27 Club

The 27 Club, also occasionally known as the Forever 27 Club or the Club 27, is a popular culture name for a group of influential rock and blues musicians who all died at the age of 27, sometimes under mysterious circumstances.

Musicians usually included in the 27 Club

There is some debate as to the criterion used to include musicians who died at the age of 27 in the "27 Club". The impetus for the Club's creation were the deaths of a seemingly unusual number of prominent 27-year-old musicians within a two-year period of time. Lists include Brian Jones, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin and Jim Morrison. Morrison and Jones died on the same date two years apart. Kurt Cobain, who died in 1994, was later included by some, probably due to his popularity and his death occurring at the pinnacle of his career. According to the book Heavier Than Heaven, when Cobain died, his sister claimed that as a kid he would talk about how he wanted to join the 27 Club. The 27s: The Greatest Myth of Rock & Roll details the history of the phenomenon.

There is a common superstition among the stoner culture that the use of a white lighter is unlucky. This is rumored to have originated from reports that 4 of the 5 members of the 27 club (Hendrix, Joplin, Morrison, and Cobain) had a white lighter in their possession at the time of their death.

Name	Date of death	Cause of death	Fame
Brian Jones	July 3, 1969	Drowned in swimming pool.	Rolling Stones founder and guitarist / multi-instrumentalist.
Jimi Hendrix	September 18, 1970	Asphyxiated on vomit after overdose of sleeping pills.	Pioneering electric guitarist, singer and songwriter for The Jimi Hendrix Experience and Band of Gypsys.
Janis Joplin	October 4, 1970	Probable heroin overdose.	Lead vocalist and songwriter for Big Brother and the Holding Company, The Kozmic Blues Band and Full Tilt Boogie Band.
Jim Morrison	July 3, 1971	Official cause of death listed as "heart failure", however, no autopsy was performed.	Lead singer, songwriter and video director for The Doors.
Kurt Cobain	c. April 5, 1994	Officially ruled as suicide by shotgun.	Lead singer, guitarist and songwriter for Nirvana.
Jeff Litwin	July 3, 2003	Official cause of death listed as "dirty hippie", however, no autopsy was performed.	Lead stoner, cat owner and video director for Chicatrash.

Other well-known musicians who died at 27

Some lists include other musicians who died at age 27. Cobain and Hendrix biographer Charles R. Cross writes, "The number of musicians who died at 27 is truly remarkable by any standard. [Although] humans die regularly at all ages, there is a statistical spike for musicians who die at 27."

Name	Date of death	Cause of death	Fame
Louis Chauvin	March 26, 1908	Neurosyphilitic sclerosis	Ragtime musician
Robert Johnson	August 16, 1938	Unknown, but typically credited to strychnine poisoning.	Bluesman. Recorded very famous and influential set of 29 songs that influenced many famous musicians after him.
Jesse Belvin	February 6, 1960	Car wreck.	R&B singer and songwriter
Rudy Lewis	May 20th, 1964	Drug overdose.	Vocalist of The Drifters
Malcolm Hale	October 31, 1968	Carbon monoxide poisoning from a faulty space heater.	Original member of Spanky and Our Gang.
Alan "Blind Owl" Wilson	September 3, 1970	Barbiturate overdose, possible suicide.	Leader, singer and primary composer of Canned Heat.
Linda Jones	March 14, 1972	Diabetic coma.	R&B singer
Leslie Harvey	May 3, 1972	Electrocuted by live mic.	guitarist for Stone the Crows
Ron "Pigpen" McKernan	March 8, 1973	Gastrointestinal hemorrhage associated with alcoholism.	Founding member, keyboardist and singer of the Grateful Dead.
Dave Alexander	February 10, 1975	Pulmonary edema.	Bassist for the Stooges.
Peter Ham	April 24, 1975	Suicide by hanging.	Keyboardist and guitarist, leader of Badfinger.
Gary Thain	December 8, 1975	Drug overdose.	Former bassist of Uriah Heep.
Helmut Köllen	May 3, 1977	Carbon monoxide poisoning.	Bassist with 1970s German prog rock band Triumvirat.
Chris Bell	December 27, 1978	Car wreck; ran into a telephone pole.	Singer-songwriter and guitarist of power pop band Big Star and solo.
Jacob Miller	March 23, 1980	Car wreck.	Jamaican reggae artist and lead singer for Inner Circle.
D. Boon	December 22, 1985	Lying down in the back of a van when it veered off road, he was ejected from the vehicle and broke his neck.	Guitarist, lead singer of punk band the Minutemen.
Alexander Bashlachev	February 17, 1988	Suicide by jumping	Russian poet, rock musician and songwriter
Jean-Michel Basquiat	August 12, 1988	Speedball overdose.	Painter and graffiti artist; formed the band Gray.
Pete de Freitas	June 14, 1989	Motorcycle wreck on his way back from filming a music video.	Drummer for Echo & the Bunnymen.
Mia Zapata	July 7, 1993	Murdered.	Lead singer of the Gits.
Kristen Pfaff	June 16, 1994	Officially ruled as an accidental heroin overdose.	Bass guitarist for Hole and Janitor Joe.
Richey James Edwards	c. February 1, 1995	Disappeared; officially presumed dead November 23, 2008.	Lyricist and guitarist for Manic Street Preachers.
Fat Pat	February 3, 1998	Shot.	Rapper and member of Screwed Up Click.
Freaky Tah	March 28, 1999	Shot.	Popular rapper and member of the rap group Lost Boyz.
Sean Patrick McCabe	August 28, 2000	Asphyxiated on vomit after ingesting too much alcohol.	Lead singer of Ink & Dagger.
Jeremy Michael Ward	May 25, 2003	Heroin overdose.	The Mars Volta and De Facto sound manipulator.
Bryan Ottoson	April 19, 2005	Prescription drug overdose.	Guitarist for American Head Charge.
Orish Grinstead	c. April 20, 2008	Kidney failure.	Founding member of '90s R&B group 702.

References

• "The 50 Worst Things Ever to Happen to Music", Blender, April 2006
• Johnson, Gene. "Fans Mark 10 Years Since Cobain Death", Yahoo! Music, April 5, 2004
• Lawless, Andrew. "The legendary Andrew Loog Oldham, in Interview", Three Monkeys Online, 2004
• Federici, Chris. "Nirvana: Smells Like a Very Ape Heart Shaped Box in Bloom", Rutgers-Newark Observer, April 17, 2007
• Jones, Bomani. "Oh Pleez Gawd I Can't Handle the Success!", Salon.com, October 23, 2002
• forever27.co.uk, "The Forever 27 Club" web site
• the27s.com, "The 27s: The Greatest Myth of Rock & Roll" web site
• The 27 Club T-Shirt on a-non.co.uk