ROCK ARTISTS TWICE AS LIKELY TO DIE EARLY

BBC - A Liverpool John Moores University study of 1,050 US and European [pop] artists found they are twice as likely to die early than the rest of the population. In all, 100 stars died between 1956 and 2005 with US stars dying at 42 on average and those from Europe at 35. Drug and alcohol problems accounted for one in four deaths, the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health said. . .

SAM SMITH, WHY BOTHER? - Composer John Cage once said that whenever he did anything new, people just wanted him to keep doing it over and over again. And Cage, unlike famous rock musicians, didn't even have to contend with tens of thousands of fans in a stadium, an omnipresent media, and a cornucopia of temptations making choice as difficult as scarcity does.

Kurt Cobain sang, "I feel stupid and contagious . . . Here we are now entertain us." When he was 12, "I wanted to be a rock and roll star, and I thought that would be my pay-back to all of the jocks who got girlfriends all of the time. But I realized way before I became a rock star that was stupid." Years later Cobain saw the pay-back as even less appealing:

"I think of myself as a success because I still haven't compromised my music, but that's just speaking on an artistic level. Obviously, all the other parts that belong with success are just driving me insane. What I really can't stand about being successful is when people confront me and say, 'Oh, you should just mellow out and enjoy it'. I don't know how many times I have to fucking say this. I never wanted it in the first place."

And in his suicide note, he wrote

"Sometimes I feel as if I should have a punch-in time clock before I walk out on stage."

Cobain was far from alone. Here are some other musicians, many compiled by Michael Woodall, who killed themselves or died of drug-induced causes. Not included are those who died in airplane crashes or under disputed circumstances, who were murdered, or as in the case of Keith Relf, lead singer for the Yardbirds, were electrocuted while playing an electric guitar through a 220-watt Marshall amp while taking a bubble bath:

Johnny Ace, Chris Acland, John Belushi, Mike Bloomfield, Tommy Bolin, Graham Bond, John Bonham, Adrian Borland, Roy Buchannan, Tim Buckley, Paul Butterfield, Glen Buxton, David Byron, Steve Clarke, Kurt Cobain, Ian Curtis, Nick Drake, Tom Evans, Peter Farndon, Bobby Fuller, Danny Gatton, Lowell George, Ric Grech, Pete Ham, Donny Hathaway, Bob "The Bear" Hite, James Honeyman-Scott, Shannon Hoon, Douglas Hopkins, Randy Jo Hobbs, Michael Hutchence, Robert Johnson, Billy Jones, Brian Jones, Janis Joplin, Paul Kossoff, Frankie Lymon, Richard Manuel, Robbie McIntosh, Joe Meek, Jonathan Melvoin, Keith Moon, Billy Murcia, Brent Mydland, Bradley Nowell, Phil Ochs, Brian O’Hara, Gram Parsons, Kristen Pfaff, Danny Rapp, Bon Scott, Del Shannon, Mel Street, Screaming Lord Sutch, Gary Thain, Johnny Thunders, E. William Tucker, Sid Vicious, Paul Williams, Rozz Williams, Wendy O Williams, Kevin Wilkinson, Alan "Blind Owl" Wilson.

These were voices with whom contemporary youth on both sides of the Atlantic grew up. Their average age at time of self-inflicted death: 34.1 years.

Cobain sang, "Gonna do it gonna die/Slowly, lonely, holy, lonely."

Somebody quoted Nine Inch Nails on a Nirvana web bulletin board, "I hurt myself today to see if I still feel. I focus on the pain, the only thing that's real"

And Marilyn Manson told a Milwaukee newspaper, "I try to show people that everything is a lie -- pick the lie you like best -- and I hope mine is the best."