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27 Club

Updated: 5/24/2026, 7:18:06 PM Wikipedia source

The 27 Club is an informal list consisting mostly of popular musicians who died at age 27. As a pop-cultural phenomenon, it is closely linked to the urban myth that musicians' deaths are unusually common at 27. Although this claim has been refuted by scientific research, it remains a common cultural conception that the phenomenon exists, with many celebrities who die at 27 noted for their high-risk lifestyles. The original basis for the notion was a cluster of prominent musicians' deaths at the age of 27 between 1969 and 1971, including Brian Jones, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, and Jim Morrison; but only after the death of Kurt Cobain in 1994 was the notion of a "club" established, and the death of Amy Winehouse in 2011 enhanced its prominence. Different write-ups include a number of other musicians and sometimes other celebrities.

References

  1. Vox
    https://www.vox.com/2015/3/23/8277271/27-club-real-myth
  2. National Review
    https://www.nationalreview.com/2021/07/the-myth-of-the-27-club/
  3. The Conversation
    https://theconversation.com/the-27-club-is-a-myth-56-is-the-bum-note-for-musicians-33586
  4. The 27s: The Greatest Myth of Rock & Roll
    https://archive.org/details/27sgreatestmytho0000sega
  5. Rolling Stone
    https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-lists/the-27-club-a-brief-history-17853/robert-johnson-26971/
  6. This Day in Music
    https://www.thisdayinmusic.com/liner-notes/the-27-club/
  7. American Songwriter
    https://americansongwriter.com/7-forgotten-members-of-the-27-club/
  8. The Guardian
    https://www.theguardian.com/music/2008/feb/15/vinylword.joequeenan
  9. Life Goes Strong
    https://web.archive.org/web/20120425153907/http://play.lifegoesstrong.com/article/amy-winehouse-27-club
  10. The BMJ
    https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3243755
  11. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
    https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11573623
  12. The Guardian
  13. Break on Through: The Life and Death of Jim Morrison
  14. Seattle Post-Intelligencer
    https://web.archive.org/web/20221018065840/https://www.seattlepi.com/news/article/P-I-s-Writer-in-Residence-Charles-R-Cross-1229072.php
  15. Heavier Than Heaven: A Biography of Kurt Cobain
  16. The Seattle Times
    https://archive.seattletimes.com/archive/?date=19940408&slug=1904521
  17. The New York Times
    https://www.nytimes.com/1994/04/09/obituaries/kurt-cobain-hesitant-poet-of-grunge-rock-dead-at-27.html
  18. Take a Walk on the Dark Side: Rock and Roll Myths, Legends, and Curses
  19. Hits Daily Double
    https://www.livenirvana.com/interviews/9110rt/index.php#Transcript1
  20. The 27s: The Greatest Myth of Rock & Roll
    https://archive.org/details/27sgreatestmytho0000sega
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