Rock Stars More Likely To Die Young, Study Finds
Posted September 4, 2007 12:00 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Ever wonder why your parents advised you to become a doctor or a teacher and not a rock star?
Here’s the reason. Rock stars, known for their fast, hard-partying lifestyles, are more likely than other professions to die before they reach retirement age, a British study has found. Researchers at Liverpool John Moores University studied 1,064 British and North American artists between 1956 and 2005 and found that 100 of them died.
Among the artists profiled that died young: Doors singer Jim Morrison, guitar legend Jimi Hendrix, T Rex’s Marc Bolan and Nirvana’s Kurt Cobain. More than a quarter of the deaths were linked to drug and alcohol abuse.
“The paper clearly describes a population of rock and pop stars who are at a disproportionate risk of alcohol and drug related deaths,” said study author Mark Bellis.
A section from the report read, “In the music industry, factors such as stress, changes from popularity to obscurity, and exposure to environments where alcohol and drugs are easily available, can all contribute to substance use as well as other self-destructive behaviors.”
The probe also found that musicians were most likely to have problems within five years of hitting the big time. Hendrix, AC/DC’s Bon Scott and Sex Pistols rocker Sid Vicious all died within five years of the peak of their success.
Though there weren’t many differences between the British and North American artists studied in the early years of their career, their paths diverge somewhat at about 25 years after their first success. British artists return to normal life expectancy at that point, according to the study, which should bode well for aging rockers like The Who’s Roger Daltrey, now 63. But in North American rockers are still twice as likely to die before their time, especially from heart attack or stroke.
