The well-known 27 Club is quite prestigious. First of all, you really need to be an important musician. Second of all, and here's the kicker, you need to shuffle this mortal coil in your twenty-seventh year. Sound difficult? Here are the ten most famous musicians in the club.
10. D. Boon (Minutemen - 1958-1985 *Double Nickels on the Dime*) 
December 22nd, 1985, Dennes Boon was killed in a van accident in Tuscon, Arizona. Because he had been sick with a fever, Boon was lying down in the rear of the van without a seatbelt when the van ran off the road. Boon was thrown out the back door of the van and died instantly from a broken neck. He was only 27 years old. The live album Ballot Result was released in 1987 , two years after Boon's death.
9. Kristen Pfaff (Hole - 1967-1994 *Live Through This, Pretty on the Inside*)
Early on June 16th, 1994, Pfaff was found dead in her bathtub by friend Eric Erlandson and another friend, with whom she had planned to leave for Minneapolis that day. Nearby was a cosmetic bag containing syringes and drug paraphernalia. Sometime overnight, Pfaff had died from a heroin overdose. "Her U-Haul was already loaded up", according to Erlandson. "Everyone that talked to her that last night said she sounded really happy, excited to be starting this new life."
8. Alan "Blind Owl" Wilson (Canned Heat - 1943-1970 *Going Up the Country, Poor Moon, Boogie With Canned Heat* ) 
Blind Owl died in Topanga Canyon, California of what his autopsy reports as a Barbiturate overdose. While some colleagues maintained that he had committed suicide, according to the coroner's report he left no note and there is no conclusive evidence to support the suicide theory. He performed at two of the greatest concerts of the 1960's, the Monterey Pop Festival in 1967 and Woodstock in 1969. His unique high tenor vocals made him instantly recognizable among other vocalists of the era, and are clearly heard on the film (Woodstock, which chose Canned Heat's "Going Up the Country" as the unofficial theme tune to Woodstock).
7. Robert Johnson (Delta Blues - 1911-1938 *Come on in My Kitchen, Kind Hearted Woman Blues, Cross Road Blues* )
Johnson's death occurred on August 16th, 1938 at a country crossroads near Greenwood Misissippi. He had been playing for a few weeks at a country dance in a town about 15 miles (24 km) from Greenwood. There are a number of accounts and theories regarding the events preceding Johnson's death. One of these is that one evening Johnson began flirting with a woman at a dance. One version of this rumor says she was the wife of the juke joint owner who unknowingly provided Johnson with a bottle of poisoned whiskey from her husband, while another suggests she was a married woman he had been secretly seeing. Researcher Mack McCormick claims to have interviewed Johnson's alleged poisoner in the 1970s, and obtained a tacit admission of guilt from the man. When Johnson was offered an open bottle of whiskey, his friend and fellow blues legend Sonny Boy Williamson knocked the bottle out of his hand, informing him that he should never drink from an offered bottle that has already been opened. Johnson allegedly said, "don't ever knock a bottle out of my hand". Soon after, he was offered another open bottle of whiskey and accepted it, and it was that bottle that was laced with strychnine.
6. Brian Jones (Rolling Stones - 1942-1969 *The Rolling Stones Rock And Roll Circus, Between the Buttons, Their Satanic Majesties Request*) 
At around midnight on July 3rd, 1969, Jones was discovered motionless at the bottom of his swimming pool at his home in Hartfield, Sussex, England. His girlfriend, Anna Wolhin, is convinced he was alive when they took him out, insisting he still had a pulse. However, when the doctors arrived, it was too late and he was pronounced dead. The coroner's report stated "Death by misadventure", and noted his liver and heart were heavily enlarged by drug and alcohol abuse. Some felt it was suicide, however, blaming Jagger and Richards for his state of mental depression. Wohlin claimed in 1999 that Jones had been murdered by a builder who had been renovating the house the couple shared. The builder, Frank Thorogood, allegedly confessed to the murder on his deathbed to the Rolling Stones' driver, Tom Keylock; however, there were no other witnesses.
5. Ron "Pig Pen" McKernan (1945-1973 The Grateful Dead *Turn on Your Lovelight, In the Midnight Hour*)
In 1970, McKernan began experiencing congenital liver problems, likely exacerbated by his years of excessive drinking. After an August 1971 hospitalization, doctors requested that he stop touring indefinitely; pianist Keith Godchaux was subsequently hired and remained a permanent member of the band until 1979. Restless, the ailing singer rejoined the band in December to supplement Godchaux on harmonica, percussion, and organ. Unfortunately, after their Europe '72 tour, McKernan's health had degenerated to the point where he could no longer tour. His final concert appearance was June 17th, 1972 at the Hollywood Bowl, in Los Angeles. On March 8th, 1973, he was found dead of a gastrointestinal hemorrhage at his home in Corte Madera California. Pigpen is buried at the Alta Mesa Memorial Park (Plot: Hillview Sec.Bb16 Lot 374) in Palo Alto California.
4. Jim Morrison (The Doors - 1943-1971 *Strange Days, Waiting for the Sun, The Soft Parade*) 
Jim Morrison died on July 3rd, 1971. In the official account of his death, he was found in the rue Beautreillis apartment bathtub by long-time companion, Pamela Courson. Pursuant to French law, no autopsy was performed because the medical examiner claimed to have found no evidence of foul play. The absence of an official autopsy has left many questions regarding Morrison's cause of death. In his book, Wonderland Avenue, Danny Sugarman discussed his encounter with Courson after she returned to the United States. According to his account, Courson stated that Morrison had died of a heroin overdose. Courson said that Morrison inhaled the substance because he thought it was cocaine.
3. Kurt Cobain (1967-1994 * Bleach, Nevermind, In Utero*)
On April 8th, 1994, Kurt Cobain was discovered in the spare room above the garage at his Lake Washington home by Veca Electric employee Gary Smith. Smith arrived at the house that morning to install security lighting and saw him lying on the floor inside. Apart from a minor amount of blood coming out of Cobain's ear, Smith reported seeing no visible signs of trauma and initially believed that Cobain was just asleep. Smith found what he thought might be a suicide note with a pen stuck through it beneath an overturned flowerpot. A shotgun, purchased for Cobain by Dylan Carlson, was found at Cobain's side. Cobain's death certificate concluded Cobain's death was a result of a "self-inflicted shotgun wound to the head." The report estimates Cobain to actually have died April 5th.
2. Jimi Hendrix (1942 - 1970 *Are You Experienced?, Axis: Bold As Love, Electric Ladyland*)
In the early morning hours of September 18, 1970, Jimi Hendrix was found dead in the basement flat of the Samarkand Hotel at 22 Lansdowne Crescent in London. Hendrix died amid circumstances which have never been fully explained. He had spent the night with his German girlfriend, Monika Dannemann, and likely died in bed after drinking wine and taking nine Vesperax sleeping pills, then asphyxiating on his own vomit. For years, Dannemann publicly claimed that Hendrix was alive when placed in the back of the ambulance; however, her comments about that morning were often contradictory and confused, varying from interview to interview. Police and ambulance reports state that not only was Hendrix dead when they arrived on the scene, but he had been dead for some time. The apartment's front door was wide open, and the apartment itself was empty. A poem written by Hendrix that was found in the apartment has led some to believe that he possibly committed suicide.
1. Janis Joplin (1943-1970 * The Typewriter Tape, Big Brother and the Holding Company, Cheap Thrills*) 
The last recordings Joplin completed were "Mercedes Benz" and a birthday greeting for John Lennon on October 1st, 1970. Lennon, whose birthday was October 9, later told Dick Cavett, on air, that her taped greeting arrived at his home after her death. On Saturday, October 3, Joplin visited the Sunset Sound Studios in Los Angeles to listen to a song, "Buried Alive In The Blues" prior to recording the vocal track, scheduled for the next day. When she failed to show up at the studio by Sunday afternoon, producer Paul Rothchild became concerned. Full Tilt Boogie's road manager, John Cooke, drove to the Landmark Motor Hotel (since renamed the Highland Gardens Hotel) where Joplin had been a guest since August 24. He saw Joplin's psychedelically painted Porsche still in the parking lot. Upon entering her room, he found her dead on the floor. The official cause of death was an overdose of heroin, possibly combined with the effects of alcohol.
