PORTLAND, Ore. -- The Jimi Hendrix Experience’s drummer Mitch Mitchell was found dead in a downtown Portland hotel Wednesday.

The Multnomah County Medical Examiner’s office said Mitchell, 61, died in his sleep of natural causes. His body was found just after 3 a.m. at the Benson Hotel.

Experience Hendrix, Jo Lopez Photography

Dr. Christopher Young said Mitchell may have not sought medical help because "sometimes people don't realize how sick they are."

Mitchell's final performance was the last stop on the West Coast leg of the Experience Hendrix tribute tour. The group had played the Schnitz in Portland last Friday.

He looked tired and played only one song, said Terry Currier, owner of the Music Millennium record shop.

Mitchell, along with bass players Noel Redding and Billy Cox, backed Hendrix for the generation-defining sounds of his electrified, psychedelic blues. The Experience played behind Hendrix at Woodstock and the Isle of Wight festivals in the late 1960s.

Hendrix died in 1970 and Redding died in 2003. Mitchell was with the group from 1966-69.