10 Members of The 27 Club

The 27 Club is a term that refers to the belief that an unusual number of popular musicians have died at age 27,often as a result of drug and alcohol abuse, or violent means such as homicide or suicide.
Statistical studies, however, have failed to find any unusual pattern of deaths at this age.
The "club" has been repeatedly cited in music magazines, journals and the daily press. Several exhibitions have been devoted to the idea, as well as novels, films and stage plays.There have been many different theories and speculations about the causes of such early deaths and their possible connections. 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."

1. Amy Winehouse

Long troubled with drugs and alcohol, Amy Winehouse was found dead in her London home July 23, 2011 and would later be reveled to have died of an alcohol overdose. At the time of her death, Winehouse's BAC (blood alcohol content) was .416, far beyond any legal or recommended limits.

2. Jimi Hendrix

An overdose of barbiturates in the form of nine prescription sleeping pills are said to have caused rock guitar legend Jimi Hendrix to asphyxiate on his own vomit, killing him the morning of September 18, 1970 after being found unconscious in a London flat.

3. Kurt Cobain

Controversy still swirls around the death of Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain who, on April 8, 1994, was found dead in his Lake Washington home by an electrician. The coroner's report estimated Cobain's time of death to be around April 5 from a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head.

4. Janis Joplin

Janis Joplin, the legendary singer-songwriter who started with the psychedelic-acid rock band Big Brother and the Holding Company and would later go on to perform as a solo act with her own backing groups, died of an assumed heroin overdose on October 4, 1970. The OD, influenced by alcohol and what is thought to be a particularly potent batch of heroin that incited several other overdoses, felled the singer in her Hollywood house.

5. Robert Johnson

Blues singer and musician Robert Johnson died of possible strychnine poisoning on August 16, 1938 after receiving whisky that was likely tampered with in a Greenwood, MS bar.

6. Brian Jones

One of the original founders of The Rolling Stones, frontman Brian Jones was quickly overshadowed by the team of Keith Richards and Mick Jagger and subsequently developed a drug problem that would lead to his dismissal from the group in June 1969. Less than a month later on July 3, Jones was found in the bottom of his pool and his death was entered as a drowning "death by misadventure".

7. Kristen Pfaff

The bass player for Hole and Janitor Joe was found in her apartment, dead of a heroin overdose, by a friend on June 16, 1994.

8. Sean McCabe

The Ink & Dagger singer died from asphyxiation after choking on his own vomit. He was discovered in a hotel room on August 28, 2000.

9. Mia Zapata

In the early morning hours of July 7, 1993, Mia Zapata, the singer of punk band The Gits, was beaten, raped, strangled and left dead on the streets of Seattle blocks from tavern where she was last seen alive.