The curse of the "Club 27": the fateful fate of the musicians who passed away posthumously

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

30 years ago, on February 17, 1988, the brightest representative of Russian rock, musician and poet Alexander Bashlachev passed away. The circumstances of his death were so strange that they still cause a lot of controversy about the reasons for his premature departure.

They say that he too was overtaken by the "curse of club 27" - many rock stars could not cross this age line. Is 27 years really a critical period for those who have dedicated their lives to rock music?

Musician Alexander Bashlachev

Musician Alexander Bashlachev

On that day, Alexander Bashlachev was not alone in his apartment on Kuznetsov Avenue in Leningrad - he had friends with him. The night before there was a wild party with lots of wine. However, Bashlachev did not drink - in the morning he and his friends were going to go to the bathhouse. At night he called his common-law wife Nastya Rakhlina, who was then in Moscow, to find out about her health - she was pregnant. And in the morning he fell out of a window on the ninth floor and crashed to death. No one could believe that he did it voluntarily. There were rumors that Bashlachev suffered from schizophrenia or alcohol or drug addiction. N. Rakhlina states: “All this is not true. Sashka smoked marijuana several times, but he never bought it himself. And he got drunk from one glass of wine … Sashka's decision to die was not sudden. We did not fit into everyday life. We couldn't … have an apartment and a shop nearby. I couldn't make money. He could no longer live on the street. It was a vicious circle, which we were unable to break through ….

Robert Johnson is the first member of * Club 27 *

Alexander Bashlachev was indeed one of the many famous rock musicians who passed away at the age of 27 under mysterious circumstances. The history of the "Club 27" began in 1938, when the 27-year-old musician Robert Johnson died - he was poisoned by the jealous husband of his mistress. After a while, many began to pay attention to the pattern: rock musicians often die at this age. At the moment, there are 48 musicians on this list, tentatively called "Club 27". Six of them were world famous. So, the founder of "The Rolling Stones" Brian Jones in July 1969, a month after breaking up with the group, drowned in his own pool. The musician suffered from alcohol and drug addiction. Doctors stated "death by negligence."

In September 1970, Jimi Hendrix passed away, choking on vomit after an overdose of sleeping pills mixed with previously taken amphetamine. Later, a version appeared that he was killed "by order" of his manager, with whom he was going to terminate the contract, but this was not confirmed.

Less than a month later, the queen of rock and roll, Janis Joplin, died after Hendrix. The cause of her death was a drug overdose. However, no illegal drugs were found in the hotel room or in personal belongings, which led many to talk about premeditated murder or suicide. However, these versions were not confirmed.

The next summer, the leader of The Doors, Jim Morrison, passed away. According to the official version, he died of a heart attack, but among the assumptions they called an overdose of heroin, suicide, and even a staged murder by the FBI during the fight against the hippie movement.

In April 1994, the leader of the group "Nirvana" Kurt Cobain committed suicide under the influence of heroin. For a long time he suffered from drug addiction and a manic-depressive disorder of the psyche, which led to the tragic ending - the musician shot himself in the mouth with a gun. The version of the contract murder has not been confirmed.

A new wave of interest in the "Club 27" rose after the death of Amy Winehouse in 2011. The singer did not live 2 months before her 28th birthday. She suffered from severe alcohol and drug addiction for a long time; repeated rehabilitation courses did not give an effect. One of the leading British female performers of the 2000s, winner of 5 Grammy awards was found dead in her apartment in London. The cause of death was a heart attack caused by alcohol poisoning.

Amy Winehouse

In addition to these 6 world famous rock stars, there were 42 more not-so-popular musicians who also died at the age of 27. This became the reason for the rumors of a curse allegedly persecuting rock musicians. They intensified when, within just 2 years, world-famous musicians died: Brian Jones, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin and Jim Morrison. In the early 2000s. a woman appeared, claiming that she was a member of the secret "Club 27", whose representatives allegedly engaged in Satanism and entered into an agreement with the devil in order to gain fame, wealth and talent. Of course, no one took her words seriously, but they continued to talk about the curse.

Many researchers were interested in this pattern. Charles R. Cross wrote: “The number of musicians who have died at the age of 27 is remarkable from every point of view. People die constantly, and at any age. But statistics indicate a spike in deaths of musicians at the age of 27”.

Psychologists are sure: no curse exists. Most of the musicians who died were drug and alcohol abusers. In addition, people in creative professions are distinguished by a mobile psyche and are prone to depression. Sociologists studied the biographies of 1,046 musicians who occupied the top of the British charts from 1956 to 2007, and found out: at the age of 27, death occurs no more often than at any other age. But rock musicians really often do not live up to the age of 40 due to bad habits.