Monday, July 3, 2023

The 27 Club on this Day in History

 

This day in history: Brian Jones, 27, English guitarist of The Rolling Stones, was found dead in his swimming pool at Hartfield, East Sussex on this day in 1969, a month after quitting the band to perform his own music. Jones was at his home, Cotchford Farm, a 16th-century estate where English author A. A. Milne had written his Winnie the Pooh stories.

The Doors singer Jim Morrison would go on to die on this day two years later, also at age 27.

These two deaths, along with Janis Joplin's death at age 27 and Jimi Hendrix death at age 27 would give rise to the notion of the "27 Club", the concept that popular musicians were more likely to die after their 27th birthday and before they reached the 28th.

Blues musician Robert Johnson, who died in 1938, is one of the earliest popular musicians to be included in lists of 27 Club members.

Other members of the 27 Club would go on to include Jean-Michel Basquiat, Kurt Cobain, and Amy Winehouse.

A 2014 article at The Conversation suggested that statistical evidence shows popular musicians are most likely to die at the age of 56 (2.2% compared to 1.3% at 27). 


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