Apart from being regarded as some of the greatest musicians in the world what is it which links Kurt Cobain (NIRVANA), Jim Morrison (THE DOORS), Brian Jones (THE ROLLING STONES), Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin etc? The answer is the number 27. They all died at the age of 27. And the list doesn’t end here. There are about 45 great musicians who lost their life at the age of 27 the latest being Amy Winehouse who died in 2011.
Interestingly most of these deaths occurred under mysterious circumstances and, to this day, speculation and controversy rage about many of them. Many of the celebrity deaths are linked by some bizarre and unlikely correlations. For example, Hendrix, Joplin and Morrison all knew each other and died within a 10-month period. Jones and Morrison died on the same day, two years apart. And Cobain was married to Courtney Love, who was pictured as a five-year-old child on the back of the Grateful Dead’s 1969 album Aoxomoxoa along with Ron ‘Pigpen’ McKernan (who joined the 27 Club on 8 March 1973), and played in the grunge band Hole with Kristen Pfaff (who became a member on 16 June 1994). Hendrix, who was born on 27 November, counted astrology as one of his hobbies and said many times that he expected to die at 27. This kind of foresight or foreboding seems to have been mirrored in Winehouse’s behaviour in the final weeks of her life. Though she stopped short of openly predicting her death she is known to have spent time tracking down long-lost friends and acquaintances, as if wanting to say goodbye.
It has been suggested that the very lure of joining the exclusive 27 Club and guaranteeing some level of rock ’n’ roll immortality has been too much for some to resist. Shortly after Cobain’s death, his mother Wendy O’Connor proclaimed: “Now he’s gone and joined that stupid club! I told him not to join that stupid club!” Interestingly, several researchers have noted that during his formative years Cobain mistakenly believed that the ‘Big Five’ committed suicide. This may have had some influence on him in later years, though this is pure speculation.
So, what is so special about the number 27. To begin with, 27 is the cube of 3 (total sum of 3x3x3), with 3 being the original ‘Magic Number’. Much like its famous cousin 23. 27 is one of those numbers that recurs time and time again in nature and popular culture. For example, the Moon takes 27 days to orbit the Earth, the Sun revolves on its axis every 27 days, there are 27 bones in the human hand etc. The number also features prominently in various sections of the Bible.
Though this is regarded as just a myth but as 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.”
The 27 club —
|
Name |
Date of death |
Official cause of death |
|
Dave Alexander |
February 10, 1975 |
Pulmonary edema |
|
Alexander Bashlachev |
February 17, 1988 |
Fall from a height, probable suicide |
|
Jean-Michel Basquiat |
August 12, 1988 |
Speedball overdose |
|
Chris Bell |
December 27, 1978 |
Car accident |
|
Jesse Belvin |
February 6, 1960 |
Car accident |
|
D. Boon |
December 22, 1985 |
Van accident |
|
Rodrigo Bueno |
June 24, 2000 |
Car accident |
|
Cecilia |
August 2, 1976 |
Car accident |
|
Louis Chauvin |
March 26, 1908 |
Neurosyphilitic sclerosis |
|
Arlester “Dyke” Christian |
March 13, 1971 |
Murdered |
|
Kurt Cobain |
April 5, 1994 c. |
Suicide by gunshot [28] |
|
Pete de Freitas |
June 14, 1989 |
Motorcycle accident |
|
Roger Lee Durham |
July 27, 1973 |
Fell off a horse and died from the injuries |
|
Richey Edwards |
February 1, 1995 |
Disappeared; officially presumed dead November 23, 2008 |
|
Valentín Elizalde |
November 26, 2006 |
Murdered |
|
Malcolm Hale |
October 31, 1968 |
Carbon monoxide poisoning |
|
Pete Ham |
April 24, 1975 |
Suicide by hanging |
|
Leslie Harvey |
May 3, 1972 |
Electrocution |
|
Jimi Hendrix |
September 18, 1970 |
Asphyxiation (disputed) |
|
Nat Jaffe |
August 5, 1945 |
Complications from high blood pressure |
|
Robert Johnson |
August 16, 1938 |
Unknown, but typically attributed to strychninepoisoning |
|
Brian Jones |
July 3, 1969 |
Drowned (coroner’s report states “death by misadventure”, disputed) |
|
Linda Jones |
March 14, 1972 |
Complications from diabetes |
|
Janis Joplin |
October 4, 1970 |
Probable heroin overdose |
|
Helmut Köllen |
May 3, 1977 |
Carbon monoxide poisoning |
|
Alexandre Levy |
January 17, 1892 |
Unknown |
|
Rudy Lewis |
May 20, 1964 |
Drug overdose |
|
Sean Patrick McCabe |
August 28, 2000 |
Asphyxiation |
|
Ron “Pigpen” McKernan |
March 8, 1973 |
Gastrointestinal haemorrhage associated with alcoholism |
|
Jacob Miller |
March 23, 1980 |
Car accident |
|
Jim Morrison |
July 3, 1971 |
Reported as heart failure (no autopsy performed, disputed) |
|
Bryan Ottoson |
April 19, 2005 |
Prescription drug overdose |
|
Fat Pat |
February 3, 1998 |
Murdered |
|
Kristen Pfaff |
June 16, 1994 |
Heroin overdose |
|
Dickie Pride |
March 26, 1969 |
Overdose of sleeping pills |
|
Maria Serrano Serrano |
November 24, 2001 |
Plane crash |
|
Freaky Tah |
March 28, 1999 |
Murdered |
|
Gary Thain |
December 8, 1975 |
Heroin overdose |
|
Richard Turner |
August 11, 2011 |
Cardiac arrest |
|
Jeremy Michael Ward |
May 25, 2003 |
Heroin overdose |
|
Alan “Blind Owl” Wilson |
September 3, 1970 |
Barbiturate overdose, possible suicide |
|
Amy Winehouse |
July 23, 2011 |
Alcohol poisoning |
|
Wallace Yohn |
August 12, 1974 |
Plane crash |
