Janis Joplin died on October 4, 1970 at the age of 27. That makes her a member of the group of "Klub 27".
Sunday (October 4th) marks the 50th anniversary of the death of the legendary rock singer Janis Joplin. She died in 1970 at the age of 27 and is therefore part of the legendary "Klub 27". These are artists, mostly famous singers, who died when they were 27. The phenomenon first appeared in the 1970s, when music greats Brian Jones (1942-1969), Jimi Hendrix (1942-1970), Jim Morrison (1943-1971) and Joplin died at the same age within two years.
But only after Kurt Cobain's (1967-1994) death did the myth about the club spread. Amy Winehouse (1983-2011), found dead in 2011, also belongs to the tragic group. What the artists have in common is that their deaths were mostly related to the abuse of intoxicants and that murder theories and wild speculations about the exact circumstances of their deaths have grown up.
Janis Joplin: A hippie from the very beginning
Janis Joplin was the first successful rock singer to pave the way for everyone who came after her and shaped the music world like few others. She was born on January 19, 1943 in Port Arthur, a small town in East Texas. While she was bullied for being different in her childhood and youth, this free spirit made her an icon of the hippie movement in the 1960s. At the tender age of 18, Joplin decided to pack her bags and move to Los Angeles to become a singer.
Five years and a few changes of residence later, she received the phone call that changed her life in 1966: She was supposed to become the singer of the band Big Brother and the Holding Company. She said yes and quickly enjoyed success with the musicians, but after two albums together, Joplin split from the band and founded her own in 1968. With the success and legendary appearances at the hippie music festival "Woodstock", Joplin drifted more and more into a lifestyle true to the motto "Sex, Drugs & Rock'n'Roll", which later became her undoing.
Just three days after she recorded the a cappella song "Mercedes Benz" with her third band, the Full Tilt Boogie Band, on October 1, 1970, Joplin was found dead in her hotel room. The autopsy later classified her death as a consequence of a heroin overdose. Her farewell was as rock'n'roll as the singer herself: Just a few days before her death, she had signed a will in which she wished that 200 of her friends would drink the cash she had left at a big party.
Jimi Hendrix: One of the most gifted guitarists in music history
Just a few weeks before Joplin's death, Jimi Hendrix died on September 18, 1970 in London. He is still considered one of the most influential guitarists in the industry and, like Joplin, was an important part of the hippie movement of the 1960s. For James Marshall Hendrix, as the artist's real name was called, music was an escape from reality from an early age. His childhood was marked by poverty and the resulting alcoholism in his parents. When he was four years old, he received a harmonica, but he always wanted a guitar.
At 15 he fished a ukulele out of the garbage and it was over for him. He found rock'n'roll for himself, founded two bands as a teenager and ventured into the music industry in 1965 after his time in the military. In Europe he founded the band Jimi Hendrix Experience, with which he quickly became a world-famous singer and guitarist. Alcohol and drugs have been part of the band's everyday life since touring, guitarist Noel Redding (1945-2003) wrote later in his biography.
In the end, the intoxicants were also fatal for Hendrix: on the evening of September 17, 1970, he drank red wine in a hotel and took too many sleeping pills from his friend Monika Dannemann (1945-1996), who found him unconscious the next morning. It is unclear whether he arrived dead at the hospital or whether he choked on his vomit there. To this day, conspiracy theories circulate that his death was a murder or suicide.
Jim Morrison: Sex, Drugs and Rock'n'roll
Jim Morrison, the front man of the US rock band The Doors, became a member of "Klub 27" on July 3, 1971. Together with Joplin and Hendrix, he had a decisive influence on the musical development of the late 1960s. The singer was born on December 8, 1943 in Melbourne, Florida, the first son of a naval officer. While studying theater at the University of California in Los Angeles, he met fellow student Ray Manzarek (1993-2013).
After completing his diploma, he founded a band with this in 1965, which later mutated into the successful band The Doors. In 1967 the first album was released, which made it to number two in the US charts. Her first single was number one on the singles charts for several weeks. In the years to come, the band became megastars and Morrison's socially critical lyrics made him the idol of a generation. But even he was not averse to drugs and always caused a stir with insults, blasphemous curses and exposures.
In March 1971, Morrison decided to take a break in Paris with his girlfriend Pamela Courson (1946-1974). Four months later, the singer and songwriter died of heart failure on July 3 in the bathtub of his Paris apartment.
Kurt Cobain: The Nirvana star whose problems ultimately caught up with him
Kurt Cobain achieved worldwide fame with the cult band Nirvana. As a child and adolescent, the musician, who was born on February 20, 1967 in Aberdeen, Washington, suffered greatly from his parents' early divorce. As a result, he dropped out of school at the age of 18 and moved with his girlfriend to Olympia, also in Washington. Before that, at the age of 14, he had founded his first band with friend Krist Novoselic (55). After many member and name changes, the band finally became Nirvana in 1987. The musicians became teen idols almost overnight.
But fame could not help him with his personal problems. The singer always suffered from severe stomach pains, the cause of which could never be clarified. His psychological difficulties increasingly caught up with him and he slipped into heroin addiction. Wife Courtney Love (56) and their daughter Frances Bean (28) could not get him out of this hole either.
In March 1994, he attempted suicide and overdosed on a sleeping pill and champagne. He ended up in a rehab clinic in Los Angeles, from which he fled on April 5, 1994 and committed suicide. In his suicide note he quoted the famous phrase from Neil Young's (74) song "Hey Hey, My My": "It is better to burn out than to slowly fade away."
Amy Winehouse: The soul icon with the grater voice
"They tried to put me in rehab, but I said, 'No, no, no'". With the song "Rehab" (2006) Amy Winehouse had one of the greatest hits before she died on July 23, 2011 at the age of only 27. Winehouse was born on September 14, 1983 in London, where she grew up in a Jewish family with older brother Alex. Her parents separated when the singer was nine years old. Even in childhood, she caused a stir with disruptive behavior; she had to change schools five times. After a few months, she broke off studying music theater.
At the age of 14, she began to write her own songs with her brother's guitar. Five years later, in 2003, she signed her first recording deal. In the same year Winehouse's first album "Frank" was released. The song "Rehab" from the second album "Back to Black" brought the singer international fame in 2006. Her typical Beehive hairstyle, the thickly applied eyeliner and her deep, scratchy voice made her unmistakable. But from the beginning of her career, she also struggled with alcohol and drug addiction.
The artist made headlines again and again with drunken appearances until she announced a career break in 2009. The planned comeback in 2011 failed when she appeared again on June 18, 2011, heavily drunk for a gig. A month later, Winehouse was found dead by her bodyguard on July 23, 2011. She died of alcohol poisoning with a level of 4.16 per mille in her blood.