Several of the greatest stars of the music scene left this world at the age of 27. In today’s episode, we talk about the many musicians who are members of the “27 Club”, including:

• Jim Morrisson
• Jimi Hendrix
• Janis Joplin
• Brian Jones
• Amy Winehouse
• Kurt Cobain

The majority of these tragic losses were due to abuse of drugs and alcohol, but some of the deaths are mysteries that remain unsolved, some even leading to speculation of murder.

The question at hand: Is something strange or mysterious going on that leads iconic musicians into this “exclusive club” at age 27? Science helps us out as we talk about a researcher who actually studied the statistics to get us closer to an answer to this question.

Welcome to See You on the Other Mike, where the world of

the mysterious collides with the world of entertainment.

A discussion of art, music, movies, spirituality,

the weird, and self discovery. And

now, your hosts, musicians and entertainers

who have their own weakness for the weird, Mike and

Wendy from the band Sunspot.

Wendy years old. What were you doing when you were 27

years old, Wendy? I was having a great year. As I recall,

that was an excellent year of my life. Okay. Why? Why you ask?

Yeah. Why is why I didn't ask. I don't remember because it

was such a great year. Spent most of it at the bottom

of a bottle. No. But I do, you know, like, there's certain

years where you're like, oh, I remember that was an awesome year. That was one

of my favorite years. Like, one of my favorite years was when I was

7. Okay. Because I just remember

life being really fun and using my imagination lots and

just being really happy and loving school and loving, you know, my

friends and family and just things being grand.

No. I I think you're right. 27 was a

because we are the same age. Wendy was a really good year for me too,

I remember. I just gotten out of a relationship

that was, fairly unhealthy Yes.

And starting, you know, starting new there. I had a job where I was making

a lot of money, so I was spending money like a madman.

I really what it really was spending money like madman. It's like 401 k.

That's for old people. I just was

spending and and we were doing

really good with the band, really well with the band. We were 27. So we

were, like, we were just coming on to our own, I think. We we're just

about to release Yeah. We're think about that

in 2003. Well, 2004 for you. Like, how long we were playing? Like, we were

playing a ton too. So playing every weekend

and then a lot more on top of that with tours and things. And

it was exciting. It was an adventure. We were working

on new music. We were recording. It was just, like,

very, very full time life. It

was constant engagement with Mike, I feel, Wendy. And and so I agree. I'm

with you there. And, you know,

there's the whole thing about artists that die when

they're 27 years old. And that that's the kind of number, you know,

that's a, like, a legendary number that it's a curse. You

know? The the great the greatest of the artists die at

27 years old, which is probably why we're still alive.

Yeah. No. But it you know, I'm thinking about it and and,

you know, a lot of these artists were cut down in their

prime in their in their prime of engagement. And, you know, and I always think

about, when I was a kid and I thought about becoming a

vampire. Now I didn't think about it seriously Mike some people think about becoming a

vampire Mike you become a fireman or something like that.

But I just figured, if I would ever get bitten by a vampire,

I would wanna be bitten when I'm 28 years old, Mike, on my 28th birthday.

Oh, because you wanna that's a good age too because you're, like, physically fit, you're

you're mentally, you're fairly stable, you've you're educated enough to,

like, understand the ways of life. Yeah. You're old. Of the

world. You're old enough. And and so I always thought 28,

would be a really great age to become immortal. And so, I mean,

Wendy is the age that these people,

these artists became immortal when they died at that time.

And, no. Just thinking about the Wendy that you you

are, you know, in somewhat your your peak, you know, physical condition

and stuff like that. Absolutely. And and a lot of people, career wise,

that's when exciting things are happening because they're still youthful

enough to have all that energy and that,

I won't say Mike naivety, but, you

know, the world hasn't totally beaten them down yet. They're

still Right. Hope is still hope still exists when you're 27

years old. And But yet old enough to to have skills

developed and, to be in physically

somewhat decent shape and and have a little bit of experience under their belt. So

No. It it's it's a it's a great age, and it's it's a great age

to die at, apparently, as well. And and

so that's what we're talking about today about people who passed away when they're

27 years old. Yes. And, and and

really in entertainment, you know, this kind of curse and this is something Mike

you know, if you ever have somebody say to you, well, celebrities always die in

threes or, you know, people you know?

Wendy Mike, well, yeah. I mean, because

people are old and, you know, they would just pick these patterns. Right.

And it just depends I mean, it depends on how you group them. And so

I think that, we've kinda focused on that and

and made those patterns, when we you know, so we're taking this. And and especially

because some of the people who died were 27 were classic rockers.

And classic rock has had such an impact on culture,

almost more than any other style of music has had impact in the general

culture ever because it was so, with, you know, the

Vietnam War generation and counterculture and the fact that there

were 60,000,000 Americans

who were born between, you know, 1945 and 1965 to

participate in that. There were just so many people they can have an effect on

that, the fact that these people died at a certain age kinda

made it kinda made it an urban legend about these artists and the

curse of being 27 years old.

Magical. Yeah. And well, you know, when you think about it, the

kind of the kind of the kinda people who the the artistic

lifestyle. Now when I think about being 27 years old,

we talk about having a lot of energy and stuff like that. We would drive

5 hours to play a show and then drive 5 5 hours back in the

same night. Oh, yeah. Right? Without even without even thinking. We're like, yeah. We'll do

that. And, not like, somebody said that now. I'm like, no.

I'd like to take it. You know? We'd like to take a rest. Or Tell

me. We we wanna stay overnight. Or, you know, you wanna make it a little

easier. And and I think

that that really is, you know, the the energy. And I

think about 27 years old,

you know, the hard partying lifestyle. Like I can, you know, I

can Yeah. And and just the feeling of invincibility.

Mhmm. You know, you're not afraid of anything because you're in

your your your body is in such good shape at that age that you're

just, you know, if you hurt yourself, it's a

a couple days and you're fine again. That's it's you

really do feel invincible. It's it really is resilience. Like, you

can you can party until dawn and then sleep

for 5 hours and then be ready to play again or be ready to do

something. Like, you're you're just ready to go. And I think

that that's how some of these guys were living, obviously.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So so let's get into it. Who

maybe we should go through some of the people that, we can think of

who who died at Wendy. At 27 years old. Well, I think we we

should start with, who I think is the,

the big dog of the bunch, Jim Morrison Oh, yeah.

From The Doors. You know, he

he was never a guy who was in great shape. Like, Jim Morrison was you

know, he speaking of He did have those leather pants, though. Yeah. Well, no.

He looked great. I mean, that's just anybody can wear those and sweat them all

night. I mean No. He was he was a sexy guy. Girls loved him.

You know, he was good looking and everything. But, I mean, he was a dude

that lived definitely an extreme lifestyle. And

Yes. By the time they were getting, you know, 27 years old, Mike, the

doors were kinda falling done. Yeah. They were kinda falling apart. Like,

it's, he'd already I mean, he'd moved to Paris.

Yeah. The doors were done. He was he was, like, performing at some nightclub in

Paris with some other group, I guess.

And I only know this because I was there this summer,

and I went to the Pere Lachaise Cemetery and found

his grave. And while I was standing there reflecting upon

it, I As you do.

Yes. Of course, you do. A French tour came through

and I eavesdropped on the tour to hear what he was saying,

although he was speaking in French, which I can speak enough to get along. But,

you know, I'm sure I missed a few things. So you picked up enough?

Yeah. And people were asking questions and they were saying, oh, you know, And so

he said that, yeah, he was living in Paris and he was performing not with

the Doors anymore, but with, you know, at some night club. He had, like, a

regular standing show or something like that. And

and that was that was it. I mean,

we found him. Yeah. I mean, he he partied, he partied

really hard. And like, you could see that, like, in the later I

mean, Jim Morrison at Wendy did not look like a Jim Morrison at 23

years old. You know, he, Photographs, you mean? Like

Yeah. He was not the lizard king that he was just such

a mass of sexuality

and masculinity and things. I mean, he he kinda he was like

the like the lizard king like the lizard king's

fatter brother or something like that. You know? You know, he was like the lizard

uncle. That was maybe a way to put it. He was a lizard

uncle that had a little bit too much. You see him on the holiday.

And and so yeah. So 27 years old. I mean, he'd already

peaked. You know? And you hate to say that about a life. Like, wow. You

know, how can you say that? Well, he peaked at you know, a few years

earlier, and then he was just Well, you know, maybe maybe it wasn't it wouldn't

have been a peak had he continued to live. No. That's true. We'll never know.

But, I mean He decided he decided to substance himself to death Yeah.

At 27 years old. And so he he died in an

apartment bathtub, which always seems to me like a

particularly nasty, you know, like a because you're naked. That's insane. You

never wanna be found, like, naked in a bathtub, and then that's that's how they

find you. Because you think with the water or you're all blue and

wrinkly and bloated. Ew. Well, that's what

I'm saying. Like, wouldn't you like to be found in a

more, dignified state than

that? Of course. Right. So, Jim, bathtub.

So that was the other thing that that I picked up from the tour was

that, he's he said multiple times that they never

like, the cause of death was never actually, like,

officially determined. Okay. Well Is

that true or was that guy just making his tour of the

cemetery more mysterious? I mean, I think it does add it

does add some mystery and, dare I say, fun. If you

can add fun to death. We do every every

every time here and see you on the other side. But

it does add a little but, like, well, the cause of death was not determined.

Well, you can probably safely say that the cause of death wasn't

to healthy living. Mike that's what we can we can cross that out right there.

Of course, we can all draw conclusions, but it's just, you know,

we're scientists and we like to Absolutely. But there was, I mean

confirmation of this? I mean, I think the official one that

they finally decided on was a heroin overdose after a night of

drinking. Oh, man. And,

and so because, yeah. I mean so you're drinking. You're

partying hard. You're up, and then you decide to take some heroin,

which we'll be talking about a lump a bunch of heroin

here in this episode because heroin is is like the,

It's the Wendy drug. It is the Wendy drug, and it is the,

connecting theme. You know that that,

heroin really, that's the one that gets them. And

Well, it is a cruel mistress. Yes. Right. Heroin is

right. It's it's it's one person. It's a game you don't wanna play because

you're gonna lose, man. Hugs, not drugs. And,

he left everything to his girlfriend who died at

27 as well. So

she wasn't a particularly, healthy individual either.

But Jim Morrison, I mean, 27 years old. I mean, he's kicking off that he's

kicking off the club for classic rockers.

And that moves on to the next, you know, most famous person dying at Wendy,

Jimmy Hendrix. Oh, Jimmy. Yeah. Why,

Jimmy? Why? Right. Such a massive talent. I mean, the guy could play

guitar. He reinvented it. He always wins every,

at least when I was growing up in guitar magazines, it would always be Jimi

Hendrix was the one who changed how guitar

players look at the instrument. Absolutely. You know, when it came to

showmanship, when it came to

effects. And and, you know, you listen to a guitar solo from 1964

to one of Jimmy Hendrix guitar solos just a a few years later. And The

way he used the electric guitar was Just completely it was completely different.

Yeah. It was completely different. It I mean, he went less into

you know, a lot of guitar solos were very I mean,

a lot of them were based on blues, obviously, but they were based it was

a lot more traditional sound, a lot more countryfied sound. Listen to Elvis

and some of the guitar solos and Scottie Moore in in the rockabilly.

And, it just has that kinda you know, you can tell the sound. Or think

about the guitar solo in, Bill Haley in the

comments Wendy, you know, rocker on the clock and and

any of his songs, the guitarist just have a certain kind of

countryfied bluesish sound, and Jimi Hendrix turned that into

something space age. You know, he brought I mean, he added the

tang He's special. To the guitar.

And he also, was a was a boozer

and an abuser. Yeah. Like, yeah, Jimmy, was the guy these

guys party hard, and Jimmy had a horrible reputation with

alcohol. Yeah. This makes me, like, wonder

when they you know, it goes down on record, like, he had a bad reputation

with alcohol. How do you think that compares to, like, the way that we

and our friends party? Well, I think the difference

is is that with a lot of these stars and stuff like that, they

had a a coterie of yes men yes

men and yes women surrounding them. You know, these guys

weren't treated as your average, Mike, your buddy or anything like that. They

they were treated like they were gods. They were like like deities.

They could do no wrong. They could and and

especially when, you know, you you could move the

needle. You know, a guy like Jimi Hendrix, had a

lot of power in what he said because the rock stars had

such, had such influence on the culture.

I mean, they why do you think everybody was so you know, everybody gets

so up in arms today and parents get worried about things? Because they they're looking

at examples from the 19 sixties seventies where these guys had such an

incredible influence in the culture and such hero worship as,

you know, we all the people who worship them knew less about

them than they know about the people today. I mean, we hear about

everything that a star does today. You know, every time they're in a fight at

a at a club, every time they do something stupid,

every single thing they say gets, you know, tweeted on social media, and they make

mistakes and say dumb things. And these guys had controlled

messages. So Jimmy Hendrix could totally do that.

And and and drinking and drugs, They probably they

probably had, like, the invincibility of a

27 year old, but multiplied because of everybody constantly telling

them how incredible and amazing and And talented and everything. I mean, they

lived in a bubble. And you think Wendy know, you compare that to, like, if

our friends or we decide to have a night out and go crazy, if somebody

acts like a jackass, They get called off. And he'd be like, stop being

such a jackass. And the next day, you know, I'll get something like, Mike, you

shouldn't have said that last night. You were a real jerk. That

reminds me I gotta talk Mike, we gotta talk Yeah. Fair enough. Last weekend.

Yeah. I probably was a jackass. But the

thing is, I would get called out on that. Jimmy Hendrix does not get called

out on that because Fair enough. He's a god. And he died after

staying up all night, and, he didn't inject

heroin in his eye or anything like that or, like, people said, like, oh, yeah.

He died after he injected heroin in his eye. No.

He just choked on his own vomit in the London apartment.

Oh Mike goodness. Yeah. So he went in a bad way. Speaking of dignified.

Right. That's a particularly nasty way to be

found. And it's just sad because, you know, you read his his

biography or whatever and everything's so impressive. And then it

has to end with that punctuation of, like,

the the nasty visual, the undignified, artist lifestyle. When we talk about, you

know,

the artist lifestyle. When we talk about, you know, when we talk about

we expect artists to act a certain way, it's because these guys

did this in the 19 sixties 19 seventies. It's because these guys lived this

success. Oh, yeah. They set the bar. Right. That's a that's

a good way to put it. Every time I order an extra shot, I'm just

gonna be like, well, Jimmy set the bar very high.

And I'm just trying to I'm just trying to chase up to Just trying to

chase him. But all the bad behavior and all the stuff that we

just come to expect from musicians, comes from

these counterculture artists in the 19 sixties. Nice. And Jimmy just letting it go.

And and Jimmy, the next one

up on the Boulevard of Broken Broken Dreams, 27 years old,

on the next stop is Janis Joplin. Oh Mike goodness. Yeah.

She That's crazy. Nobody dies at home. They all die in some, you know, weird

place. She's got She's probably motel 6. We'll Oh, wait.

Wait. They didn't tour like us. We'll leave the heroin on for you.

No. But, yeah. Right. She probably had a nice hotel room. Well, she

died at a hotel room in Hollywood. So not Oh, you know it was

expensive. Right. You know, she wasn't just she wasn't just going to the nearest place

like the she looks at the exit that's like 3 miles from the nearest

city to make sure it's like, well, that one is 3495 and it's

4495 at the next accent. Oh, wait. But it's $5 more if you have more

than 2 people. Right. So 2 people go Oh, man. The 3rd person, you keep

your head down, we'll sneak you in.

Come on. We've all done that. And,

yeah, and she, the official cause of death was an overdose of heroin

possibly compounded by alcohol. They don't have proof of the alcohol,

but, no, she she once again was on the thread of

heroin users. And Janis Joplin,

you know, her biggest hit, me and Bobby McGee, You

know, and she's also the one that if you ever hear the song Mike, Lord,

won't you buy me a Mercedes Benz? That was another one.

And, no. And she was just she was a hard

living hard loving woman. This is a quote because you and you can

see that, maybe that Janice,

was preparing herself for an early grave by saying,

maybe I won't last as long as other singers, but I think you can destroy

your now worrying about tomorrow. That's some

good wisdom there actually. It is until you're on the

floor of apartment highway. Right. But the whole

focus on the moment, you know. That's true. Yeah. Live

in the now. I mean, that's not worrying about the past or the future. Like,

focus on what you're doing right now. There's wisdom there.

There's just just crop the sentence,

crop out the maybe I won't last as long as other singers, and you've got

yourself, like, every motivational speaker and every, like, new

age. That's right. Maybe I won't last as long as I sing it. I think

you can destroy your now, worrying about tomorrow. Sounds good, Wendy.

I'll get the spoon, you get the needle, and let's go.

Alright. This we're gonna we're gonna fall asleep. Pill or blue pill,

Mike? How about both? We'll take them just

like Janice. Them. Get me all of them. We'll take all of them.

Okay. Right. Oh, yeah. Janice. Janice lost her.

Rahul, Brian Jones, founding member of the Rolling Stones, he's

found Join the Wendy club at Wendy. And then he found dead in

his pool. Oof. Yeah. So it was obviously he's gonna be

bloated. Gross. So he just, like,

did he dive in the shallow end or what? Yeah. That that was

a thing. He died. Right. He died in the, Mike, the 3 feet, you know,

instead of the 6 feet. And, that was it for him. The

mother's warning was always right. No.

His was labeled death by misadventure.

So he very What? Yeah. I mean, that's the official

death by misadventure. So he was screwed around in the pool

and killed himself. Oh. And, Got

suction to the the pool drain or something? Or

Hold on. I think we can find let me find a little bit more. You

wanna get into detail about these deaths. I completely understand, Wendy. Labeled

death by misadventure. That that makes me imagine him, like, going down

a giant slide, like, with an inner tube and, like, whacking his head on the

diving board or something, you know. Well, I

mean, there was, of course, this is all conspiracy

theory. But Right. People did say

that, he might have been murdered. Oh,

that would be horrible. Yeah. And so every once in a while, they'll they'll say

that he was murdered. Now,

in 1993, it was reported that he was murdered by a guy named

Frank Thurgood, Yep. Who's obviously George Thorogood's,

like, brother. George Thorogood's brother Frank Thorogood murdered

Brian Jones. Here is the first time

you the first time you learn it now. And then

he went off and he wrote bad to the bone for his brother, and this

the rest is history. K. Okay. No. But, I mean, he's been dead, obviously, since

1969. And so in 1993, this guy named Frank

Thurgood, who is doing some construction work in the property, the last person to see

Brian Jones alive. The Rolling Stones

taxi driver was alleged that he had confessed the

murder because because, of course, who wouldn't you know, you always confess your

murders to to the driver,

but but then the driver denied it, and they made a movie out of it

called Stoned in 2005. Oh Mike gosh.

And investigative journalists have looked into it, and people

said that, you know, it was a fight and Frank Thurgood killed him in the

fight and then just they covered up the cause of death, and they threw him

in the pool. But

so the official police said that this has been thoroughly

reviewed by Sussex County's crime policy and review branch, and there's no new

evidence suggest the coroner's original verdict of death by

misadventure was incorrect. As such That's strange. The case will not

be reopened and Sussex police ignored that next, few

claims that, you know, people had said that he had died. So,

I mean, just like anything, it was just they were like, why did a guy

who was 27 years old, how could he die? The prime of his life. And

of course, he he partied and and went you know, he

was one of the Rolling Stones. I mean Yeah. So in the

sixties, in the UK, right, it was who do you like better? The

Beatles or The Rolling Stones? You know, that was everybody

Mike 1 or the other. And, they

are the most famous people in the country at the time, More

loved than the Queen. More

fun too. Yeah. And and, you know, Jim Morrison published a poem about him

after he died. Jimmy Hendrix dedicated a song to him.

Really? Yeah. So the other members of the club action. They're, like,

making odes to each other. Yeah. The other members of the club made a little,

you know, had had had a little tribute to Brian Jones. And in just a

couple of years, they would join him. Yeah. And think

about, like, all those people in the in the

in the world beyond partying. Right. Rocking out. Yeah. They're

no. Those guys are going crazy. I I'd hate I'd hate to see

heaven's bar tab. I'd hate to miss that party. Right.

Although I'm afraid I already have. Yeah. No. It's I think I missed that party

by about 10 years. I mean, next

up next up That's okay. Yes. No. I'm I'm happy to be alive.

Happy to happy to be here and be talking about it instead of, you know,

being dead. Yeah. And next up is somebody from our generation,

Wendy. That's what makes me so sad. And this is, you know, this is the

one that, you know, probably affected people our age the most and who's

that? Yes. That would be mister Kurt Cobain, of course.

Yep. And and he's he's another guy. Died at

27 years old at the peak of his career. You know? They had That

was shocking. Shocking when that happened. Well,

I remember the the leading up to it. And and, you know, Kurt Cobain was

always, I mean, he he never was

comfortable with being famous. And I never I never

felt too bad for him for that because I was like, yeah. You know, most

famous people people Then everybody wants to be famous. Well, many

people want to be famous. Everybody who does the things that we do wanna be

famous. And more people even beyond that.

Yes. And and he I mean, he was a guy that that didn't

like it, couldn't handle it, didn't want it. And, you know,

people worship I would say people worship him. I

definitely yeah. I mean, think about people who worshiped him. Right. Didn't

we? I mean, there were guys that, you know, when I think about

1995 in college, guys wearing the the flannel

and stuff like that on our dorm floor, that would be Mike, did you

you know, they they could talk about, like, the niceties of every, you

know, Nirvana song, and and they could talk about the production, and and they would,

write songs like Nirvana

and just, you know, just flannel itself, you know, was a

was a tribute to the man. But he's he's

unique to this club because he's the first one in our discussion that

was, well, presumed suicide.

Right? Yes. Oh, yeah. The other ones were either unknown or overdose

or but but for his, I mean,

although some people will still dispute this and I don't know. I wasn't there.

So Right. But the the prevailing

belief is that he he committed suicide.

So Well, now now, first of all, I know I remember

when the radio reports and this is before the Internet and before the tweets would

come in. Mike, now so the first thing I do when I I see a

report of somebody dying, you know, I think of the

celebrities that have died in the past or Heath Ledger died. Or,

you know, if something gets reported, you know, you might see a tweet about it

And then, like, Mike. That okay. That's just a tweet about it. Now let's go

to Google and see if this person actually died. Because they're so many stupid, Mike.

Right. They try to death hoax this thing all the time.

And, Kurt Cobain, like, this is something I remember

when it came through on the radio that he had,

tried to kill himself in Rome by taking 50 sleeping pills. Oh my gosh. And

so this was a couple months before the actual suicide.

And, I remember people saying, yeah. Do you hear about Kurt Cobain? I'm like, I

don't know if I believe it. And then it was on MTV News. And so

you had the, you know, Kurt Loder wouldn't That that confirmed

it was real. Yeah. And, he was all I mean, he was a

hair I mean, he was a guy that also dealt with heroin. That was big

at the time. I mean, I guess heroin's big in all these guys' Mike when

they die at 27. And he still got that, that through

line that through line of heroin. And he had taken heroin to deal with

chronic stomach pain he had. He also probably just Mike to get high.

And and here at worship, I think we think of these people. We're like, well,

you know, he had to deal with stomach pain. Well, a lot of people have

stomach pain, and they don't, you know, they don't mainline some h. Just take some

Tums or maybe some Pepto Bismol. And I'm not trying to you know what?

Like, that's very dismissive. No. You know what? I've never tried it.

Maybe it would actually works. Like, maybe the pop pop Fizz Face.

Right. Oh, that that doesn't work worth nothing. I need some black tar

heroin. But but really though, I mean, pain I

dealing with extreme pain and stuff like Mike, I I mean,

having not, fortunately, having not had to deal with it myself. I don't

know. Like, maybe you do reach a point where you're just desperate and you're like,

nothing's working. This is the only thing that makes me feel good.

I'm sure. Why not? And you don't have to deal with doctors or anything like

that. You have to deal with dealers, and all they care about is getting paid.

Probably readily available for a guy like that. Sure.

And, I mean, Lane Staley was a heroin addict. Eventually died of it a few

years later. Another Seattle grunge dude.

Yeah. That was sad. And, yeah, Kurt Cobain a lot older, though. Yeah. A few

years older. He he he made it past Wendy, but, I

mean, heroin was just a drug of choice for a lot of our favorite grunge

stars. Yeah. And Kurt Cobain took it. You

know, it was dealing with drug issues, was dealing with stomach pain, was dealing with

issues with fame, and, killed himself with a shotgun.

Very sad. And they still have I mean, there's a, there's

a movie called Kurt and Courtney, by a English filmmaker named

Nick Broom, and then he goes into the entire, you know, was it a

was it a conspiracy? Was it Courtney Love who engineered his death kinda

thing? It would all be really interesting to know. But I I have to say

if it wasn't her, I mean, how horrible of a thing to be tagged with

for your whole life. Right. Murdering your husband and the father of your child that

you killed killed him. People a guy who many people just adore.

I mean Mhmm. So He was people's my favorite

singer of all time. He was our generation's John Lennon. Yeah.

I don't know. I mean, I don't know I wouldn't what her

involvement was, But Yeah. If she if she had no involvement in

that, I I feel really really sorry for her for

Right. She's had to take a lot of heat over it over the years for,

you know, people saying that she she murdered her husband.

Obviously, there's no proof of that. They said that she hired a guy by the

name of Il Duce, and they have, in the movie, they have interviews with him

and stuff like that. And he was talking about how Courtney approached him. And,

anyway, there's no proof. Right now, we know that Kurt Cobain's dead

at 27 years old. Joined the club with Brian Jones,

Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, Jim Morrison. And So

that's all that's oh, sorry. Go ahead. I was gonna say, and I was just

gonna move on to the the Wendy the 27 club for the

millennial generation. Yeah. Because I was gonna say there's a lot of dudes. Right now,

Janice is the only female in the club. Well, let's talk about Amy

Winehouse. Oh, thank goodness. Yes. Right? How could we forget

her? And I love Amy Winehouse. And but she wasn't known.

I mean, she was known for being wasted all the time. Her big song was

rehab. They tried to Mike me go to rehab, and I said, what? Yeah. I

mean, talk about, like, living up to the the the

expectations. Right. I mean We knew she partied hard. She had to cancel

a tour in 2007 for just being wasted drunk on stage. But, you

know, the thing is you never know, like, what the press is making up or

what people publicity stunts. And since she did have a song

called Rehab, I mean, it's not that far off to think like, oh, hey, well,

maybe this is all part of a stunt to get more attention from the press.

You know? So, oh, I canceled my tour because of my problems. You

know? You just like, I don't believe anything anymore. I've I feel like

Hollywood and and the media has has made nothing

actually believable. Well Thankfully, with blogs and Twitter, we could we have

a little bit more, you know. You know, I watched I watched wag the dog

again this weekend. Oh my gosh. It was on old. It was on HBO, and

I watched wag the dog. And if you guys haven't seen it, wag the dog

is a movie about how, the president

of the United States in the movie does something sexually

illicit with, like, a cheerleader, like a, you know, a teenage cheerleader. And

so they make up an entire war with Armenia

to, to distract the country in the days before the election to

distract them from the fact that, Scandal. Yeah. The

scandal. And and so that was the whole thing of of covering it up and

and the term wag the dog. And so because they say, like,

well, the dog usually wags its tail. But if the dog the the tail was

smarter, the tail could wag the dog, and that was the whole idea. So, yes,

Amy Winehouse is the kind of person where, you know, they could use the whole

thing as an excuse, and people would just love her more. She was in the

tabloids all the time. Yeah. Kinda like the Miley Cyrus thing

now. You know? Mhmm. Right. Oh, yeah. Like, Miley Cyrus

does something that's like, oh, and she parties too hard and misses a show or

something. People would be like, oh, that's She smoked some dope. Yep. That's

just Miley. You know? Like, you know and, Amy

Winehouse was well, she had a reputation for

partying. She apparently did let her rip. Amy

well, if you see her last concert and I remember when it was on the

blogs when the YouTube video showed up for a concert in Belgrade.

And it was just a mess. Mike, she's falling over the stage. She can't remember

the words. She doesn't know where she is. Drugs are bad.

Okay. Yeah. It was yeah. And,

within a month, she was dead of alcohol poisoning. At 27. 27 years

old. So, I mean, that's a bunch of very famous people who died

very early, in the prime. You know, Amy

Weidass was just broke in the United States. She was getting to the song for

the James Bond movie. Yeah. She was don't

at the pinnacle. And right. And then fell. Very sad.

So let's just go through a couple of quick, other people that died at 27

years old. I'm gonna talk about one last thing. K. So

just a couple of quick people that died. Ronald McKernan from the Grateful Dead,

another musician who died at 27 years old. Robert

Johnson, we talked about him in the dealing, you know, making a deal with the

devil. And Robert Johnson also died mysteriously at 27

years old. Pete Hand from Badfinger.

Kristin Pfaff was the bass player from Hole. So another Missus

Pfaff? Missus Pfaff. That's right. But no. Another,

another, you know, grunge refugee who, you know, didn't make it with the

h. Jonathan Brandes.

Now, Wendy, I don't know if you had a crush on Jonathan Brandes Mike every

girl I knew when he was on Seaquest. DSP. I don't know who that

is, so I think I'm gonna have to go with no. Okay. He's Sorry. He

was a child actor and he was on the cover of Tiger

Beat. Oh, nice. And there was Tiger Beat and there was,

what were some of the other ones? That celebrity Oh, man.

Teen Bop Teen Bop. Or something. Yeah. No. Teen Bop. Magazine.

And Yeah. I have to ask my sister. She would know. Would she be into

it? I bet she would have I mean, I think all those new kids on

the block posters in a room. Oh, man. Then she obviously you'd be Mike, what

do you think about Jonathan Brandes? And she'd be like, I loved him. I loved

him. Was he in any other TV shows?

Seaquest was the big one. He was also in a movie with Chuck Norris.

But I think once he just got a little older, things just dried

up, you know, and then, you get that taste of fame and the

taste of teen bop, the cover of teen bop magazine and being on people's walls

and stuff like that and it's it's over. Got depressed and died.

The artist, Jean Michel Basquiat died. He was

one of, you know, Mike, Andy Warhol kinda contemporaries art. Same Mike

counterculture, late sixties, early seventies, and that, you know,

that whole whole deal. And then Jeremy Michael Ward

from the Mars Volta, heroin overdose when he

was 27 years old. So again. So right. Exactly. What I'm saying

is there's this through this there's this through line, and it's the needle, man. When

Wendy If we didn't have heroin, how many of these people would still be

here? I think I think we didn't have injectable heroin. Most of these

people would still be alive, because I was,

listening to, and actually, I have a British guy who was talking about how

it's it's the fact that it's when you inject it is when you can

really overdose. You can't smoke yourself to death,

because you just pass out. Well, you it's like, you know, your mouth just closes

after a while and then you breathe. Your body just it it it gives it

your body enough time to, like, acknowledge something is happening that it should

not Yeah. You breathe oxygen instead of drugs for a little while and

you're okay. But the, but when it's when it's

direct right into your system, well, it's in there. There's nothing you can do. But

what how are you gonna go and get the heroin out? You can't just go

in and be like, oh, I'm just gonna barf this heroin out. No. I'm dead.

So injectable heroin, I think. Without without that, most of these people would still be

alive. So we'd have a That's depressing. We'd have a fat old Kurt Cobain right

now who probably be you know, have some very public divorce from Courtney

Love. Jimmy Hendrix, I don't know. Maybe

he would have the biggest pro of all time by now, but he, Who knows?

He could by now, he could have invented some other awesome technique on the guitar

that nobody has come up with yet. That would be nice.

Innovators? Mhmm. You never know. And he absolutely was.

So there was an Australian study that talked about, like,

about this curse of 27 years old. And is there

anything to it? And so they did a study that compared the mortality

of famous musicians with that of the general United Kingdom population.

And so they took 1046 musicians who had

a number one album in the UK charts between 1956 and

2007. And they found no peak in the

risk of death at the age of 27. However, musicians in their

twenties thirties were 2 to 3 times more likely to die prematurely than the

general population. Jeez. And That probably goes back to

the the partying and the Absolutely. Well and also,

the the biggest cluster of 27 deaths was the

19 seventies and early 19 eighties, and there has been changes in

how you treat heroin overdoses since then. There's been new ways of treating these

people. So not as many people die of heroin overdoses today as they did 40

years ago. Yeah. That's true. And so it just so that the

science has spoken, musicians

are more apt to die sooner because they do crazy

stuff, But 27 is not some magical

age. It just, it's just a bad age to do heroin, which

is I'm glad I started it when I was 35. That's the

that's the moral of the story, friends. If you're 27

Don't do age. Don't do age. Don't do age. And don't have a, you know,

don't go swimming in the middle of the night when you're all wasted. I think

is the other. I think that's good for anybody no matter what age you are.

Fair enough. Yeah. And especially not along the Mississippi River, but

that's for a different that's for a different episode. Alrighty.

The song you're about to hear is a See You on the Other Side exclusive.

Check out this episode's show notes at othersidepodcast.com/7

for the lyrics and a downloadable MP 3. Now for the song

called members only.

Besides this number's only let me in.

I know the size of members only let me in.

Besides his members, only they won't let

me in. I see the sites as members

only they won't let me

and don't you know there's nothing left out here but Russ in the wind

is

Thank you for listening to today's episode. You can find us

online at othersidepodcast.com. Until next

Mike. See you on the other side.