27 Club
by Sheldon Rocha Leal
The 27 Club is a club that has always fascinated me. I have been intrigued by the stories surrounding the legends that form part of the club ever since I, first heard about it, after the death of Kurt Cobain in 1994.
The 27 Club is one of the most elusive and macabre groupings to which a Rock Star can belong. There are a few criteria one needs to fulfill in order to become a member: 1. The artist needs to have achieved a level success before reaching the age of 27; 2. The artist needs to pass away in their 27th year. Most of the deaths attributed to the members of the group have been due to drug or alcohol overconsumption or suicide.
The list has now grown to include other types of artists (fine artists and actors) but this article will only focus on musicians, as that is my area of interest. The current article will only highlight 15 of the many artists that have passed away at the age of 27:
Robert Johnson (1938)
Robert Johnson was 27 years old when he passed away in 1938. Robert Johnson was a very well known bluesman, who inspired countless blues musicians: Eric Clapton, BB King and Albert King.
Many people say that Robert Johnson signed a deal with the devil: when he had initially started playing he was so bad, that no one paid him any attention, after a short departure from the music scene he returned as a virtuoso guitarist. No one could believe the difference in his playing. A few months after he turned 27, he started making moves on the wife of a roadhouse owner, where he was playing. The owner of the club poisoned his whiskey and he died three days later of strychnine poisoning and pneumonia. Robert Johnson only ever recorded 50 songs and never released an album in his lifetime.
Brian Jones (1969)
Brian Jones was the original leader of the mega group, The Rolling Stones. Although he had started the band, he was soon overshadowed by fellow band mates, Mick Jagger and Keith Richards. After the initial success of the band, Brian was eventually fired by Mick, Charlie Watts and Keith Richards in 1969, because of his excessive use of drugs and the band’s inability to secure him a visa to tour the USA as a result of his multiple drug convictions. On July 3 1969 Brian Jones was the first of 4 members to join the 27 Club. He was discovered by his girlfriend at the bottom of his pool. The coroner found that his heart and liver we heavily enlarged due to excessive drug and alcohol abuse. Incidentally on his death Jimi Hendrix and Jim Morrison wrote songs and poems in honour of the musician. Both celebrities would be dead within 2 years and would also become members of the 27 Club.
Jimi Hendrix (1970)
Jimi Hendrix started his career playing guitar in various bands including The Isley Brothers and in Sam Cooke, Wilson Pickett, Jackie Wilson and Little Richard’s backing bands. After meeting Linda Keith, Keith Richard’s then girlfriend and based on her recommendation he moved to London, where she introduced him to various music industry insiders. He secured a recording deal and released three successful solo albums. On September 17, 1970, Jimi took nine Vesparax (a highly potent sleeping pill) whilst consuming alcohol. He passed away in London: the coroner found that he had drowned on his own vomit.
Janis Joplin (1970)
Janis Joplin was a major star in the 1960s: she was one of the leaders in the psychedelic rock, soul genre that dominated the flower power movement. By the time she passed away in 1970, she had released three very successful albums with her backing bands. She unfortunately had a very bad Heroin addiction that eventually took her life. The night she passed away she had taken an intravenous dose of Heroine and had gone down to the lobby of her hotel to buy cigarettes. On returning to her room, she collapsed, hit her head against the coffee table, and was found by her manager, John Cooke, on the floor, the next morning. He had said in the media that she had probably been sold a stronger than usual dose of Heroin, which eventually killed. The Heroin she had been sold, by her dealer, had killed a few of the dealers’ clients in the preceding week.
Jim Morrison (1971)
Jim, Jimi and Janis passed away within a few months of each other. Jim Morrison was the lead singer of the psychedelic rock band, The Doors and one of the leaders of the flower power movement of the late 1960s. In 1971 Jim Morrison left the United Stares and moved to Paris, France with his girlfriend Pamela Courson. After a night out partying he allegedly accidentally inhaled some of his girlfriend’s Heroin, mistaking it for Cocaine. He then took a bath. His girlfriend found him dead in the bath. His girlfriend later passed away in 1974, at the age of 27, of a Heroin overdose in the USA. The death of Jim, Jimi, Janis and Brian was seen as the end of the Hippie movement.
Ron McKernan (1973)
Ron McKernan was a keyboardist and singer for a highly influential psychedelic rock band, The Grateful Dead. He was the original frontman for the band, before Jerry Garcia. Due to illness, as a result of his alcohol abuse, Ron decided to leave the band in 1972, citing the fact that he didn’t want his band members to be around when he passed away. In the following year Ron passed away, at the age of 27, from a gastrointestinal hemorrhage, which doctors said was spurred on by his alcohol abuse.
Dave Alexander (1975)
Dave Alexander was the bassist for the Punk band, The Stooges. He had a history of being reckless: he dropped out of high school to win a bet, he had a drinking problem and he took to many downers, to the point that he was eventually fired from the band by the band’s frontman, Iggy Pop. He spent the rest of his life battling addiction. He eventually developed pancreatitis and was admitted to the hospital where he passed away from pulmonary edema.
Gary Thain (1975)
Gary was the bassist of the rock band Uriah Heep. Gary had a major drug addiction, to the rock drug of choice, Heroin. A year prior to his death he was electrocuted at a concert in Dallas, Texas. His performance levels dropped after this incident, because of his addiction to drugs. He was eventually fired from the band and within a few months of his dismissal he passed away of a respiratory failure due to a Heroin overdose.
Pete Ham (1975)
Pete Ham was the leader of the frontman and main songwriter of the band, Badfinger. The band was originally known as the Iveys and were eventually discovered by Mal Evans, The Beatles’ personal assistant. The band was eventually signed to the Beatles’ record company, Apple. They eventually moved to Warner Bros. after Apple started crumbling. At Warner Bros. they had consistent financial problems, caused by their manager Stan Polley. Pete could no longer take the conflict, eventually committing suicide, by hanging himself in his garage in Surrey, England within three days of his 28th birthday. In his suicide note he mentioned his business manager, stating: “Stan Polley is a soulless bastard. I will take him with me”.
Jacob Miller (1980)
Jacob Miller was the lead singer of the band Inner Circle, one of the most iconic Reggae acts in history, famous for their songs “Bad Boys” and “Sweat (A La La La La Long)”. Although they attained mainstream success in the 1990s, the band was formed in the 1970s and Jacob was the original lead vocalist. As an iconic Reggae artist Jacob travelled in the same circles as Bob Marley and the Wailers: he was signed to Island Records, recorded at Studio One and even worked with Coxsone Dodd and Chris Blackwell. In 1980 Jacob Miller and Bob Marley travelled to Brazil with Chris Blackwell to celebrate the opening of Island Records in the country. Shortly after returning from this trip he was killed in a car accident with one of his sons on Sunday the 23rd of March 1980. Incidentally Bob Marley passed away just over a year after the death of Jacob.
Kurt Cobain (1994)
Kurt Cobain was the founder and leader of the grunge band: Nirvana. Many say he was the face of this new movement. It was only with his death that critics started piecing together the 27 Club concept. Prior to his death Kurt had attempted suicide twice, first in March 1994, by taking an overdose of rohypnol mixed with champagne and then on the 18th of March, when Courtney Love called the police to report that Kurt was suicidal and that he had locked himself in a room with a gun. When the police arrived, at the scene, Kurt merely said he had hidden himself in the room to get away from Courtney. Courtney then arranged an intervention and Kurt agreed to go to a rehab center to deal with his drug and alcohol addiction. Councilors at the facility did not know he had, had suicidal ideations. He ran away from the facility and went to his home in Seattle. People didn’t know where he was and Courtney hired a private directive to find him. An electrician discovered Kurt’s dead body three days after he had shot himself in the head. In his suicide note, addressed to his childhood imaginary friend, he indicated that he had not been inspired to create or listen to music in quite some time. The autopsy found a lot of Heroin and Diazepam in Kurt’s body at the time of his death.
Kristen Pfaff (1994)
Kristen Pfaff was the bassist for a grunge band by the name of Hole. Hole was lead by Kurt Cobain’s girlfriend, Courtney Love. She featured on the band’s first two albums, including the band’s biggest selling album “Live Through This”, which shipped over 2million units worldwide. Kristen passed away two months after Kurt Cobain. On the 16th of June 1994. She was found in her bathtub, at her apartment, by a friend. She passed away from a Heroin overdose. Her boyfriend, Eric Donaldson, commented that: people had died because of stupid mistakes he had made. Reporters claimed that his comments were attributed to the deaths of Pfaff and Cobain.
Richey Edwards (1995)
This is probably the weirdest story of the whole lot. Richey Edwards was a guitarist and lyricist for the famous British band: The Manic Street Preachers. He disappeared the day he, and frontman James Dean Bradfield, were meant to travel to the USA to do a promotional tour. There was talk that he had been spotted around town a few days after his disappearance, but no one ever saw him again and he seemed to have fallen off the face of the earth. No one knows if he is dead or alive, but in 2014 he was legally presumed dead.
Tsakani “TK” Mhinga (2006)
TK was born in Soweto, South Africa (SA), on the 23rd of November 1978. She was part of the VaTsonga tribe, making her tribal royalty. Her father was opposed to her pursuing a singing career. She therefore pursued a music career in secret after completing high school. In her short 6 year career she released 3 solo album, was busy recording a 4th and won 4 SAMA Awards (SA’s equivalent to a Grammy). Her sound was international, something for which she was highly criticized. She was even offered a recording contract in the UK at one point. The night before she passed away, Sunday 26 February, she had a party at her hotel room in Bryanston. The next day a friend dropped by, at 11:00am, to take her to lunch, an offer she declined, opting to stay in her hotel room and take a bath. Her body was found at 1:30pm by hotel staff after they had repeatedly tried to get hold of her. The cause of death is attributed to a drug overdose or a drug induced suicide.
Amy Winehouse (2011)
Amy Winehouse was an exceptionally talented vocalist who had attained major success on the charts prior to her accidental death. Her Back To Black album won multiple Grammy Awards and millions of her albums were sold internationally. Unfortunately she was surrounded by people who wanted to profit from her success, including her dad. She had just come out of rehab when she passed away. Prior to her passing, her bodyguard reported that a few days before her death he had witnessed that she had been drinking excessively. On the day of her death her bodyguard noticed her lying on her bed at 10am and tried to awake her, but she didn’t move. At 3pm the bodyguard found her in the same position and realized that there may be something wrong. When he checked for a pulse he realized that she may be dead. The ambulance was called and she was declared dead on the scene. She passed away of alcohol intoxication.
Kim Jong-hyun (2017)
Kim was a famous South Korean, K-Pop singer and songwriter, who formed part of the highly successful boy band SHINee for 8 years. Whilst with the band, they released 12 albums and shipped over 2million units in Asia. After leaving the band he pursued a solo career and released two studio albums, both of whom peaked at No1 in South Korea. He was found dead in an apartment he had rented in the Gangnam District, the day he passed away (18th December 2017). His sister alerted authorities to his possible demise after receiving a number of disturbing messages from Kim alluding to the suicide. His death was attributed to carbon monoxide poisoning. After his passing one of his friends, Nine9, published a suicide note on Instagram, that Kim had sent her three days prior to the act, stating that he was struggling with “devouring” depression and struggles attributed to his fame.
There have been many members of this club and I believe that there will be many more. Hopefully the lessons these legends have taught us will not be repeated in the future. Unfortunately the nature of an artist/creative means that we are generally attracted to this form of experimentation, which can, at times, result in adverse consequences. All I can hope for is that these stories will not be repeated more often and that it will be a long time before we induct another member into…The 27 Club.
