Sometimes, the universe seems to be giving you everything you want, and then cruelly yanks it all away. Rock stars arent immune to such cosmic whims either if anything, they seem especially susceptible to them. So pervasive is the trend of musicians dying young that theres even an unofficial 27 Club for them. That club contains such luminaries as Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Brian Jones and Jim Morrison, whose death effectively spelled the end of The Doors and - just maybe - the 60s in general. Dozens of famous bands have seen pillars of their lineup wrested away from them at crucial moments in their careers. Some performers succumb to the pressures of success and the lure of drugs and alcohol, but others have been lost in accidents that were no fault of their own, or have even been murdered. This list contains ten bands that lost members at critical stages of their careers. Solo artists are excluded, so theres no Jim Croce or Selena, no matter how tragic and premature their deaths were. These are all bands who were riding high when something went horribly, horribly wrong. In some cases, the remaining members made peace with their loss and soldiered on to even greater heights of success. Others lost their principal songwriter, their best friend or both and couldnt continue. Regardless of how the story plays out, in all these cases were only able to wonder what might have been.
Kyle Schmidlin is a writer and musician living in Austin, TX. He manages the news blog at thirdrailnews.wordpress.com. Follow him at facebook.com/kyleschmidlin or twitter.com/kyleschmidlin1.
