Patrick ‘Fat Pat’ Hawkins was an American hip-hop artist. Born in Houston, Texas, on 4 December 1970, he was shot dead in Houston, 3 February 1998, while trying to collect a debt.
Joe Henderson sang the 1962 hit ‘Snap Your Fingers’. Born on 24 April 1937, he died of a heart attack in Nashville, Tennessee, 24 October 1964.
Jimi Hendrix was born in Seattle on 27 November 1942. He died in London, 18 September 1970, after inhaling his vomit while intoxicated.
Nat Jaffe was an American jazz pianist. Born in New York on 1 January 1918, he died in New York of kidney failure, 5 August 1945.
Robert Johnson was perhaps the most influential of all blues guitarists. Born in Hazlehurst, Mississippi, on 8 May 1911, he died in Greenwood, Mississippi, on or around 16 August 1938. The cause of death remains mysterious, variously attributed to syphilis or murder by poison.
Brian Jones founded the Rolling Stones. Born in Cheltenham, on 28 February 1942, he drowned in his swimming-pool in East Sussex, 2 July 1969, while under the influence of drink and drugs.
Janis Joplin was born in Texas on 19 January 1943. She died of a heroin overdose in Hollywood, 4 October 1970.
Moses ‘Moss’ Khumalo was a South African jazz saxophonist. He was born in Soweto, on 30 January 1979. He hanged himself at home in Honeydew, near Johannesburg, 4 September 2006.
Helmut Köllen was a member of German rock band Triumvirat. He was born in Cologne, on 2 March 1950, and died there on 3 May 1977, having gassed himself in his car.
Aimee Leonard was a singer-songwriter born in Sudbury, Ontario, on 22 May 1983. She died of congenital heart failure at home in Ottawa, 29 January 2011. In common with many 27s, Leonard suffered with bipolar disorder, and spoke of suicide when depressed, but she died of natural causes. She was pregnant at the time.
Rudy Lewis sang with the Drifters. Born in Philadelphia, on 23 August 1936, he died in New York, 20 May 1964, the day he was due to record ‘Under the Boardwalk’. Various causes of death have been cited, but most sources agree that his death was drug-related.
Sean McCabe sang with Ink & Dagger. Born in Pennsylvania, on 13 November 1972, he died in a motel in Indiana, 28 August 2000. A heavy drinker, he choked on his vomit.
Ronald ‘Pigpen’ McKernan was a founding member of the Grateful Dead, and the band’s keyboardist. He was born in California on 8 September 1945. After years of heavy drinking he died of a gastrointestinal haemorrhage at home in Corte Madera, California, 8 March 1973.
Jacob Miller was a reggae artist. Born in Mandeville, Jamaica, on 4 May 1952, he died in a car accident in Kingston, 23 March 1980.
Damien ‘Damo’ Morris sang with the Australian band the Red Shore. Born on 22 May 1980, he died in a road accident near Coffs Harbour, New South Wales, 19 December 2007, after the band’s van hit a tree. The driver was also killed.
Jim Morrison was lead singer with the Doors. Born in Melbourne, Florida, on 8 December 1943, he died in Paris, 3 July 1971. Officially, Morrison died of heart failure, but it is likely that heroin was a factor.
Nate Niec played bass in various US punk bands including No Holds Barred. Born on 3 March 1982, he died in a road accident in the state of Georgia, 6 October 2009.
Bryan Ottoson played guitar with American Head Charge. Born on 18 March 1978, he was found dead on the band’s tour bus in South Carolina, 19 April 2005. He had died overnight, having consumed alcohol and prescription pills.
Kristen Pfaff played bass with Hole. Born in New York State on 26 May 1967, she died of a drug overdose in Seattle, 16 June 1994, shortly after the death of her friend Kurt Cobain. Her body was found in the bath.
Dickie Pride was the stage name of British pop singer Richard Kneller, also known as the ‘Sheik of Shake’. Born in Croydon, on 21 October 1941, he was a heavy drinker and drug-user with mental health problems. At the end of his life he was living at the family home in Croydon where his mother found him dead of a drug overdose on 26 March 1969.
Raymond ‘Freaky Tah’ Rodgers was an American rapper. Born on 14 May 1971, he was shot dead leaving a party in New York, 28 March 1999.
Michael Rudetsky was an American keyboard player. Born in New York on 23 January 1959, he died at the London home of the singer Boy George on 6 August 1986. Rudetsky suffered a pulmonary oedema caused by heroin overdose.
Maria Serrano Serrano was a member of the European dance band Passion Fruit. Born in Holland, on 26 November 1973, she perished along with 23 others, including a fellow band member, in a plane crash near Zürich, 24 November 2001.
Abdillah Murad Md. Shari, known as ‘Achik Spin’, was a member of the Malaysian pop group Spin. Born on 1 July 1982, he died in a car accident on his way home from a show in Malaysia, 17 April 2010.
George ‘Smitty’ Smith was a founding member of American soul group the Manhattans. Born on 16 November 1943, he died of a brain tumour, 16 December 1970.
Gary Thain was a member of Uriah Heep. Born in Christchurch, New Zealand, 15 May 1948, he was found dead in the bath at home in London, 8 December 1975, having overdosed on sleeping pills.
Richard Turner was a British jazz trumpeter. Born in Leeds, 30 July 1984, he died on 11 August 2011 after suffering an aortic aneurysm while swimming.
Randy ‘Stretch’ Walker was a member of the rap group Live Squad, whose songs included ‘Murderah’. Born on 8 April 1968, he was shot dead in New York, 30 November 1995.
Jeremy Michael Ward was a sound technician for the Mars Volta. Born in Texas, 5 May 1976, he died of a heroin overdose in Los Angeles, 25 May 2003.
Alan Wilson was a founder member of Canned Heat. Born in Massachusetts, 4 July 1943, he was found dead at the Los Angeles home of fellow band member Bob Hite on 3 September 1970, having taken an overdose of barbiturates.
Amy Winehouse was born in London on 14 September 1983. She died at home in London, 23 July 2011, of alcohol poisoning.
Wally Yohn played organ with the jazz-rock band Chase. Born on 12 January 1947, he was killed along with three fellow band members and their pilot when their aircraft crashed en route to a show in Minnesota, 9 August 1974.
Mia Zapata sang with the punk band the Gits. Born in Louisville, Kentucky, on 25 August 1965, she was raped and murdered in Seattle, 7 July 1993.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This book is the story of a number of lives that have become bundled together as the 27 Club. In order to see what, if anything, the 27 Club amounts to apart from a series of coincidental and tragic deaths, I needed to establish, first, how many musicians have died at 27. I researched the lives of more than three thousand people whose involvement in popular music since the start of the twentieth century was sufficiently notable for their careers to be recorded, compiling what I hope is the most complete and reliable long-list of 27s to be published. Most are musicians, indeed stars, but not all. I include Jim Morrison’s girlfriend, for example, because she was a significant character on the music scene by association.
Having drawn up my long-list – comprising fifty individuals – I wanted to know whether or not these deaths were statistically significant. How I did this and what I discovered is described in the Prologue. I then focused on what I considered to be the six most prominent and interesting lives, to tell their individual stories and to identify common themes that may help explain why so many talented people died so young. This is the substance of the book.
For several reasons Amy Winehouse was always going to be my primary interest. First, I admired her as a singer and songwriter, and I thought she warranted a well-researched, independent biography, as opposed to some of the books published during her lifetime, many of which are shoddy works, and her father’s partial account. This would not be a straightforward biography, however. The brevity of Winehouse’s life and the relative paucity of her work (she only made two albums) is thin material for a full-length book. Rather, I decided to contrast her life with what I considered to be the other five principal 27s. In order of demise they are Brian Jones, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin,
Jim Morrison and Kurt Cobain. I deal with them in that order, book-ending with Winehouse.
I approached the family of Amy Winehouse at the outset of my work, meeting Mitch and Janis Winehouse on an evening in London when Mr Winehouse was performing his nightclub act. He told me he could not speak to me because he was under contract to write his own book (Amy, My Daughter). As a result, I have been obliged to investigate Amy’s life without the assistance of her immediate family, and without the co-operation of associates who take their lead from the family. I was able to interview widely, nonetheless, both in regard to Amy Winehouse and the other principals. As with my previous books, I travelled extensively for research and sought out documentary evidence to bring these lives into focus.
I am grateful to the following people for answering my questions: Ryan and Liane Aigner, Patrick Alan, Steve Albini, Pernell Alexander, Jeff Allen, Nathan Allen, John Altman, Sam Andrew, Pat Andrews, Bill Ashton, the late Anthony Atherton, Teo Avery, Mirandi Babitz, Siobhan Bailey, Maury Baker, Professor Adrian Barnett, Maurice Bernstein, Dave Bishop, Ed Bogas, Angela Brew, David Brigati, Harvey Brooks, David Burr, John Byrne Cooke, Phil Cameron, Brad Campbell, Ricardo Canadinhas, Mo Cansick, Lonnie Castille, Ted Chandler, Doug Charles-Ridler, Leland Cobain, Marlene Cole, Henry Collins, Declan Connolly, Robert Crumb, Philippe Dalecky, Asher Dann, Richard ‘Dickie’ Davis, Glen Day, Pete ‘Rok’ Donaghy, Alan Douglas, Sammy Drain, Susi Earnshaw, Michael Eavis, Lyndall Erb, Eric Erlandson, Jason Everman, Peggy Fahey (née Lloyd), Victoria Fenton, Blake Fielder-Civil, Danny Fields, Snooky Flowers, Clem Floyd, Michael C. Ford, Ray Foulk, Chuck Fradenburg, Lauren Franklin, Melissa Gillespie, Danny Goldberg, Robert E. Gordon, Enid Graddis (née Stulberger), Les Hallett, John Hammond Jr, Ronnie Haran (and her husband Chase Mellen), Steve and Nicole Harris, Hank Harrison, Keith and Hazel Harrison, Henry Hate, Richard Hattrell, Catherine Hays (and her daughter Sofia), Rabbi Frank Hellner, Tommy Henderson, Janie Hendrix, Peter Hodgman, Mitch Holmquist, Deering Howe, Don Hoyt, Bob Hunter, John and Sarah Hurley, Jeff Jampol, Bob Jensen, Bryan Johnson, Inge Jones, Peter ‘Buck’ Jones, Professor Steve Jones, Prince Stanislas Klossowski ‘Stash’ De Rola, Britt Leach, Amanda Lear, Bradley Leckie, Linda Leitch (née Lawrence), Bob Leonard, Don Letts, Aaron Liddard, Sir Michael Lindsay-Hogg, the Reverend Karen Lindvig, Bonnie Lloyd, Andrew Loog Oldham, Edyta Lydon, Gered Mankowitz, Michael Maska, Warren Mason, Sereg Mateke, Troy Miller, Zoot Money, Jon Moon, Charles Moriarty, Andrew Morris, Andy Morrison, Paul Murray, Breige Noonan, Sandra Olim, Adrian Packer, Vidia Patel, Ken Pearson, Jay Phelps, Tibor Poor, Dr Jim Pritchett, Alex Proud, Mischa Richter, Alain Ronay, Ron Schneider, Amie Schroeter (née Wilson), Bob Seidemann, Sam Shaker, Lamont Shillinger, Steve Sidwell, Stefan Skarbeck, Tomasz Skoczypiec, Nial Stimson, Dave Swallow, Jamie Talbot, Stanley Targus, Andrea Todd (née Neathery), the Reverend Stephen Towles, Reg Traviss, Vince Treanor, Paul Van der Hulks, Michaela Van Es, Julia Vanellis, Mirek vel Stotker, Kim Warnick, Wavy Gravy, ‘Commissioner’ Gordon Williams, Beryl Winehouse, Carol Winehouse, Etta ‘Betty’ Winehouse, Jonathan Winehouse, Lou Winwood, Gilles Yepremian, Sylvia Young and Zouzou (a.k.a. Danièle Ciarlet).
Thank you additionally to Trevor Hobley of the Brian Jones Fan Club; photographer Mike Charity, who showed me around Brian Jones’s Cheltenham; Alan R. Craze, HM Coroner for East Sussex; and Alastair Johns of Cotchford Farm, East Sussex. Thank you also to Charles R. Cross, who has written very good biographies of Jimi Hendrix and Kurt Cobain, and gave me assistance when I visited Washington state. Mitch Holmquist was my guide to Kurt Cobain’s Aberdeen. Researching the last days of Janis Joplin’s life, I stayed in the room in which she died at the Highland Gardens Hotel in Hollywood, formerly the Landmark. Thank you to the manager, Jack Baklayan. Thank you also to Martine Lecuyer at Père Lachaise in Paris, with other cemetery staff and the following visitors to Jim Morrison’s grave on a spring day in 2012: Kyle and Courtney Fisher, Peter Niedner, Luke Sanders and Rachel Tyree. I am also grateful to the residents, bar staff and shopkeepers in Camden Town who spoke to me about Amy Winehouse, to Georgia Graham at the Camden New Journal, and Edda Tasiemka at the Hans Tasiemka Archives.
Thank you to my publishers: Fenella Bates at Hodder & Stoughton in London, Ben Schafer at Da Capo Press in New York, and Diane Turbide at Penguin Canada; and to my agents Kristyn Keene and Kate Lee at ICM in New York, and Gordon Wise at Curtis Brown in London.
SOURCE NOTES
For shorthand the six principal 27s are referred to in the notes by initials: Brian Jones as BJ, Jimi Hendrix as JH, Janis Joplin as JJ, Jim Morrison as JM, Kurt Cobain as KC, and Amy Winehouse as AW.
The Wendy O’Connor epigraph is from the Aberdeen Daily World, reported in Charles R. Cross’s biography of Kurt Cobain, Heavier Than Heaven. Full publication details of books referred to below will be found in the Bibliography (pages 342–346).
Part One ‘Life’
Epigraph: Dante, Divine Comedy, first verse.
Prologue: Exit, Gate 27
Epigraph: Erlandson, Letters to Kurt.
Dr Romete’s final house call to AW, dialogue and quoted remarks (‘bored’, etc.): second inquest into AW’s death, held by HM Coroner Dr Shirley Radcliffe at St Pancras Coroner’s Court in London, January 2013, where Dr Romete’s sworn statement was read. The author also referred to the evidence of the first inquest, before Suzanne Greenaway at the same court in October 2011.
May 2011 incident and GP’s warning letter: inquest evidence and Mitch Winehouse’s book, Amy, My Daughter in which he writes that the letter warned AW was ‘in immediate danger of death’.
AW did not want to die: second inquest evidence.
AW resistant to therapy: second inquest evidence.
Lyric quoted from ‘Rehab’ by Amy Winehouse © EMI Music Publishing Ltd.
AW joked about doctor’s warning: see Chapter Thirteen, p. 267.
Layout of house/décor and furnishings: author’s interviews, local enquiries and architectural plans.
Andrew Morris: his sworn statement at the second AW inquest, from which he is quoted throughout, save ‘diamond person …’ which is from discussions with the author.
Words with band members: author’s interview with drummer Troy Miller.
Lauren Franklin: quoted from author’s interview.
Charles-Ridler: quoted from author’s interview.
Mitch Winehouse’s last visit: Winehouse, Amy, My Daughter.
Janis Winehouse’s appearance and character: author’s meeting.
Janis Winehouse’s last visit: Hello!, 16 July 2012 (‘I love you, Mummy’); and Daily Mail, 25 July 2011 (‘weary’).
AW on medication: second inquest evidence.
Reg Traviss: quoted throughout from interviews with author.
Indian takeaway: Andrew Morris’s sworn statement, second inquest.
Home secured by Morris: his evidence at second inquest.
Italian fan: author’s interviews with Reg Traviss.
Behring Breivik outrage: Observer, 24 July 2011.
AW watches YouTube: Morris’s statement, second inquest.
JM death: see Chapter Ten, pp. 221–22.
Texts Kristian Marr: his interview with the Mail on Sunday, 7 August 2011.
Didn’t reply to Reg’s texts: author’s interviews with Reg Traviss.
Vomit in toilet: ibid.
Bulimic: Dr Romete’s statement, second inquest.
AW kicked off her shoes: in Morris’s statement, second inquest, she was found without her shoes on.
Position on bed: statement of paramedic Andrew Cable, second inquest, and author’s interviews with Traviss.
Morris finds body: second inquest.
Ambulance response: statement of paramedic Andrew Cable, second inquest, quoted.
James arrives/calls made: Morris’s sworn statement, second inquest.
Police involvement/bottles found: inquest evidence (first and second).
Blood alcohol levels: evidence at second inquest. Background on levels of intoxication: Pet
ers (ed.), BMA A–Z Family Medical Encyclopedia.
Inquest verdict: HM Coroner Dr Radcliffe, quoted from second inquest.
Reg Traviss arrives at scene: author’s interviews with Reg Traviss.
Wendy O’Connor: Daily World, 11 November 1991.
Coverage of AW death: newspaper reports, including the Mail on Sunday and Washington Post, 24 July 2011.
Survey of deaths: I drew on sources including Talevski, Knocking on Heaven’s Door; Sadie (ed.), The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians; Larkin (ed.), The Encyclopedia of Popular Music; Segalstad and Hunter, The 27s; www.thedeadrockstars.com; Rolling Stone, Melody Maker, numerous other publications and websites. All deaths were cross-referenced, certificates checked where available.
Professor Barnett and his colleagues: findings published in the British Medical Journal, Christmas 2011. I quote from the article, Is 27 really a dangerous age for famous musicians? Retrospective cohort study, and refer to my correspondence with Professor Barnett, who drew my attention to the Texas Sharpshooter Fallacy.
UK charts: I rely on Strong, The Essential Rock Discography.
Rock ’n’ Roll Hall of Fame: see its website, www.rockhall.com.
Rock musicians are more likely to die young than general population: Bellis et al., ‘Elvis to Eminem: quantifying the price of fame through early mortality of European and North American rock and pop stars’, Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, 2007, 61: 896–901 (www.jech.com).
Deaths of long-list stars: see Appendix, pp. 303–7.
Homicide and African-Americans: Bureau of Justice Statistics, ‘Homicide Trends in the USA by age, gender and race, 1976–2005’, www.bjs.gov.
Suicide illegal in Britain prior to 1961: Alvarez, The Savage God.
Quotations from Freud, Beyond the Pleasure Principle, and Durkheim, On Suicide.
WHO figures on suicide: Johnstone (ed.), Companion to Psychiatric Studies.
Al Wilson death: see Chapter Four, p. 94.
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