7 Musicians Who Predicted Their Own Death In Lyrics

These lyrics get personal. Really, really, spookily personal...

By Jacob Trowbridge /

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Ever since Tupac Shakur was gunned down before his time, the world has been looking to uncover clues in his lyrics that might suggest he knew his time on earth was about to end. Fatalists and tarot card enthusiasts will point to rhymes like "I been shot and murdered, can tell you how it happened word for word" as definitive proof that he knew what was coming. (Even though he doesn't actually expand on that "word for word" proclamation.)

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Most of the time this is pure bogusness. There are only so many subject matters available to write about, and death--particularly our own death--is one of the things people are most fascinated by. So of course artists are going to get all philosophical about the topic and consider their own fates. And sure, every once in a while thse "prophecies" are bound to come true. It's just the law of averages, really. Still, sometimes these lines are a little too specific and these musings too accurate to be pure coincidences.

Whether it's just a gut feeling or some secret medical advice that the outside world wasn't privy to, a few musicians have written downright eerie death omens that would eventually come true, often sooner than later.

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7. Jeff Buckley

Lyrics That Predicted His Death:

That dark angel he is shuffling in Watching over them with his black feather wings unfurled. Asleep in the sand with the ocean washing over. Dream brother, dream brother, dream, dream. - Dream Brother Well it's my time coming I'm not afraid, afraid to die My fading voice sings of love... ...And I feel them drown my name - Grace

How He Died: On May 29th, 1997, Jeff Buckley was on his way to a Memphis studio to finish recording the last tracks of his sophomore album, Sketches For My Sweetheart the Drunk. But, for reasons unknown, he and a friend made a detour to the Wolf River.

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The fully clothed songwriter waded into the water to go for a swim, singing the chorus of Led Zeppelin's "Whole Lotta Love," but didn't come back out of the water alive. Although Buckley accidentally drown in a river, not an ocean, it's easy to overlook that small bit of semantics in favor of the eerie coincidences that show up in two different tracks of Buckley's only complete studio album.

Especially that bit about his fading voice singing of love.

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