The 27 Club: Jimi Hendrix
Michael Ochs Archives/Getty ImagesJimi Hendrix at the Monterey Pop Festival in 1967.
Johnny Allen Hendrix (later renamed James Marshall) was born on Nov. 27, 1942 in Seattle, Washington. From an early age, young Hendrix pretended to strum along with his guitar idols — B.B. King, Buddy Holly, Robert Johnson — on an old broom. From there, he graduated to a one-string ukulele, then a used acoustic guitar. All the while, he taught himself to play, undeterred by his inability to read music.
In 1966, after a stint in the army and some work playing backup guitar for other performers, Hendrix formed his group, The Jimi Hendrix Experience, whose smash-hit debut Are You Experienced? sealed Hendrix’s fate as a legend. He soon dazzled audiences with his guitar playing at 1967’s Monterey Pop Festival, where he infamously burned his guitar on stage.
After more hit records, Woodstock followed, and Hendrix ascended to greater heights of superstardom amidst the glorious purple haze of sex, drugs, and rock and roll that marked the late 1960s.
Evening Standard/Getty ImagesJimi Hendrix at the Isle of Wight festival in 1970, his last performance in England.
But on the morning of Sept. 18, 1970, his girlfriend, Monika Dannemann, called his friend, Eric Burdon of The Animals, and said that she couldn’t wake him up. Burdon urged her to call for an ambulance and headed to her apartment at London’s Samarkand Hotel — but it was already too late. Jimi Hendrix was dead, the newest member of the 27 Club.
Burdon tried to clean up before the police arrived. He cleared out Hendrix’s drugs and a sheet of lyrics he mistook for a suicide note. It read:
“The story of life is quicker than the wink of an eye,
The story of love is hello and goodbye.
Until we meet again.”
An ambulance arrived at the apartment at 11:27 a.m. to find the doors flung open and Hendrix alone and unresponsive, covered in his own vomit. They loaded his body into the emergency vehicle. He was pronounced dead upon arrival at the hospital at 12:45 pm. The death certificate cites the cause of death as “inhalation of vomit” and “barbiturate intoxication.” Police discovered nine of Danneman’s sleeping pills missing from the apartment.
Brian Jones
Wikimedia CommonsBrian Jones in 1965.
Rolling Stones founder and multi-instrumentalist Lewis Brian Hopkin Jones was born on Feb. 28, 1942 in Cheltenham, England. Both his parents possessed musical talents and by the time Jones was in high school, he could play the guitar, piano, clarinet, and saxophone.
But at age 17, Jones got his girlfriend pregnant and left school in disgrace and so went to make a meager living from playing guitar on the street and in bars. In 1962, he founded The Rolling Stones with Ian Stewart, Mick Jagger, and Keith Richards. Within a few short years, the group started scoring consistent hits and began to solidify their position as rock gods.
But as the band became more and more successful, Jones became increasingly difficult to work with. He completely alienated himself from his bandmates as he fell into drug and alcohol addiction.
Fotos International/Getty ImagesBrian Jones at the Monterey Pop Festival. 1967.
As he was self-destructing, Jones lived at a manor in East Sussex once owned by Winnie the Pooh author A.A. Milne. It was here on July 3, 1969 that his girlfriend Anna Wohlin found him motionless at the bottom of his swimming pool. Wohlin, a nurse, attempted CPR but to no avail. By the time an ambulance arrived just after midnight, Brian Jones was declared dead.
The coroner noted that his liver and heart had been severely damaged due to drug and alcohol abuse and rendered a verdict of “death by misadventure.”
As is the case with many of the other deaths in the 27 Club, rumors of foul play began swirling. Also at the home that evening were friend Jenny Lawson and Jones’ contractor Frank Thorogood. Some suspect Thorogood of murder, while others still suspect Jones’ driver, Tom Keylock. According to Lawson, Jones had just fired Thorogood, which caused him to spiral “out of control.”
There were traces of sleeping pills and alcohol in Jones’ bloodstream, and his legal cause of death is cited as “death by misadventure”. Jones was embalmed, his hair dyed white, and he was buried 10 feet underground in an airtight casket made of metal.
