The 27 Club

What is the 27 Club you ask?

The 27 is:

a) A swingers sex club in Phoenix, AZ

b) the 27 women who have let me see them naked. 

c) musicians who have died at age 27

If you answered A, you are obviously on the wrong blog. If you answered B, you're way, way under. And if you answered C you're correct. 

Original Bluesman Robert Johnson, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Jim Morrison and Kurt Cobain are just a few of the members of this prestigious club.  But there are a few rules for membership:

27 Club Rules

1. You have to be a famous musician. 

2. You have to be dead at age 27

3. Your death must be from something drug or alcohol related.

* the third rule isn't really a rule, just more of a guideline. 

The Truth About the 27 Club

 The truth is, there is no 27 Club and its all bullshit. There is nothing unusual or mysterious going on, and there is no curse that causes musicians to die at age 27. Furthermore, this phenomenon has been studied by scientists and researchers and it has been proven that musicians are just as likely to die at any age, not just 27. 

 An Australian study conducted at the Queensland University of Technology performed a mathematical analysis of over 1,000 musicians and found 86% died at ages other than 27 while only 7% did. (source: Time.com)

  Likewise, the British Medical Journal published a study in 2011 that also concluded there was no increased risk of musicians dying at age 27. 

 For all the poor, unlucky bastards who died at 27, there are just as many , if not more musicians who died at other ages. John Lennon (40), Elvis (42), Jerry Garcia (53), Sid Vicious (21), John Bonham (32), Bon Scott (33), Keith Moon (32) Layne Staley (34) are just a few I can name off the top of my head. 

 And don't forget the ones who have used drugs/alcohol heavily and survived like Ozzy Osbourne, Keith Richards, Steven Tyler, Alice Cooper, and Lou Reed to name a few. 

Getting Old: What Rock Stars Dread

 PsychologyToday.com has written that getting older is a major threat to our creative enterprises.  

 After age 30, we become more emotionally stable, more conscientious, more agreeable and less open to new experiences. 

 The fact is, becoming older more boring, conforming and adjusted can be a major threat to a rocker who's livelyhood depends on being youthful, rebellious, wild and dangerous. The public wont buy into it. 

 Want proof? Look at Paul McCartney. He wrote/cowrote 27 number 1 songs with The Beatles all by age 30. Since then? His last number one hit was Say Say Say in 1983 over 30 years ago. 

 The Rolling Stones, who began their careers with several number 1 hits, last topped the charts with Honky Tonk Women in 1969  

What Does This Prove?

 Rock n Roll is for the young, and for those rock stars nearing age 30, getting older can be a scary concept. To think that they are only 3 years away from waking up one morning 30 years old, irrelevant, obsolete and your palm blinking red hoping to God that perhaps you will be renewed. 

...Ahh the firey ritual of Carrousel. 

 So yes some rock stars die at 27 but no more than at any other age. 

 If Hendrix or Morrison died in their thirties we would all be talking about the. "Thirty Something Club" today. 

 Which of course would all be bullshit too. 

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