The Infamous 27 Club: The Gang Few Want to be Part of

If you’re a fan of rock n’ roll, chances are you will have heard of the phrase “The 27 Club”. If you don’t know what it is, you’re about to find out and believe me, it’s not the kind of club you’d want to be a part of…

 The 27 Club is a pop culture name for a group of significant rock, pop and blues musicians who have all died at the age of 27. Whilst it is always tragic when someone dies at such a young age, when it happens to a famous rock star in unusual or shady circumstances, it becomes part of the fabric of rock n roll folklore.

There is something of a dispute as to the musicians who are included in the 27 Club. The club’s creation came about after an ostensibly high number of famous 27 year old musicians died within a three year period, from 1969 to 1971. The four musicians, who make up the core of the 27 club, were: Brian Jones (Rolling Stones guitarist), Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix and Jim Morrison (The Doors frontman).  Kurt Cobain is sometimes added to the list also; probably because his death occurred at the height of his career. Apparently, Cobain’s sister revealed that he had said he wanted to join the 27 club when he was a teenager. Below are the core members of the morbid club with their causes of death:

Brian Jones, died July 3rd  1969, drowned in his swimming pool at his East Sussex home. Recently Jones’ death has looked increasingly suspicious with a key witness and number of people who analysed the case claiming he was murdered by a builder renovating his house. Eerily, two of the 27 Club paid tribute to Jones a matter of months before they died themselves. Jimi Hendrix dedicated a song to him on US television and Jim Morrison wrote a poem, “Ode to L.A. While Thinking Of Brian Jones, Deceased”.

Jimi Hendrix, died September 18th 1970, asphyxiated on vomit after overdose of sleeping pills. Like Jones, there is a theory existing that Hendrix was murdered, supposedly by hitmen hired by his own manager who wanted to cash a multi-million pound insurance contract on the guitarist.

Janis Joplin, died October 4th 1970, of a heroin overdose. The only woman on the list, Joplin was known for her prodigious abuse of alcohol as well as her debilitating heroin addiction later in her short life.

Jim Morrison, died July 3rd 1971, of heart failure. What really piqued people’s curiosity in the 27 club was the fact that Morrison died on July 3rd: the same day that Brian Jones died. His heart failure was brought on by alcoholism and drug abuse and signalled the end of the 1960s experimentation with drugs for a lot of people.

Additional inclusion, Kurt Cobain, died April 5 1994, officially ruled as suicide by shotgun. Conspiracy theories abound about Cobain’s death, so much so that celebrated documentary film maker Nick Broomfield even made a film, entitled Kurt and Courtney (Love, Cobain’s wife) about the Nirvana main man.

Whilst these five people generally make up the “club” when musicians who died at 27 are discussed, there is a plethora of other musicians that died at this age. They include legendary bluesman Robert Johnson (August 16, 1938), founding member and keyboard player with The Grateful Dead, Ron “Pigpen” McKernan (March 8, 1973) and Richey James Edwards, guitarist and lyricist with the Manic Street Preachers, who went missing on February 1, 1995 and who has never been seen again, although there are claims he has been spotted in a variety of locations. He was officially presumed dead on 28th November 2008.

The 27 club has led to a host of superstitions. These include the use of a white lighter being unlucky, as four of the members of the club (Hendrix, Joplin, Morrison and Cobain) were found dead with white lighters in their possession.

The number of prominent, and not so prominent, musicians who have died aged 27 is truly astounding. Although people die all the time at a variety of ages, there definitely seems to be a worryingly high instance of musicians who die at 27.