Why 27

That culture, coupled with the emotional lives that inspire many musicians to write and perform, provide the perfect set of circumstances for an early death. Additionally, Sounes pointed out that most members of the club had "strikingly difficult childhoods," producing emotional wounds that would inspire artists like Cobain and Hendrix to look to drugs, alcohol and music as a means of self-medication.

There's a strange trend in the club members' relationships, too. Pain attracts pain, and drug abusing musicians often attract, either willfully or not, other drug users into their lives. Most members of the 27 Club were romantically involved with other drug users at the time of their death. Jim Morrison's girlfriend lied to police when her boyfriend died as a means of covering up her own drug abuse, adding to already-intense speculation surrounding the demise of the Doors frontman.

But while it's clear that rock stars are more likely to die young than, for example, their average fan of the same age, the 27 Club is really more "The 20's and 30's Club. But the members of the 27 Club get the most attention both because the term is marketable and because the deaths of those involved have sparked the most rumors.

Plane crashes, for example, have killed a surprisingly high number of talented artists Buddy Holly, Otis Redding, etc. Reports of Morrison's demise in a Paris bathtub have inspired four decades of rumours. Speculation on Cobain's death is endlessly fascinating. Jimi Hendrix was described in Rolling Stone as:. His boundless drive, technical ability and creative application of such effects as wah-wah and distortion forever transformed the sound of rock and roll.

She died only two weeks after Hendrix. Just a year later, in , the wild, handsome, charismatic Jim Morrison exited the pop music scene in similar fashion. Because of the proximity of these three deaths, the kernel of the idea of a 27 Club was born. Brian Jones d. Immortalised in death, a life-size bronze statue of Amy Winehouse has just been unveiled in London. The Conversation is currently running a series on Death and Dying.

This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article. Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies. Want to bookmark your favourite articles and stories to read or reference later?

Start your Independent Premium subscription today. On the Waterfront , a film, won the best picture at the 27 th academy awards. Mozart was born on January 27 th , Mozart also produced 27 piano concertos and 27 concert arias. Although seemingly just another number, it does seem to hold some significance both in the musical world and that of a more biblical sense.

Keep an eye out for it, 27 appears more than you think…. Just enjoy the facts above! The Fact Site requires you to enable Javascript to browse our website.

An official tennis court has a width of 27 feet. Both the Spanish and Hebrew alphabet have 27 letters each.