Editing Paul Butterfield (section)

==Death==
Beginning in 1980, Butterfield underwent several surgical procedures to relieve his [[peritonitis]], a serious and painful inflammation of the intestines.<ref name="Rolling Stone bio"/> Although strongly opposed to heroin as a bandleader, he developed an addiction to it, which, according to Steve Huey in AllMusic's Butterfield biography, led to "speculation that he was trying to ease his peritonitis symptoms". The financial strain of supporting his drug habit was bankrupting him, and the deaths of his friend and one-time musical partner Mike Bloomfield, and manager Albert Grossman had shaken him.<ref name="Huey"/> On May 4, 1987, at age 44, Butterfield died at his apartment in the North Hollywood district of Los Angeles. An autopsy by the county coroner concluded that he was the victim of an accidental drug overdose, with "significant levels of morphine (heroin),&nbsp;... codeine, the tranquilizer [[Librium]] and a trace of alcohol."<ref name="LA Times">
{{cite news
| author=<!--Staff writer(s); no by-line.-->
| title = Musician's Death Laid to Overdose
| url = https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1987-06-13-mn-6920-story.html
| work = [[Los Angeles Times]]
| date = June 13, 1987
| access-date = July 23, 2013
}}</ref>

By the time of his death, Butterfield was out of the commercial mainstream. Although for some, he was very much the blues man, [[Maria Muldaur]] commented "he had the whole sensibility and musicality and approach down pat&nbsp;... He just went for it and took it all in, and he embodied the essence of what the blues was all about. Unfortunately, he lived that way a little too much."{{sfn|Ellis III|1997}}