Is Your Favorite Singer a Member Of This Morbid Club?

The 27 Forever Club

The 27 Club, sometimes called the Forever 27 Club, is a group of musicians who all died at the age of 27. Here are 20 of its members.

1. Robert Johnson

By Copyright © 1989 Delta Haze Corporation.[2]The photograph was taken in 1936 by the Hooks Brothers Photographers studio, owned by Henry and Robert Hooks, located on Beale Street in Memphis.[3] In 1974, Johnson’s half-sister Carrie Thompson entered a copyright transfer agreement with Stephen LaVere in which she represented herself as Johnson’s sole and closest heir.[4] She agreed to transfer to LaVere “[a]ll of her right, title and interests, including all common law and statutory copyrights, in and to … a photograph of Robert L. Johnson taken by Hooks Brothers Photography in Memphis, Tennessee, and showing Johnson in a sitting position with a guitar running diagonally across his body …”[5]The photo was first published in 1989 in the journal 78 Quarterly (Vol. 1, №4) with LaVere’s permission.[6] It was most notably featured as the cover artwork for the 1990 release of The Complete Recordings, distributed by Columbia Records under license from LaVere.[7] In a series of subsequent court decisions, the Mississippi court system identified Claud Johnson of Crystal Springs, Mississippi as Robert Johnson’s sole heir and determined that he was entitled to royalties from LaVere’s 1974 contract. Claud Johnson died on June 30, 2015;[8] upon his death, the interest passed to his heirs, including Michael Johnson.[9], Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=12948079

One of the earliest members of the club, Robert Johnson was not famous during his lifetime. His work gained in popularity after his disappearance.

No one knew what happened to him until a music enthusiast found his death certificate 30 years later.

Legend goes he sold his soul to The Devil at a crossroads, in return for the ability to play guitar like no other musician before him.

Johnson died on August 16, 1938, at the age of 27, of unknown causes.

The above photo is one of the only three verified photos of Johnson.

2. Brian Jones

By Olavi Kaskisuo / Lehtikuva — https://d3gg7gh6znnt6d.cloudfront.net/thumbnail/34544015.jpg, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=80897385

Jones started the Rolling Stones but was kicked out of the group because of his drug addiction.

On July3, 1969, when he was 37, he was found at the bottom of his swimming pool. The coroner’s report stated he died from drowning…