Cause of death: Rock’n’roll

Rockstars die like the rest of us. It’s sad when it happens, mostly unnecessary but sometimes not very surprising.

Check it out…

Choked on vomit

Jimi Hendrix – Died in the ambulance on his way to St. Mary Abbot's Hospital after being found unconscious by his lady friend. The pathologist reported large amounts of Vesparax together with Seconol in his blood, along with considerable traces of other drugs like amphetamine.

Bass player Noel Redding always claimed Hendrix was murdered with drugs. “We were pill pros. No one knew more about drugs than we did. There is no way he would fuck that up.”

John Bonham – Died at Jimmy Page’s house after choking on his own vomit after an outrageous drunken stupor that included 40(!) shots of vodka and countless screwdrivers.

Others who choked on their own vomit: Bon Scott, Tommy Dorsey

Suicide (if not always intentional)

Johnny Ace – Played Russian Roulette with himself and lost. True story… He went backstage during one of his shows and decided to roll the chamber of his revolver, put it against his head, flashed a big grin to the on-lookers and pulled the trigger.

Terry Kath (Chicago) - An avid gun collector… He was showing off a new automatic to a crew member who got nervous about Kath waving it in his face. To prove how harmless it was, Kath removed the clip and put the gun to his head not realizing there was a bullet in the chamber still. He said “See? It’s just…”, pulled the trigger and died immediately.

Other documented suicides: Kurt Cobain, Roy Buchanan, Nick Drake, Danny Gatton, Michael Hutchence, Ingo Swichtenberg (drummer, Helloween), Wendy O’Williams

Plane crash

Lynyrd Skynyrd – If you haven’t heard this story it is something worth telling... It’s October 20th 1977 and Lynyrd Skynyrd is passing over a Mississippi swamp in their small private plane heading to a concert. Something goes very wrong; the plane plummets to the ground, crashes hard and kills half the band (Van Zant and the Gaines siblings) plus crew members and the pilot…

Drummer Artemis Pyle is the only one barely moving after the crash and finds himself in the middle of the murkiest of swamps. He realizes he has to get help and after dragging himself for a mile, delirious from blood loss, fighting poisonous snakes, ravenous gators and unconsciousness, he finally arrives at a farm… He oozes onto the porch, almost passed out from exhaustion and covered in mud, hollering for help. The farmer comes out of his house, says “Get off my property you goddamn hippie!” and shoots him in the shoulder with a shotgun. Fucking hicks…

Other unfortunate plane crash victims: Patsy Cline, Ritchie Valens, The Big Bopper, Buddy Holly, John Denver, Rhandy Rhoads, Jim Croce, Stevie Ray Vaughan (helicopter), Otis Redding, Glen Miller

Car/Bike accident

Criss Oliva (Savatage) – One of the most underrated guitar players in metal was driving home with his wife Dawn and got hit head on by a driver careening down the wrong side of the road. Criss died instantly and his wife just barely survived.

Duane Allman – In an attempt to avoid crashing into an oncoming truck the Allman Brothers guitar player Duane wipes out on his motorcycle and dies in the hospital after intense surgery. His band mate Berry Oakley died one year later when wrecking HIS motorcycle three blocks from the site of Duane’s accident.

Other victims: Razzle, Cliff Burton, Marc Bolan, Michael Hedges, Paul Hackman (Helix), Tim Kelly

Cancer

Chuck Schuldiner – The father of Death Metal didn’t invent the genre but made it basically what it is today. Fought long and hard against his diagnosed brain tumor, pontine giloma, but eventually had to give up and pass away in 2001. Since he didn’t have medical insurance he left a huge hospital bill behind for his family to deal with… A charity auction, selling items from Pantera, Papa Roach and Red Hot Chilipeppers amongst others was arranged by a fan, but the money never reached the family. Why is still unclear.

Other cancer victims: Nat King Cole, Eric Carr, Bob Marley, Mick Ronson, Frank Zappa

Overdose/ drug related deaths due to long time abuse

Elvis Presley – The conspiracy theories have surrounded his death but in the pathologist’s report it clearly states that he died from “coronary arrhythmia” due to long term barbiturate abuse.

Nikki Sixx – Overdosed on heroin, was taken to the hospital where a doctor revived him with a shot of adrenaline to the heart. Nikki Sixx hitch hikes home to his Beverly Hills home and shoots up again… (The guy needs a crash course in either suicide or drug abuse, ‘cause he doesn’t seem to be doing too good with either…) I am sure most junkies at one time or another “died” and were “revived” but Nikki just loooves to keep yammering on and on about it. Shut up and die already, you no talent douche bag.

Slash – Also died from an overdose, not one, but allegedly THREE TIMES and was brought back to life by adrenaline to the heart every time. Someone up there is either looking out for him or just don’t want anything to do with him.

Jim Morrison – The rumors concerning Jim’s death mainly deal with WHERE he died. The official story is that he died at his hotel in the bath tub from heart failure induced by a heroine overdose. Friends that were with him his last day say he died in the club “Rock and Roll Circus” and that his body was taken to his hotel room to avoid a scandal.

Other drug deaths: Janis Joplin, Johnny Thunders, Sid Vicious, Steve Clark, Shannon Hoon, Phil Lynott, Keith Moon, Layne Staley etc etc…

Murder

Robert Johnson – The delta blues legend who made a pact with the devil was rushed to his maker by a jealous husband who laced his beer with strychnine after Johnson had been doing the hanky panky with his wife.

Brian Jones (Rolling Stones) - Was found dead in a swimming pool in ‘69 and his death was labeled “death by misadventure”. In 1993 a builder/construction worker by the name of Frank Thorogood confessed on his deathbed to killing Jones.

Others who faced killers: Marvin Gaye (shot by his father), Lennon, Dimebag (shot on the 24th anniversary of Lennon’s shooting), Sam Cooke, Selena, Tupac, Notorious BIG, Jam Master Jay

AIDS

Ray Gillen – One of the most missed voices in rock and sadly overlooked by most… The Badlands/ ex-Black Sabbath singer died from AIDS related complications in 1993. The third never before released Badlands album “Dusk” was recently posthumously released by Jake E Lee and is well worth owning. Unfortunately we never got to hear him on Blue Murder’s first album or Black Sabbath’s “Eternal Idol” because neither John Sykes nor Tony Iommi could deal with Gillen’s bitchy primadonna arrogance and so threw him out of their respective studios and scrapped the tapes. Could have been classic albums.

Freddie Mercury – The world’s most flamboyant singer died in 1991 and the concert held in his memory, The Freddy Mercury Aids Benefit, attracted the largest world-wide viewing audience in history when televised live.

Other AIDS related deaths: Liberace, Ofra Haza, Robbin Crosby, Easy-E

Drowning

Jeff Buckley – The somber Cohen pretty boy for a new generation decided to go for a swim in the Mississippi with his clothes on. The current swept him away and his body was only found 5 days later.

Dennis Wilson – The only Beach Boy who actually surfed, jumped into Monica Bay from his yacht on a cold December night in 1983 for a late swim. He suffered almost instant hypothermia in the cold water and sank to the bottom…

The list goes on… The rock rolls on… Hail the dead rebels… (Yeah, yeah, yeah...)