Here's a kind of creepy pop quiz: What do many of today's pop/rock artists have in common with '60s pop/rock stars such as Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Jim Morrison and many others? If you answered something like "drug and/or alcohol abuse" you're only partly right. The complete answer is: the '60s artists all died far too young, and chances are that substance-abusing stars of today will die young too unless their problems are addressed and handled through drug rehab programs.
A new research report from an English university charted the lives of 1,050 American and European pop music artists from 1965 to 2005, and found they are two to three times more likely to die young than the general population. In all, 100 stars died "too young" between 1956 and 2005, amounting to almost ten percent of famous male rockers and more than seven percent of famous female rockers. And according to the report, published in Britain's Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health this week, a quarter of all the musician's deaths were due to alcohol or drug abuse lives that might have been saved if the artists had reached for drug rehab instead of for more booze and drugs.
The remainder of the early deaths were attributed to high levels of stress, depression and risk-taking behavior, which led to a wide variety of fatal events from accidents to diseases to suicides. American rock stars died at an average age of 42, while European stars averaged even younger deaths at 35. The report doesn't say, and it probably can never be known, how many of these apparent non-drug-or-alcohol-related events such as suicide or preventable accidents might have been avoided if alcohol and drug rehab had been factored into the equation.
The good news for aging rockers especially for Europeans, says the report is that after 25 years, death rates began to return to normal. A European star still living 25 years after achieving fame had a similar mortality rate as the European public. But American artists remained more susceptible to cancer, heart disease and other conditions associated with the stress of fame and living in the fast lane. Apparently such activities as performing in later years in nostalgic and reunion tours or stressing about one's fading glory takes a greater toll on U.S. musicians, who continue to die in greater numbers.
We've read in biographies and articles that most older rock stars who survived their hard-living rock n roll youth have learned that alcohol, drugs and unhealthy life styles are actually destructive to art and music.
For today's younger artists, and for wannabe rock stars and their parents and friends, the answer is pretty simple. Do like the survivors out there who are still creating great music, still in good health, and still living rich, full lives. They've learned to relax and put the music first. And when it comes to drugs and alcohol, take a tip from so many of them who say theyre still alive and kicking because, when the chips were down and it really counted, they reached for a successful alcohol and drug rehab program.
