Title: The Haunting Mystery of the 27 Club Explained
Plenty of famous figures died at age 27 before the 1960s — but the idea of the 27 Club really took off when Rolling Stones guitarist Brian Jones, Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, and Jim Morrison all died at that age. (Jones died in July 1969, Hendrix and Joplin in the fall of 1970, and Morrison in July 1971.) Even though all of their causes of death were vastly different — Jones drowned, Hendrix and Joplin due to complications from drug use, and Morrison from heart failure — it sparked the idea that celebrities usually die at the age of 27, and it should be said here that the coincidence of their ages at their time of death is quite eerie.
The Origin of the 27 Club Phenomenon
Years after those four passed away, two more high-profile figures died at 27. Artist Jean-Michel Basquiat died from a drug overdose in 1988 and Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain died by suicide in 1994, sparking the idea of the 27 Club all over again. (Again, there were other “members” of the 27 Club in between, but these two men were among the most famous of them.) The superstition over the age of 27 was born anew, and seventeen years after Cobain’s death, another beloved musician joined the “club.”