Sick Celebrities

At the age of 27, Amy Winehouse’s ‘untimely’ death afforded her a lifetime membership to the ‘27 Club‘ – a group of notable musicians who also died at the age of 27.

And she’s in good company as the 27 Club is home to some of the most influential musical names from the last 50 years including:

(1942 – 1969)
Age if alive today: 69
Rolling Stones guitarist, Jones was a notorious drug user and at the height of the swinging sixties, during the band‘s halcyon days where drugs such as LSD and Speed were also enjoying their peak,he bought his ticket.

Cause of death: drowned in a swimming pool, verdict of death by misadventure.

Jimi Hendrix
(1942 – 1970)
Age if alive today: 68
Seminal psychedelic guitarist, Jimi Hendrix, is one of the most influential musicians of the last fifty years and he is still loved as much today as during the peak of his drug-fuelled career.

Cause of death: A deadly mixture of wine and sleeping pills caused him to choke on his own vomit. 

Jim Morrison
(1943 – 1971)
Age if alive today: 67
Lead singer of The Doors and famous for improvising poetry during live performances, Morrison(also known as Mr Mojo Risin – an anagram of Jim Morrison) and wholater referred to himself as ‘the lizard king’ was lauded for his drunken and drug addled binges but passed away in the bath in a Paris hotel room.

Cause of death: suspected heroin overdose.

Kurt Cobain
(1967 – 1994)
Age if alive today: 44
Singer in grunge band Nirvana was considered as the spokesmen of a generation although still-living, fellow grunger Eddie Vedder seems a more likely candidate for that role.Cobain was famously uncomfortable with media attention and struggled with heroin addiction, illness and depression.

Cause of death: gunshot wound to the head in an apparent suicide.

Janis Joplin
(1943 – 1970)
Age if alive today: 68
Known as the ‘queen of rock n roll’ or the ‘queen of psychedelic soul’ and is famous for her soulful, gravelly vocals.

Cause of death: a cocktail of heroin and alcohol led to a fatal overdose..

Whether this ‘dead-by-27‘ phenomena is a fluke, coincidence or whether it is more a reflection of the general age that rock musicians achieve success and the trajectory of their burgeoning addiction, is very much unclear, but as of 23^rd July, 2011, the club inducted a new member.