with their upper corners meeting so that the stamps look like they are spinning around each other.

This arrangement causes three stamps in each block to be positioned sideways or upside-down.

Through the stamp, USPS says it hopes to celebrate Hendrix’s legacy and many achievements.

His band, Jimi Hendrix Experience, was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1992.

That same year, he was awarded with a posthumous Grammy for lifetime achievement.

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