^ +1. To all the people mentioning Miles and jazz... yes, he played some music with some jazz sound to it, used "jazz" chords etc. and a lot of jazz artists of the time were listening to his music. From the biographies I've read, he had wanted to play with Miles and I believe through a third party was in talks to work something out. But I believe Miles had let his ego in the way and wanted to take the lead and get paid by the Hendrix camp, which didn't go well. This is all from memory, but I can go dig up the books and quote.
I remember reading about that aspect though, his getting into funk and all. I specifically remember something about how he wanted to appeal to the black audience, as he hadn't done that with most of his music. So blingdogg seems on point to me.
Whatever he would've done, always being a huge fan at heart I'd rather just be optimistic and think he would've kept progressing in his career, or maybe slowing down and stopping. I used to think he'd be a producer as he got older, or maybe manage to guest with people and maybe do a project here and there. I see the logic in him keeping up with the technology, but that's tough to guess about. I don't even care if he would've been a guitar hero for the rest of his life, I imagine it would've been relatively impossible to keep all his fans happy forever. If he managed to stay involved with music even somewhat and go out on a good note, I'd be glad.
Either way, R.I.P. Cool thread, I used to talk about this with friends.