Rock and roll history contains many tragic tales of artists who died young and didn’t survive to fully enjoy the fruits of their successes. So much money at such a young age, often surrounded by sycophants and leeches, and the lifestyle the industry threw at them. Here are two sections on some of those who didn’t stay the course. And not all of them were 27.
Answers: here
1 Which flamboyant sixties singer was known as the Lizard King? In which city was he found dead in the bath in 1971?
2 Which band’s drummer, Rick Allen, survived a car accident and the loss of an arm to continue his career? Which guitarist from the same band was less fortunate and died of alcohol poisoning in 1991?
3 Who was shot dead by his father on the eve of his 45th birthday in 1984? What was his last UK Top 10 single, a hit two years before his death?
4 Fred Durst, frontman of Limp Bizkit, has two musical icons tattooed on his chest. One died in 1977, the other in 1994. Who are they?
5 Ronnie van Zant and Steve Gaines died in a plane crash in 1977. Which band were they in? What was the inappropriately named (for these two, at least) album that the band had released only weeks earlier?
6 Drummer Robbie McIntosh died of a heroin overdose in 1974. With which white soul band did he play? And what was the band’s biggest hit, a 1974 instrumental that topped the singles chart in the US?
7 Who died in Barnes, West London, in 1977 when a car driven by his girlfriend hit a tree? Which of his songs returned to the British Top 20 in 1991 after the release of a best-of compilation?
8 Who was killed as he returned to his New York apartment late in the evening of 8 December 1980? Who was responsible for his murder?
9 Which band lost two original members, James Honeyman-Scott and Pete Farndon, in 1982 and 1983 respectively? (Farndon had already been fired from the band for excessive drug abuse.) What was the single that the two remaining members of the band released in 1982 and dedicated to Honeyman-Scott?
10 Terry Kath died in an accident in 1978. With which band was he a singer and the main guitarist? How did he die?
11 Which UK folk-rocker died in 1974 aged 26 but remained largely unrecognised until the nineties? What’s the name of his third and final album, released in 1972?
12 In April 1960, which rock and roller died at the age of just 21 from injuries suffered in a motor accident? Along with his girlfriend Sharon Sheeley, who co-wrote the song ‘Somethin’ Else’ with him, which other rock and roll singer survived the crash?
13 Folk singer Sandy Denny died aged 31 in 1978 from a brain haemorrhage. With which two high-profile folk bands did she sing in the sixties?
14 Fred ‘Sonic’ Smith died in 1994, aged 45. Who was left a widow? With which garage rock band had Smith played bass in the late sixties?
15 Which female singer-songwriter died when she was hit by a powerboat in Mexico in 2000? To which music producer had she previously been married?
16 Phil Lynott, who died in 1986, was best known as the frontman for which band? As well as being the band’s lead vocalist, which instrument did he play?
17 Which singing duo was shattered in 1990 by the loss of one of the sisters to cancer at the age of 23? What was their only UK number one, a Stock/Aitken/Waterman-produced single from 1987?
18 Who was found hanging in a hotel room in Sydney in November 1997 (coroner’s verdict: suicide)? Who was the mother of his child, who herself died three years later of a drug overdose?
19 Which two rock legends, both aged 27, died in 1970 within three weeks of each other?
20 A plane crash led to 3 February 1959 being referred to as ‘the day the music died’, because three prominent stars lost their lives. Along with Buddy Holly, who was killed in the crash?
21 Little Feat disbanded just before their mainstay and principal songwriter died of a heart attack at 34. What was his name? And what’s the title of the band’s best known album, released in 1973?
22 Which singer survived an attempt on his life two days before a concert in Jamaica in 1976, but died four years later of a brain tumour? Which former colleague of his was murdered in 1987 when armed robbers broke into his home and tried to extort money from him?
23 Best known for his work with Free, which guitarist died from a drug overdose in 1976 at the age of just 25? What was the name of the band he’d formed on Free’s demise three years earlier?
24 ‘(Sittin’ on the) Dock of the Bay’ by Otis Redding was the first posthumous US number one single. What was the second, a hit for Janis Joplin in 1971? And who wrote the song, which had previously been released as a single by country singer Roger Miller?
25 What was the name of the Who’s wild child drummer who died in 1978? What part did he play in the film version of the band’s rock opera Tommy?
26 It reached number 149 in the US and didn’t chart in the UK, but Grace, released in 1994, is now regarded as a classic album. Who released it? How did the singer meet an untimely end in 1997, aged just 30?
27 Which Rolling Stone drowned after a barbiturate-fuelled midnight swim in 1969? Who replaced him on guitar?
28 Songbird was a posthumously released compilation album from 1998 by which American singer? Who wrote the song from which the album took its title?
29 Which Brooklyn-born R&B singer was killed in a plane crash in the Bahamas in 2001, aged 22? Which R&B singer is she alleged to have secretly married in 1994?
30 Who died shortly after being charged with the murder of his girlfriend, Nancy Spungeon? What was the title of the cynical solo live album released a few months after his death?