The writer Jordi Sierra i Fabra has already said it; the 27, fucking age. Club 27 is that stranger no one would want to belong to, but which has become legendary over the years. The curse of this age began to be demonized by the 70’s when the list was created; It was then that in less than two years, fans and the music industry had to experience the unexpected deaths of four great representatives: Brian Jones, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin and Jim Morrison. All have marked the history of rock and music.
What is the 27 Club?
This is the name by which the different musicians who have a common pattern are called: his life ended at the age of 27. But that’s not the only requirement to be on the membership list.
In any case, some of them are broken down here, these young singers or musicians (more or less known) fulfill another bizarre resemblance: the savage of their death. We talk about drug overdose, alcohol excess or suicide.
Brian Jones, Jim Morrison, Kurt Cobain, Janis Joplin and Amy Winehouse are some of the most famous and representative names of Club 27, but they are not the only ones.
Who makes up the Club of 27?
- Robert Johnson died on August 16, 1938.
- Brian Jones died on July 3, 1969
- Alexandra died on July 31, 1969
- Alan Wilson died on September 3, 1970.
- Jimi Hendrix died on September 18, 1970.
- Janis Joplin died on October 4, 1970.
- Jim Morrison died in July 1971
- Freddy Molina died on October 14, 1972.
- Ronald Pigpen McKernan died on March 8, 1973.
- David Michael Alexander died on February 10, 1975
- Pete Ham died on April 24, 1975.
- Gary Thain died on December 8, 1975.
- Chris Bell died on December 27, 1978
- Pete de Freitas died on June 14, 1989.
- Kurt Cobain died on April 5, 1994.
- Richey James Edwards died on February 1, 1995.
- Kami died on June 21, 1999.
- Jeremy Ward died on May 25, 2003
- Valentin Elizalde died on November 25, 2006
- Amy Winehouse died on July 23, 2011.
Here are the most representative artists of the The 27 Club:
1. The death of Jimi Hendrix
the night of September 18, 1970, the world of music said goodbye to Jimi Hendrix, the one who had been crowned best guitarist in history. Tonight, after many excesses during an Eric Burdon concertchecked into one of the rooms at the Samarkand Hotel, Notting Hill, London.
After eating and drinking excessively, the young man took pills to sleep and… he never woke up again. The forensic report determined that the musician died of a barbiturate overdose and choked on his own vomit. But there were four theories about his death that have been circulating ever since: an overdose, accident, murder at the hands of his manager Michael Jeffrey or crowd count.
2. Thus died Janis Joplin
The career of Janis Joplin, one of the great female rock stars (without her knowing it), took off in the 1960s, but culminated at the Woodstock festival (1966). But despite finding herself at an ideal point in her career, the Joplin inside was still battling her addictions and trying to win the battle against her demons.
October 4, 1970, when her representative went to the room of the Landmark Motor Hotel (Los Angeles) where she was staying, she was found lying face down, between the dresser and the bed. By this time, Janis Joplin had been dead for hours and, according to the autopsy, she died of heroin overdose.
However, his death sparked conspiracies of all kinds, including from Peggy Caserta, his great friend. From the beginning, he believed that the singer’s death was not involuntary for two reasons: the strange position in which they found her and that she herself had consumed the same amount of drug. Anyway, the truth is that the alleged heroin syringes were never found. Was there another person in the room?
3. What did Jim Morrison die of?
The self-proclaimed Lizard King breathed his last on July 3, 1971. That same day, his companion Pamela Courson found him lifeless in the bathtub of the apartment where they lived in Paris. The official version ruled as the cause of death of Jim Morrison, lead singer of The Doors, was cardiac arrest caused by an accidental overdose of heroin. But there was no autopsy to back it up.
One of the sentences that best sums up the mystery of Morrison’s death was uttered by keyboardist Ray Manzarek: “I don’t think we’ll ever know”.
The only version considered accepted is the one provided by Courson. Despite skepticism about it, the young woman ended up dying three years after the event, so the supposed last person who saw Jim Morrison alive he took to his grave what really happened in that apartment.
4. It was the death of Kurt Cobain
“It is better to burn than to disappear”. That’s what he wrote on Kurt Cobain’s suicide note when his body was found dead. in the greenhouse of his home in Seattle on April 5, 1994. The Nirvana leader had been shot in the head, which was apparently self-inflicted.
However, Cobain’s death is not free from conspiracy theories and also in his death, although it was ruled a suicide, it is still surrounded by unknowns.
His death not only sparked many conspiracy theories, but also sparked a wave of outrage or depression among a multitude of teenagers who took his suicide note as their life motto. But it didn’t just leave the music world sad… just two days after Kurt Cobain’s death, his first fan committed suicide. After him, there were many others..
While some believe his note was not a suicide note, but a break from Nirvana, others opt for blame his wife, Courtney Love, of his death; as their addictions and toxicities have brought them to the brink of divorce. Those on this side believe his note was tampered with.
5. The day Amy Winehouse died
Amy Winehouse is, for the moment, the last artist to join this tragic list of the Club of 27. His last concert dates back to 2011, in Belgrade. Her audience, the one who had been waiting so impatiently for her, booed her when they saw that she couldn’t even get up.
A month later, on July 23, 2011, Winehouse’s bodyguard found her dead in her bed at her home in Camden Town, London. The autopsy determined that in his body there were 416 milligrams of alcohol per deciliter of blood and next to his body were found three bottles of vodka, two large and one small.
Despite her long history of excess, addictions, toxic relationships and impossible rehabs, Amy Winehouse’s death was never ruled a suicide, but rather an accidental suicide.