What Killed Every Pop Star

- Violent gang murders, a devastating plane crash,

and a shocking number of drug overdoses

that always seem to happen at the age of 27?

You know their songs, you know their albums,

but do you know how our most treasured musicians and pop stars died?

Let's start with Michael Jackson,

who in 2009 was killed by his personal physician in an extremely reckless attempt

to treat Michael's insomnia.

He accidentally administered him an improperly balanced cocktail of medications,

including the anesthetic and sedative propofol that caused him a cardiac arrest.

His doctor was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter

and the death was unnecessary

and heartbreaking to millions.

It's actually a key reason why I say rich people, despite all their money,

often receive some of the worst healthcare.

Buying your way into good health with expensive scans, medications,

and specialty tests can unexpectedly backfire just like it did for MJ.

Liam Payne was a member of the British boy band One Direction.

He died in 2024 in a tragic accident in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Allegedly, Liam returned to his hotel behaving erratically and violently.

He was held back to his room and the police were called.

By the time they arrived,

forensic reports indicate Liam had passed out on the balcony of his third floor

hotel room and tumbled 45 feet to the courtyard below.

The fall ended his life and an autopsy revealed he had traces of alcohol,

cocaine, and antidepressants in his system.

This combo can easily lead to disorientation, poor coordination, and even syncope.

While the fall had been ruled accidental,

two men are still facing charges for having sold Liam the drugs.

Norma G.

Mortensen became the first American sex symbol after a massive career

as a movie star in the 1950s,

but you probably know her better by her stage name, Marilyn Monroe.

She not only recorded popular songs like "A Diamond's Our Girl's Best Friend"

and starred in classic films like "Some Like It Hot," unfortunately,

she likely suffered from serious mental health problems and substance abuse.

At just 36 years old,

she was found dead inside her Los Angeles home after an overdose of barbiturates.

It's a type of insomnia medication that we no longer use for that purpose.

It was thought that this tragedy was potentially self-inflicted,

but conspiracy theorists will tell you

that she was actually killed by President Kennedy

and his brother,

Robert, who were entwined in some salacious love triangle and wanted her silenced.

Still waiting on good evidence for that one.

Another conspiracy, how about the death of Elvis Presley?

The first American rock star and arguably the most iconic musician since Beethoven, Mozart,

he's one of the big guys for sure.

After growing up poor in rural Mississippi and drawing great inspiration from gospel music,

R&B, and country, he went on to record multiple platinum-selling records,

star in box office hits, and perform in an extravagant Las Vegas residency.

He was also an early health influencer getting a polio vaccine before his appearance

on "The Ed Sullivan Show" to encourage Americans to get vaccinated against the disease.

Unfortunately, his healthy behaviors ended there.

Elvis became nocturnal, a prescription drug abuser, and a potential food addict.

Get this, he once flew his private jet across the country to Denver,

Colorado just to eat the Fool's Gold Loaf sandwich,

a deep-fried peanut butter

and jelly and bacon monstrosity

that came in somewhere around 8,000 calories.

It was this extreme lifestyle that ultimately did him in.

Elvis died on the bathroom floor of his Graceland mansion of a myocardial infarction

or a heart attack in 1977,

likely contributed to by his heavy prescription drug abuse.

Or he got on an alien spaceship and flew to another planet.

Pick whichever internet chat room rumor you prefer.

Amy Winehouse was a British musical icon who became a mainstream success in 2006

because of her album "Back to Black,"

which contained the hit song "Rehab."

Unfortunately, the lyrics of "They tried to make me go to rehab" ♪

But I said no,

no, no ♪ - Were tragically ironic

as Amy suffered from substance abuse

and related conditions throughout most of her adult life.

In 2011, she was found dead in her London home from excessive alcohol consumption.

She is a member of the Heartbreaking 27 Club,

a group of pop culture icons that all died at the age of 27.

In one of her final projects,

she actually collaborated on an album with Tony Bennett,

the suave and cool crooner whose career spanned 70 years.

He continued to perform well into his 90s until he was finally taken by

Alzheimer's disease,

a condition that slowly kills brain cells and makes the brain shrink.

Interestingly, with the lifestyle research we have now,

we believe about 40% of cases could be prevented.

And while his voice may have been legendary,

it was not as good as Whitney Houston's,

who Tony Bennett said had the greatest voice of all time.

She was a Grammy-winning musical artist

and also had a successful run

as an actress,

starring in the 1992 movie "The Bodyguard" alongside Kevin Costner,

where she famously sang "I Will Always Love You."

Her marriage to musician Bobby Brown was tumultuous,

and she also struggled with substance abuse that negatively impacted her incredible voice.

In 2012, Whitney Houston was found dead in her bathtub with an autopsy revealing

accidental drowning with contributing factors,

heart disease and cocaine intoxication.

Tupac Shakur was a key figure in the establishment of America's 1990s gangsta rap

movement.

His activist message in music and film shined through,

speaking truth to power about corrupt policing practices and America's prison industrial complex.

On the night of September 7th, 1996, Tupac was in Las Vegas,

leaving their arena after watching a Tyson fight.

Tupac was then hit in the chest four times in a drive-by shooting by

a hidden assailant who sped off.

Tupac died six days later.

The case ran cold for nearly 30 years until 2023,

when Dwayne Davis was arrested

and charged as the ringleader of the group

that carried out the murder.

Unfortunately, this was just one of the many high-profile gang-related killings in the 1990s,

followed by that of Biggie Smalls, or Notorious B.I.G.,

legally known as Christopher Wallace.

He was another pioneer of the '90s gangsta rap movement,

reviving the East Coast rap scene in my old stomping grounds of Brooklyn.

He actually dropped out of high school to sell drugs,

but he was also bursting with natural talent,

earning him a Grammy nomination and opportunities to collab with Michael Jackson.

It was highly suspected

that this East Coast rap revival ultimately led to his death,

as Tupac was a West Coast rapper and Biggie was from the East.

He was just 24 years old and his murder remains unsolved.

Frank Sinatra was a defining singer and songwriter of the 20th century,

who also dazzled audiences with his performance on stage and on the silver screen.

His cultural impact was tremendous,

from winning Oscars to performing with Dean Martin

and Sammy Davis Jr.

as the Rat Pack,

to helping JFK win the presidential election by serving

as a liaison between the administration

and the Italian mob,

allegedly.

He died at the age of 82 from a heart attack,

likely contributed to by a lifetime of alcohol and tobacco use.

Remember that we have clear proof that alcohol, especially when consumed in large amounts,

is cardiotoxic.

John Lennon was the iconic Beatle who helped ignite the British invasion of rock

music in the 1960s.

He co-wrote legendary songs like "A Hard Day's Night"

and "Imagine" that have been inescapable in pop music.

His death sent shockwaves around the world

when it was announced on Monday Night Football on December 8th,

1980. - John Lennon, outside of his apartment building on the west side of

New York City,

the most famous, perhaps, of all of the Beatles, shot twice in the back,

rushed to Roosevelt Hospital dead on arrival. - A crazed fan seeking fame named

Mark David Chapman sat waiting for the legendary Beatle to emerge from the Dakota,

his famous apartment building on the Upper West Side of New York.

When he did, Chapman shot him in the back and shoulder.

As Lennon's body lay bleeding on the New York sidewalk,

the doorman turned to Chapman and said, "Do you know what you just did?"

He excitedly replied, "I just shot John Lennon."

Creepy.

As Howard Cassell said on Monday Night Football,

John was quickly transported to a nearby hospital where he was declared dead on

arrival.

John Lennon is not the only Beatle that we lost, though.

George Harrison, who was responsible for songs like

While My Guitar Gently Weeps

and Here Comes the Sun.

In 1999, he was attacked in his own home by an intruder

and received multiple stab wounds,

but he survived with a collapsed lung.

It would have taken an even more aggressive killer to take down George Harrison.

Unfortunately, that would wind up being oral cancer,

likely caused by a lifetime of heavy smoking.

The Beatles weren't the only British rock band to dominate the airwaves, though.

Paving the way for Freddie Mercury of the band Queen,

who pioneered an original sound of operatic rock music amidst a decade of disco.

He was not only one of the most dynamic musical performers of all time,

but a queer icon.

Known for his sexually fluid lifestyle, unfortunately,

the sexual freedom of

that era likely led him to contracting

and dying from complications related to AIDS,

Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome.

AIDS is caused by HIV, a sexually transmitted infection,

and damages a person's immune system,

making them highly susceptible to other diseases and complications.

Today, pharma breakthroughs have created antiviral treatments that protect HIV patients from developing AIDS,

allowing for an almost identical lifespan to those without the condition,

given an early diagnosis.

Prince's rise to fame came in 1983 when his first crossover hit,

"Little Red Corvette," had a music video air on MTV, garnering him a massive,

massive audience, making him one of the first black musicians to air on the

network.

His album, "Purple Rain," won an Academy Award,

and he's also known for having delivered perhaps the most legendary Super Bowl halftime

show ever in 2007 in Miami in the rain.

He was the definition of cool.

He was an electric performer,

but decades of leaving it all on the stage took a toll on his

body,

leaving him in a lot of pain,

which led him to use prescription pain medication. 2016,

he was at his home in Minnesota

when he collapsed inside of an elevator after taking what he thought was prescription

Vicodin,

an opioid pain reliever,

but was instead a counterfeit medication laced with deadly amounts of fentanyl,

which is 50 to 100 times more potent.

He didn't even know what he was taking.

David Bowie was a prolific British rock star who released 26 albums in just

50 years.

This guy worked.

His hits "Young Americans"

and "Heroes" are only a couple of the dozens of his songs

that dominated the charts in the '70s

and '80s.

In 2004, he survived a heart attack

while on stage and retreated from public life for about a decade.

He never stopped making music, though,

producing work until 2016 when he died of liver cancer,

a condition he kept

so secret that many of his bandmates didn't even realize he was terminally ill.

George Michael was a British pop star who blew up thanks to MTV with

this massive hit,

"Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go" by his band Wham!,

which went on to become the first Western pop band to tour China.

In 1998, he was arrested for disorderly conduct

when an undercover police officer observed him performing a lewd act in a public

restroom in Beverly Hills.

You can read the details on your own if you'd like,

but the incident forced George Michael to come out of the closet on CNN

and establish himself as one of the most prominent gay figures in media.

Unfortunately, his popularity waned over the next 15 years or so,

and his drug use increased.

He died on Christmas Day in 2016 from dilated cardiomyopathy with myocarditis

and fatty liver.

Kurt Cobain was the singer and leader of the '90s old rock band Nirvana.

By all accounts, he had a happy childhood until his parents divorced,

which sent him spiraling and changed his outlook on the world.

He funneled this point of view into the music for his band Nirvana,

which released a debut album called "Nevermind," and whose single,

"Smells Like Teen Spirit," became a defining song of the '90s

and the alt-rock genre.

He married singer Courtney Love, and the two had a child, but unfortunately,

things for Kurt weren't going well.

He claimed to suffer for years from stomach pain, which led to depressive symptoms,

which he medicated with heroin and painkillers.

He actually overdosed on champagne and Rohypnol,

which is seven times more potent than Valium,

while he was in Rome

and was sent to a rehab facility in Southern California.

He escaped, fled north to his home in Washington State,

where his life ended at just 27 years old.

Marvin Gaye was a soul musician known as the Prince of Motown,

and while his music may have been romantic and rich,

his death was truly heartbreaking.

In 1984, he had enjoyed enormous industry success,

but also racked up debt due to his cocaine addiction.

The 44-year-old singer moved in with his parents in an attempt to get on

his feet.

Unfortunately, his relationship with his abusive father had reached a breaking point.

The two started an argument that led to a physical altercation in the house.

In Marvin's growing cocaine-induced paranoia,

he had actually given his father a revolver to protect the family.

This would lead to his death.

Marvin Gaye was shot and killed by his own father with that very gun.

The L.A.

County Coroner's Office officially stated that he suffered a gunshot wound to his chest,

perforating his heart, lung, and liver.

His father pleaded no contest to voluntary manslaughter and received a sentence of probation,

with the judge ruling Marvin had provoked the attack,

and any prison time could be a death sentence for the frail old man.

According to Marvin's brother, who cradled him in his arms during his final moments,

his last words were, "I got what I wanted.

"I couldn't do it myself, so I made him do it."

Johnny Cash was a country music singer whose late-in-life medical issues were pretty interesting.

In 1997, at the age of 65,

he announced that he was diagnosed with Parkinson's, a neurologic condition that affects movement.

But this was wrong.

Further testing revealed he actually had multiple systems atrophy, another neurologic disease,

but this was wrong too.

In 2000, he announced that he's been misdiagnosed yet again,

and actually he had autonomic neuropathy, a nerve condition that's actually caused by diabetes.

It was complications from the disease

that led to respiratory failure

that eventually took his life in 2003.

But talk about malpractice.

Mac Miller was a rapper in the 2010s whose debut album,

"Blue Slide Park," became the first independently distributed debut album to reach the top

of the Billboard album chart in 16 years.

He was a rising star in entertainment until his death at just 26 years

old,

where he accidentally overdosed on alcohol, fentanyl, and cocaine.

Earl "DMX" Simmons was a rapper known for huge hits like "Party Up"

and "Ex Gon' Give It To Ya,"

which were definitely hit songs in my high school on Staten Island.

In 2021, just at 50 years old,

DMX had a cocaine-induced heart attack in his home, went into cardiac arrest,

and reportedly went 30 minutes without receiving oxygen to his brain.

I'm not saying chest compressions would've saved his life,

but in this scenario is exactly the scenario I say you should do them.

Two inches deep, 100 beats per minute,

to circulate any remaining oxygen in the blood to the rest of his body,

after calling for help, of course.

He was transported to a hospital where he was left in a vegetative state

for several days until he died.

Jeff Buckley was a folk rock artist who had a bright musical future ahead

of him until a tragic day in 1997 outside of Memphis,

Tennessee.

Singing along to Led Zeppelin on a nearby radio,

Jeff ran fully clothed into a tributary alongside the Mississippi River for a fun

swim.

A passing speedboat sent a powerful wake his way and he disappeared.

Six days later, a passenger in a riverboat spotted his body amongst the branches

in a nearby harbor.

The death was ruled an accidental drowning and he was just 30 years old.

Bob Marley was the trailblazing pioneer of reggae music from Jamaica,

defining a sound that to this day is synonymous with his part of the

world.

In the 1970s, he became the face of Jamaican culture in contrast to its

political chaos,

which led to his assassination attempt.

Late one night, a violent trio ambushed Marley's home, littered his house with bullets.

The men emptied their clips and sped off.

Bob survived with only minor wounds

and days later went on to play in front of tens of thousands at

the Smile Jamaica Festival in a call for peace.

He lived a few more years until he noticed a small black spot just

under his toenail,

which he thought might just be an old soccer injury.

Unfortunately, it was actually acral litiginous melanoma, a rare form of skin cancer.

Doctors suggested he get his toe removed to prevent the spread of this cancer,

but Bob Marley refused, opting for a less invasive surgery.

Unfortunately, the cancer did spread to his body

and he died in 1981 at just 36 years old.

Aretha Franklin defined the golden age of soul music in the US

and was the first woman inducted into the Rock

and Roll Hall of Fame.

She died of pancreatic cancer in 2018 at the age of 76.

It's a condition known for its depressingly low five-year survival

and one we were hoping to develop a vaccine to prevent until RFK Jr.

defunded that research last year.

Jimi Hendrix was an explosive musical talent of the 1960s in the US

and UK,

impressing audiences with his stage persona

and remarkable ability to improvise electric guitar solos in front of thousands.

He was really only scratching the surface of his career

when he lost his life at just 27 years old after aspirating his own

vomit after overdosing on sleeping pills.

Buddy Holly, Richie Valens,

and JP "The Big Bopper" Richardson unfortunately all belong on the same entry

because the three of them died together.

In 1959, the three musicians and their bands were touring the Midwest.

Their tour bus had no heat,

making the long drives between Midwestern cities brutally cold in that winter snow.

Buddy Holly was fed up with the conditions

and chartered a small private plane for him,

Richie, and "The Big Bopper" to use on their way to their next gig.

The plane took off and immediately was taken over by high winds and snow.

The pilot tried his best to control the airplane,

but the weather was just too strong.

The four men crashed

and died in a cornfield just five miles from the airport.

The event was so culturally traumatic that musician Don McLean wrote his famous song,

"American Pie," all about it, calling it the day the music died.

Tina Turner was known

as the queen of rock

and roll and dominated music for 60 years until her passing at 83 after

a battle with a long illness,

likely some sort of combination of the following.

First, she was diagnosed with hypertension in 1978 and left it untreated.

This contributed to the eventual stroke she suffered in 2013.

Shortly after, she was diagnosed with intestinal cancer.

Her treatments weren't going well, so she unfortunately turned to dangerous homeopathic treatments,

which made things significantly worse and resulted in advanced kidney failure.

She actually wrote in her memoir,

"The consequences of my ignorance "ended up being a matter of life and death."

Janis Joplin was a powerhouse singer whose death signaled the end of the '60s

for many Americans.

She was another member of the 27 Club dying of a heroin overdose in

her guest room at the Landmark Hotel in Los Angeles.

To this day, fans book the very room she died in

and write heartfelt messages to her in the closet.

Jim Morrison was the lead singer of The Doors.

He called himself the Lizard King

and became a rebellious icon for American youth in the 1960s.

He is the last member of the 27 Club on our list dying in

a bathtub in a Paris hotel room,

or so it would seem.

His death was officially ruled as being caused by heart failure,

but an autopsy wasn't performed

as it wasn't required by law in France in 1971.

It's rumored that Jim had actually died of a heroin overdose in the bathroom

of a nightclub the evening before,

and the drug dealers responsible carried him back to his hotel

and stuffed him in the bathtub to cover their tracks.

Ray Charles was nicknamed the Genius

and wrote American classics like "Georgia on My Mind"

and "Hit the Road Jack."

He was born with sight,

but developed juvenile glaucoma

that took his vision by the time he was seven years old.

While he may not have been able to see the keys on the piano,

he could feel the music,

eventually pulling in 12 Grammys and five more after he died.

As he aged, he suffered from hip pain and eventually received a hip transplant,

which he'd hoped would allow him to continue touring.

Unfortunately, during this process, doctors also discovered he had extensive liver disease,

which took his life when he was 73.

Click here to see me react to musicians getting injured while performing on stage,

even Lady Gaga's in the video.

And also, while it's fascinating to see how these pop stars passed away,

it's definitely tragic to see how many battled substance abuse.

If you or anyone you know is struggling,

you can find resources in the description below, and as always,

stay happy and healthy.