Kurt Cobain and Marc Bolan may have been in bands – but it is the solo rock and pop stars who are most likely to suffer an early death, researchers report today.
Jimi Hendrix, Elvis Presley and Amy Winehouse – as well as Michael Jackson and a host of rappers – are more typical of the how vulnerable stardom can make musicians, researchers found.
A study of nearly 1,500 performers over a 50-year period found that nearly 10% died.
The average age of those that died was 39 for European stars and 45 for North American performers, researchers report in BMJ Open.
The researchers say that for the first 25 years after they achieve fame, rock and pop musicians face a much lower life expectancy than the general population.
They found that solo artists were almost twice as likely to die prematurely than band members. In North America, some 22% of the musicians in the study died early.
The researchers found that many of those died from abuse or violence had serious problems dating back to childhood – raising the issue of whether vulnerable people become rock stars.
Researcher Professor Mark Bellis, of Liverpool John Moores University, Liverpool, UK, says the findings suggest that bands may provide some kind of peer support for performers
He writes: "Pop/rock stars are among the most common role models for children, and surveys suggest that growing numbers aspire to pop stardom.
"A proliferation of TV talent shows and new opportunities created by the internet can make this dream appear more achievable than ever."
Dying to be famous: retrospective cohort study of rock and pop star mortality and its association with adverse childhood experiences BMJ Open 20 December 2012; doi 10.1136/bmjopen-2012-002089
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