Brian Jones

Name: Lewis Brian Hopkin Jones

Birth: 28.02.42

Where: Gloucestershire, England

Work in brief:  Jones was one of the founding members of the popular English rock group, The Rolling Stones.  He was also a talented musician, known to play among other instruments, the harmonica, the guitar, the sitar, and the organ

Life in brief: A product of musical parents, his mother was a talented piano teacher and his dad, (an engineer) played the piano and organ, and led the choir at his local church.

Died: 03.07.69

Cause of death:  drowning in a swimming pool, following a serious bout of depression and substance abuse.

Jimi Hendricks

Name: Johnny Allen Hendrix

Birth: 27.11.42

Where: Washington, USA.

Work in brief: He’s known for playing the guitar left-handed, but as well as being a musician, he was a fabulous baritone singer, songwriter and respected producer. He was also a recipient of many coveted rock music awards, both in his lifetime and after his death.

Life in brief: Hendrix family went through very difficult times, which resulted in his two sisters and a younger brother (all with different special needs) being given up for adoption at an early age.

Died: 18.09.70

Cause of death: choking on his own vomit following an overdose of sleeping pills.

Janis Joplin

Name: Janis Lyn Joplin

Birth: 19.01.43

Where: Texas, USA

Work in brief: She was a singer, songwriter, music arranger, and guitar player. Joplin was most popularly known for being the lead singer of the rock band Big Brother, The Holding Company, and also for Full Tilt. She later had a successful career as a solo artist.

Life in brief: She was a self-described ‘outcast’ at school because of her weight, terrible skin problems and the fact that she ‘hung out with blacks.’ This position she held as an outsider to popular trends, served to strengthen her career as a musician, in giving her the freedom to be original and daring.

Died: 04.10.70

Cause of death: possible heroin overdose

Jim Morrison

Name: James Douglas Morrison

Birth: 08.12.43

Where: Florida, USA

Work in brief: Morrison is mainly known for acid rock and blues-rock music, but he was a respected singer, songwriter, poet and filmmaker, while being a lead singer of the rock band, The Doors.

Life in brief: Success wasn’t hard to come by for this very intelligent star, who self published two volumes of his own poetry. Morrison also produced a film – in which he starred – called HWY: An American Pastoral.

Died: 03.07.71

Cause of death:  heart failure following a possible drugs overdose.

Kurt Cobain

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Name: Kurt Donald Cobain

Birth: 20.02.67

Where: Washington, USA

Work in brief: Cobain is known for his work in alternative rock and grunge music. He was an amazing left-handed guitarist and a talented singer, mainly known as the lead singer of the band Nirvana.

Life in brief: Not only did he battle with drug addiction, but so did his wife Courtney Love. The divorce of his parents, when he was eight, was cited as an event which dramatically changed his life, and not for the better.

Death:  05.04.94

Cause of death: following a self inflicted shotgun wound.

Ron McKernan

Name: Ronald Charles McKernan

Birth: 08.09.45

Where: California, USA

Work in brief: McKernan is popularly known for making blues and rock music. He was a musician and songwriter, and played keyboard instruments, harmonica and the guitar. He was a founding member and singer of the band, Grateful Dead, and also had a flourishing friendship with Janis Joplin

Life in brief: McKernan found it difficult to stay in school, but worked very hard in his music career. He taught himself to play the piano, and it was only by accident that he stumbled into his role in Grateful Dead, when one night, Jerry Garcia invited him onstage to play with them, after seeing him hanging around the coffee house at which they played.

Death: 08.03.73

Cause of death: gastrointestinal hemorrhage, said to be made worse by alcohol abuse.

Richey Edwards

Name: Richard James Edwards

Birth: 22.12.67

Where: South Wales, UK.

Work in brief: He was a former driver and roadie for Manic Street Preachers, but soon his talent shone through and he became a guitarist and songwriter associated with the Welsh rock band. He went missing in 1995 at the age of 27, and was officially presumed dead in 2008.

Life in brief: Edwards was very troubled, and often cut himself and stubbed out cigarettes on his own arm. In the days leading up to his disappearance, he withdrew £200.00 a day from his bank account. After his disappearance, numerous sightings were reported, but none of them turned out to be genuine.

Jonathan Brandis

Name: Jonathan Gregory Brandis

Birth: 13.04.76

Where: Connecticut, USA

Work in brief: He was an actor, director and screenwriter, but started his career at six years old, as a model. He was first brought to the attention of the public with his roles in One Life to Live and Who’s the Boss.

Life in brief: He didn’t really have a history of depression, but became increasingly low about a career that he felt was taking too long to be properly revived. Having had such a head start as a youngster, a dip in his acting career, for him, meant that his work was going downhill. This was not necessarily the case.

Death: 12.11.03

Cause of death: he hanged himself.

Otis Redding

(died a few months before he reached twenty-seven).

Name: Otis Ray Redding, Jr.

Birth: 09.09.41

Where: Dawson, Georgia.

Work in brief: He was a soul and blues singer and worked in this capacity for seven years, writing most of his own songs.

Life in brief: As a teenager, Redding won a local talent contest fifteen weeks in a row, which gave him the first taste of the celebrity lifestyle. He had several hit songs, many of which he wrote himself, something which many artiste did not do in his day and age. Redding is unique from any other artiste, since his song, Sitting on the Dock of the Bay, was the only posthumous number one single to make the Billboard Hot 100. The singer recorded the song only three days before his death, and himself considered it unfinished, since he had whistled the tune for one of the verses he was planning to write later on.

Died:  10.12.67

Cause of death: following a plane crash.

The first thought that impacts upon the mind when reading about events such as these, is what a waste of life and talent these deaths were. Not only did these deaths take beautiful people from our world, but the nature of these losses was made worse by the fact that most of them could’ve been prevented. My thoughts go out to the relatives and loved ones of these fantastically gifted young people and hope that others can learn from the mistakes that many of them were allowed to make.