RENTON, Wash. — Twenty years after his death, legendary rock guitarist Jimi Hendrix still packs ’em in.

They don’t come in large numbers at any one time, but they come. Some bring guitars, some bring flowers. Visitors might spend a little time at his grave, strumming tunes.

“The crowds here have mellowed a bit, as has the mood of the country,” said Hank Kerns, general manager of Greenwood Memorial Park, where Hendrix is buried.

“Once in a while they’ll leave a beer can, but we’re careful to get it picked up right away.”

Kerns said the number of visitors to Hendrix’s grave has increased during the past few years, and the Goodwill Games brought more than usual. One national magazine, he said, listed visiting the gravesite as one of the things to do in Seattle while attending the international athletic contest.

Hendrix died in London on Sept. 18, 1970. According to coroner’s records, he died when he choked on his vomit. A non-lethal amount of barbituate drugs was found in his system.

“Forever in our hearts,” reads his headstone, which includes an electric guitar carved in bas-relief. There is little to indicate he was the king of acid rock, but by the time of his death at age 27 he had forged a lasting legacy.

“I heard he was buried around here. I needed to make the pilgrimage,” Peg Wood said Sunday during a visit to the cemetery.

The 26-year-old recently moved to Seattle from Illinois to begin an internship with the Veterans Administration as she pursues a Ph.D. in psychology. Her “other life” is playing rock guitar.

“My parents named me Peggy Sue, for God’s sake. I was destined for a life of decadent rock ‘n’ roll,” she said, laughing.

Hendrix, who grew up in Seattle’s predominantly black Central Area, was about 14 when he talked his father into buying him a $5 used guitar, according to Al Hendrix.

“He wore that thing out,” the father said. “Later on I got him his first electric guitar and I got a sax. I didn’t know much about the sax and he didn’t know much about the guitar. So we’d make quite a bit of noise.”

At first, the young Hendrix was content to play along with recordings of blues greats B.B. King and Muddy Waters.

“So I told him, `Come up with something original,’ and he did,” recalled Al Hendrix. “The first time I heard `Are You Experienced?’ (the first Jimi Hendrix Experience album), it was something altogether different than what I was used to listening to.”

It didn’t take long for the elder Hendrix to become one of his son’s biggest fans. Innovative, sometimes outrageous and blaring with his music, Jimi was quiet and unassuming offstage, his father said.

Al Hendrix still goes to his son’s grave about once a month, still gets a kick out of recalling the times he has found fans sitting around the grave with guitars in hand.

Fans frequently leave small items. Peg Wood added a guitar pick to the collection there.

“He was the most inventive guitar player I ever heard,” she said. “I like the blues. But I felt he rewrote them. He changed the rules so that there weren’t any rules. He freed me up.”