The Rolling Stones Movie We'll Never Get To See

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By the summer of 1966, everything seemed to fall into place for the Rolling Stones' first feature film. Unlike the Beatles' 1964 film debut, "A Hard Day's Night," a slap-stick frolic that drew comparisons with Marx Brothers' films, the Stones had opted for a darker, hard-hitting project based on a dystopian novel called "Only Lovers Left Alive," according to The Guardian. Hollywood's Nicholas Ray was set to direct the film with a screenplay by two well-regarded English writers, per a 1966 article in The Morning Call.

The novel by Dave Wallis, which was published in 1964, revolved around the death by suicide of everyone over 20 years old, leaving teenagers to rule England with devastating results. Roving motorcycle gangs battle it out for supremacy amid a quickly disintegrating infrastructure where "lipstick, gasoline and food" are "now the currency in a new world of unspeakable violence," according to the book's publisher, Valancourt Press. It was an interesting choice for a band that was then in its ascendancy.

If you or anyone you know is having suicidal thoughts, please call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline​ by dialing 988 or by calling 1-800-273-TALK (8255)​.

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Before the announcement that the Rolling Stones planned to star in "Only Lovers Left Alive," there was talk of another film project, "Back, Behind, and In Front." According to The Cincinnati Post, this film was to be based on a story dreamed up by the band's manager and producer, Andrew Loog Oldham. They planned to shoot the film in both black and white and color, with filming to take place in England and "four countries behind the Iron Curtain" — the term used during the Cold War to indicate countries under the control of the Soviet Union — with a 10-week shooting schedule to begin in April 1966, per The Cincinnati Post.

The recording company British Decca budgeted $1.25 million ($11.43 million today) for the project and also signed the Stones to a five-year film deal worth more than $5 million ($45 million today), per United Press International. The Rolling Stones even planned to write music for the earlier film idea, per the Associated Press. Unfortunately, "Back, Behind, and In Front" never came to fruition, but a groundbreaking album emerged from the ashes of this first project.

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The Rolling Stones' 1966 album "Aftermath" began as the soundtrack for "Back, Behind, and In Front," according to the book, "The Rolling Stones All the Songs Expanded Edition: The Story Behind Every Track." According to Blender, the band's fourth British studio album was the first made up of all original songs. The seminal album defined the band's sound, topping the charts in the U.K., reaching number two in the U.S., and bringing the band thousands of new fans, per The Telegraph.

By May 1966, the Rolling Stones quietly dropped any mentions of this first film project and moved on to touting a new movie, "Only Lovers Left Alive," per The Los Angeles Times. Andrew Oldham originally planned to buy the film rights to "A Clockwork Orange," the better-known dystopian novel by Anthony Burgess that was published in 1962, but Stanley Kubrick got to Burgess first, per The Guardian. So Oldham settled for "a second-best novel," as he told the newspaper.

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Andrew Oldham "went the rounds, made all the noises, and met all the sacred monsters" when trying to get the Rolling Stones a film project worthy of the band, he told The Guardian in 2001. He and Mick Jagger met with the English writers Keith Waterhouse and Willis Hall but in the end, " ... [w]e thought they were old farts, and they thought us young farts, and inane," per The Guardian. Waterhouse was a successful novelist and Hall a playwright who'd begun collaborating on screenplays a few years earlier, according to Waterhouse's obituary listed in The Guardian.

Oldham and Jagger also met with the director Nicholas Ray, whose biggest hit was 1955's "Rebel Without a Cause" starring James Dean, per the 2001 article from The Guardian. But drugs and alcohol had taken their toll on the Hollywood director, who had a heart attack  three years earlier on the set of his film "55 Days at Peking," according to IMDB. "He was only in his mid-50s but looked a bad 80 and a day," Oldham recalled in The Guardian. Plans moved ahead, but Oldham and the Stones eventually lost faith in Ray, the backers pulled funding, and the project died, according to the website, Please Kill Me.

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The Rolling Stones' first movie ended up being a concert film, and like the earlier attempts to get the band onto celluloid, "Charlie Is My Darling — Ireland 1965" had its own problems, according to Gary J. Jucha's book, "Rolling Stones FAQ: All That's Left to Know About the Bad Boys of Rock." Andrew Oldham hired Peter Whitehead to shoot what Oldham thought of as an extended screen test in order to get the band used to being in front of a camera while they sorted out the other film projects, according to The Commercial Appeal.

Whitehead already made a documentary about the beat poets called "Wholly Communion" when Oldham enlisted him to document the Rolling Stones' tour of Belfast and Dublin in September 1965, per Whitehead's obituary in The Guardian. The Stones' documentary premiered at the 1966 Mannheim film festival in Germany, where it was up for a gold medal but lost out to Oldham's earlier documentary, per The Guardian. Then "Charlie Is My Darling" was locked away for 47 years.

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The reason why the first Rolling Stones documentary, "Charlie Is My Darling — Ireland 1965," was unavailable for nearly 50 years seems to have various answers. According to Peter Whitehead's obituary in The Guardian, he clashed with Oldham over his portrayal of the band in the film, which led to its shelving. But Please Kill Me alleges it was a fight between Oldham and the film's producer, Allen Klein, of whom owned the film rights that led to the documentary gathering dust for nearly five decades. The film was eventually digitally restored and released in 2012, per The New York Times.

While the Rolling Stones' initial foray into the film world was rocky (to say the least), by the 1970s, the Stones became cinematic superstars. The band worked with such famous directors as Jean-Luc Godard, considered a pioneer of French New Wave Cinema, for his 1968 film, "One + One" (later re-titled "The Rolling Stones: Sympathy for the Devil," per IMDB), and the Maysles brothers on 1970's "Gimme Shelter." Without his bandmates, Mick Jagger starred in several films, including the 1970's Western "Ned Kelly" and a psychedelic gangster film, "Performance," per IMDB. But "Only Lovers Get Out Alive" starring the Stones as members of a futuristic biker gang, never came to be.

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It's almost impossible to imagine life without music. Whether it's just in the background as the day goes by or if it's front and center as you literally shake off the stress and the worry that's an inevitable part of life, it's always there.

And sure, everyone likes to hear their favorite artists' new stuff, but there's just something about the classics. They're the songs that take us back to a time and a place, that remind us of better days or get us through the bad ones. They're the songs everyone knows the words to — even if you don't actually know you know the words — and they're the songs that keep us coming back. 

But here's the thing about classic music: The artists who made the songs possible in the first place aren't getting any younger. When icons like Freddie Mercury or George Harrison die, they grab all the headlines. That's partially because they never left, but what about the classic rock artists who sort of dropped out of the spotlight? A lot of major names who were behind some of the biggest classic rock songs ever made have died ... and many people might have missed these headlines.

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When University of Guelph students apologized for playing Lou Reed's "Walk on the Wild Side" at a campus event in 2017, Reed's longtime producer thought the whole thing was pretty hilarious. He told The Guardian: "I don't know if Lou would be cracking up about this or crying because it's just too stupid. The song was a love song to all the people he knew and to New York City, by a man who supported the community and the city his whole life."

Reed — who fronted the Velvet Underground, was good friends with Andy Warhol, and whom Rolling Stone credits for heavily influencing other legends like David Bowie — died on October 27, 2013. He was 71 years old at the time of his death, and according to his obituary, he had traded his own life on the wild side, complete with the near-constant consumption of drugs and alcohol, for a quieter life filled with T'ai Chi. In early 2013, he was the recipient of a liver transplant, and he died several months later at his Long Island home. 

He was survived by his wife, Laurie Anderson, who released a statement reading (in part): "Lou was a prince and a fighter, and I know his songs of the pain and beauty in the world will fill many people with the incredible joy he felt for life. Long live the beauty that comes down and through and onto all of us."

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Bruce Springsteen wouldn't be Bruce Springsteen without his E Street Band, and the relationship between Springsteen and saxophonist Clarence Clemons was beyond friendship: Stories of how they met are something akin to legend. Clemons once described their first meeting (via GQ): "Bruce and I looked at each other and didn't say anything, we just knew. We knew we were the missing links in each other's lives. He was what I'd been searching for."

Clemons died in 2011, after suffering a stroke on June 12. According to Rolling Stone, he went through two brain surgeries and, in spite of a good prognosis, passed away within the week of his initial stroke. Just what happened was hotly debated, and according to The Guardian, Clemons' family claimed the stroke had been the result of earlier surgeries they believed doctors had botched. Clemons — who had suffered from chronic pain for years — had surgery for "retinal detachment, spinal fusion, and several joint replacements." Afterward, his wife says he had lost feeling in part of his hands, and after an alleged mix-up in medication, his family believed the eventual outcome was his stroke and untimely death.

Springsteen later said of the loss, "He was elemental in my life, and losing him was like losing the rain."

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Everyone knows that song from Quiet Riot, and there's a good reason it's still such a powerful rock anthem. It was lead singer Kevin Dubrow who asked us all to join the band on a journey to "feel the noize," and when he was found dead in his apartment on November 25, 2007, the headlines were ... confused.

According to Rolling Stone, Dubrow, who was 52 years old at the time of his passing, had died around six days before his body was found. When he didn't keep the Thanksgiving plans he'd made, ex-girlfriend Lark Williams asked a friend of hers to check on him. The friend, who happened to be a paramedic, was the one who broke into his home and found him. 

At first, no one knew what had happened. Friends described him (via the Los Angeles Times) as "strong as an ox," adding that while he hadn't been handling his recent breakup with Williams well, he was said to have at least been "stable." The official cause of death wasn't announced until December 10, when the Clark County coroner's office confirmed their findings that he had died of an accidental cocaine overdose.

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That's what keyboardist Ray Manzarek had to say about the early days of the Doors (via Rolling Stone): "We knew once people heard us, we'd be unstoppable. We knew what the people wanted: the same thing the Doors wanted. Freedom."

Frontman Jim Morrison famously died in 1971, and it was drummer John Densmore who explained (via The Guardian), "I hated his self-destruction." Life wasn't as easy for the surviving Doors members, either, and Densmore spent years fighting Ray Manzarek and Robby Krieger in court. 

Rights to tour under their old band name were at stake, and Manzarek and Krieger had started to tour in 2002. Unfortunately for everyone involved, it turned out that some of the last years of Manzarek's life were going to be spent knee-deep in those lawsuits. Eventually, Manzarek traded the wild life of a rock musician for a quiet one: At the time of his death, his obituary says that he had continued to collaborate with others while spending much of his time living the peaceful life in Napa Valley, surrounded by his chickens and his fruit trees. The 74-year-old Doors founder was in Rosenheim, Germany, when he died on May 20, 2013, after a diagnosis of bile duct cancer.

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"Werewolves of London" singer-songwriter Warren Zevon knew he was dying when he wrote his album "The Wind," and the timing was the sort of thing that makes anyone believe in a higher power. Zevon, says The New York Times, had started suffering from chest pains at about the same time he had decided to start working on another album. When he finally went to the doctor, the diagnosis was dire: He had advanced mesothelioma and only a few months to live.

Rolling Stone interviewed him while he was working on the album and trying to finish the songs that he saw as a "goodbye" before it was too late. He explained, "At a time like this, you really get the feeling of time marching on." Zevon — who declined the option of going through chemotherapy — explained that music was his drug, saying, "When you get into songwriting, everything else falls away. That's the miracle." 

The 56-year-old Zevon survived to see the release of his final album on August 26, 2003. He was gone a little over a week later, dying at his Los Angeles home on September 7.

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The Beastie Boys, says The New York Times, were a rarity: a long-lived hip-hop group with a popularity that spanned decades. Beastie Boys producer Rick Rubin explained, "The Beasties opened hip-hop music up to the suburbs," and the number of artists heavily influenced by them is too many to count.

It was Adam Yauch and Mike Diamond who started the band as a punk rock group, but it became much more than that: When the Beastie Boys confirmed Yauch's death in 2012 (via Rolling Stone), they called him not just a musician but a "musician, rapper, activist ... founding member of the Beastie Boys and also of the Milarepa Foundation."

In 2009, Yauch had been diagnosed with cancer after the discovery of a tumor on his salivary gland. What followed was three long years of treatment — during which Rolling Stone says he remained upbeat and optimistic — leading up to his death on May 4, 2012. 

The Beastie Boys have mourned the loss of another, less well-known member as well. John Berry not only came up with the name of the group, but Rolling Stone says he helped shape their sound and was credited as a founding member and original guitarist. Berry died in 2016, after suffering from frontal lobe dementia.

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It was U2's Bono who said that The Clash "wrote the rule book" for U2, while others credited them for giving some of the best live performances in music history while also showing the world that punk could be political and take a stand, too.

Bono was saying that at the announcement of the sudden and unexpected death of The Clash's Joe Strummer. According to The Guardian, The Clash was making plans to collaborate on a charity show in South Africa when Strummer suffered a heart attack at his Somerset home. He died on December 22, 2002, and at the time, it was ruled as not suspicious. 

A post-mortem revealed (via NPR) that Strummer had suffered from an undiagnosed heart defect, which ultimately led to his death at the age of 50. Not long before, he explained The Clash's music and his legacy like this: "[W]e were trying to grow up in a ... future where the world might be less of a miserable place than it is. ... My face is very deep in the mud. I can't see the trees or the woods or the valley or the hills. You can only follow what's on your mind."

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No one expected to see the February 8, 2011, BBC headline: "Guitarist Gary Moore 'died of heart attack.'"

Moore (right), best known as the guitarist of Skid Row and Thin Lizzy (pictured), was 58 years old when he died in a Costa Del Sol hotel room. He'd gotten to Spain just a few hours before his death, and while it was immediately ruled as something not suspicious, authorities announced they were looking into what had happened.

While the initial cause was given as a heart attack, the Irish Independent reported that he was later found to have "380mg of alcohol per decilitre of blood" and added that amounts as low as 30 milligrams can be deadly. The result was a death from alcohol-related natural causes.

Tributes poured in for the guitarist, of whom George Harrison once said, "[Moore] makes me sound like a skiffler." Bob Geldof credited Thin Lizzy for setting the stage for bands like AC/DC and had this to say about Moore: "Gary, without question, was one of the great Irish bluesmen. There is a sort of trinity of Van Morrison, Rory Gallagher, and Gary Moore. His playing was exceptional and beautiful. We won't see his like again."

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When Rolling Stone profiled Emerson, Lake & Palmer in 2016, they described them as "audacious, virtuosic progressive rock icons," and it's absolutely true. It's impossible to imagine what music would be like had they not decided that sticking to particular genres just wasn't for them and show just how incredible classical music, pop rock, and jazz could be when they were just sort of all mashed together.

The roundup of their most influential songs came after Keith Emerson's death on March 10 of the same year. According to his girlfriend, Mari Kawaguchi (via the Daily Mail), Emerson (right) took his own life after nerve pain in his hands was impacting his ability to play — and fans started harassing him on social media about it. She revealed the stress that upcoming performances put him under, saying, "He didn't want to let down fans. He was a perfectionist, and the thought he wouldn't play perfectly made him depressed, nervous, and anxious." 

Emerson's death in March was followed by the death of fellow ELP co-founder Greg Lake (left) late in the same year. His manager announced (via the BBC): "Yesterday, December 7, I lost my best friend to a long and stubborn battle with cancer." Tributes flooded in, as others in the music industry agreed that he had always stayed true to a quote from his official website: "The greatest music is made for love, not for money."

If you or anyone you know is having suicidal thoughts, please call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline​ at​ 1-800-273-TALK (8255)​.

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Verdine White wrote, "My brother, hero, and best friend Maurice White passed away peacefully last night in his sleep. ... Thank you for your prayers and well wishes."

News of Maurice White's death came in February 2016, and according to Rolling Stone, he had been diagnosed with Parkinson's in 1992. The diagnosis came several decades after Earth, Wind, & Fire changed the face of music with their mix of jazz, funk, and rock, and after they did something else, too. Verdine said in 2013 that from the beginning, "Maurice was interested in establishing a credibility of a different morality about musicians and their lifestyles. So we were into healthy food, meditation, taking vitamins, reading philosophical books, being students of life."

And it worked. Earth, Wind & Fire sold more than 90 million records, and at their height of popularity, Rolling Stone called them "the biggest black rock band in the world." And it's really no wonder: Maurice once said that they were all about "being joyful and positive," and if there's anything the world needs more of, it's their "positive energy."

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Motörhead's notorious frontman Lemmy (pictured) died in 2015, just two days after being diagnosed with cancer (via the BBC). Less publicized were the deaths of Lemmy's Motörhead bandmates, starting with Michael "Wurzel" Burston.

The man Lemmy had once called "a quiet monster" and a "soft-spoken guy" until someone put a guitar in his hand auditioned for an open spot in Motörhead in 1984 and remained lifelong friends with the band's frontman. According to Billboard, Burston died on July 9, 2011, from complications of cardiomyopathy (heart disease).

Motörhead's first drummer was Phil Taylor, who described the band (via The Guardian) as "hard, fast, nasty, disgusting rock." When he died on November 11, 2015 — just before Lemmy — Louder Sound reported that although the official cause was liver failure, he had been sick for several years, a bout of ill health that kicked off with surgery to repair a brain aneurysm.

Then, in January 2018, Rolling Stone reported on the death of Eddie Clarke, the Motörhead guitarist who drummer Mikkey Dee called "the last of the three amigos." Clarke, they reported, had died after being hospitalized for pneumonia.

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When it comes to movies about music, there are few that have reached a wider audience than "The Blues Brothers." When brothers Jake and Elwood Blues assembled their band of legendary musicians, bassist Donald "Duck" Dunn was front and center. By that time, he'd already had a wild career playing with groups like Booker T. & the M.G.'s — alongside his longtime friend (and fellow Blues Brothers bandmate) Steve Cropper.

It was Cropper who was on tour with him in 2012 when, after playing a streak of 10 shows in five days in Japan, Dunn complained that he wasn't feeling well. They had chalked it up to jet lag, but Dunn died in his sleep not long afterward.

Cropper wrote (via the Los Angeles Times): "Today I lost my best friend, the world has lost the best guy and bass player to ever live." Others lauded his skills with a bass, saying that music would have been very, very different without him. As for Dunn's views on the whole thing, he once said, "I just love to play for people." 

Dunn gave his final interview (via Medium) on May 4, just nine days before he died. When asked about his original '59 Fender Precision bass, he responded that it had once been valued at $50,000, and he'd told his wife: "Don't bury me with that. Don't get sentimental. Buy yourself a car." And then, he laughed.

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Pete Quaife was — along with brothers Ray and Dave Davies — one of the founding members of the legendary Kinks. It was Dave who described (via The Guardian) why Quaife was handed the bass: "We drew lots to see who would play bass guitar, and Pete lost."

It ended up being fortuitous: After learning to play by mimicking songs from guys like Buddy Holly and Chuck Berry, Quaife (second from right) and the Kinks paid it forward, laying the groundwork for bands like The Who. (John Entwhistle called Quaife one of his favorite bassists.) It's entirely possible that without Quaife, the Kinks wouldn't have even stayed together long enough to make any music: He was nicknamed "the ambassador" and would often step in between the brothers to settle frequent arguments.

Quaife left the Kinks in 1969, and after a brief attempt at joining another band and very occasionally making public appearances, he retired from music, moved to Ontario, and got into graphic design. When he was diagnosed with renal failure in 1998, he released a series of cartoons called "The Lighter Side of Dialysis." Quaife succumbed to kidney failure in June 2010.

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Even those who never bought a Bee Gees album in their entire lives can still sing along to at least a few of their songs — and when Maurice Gibb died in 2003, The Guardian called them "critically underrated" as a band. 

It was Maurice who once reportedly said, "One of us is OK, two of us is pretty good, but three of us together is magic," and it was Maurice who was the first to die: After collapsing in his home, he went into surgery to remove a blockage in his intestine and then suffered a heart attack. He died with his family at his side, including older brother Barry and twin Robin.

Nine years later, CNN reported that Robin had died on May 20, 2012. The official statement said that he "passed away today following his long battle with cancer and intestinal surgery" at just 62 years old. Among the tributes that poured in were heartfelt words from Queen's Brian May, who said, "For me, the music of the Bee Gees really has peaks as high as any mountain ever climbed by a Pop/Rock group. The Bee Gees will never be forgotten."

The twins were survived by their older brother Barry, and as a family, they were no strangers to tragic deaths. Another brother — who wasn't in the group — died in the 1980s. Just 30 years old, Andy Gibb succumbed to a heart infection.

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In 1984, singer and drummer Levon Helm described the ingredients that went into his music (via The New York Times): "life and breath, heart and soul." That's easy to see in the timelessness of his work. Take a look at a picture of The Band, and it's almost impossible to tell what era they're in.

Levon Helm was born Mark Lavon Helm in 1941, and as the son of an Arkansas cotton farmer, he was heavily influenced by the blues of the Deep South. The start of the band that would simply become known as The Band came in 1965 — originally Bob Dylan's backup band, they were listed on an album cover as just "the Band," and they ran with it.

Although their later work never topped their first two releases, they were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1994 — a full 18 years after they officially retired. Helm got into acting after The Band, and in the late 1990s, he was diagnosed with throat cancer. Unable to sing and with medical bills piling up, he opened up his barn to impromptu concerts called Midnight Rambles. Although the regulars got together to form a group, Helm was no longer able to sing by that point. He died on April 19, 2012, and the official cause was complications from cancer.

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Saying you're a fan of the Monkees is a great way to get "serious" music fans to scoff — and scoff hard — but here's the thing: They had a massive influence on music as a whole. The Hollywood Reporter points out that not only did they pave the way for future boy bands and teen idols from David Cassidy to Hanson to the Jonas Brothers, but they proved how popular an up-and-coming new music format could be. That was, of course, the music video, and it's easy to forget their show was Emmy-winning, and their music topped the charts.

The Monkees' singer from Manchester, Davy Jones (left), had started out in show business before leaving after the death of his mother. He ultimately auditioned for a group described (via the BBC) as "just some guys having fun," and in 2012 — just a year after the Monkees reunited – the 66-year-old Jones died after suffering a major heart attack. 

Then, in 2019, Rolling Stone announced the death of another one of the Monkees, Peter Tork (right). His official cause of death wasn't released, but according to the Independent, he had been diagnosed with a rare type of cancer called adenoid cystic carcinoma. Fellow Monkee Michael Nesmith wrote, "[M]y tears are awash, and my heart is broken. Even though I am clinging to the idea that we all continue, the pain that attends these passings has no cure."

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When Tommy Ramone (right) died in 2014, it truly was the end of an era: As Rolling Stone noted, he had been the last surviving member of the original Ramones. According to a statement issued on his family's behalf, "He was in hospice care following treatment for cancer of the bile duct."

The Ramones are credited with helping to found an entire genre of music: punk rock. The four founding members — Erdelyi Tamas, John Cummings, Jeffrey Hyman, and Douglas Colvin — weren't blood brothers but were brothers, nonetheless.

Joey Ramone (left, Hyman) was diagnosed with leukemia when he was just 42 years old, says Variety, and passed away in 2001. The following year, Dee Dee Ramone (second right, Colvin) was found unconscious in his Hollywood home. According to The New York Times, paramedics pronounced him dead on the scene, from an apparent drug overdose. Then, in 2004, Rolling Stone announced the death of Johnny Ramone (second left, Cummings). He gave his last interview surrounded by taxidermy oddities and some very elderly cats — six years after his diagnosis of prostate cancer — and he died not long afterward.

In his last interview, Johnny reflected: "[A]ll of a sudden on the last tour, it was like, everyone is going to miss us? I thought everyone would forget us. That was fun? I can't tell."

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Soul Asylum is one of those groups that's been around for a lot longer than all but the most die-hard fans might remember. They might embody the look and sound of the 1990s — particularly with their hit "Runaway Train," dedicated to the nation's missing teenagers — but they officially formed way back in 1984, out of an earlier incarnation from 1981.

In 2005, Rolling Stone announced the death of bassist Karl Mueller, who had been diagnosed with throat cancer the prior year. At the time of his death, he was a current and founding member of the group, who'd gotten together for a new album during a period where Mueller's cancer had gone into remission. 

Mueller was survived by his wife, Mary Beth Mueller, who went on to establish a research endowment at the University of Minnesota called The Kar Fund. She also founded Kill Kancer, an outreach group that focuses on spreading information on cancer prevention (via the Southwest Journal). She said, "Everyone has had an aunt or a father that has died in that age group we're targeting. My husband died at 40. That is absolutely unacceptable."

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He'd been born Don Van Vliet, but The Guardian says that he was better known as the cult figure Captain Beefheart. They called him "a hero to most of the musical avant garde" and cited bands from the Grateful Dead to Jethro Tull as one which had been heavily influenced by his work, described as "pretty discordant" and "mesmeric" at the same time — thanks in large part to his impressive vocal range, which spanned four and a half octaves.

A longtime friend of Frank Zappa, Captain Beefheart — who took his name from a film he'd once had hopes of making — spent much of his career as a fringe figure, mostly because of his own choosing. More interested in art and music for the sake of art and music alone, Beefheart influenced countless other artists while spending much of the 1960s surviving on the only thing he could afford to eat: bread.

Beefheart retired from music in 1982, on the advice of a New York City art dealer who told him that if he wanted anyone to take him seriously, it was one or the other. He enjoyed a modest career in the art world and died in 2010. The official cause was complications from multiple sclerosis.

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The mythology of rock 'n' roll is eternal youth and jubilation. When the music genre burst on the scene in the post-WWII, conservative United States during the 1950s, it immediately became the target for ire and hate from members of the Greatest Generation and the Silent Generation, while becoming an everyday part of life for the Baby Boomers. Elvis Presley's shaking hips, Chuck Berry's duck walk, Little Richard's and Jerry Lee Lewis' showmanship on the piano, and many other performers captured the hearts of teenagers, and rock laid the foundation for popular music over the second half of the 20th century.

Unfortunately, the human body can only take so much sex, drugs, and rock 'n' roll. The phrase "Live fast, die young, and leave a good-looking corpse" became reality for many of these rock stars. Performers who seemed like demigods to their fans were still very human and still held the same limitations as their legions of followers. Behind all the glitz and fun, musicians still suffered from depression, dependency on drugs or alcohol, or diseases and other health concerns. And sometimes, they were just at the wrong place at the wrong time, leading to tragic accidents. Here are just a few rock stars who died prematurely.

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On the morning of February 3, 1959, early rock 'n' roll icons Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and J.P. Richardson, known as "The Big Bopper," died in a plane crash while touring together through the Midwest. The event became known as "The Day the Music Died" and saw the first premature deaths of young and popular musicians in the early history of the genre.

The crash also had a large impact on one of their fellow musicians. Eddie Cochran was a part of the first wave of rock 'n' roll stars, along with the three musicians who passed. His songs "Summertime Blues" and "Twenty Flight Rock" became early classics in the young genre and very popular among his teenage fan base. His appearance in films such as The Girl Can't Help It and Go Johnny Go helped his popularity grow further. According to John Collis' biography, Gene Vincent and Eddie Cochran, people close to Cochran said he became obsessed with his own death, believing it was around the corner after the deaths of Holly, Valens, and Richardson.

While touring in the United Kingdom in 1960 with fellow musician Gene Vincent, Cochran's premonition came true. Following a performance on Saturday, April 16, Vincent, Cochran, and others were involved in a single-car accident. Cochran died the next day, Easter Sunday, at the age of 21. He was only one killed in the crash.

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Third time's the charm, they say. At Fillmore East, the Allman Brothers Band's third album, released in July 1971, launched them to superstardom after their first two albums failed commercially. The live album is hailed as a masterpiece today — Rolling Stone ranked it No. 49 on their "500 Greatest Albums of All Time."

The band's strength and leader was their guitarist, Duane Allman. Allman had spent the mid- to late 1960s as a must-have studio guitarist, working with artists such as Aretha Franklin, Wilson Pickett, and fellow guitar god Eric Clapton. Billy Gibbons of ZZ Top fame said this of Duane's guitar playing to Rolling Stone magazine: "Duane began doing things no one had ever done before. [...] He was just a stunning and singular musician who was gone way too soon."

On October 29, 1971, Allman was driving his motorcycle through Macon, Georgia, when he hit a stopped truck. His bike jumped in the air and landed on him, causing internal injures. Though still conscious when he was taken to the hospital, the guitarist died hours later from his injures. As the band continued without their leader, tragedy struck again. On November 11, 1972, bassist Berry Oakley hit a bus on his own motorcycle and died from cerebral swelling. The accident took place a few blocks from Allman's fatal crash. Both men were 24 and are buried next to each other at Rose Hill Cemetery in Macon.

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"Mama" Cass Elliot's weight has followed her throughout her life and death. As a part of the folk-pop group the Mamas and the Papas, Cass Elliot became a household name. However, her weight almost kept her out of the band since John Phillips didn't want to put Cass in the band because of it. Phillips and Elliot would try to hide this fact following their breakthrough to the mainstream, but in Cass' biography, Dream a Little Dream of Me by Eddi Fiegel, this fact came to light and was backed by bandmate Dennis Doherty as well as John himself.

After the Mamas and the Papas ended, Cass still maintained a steady career in music and television. On July 29, 1974, she passed away from a heart attack in Mayfair, London, England, at 32 years old.

Even in death, Elliot's weight was still the story — a rumor spread that she died choking on a ham sandwich. Many publications, such as Time, ran with the now-debunked ham sandwich story. Cass' only son, Owen, who was seven at the time of her death, angrily called the rumor "one last slap at the fat lady," as told by The Guardian. Cass was staying in a flat owned by singer Harry Nilsson that he loaned to her for her shows in England. The flat would become infamous for another death four years later.

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No rock musician lived life to the fullest more so than Keith Moon. His chaotic drumming made him a legend, placing him second on Rolling Stone's list of the 100 Greatest Drummers, and was the driving force behind one of the greatest bands of the era, The Who. Moon, as described by his former bandmate Roger Daltry to GQ, "lived his entire life as a fantasy." Moon helped create many of the stereotypes that still exist today in rock 'n' roll, like smashing hotel rooms and his own instrument, outrageous spending, and frequent alcohol and drug use that usually landed him in trouble.

On Jan 4, 1970, Moon and his entourage left a pub mobbed with skinheads that were harassing him. While trying to escape, Moon took the wheel of the car and accidentally ran over his friend and chauffeur, killing him. The judge cleared Moon of the three charges he pleaded guilty to — drunk driving, driving without a license, and driving without insurance — because of the circumstances at the pub. However, according to his friend Larry Smith, the moment had an effect on the drummer. Smith said that Moon was "shell-shocked."

Moon's predictable demise finally came eight years later on September 7, 1978. Moon was pronounced dead at the age of 32 from an overdose of Heminevrin. He died at the same age and in the same place where Mama Cass died four years prior.

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It is understandable to forget about a band's frontman when the lineup also featured a young Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, and pre-Led Zeppelin Jimmy Page during its run. That's what has happened to Keith Relf of the Yardbirds.

When American blues music hit England in the late 1950s and early 1960s, bands like the Rolling Stones (named after a popular Muddy Waters song) and the Yardbirds formed with the desire to put their own touch on the music they loved. For Rolling Stone's list of the 100 Greatest Artists, frontman Steven Tyler of Aerosmith described the difference between Relf and the more popular frontman for the Stones, Mick Jagger: "He was a white boy who pushed it to the max. And he was a great harmonica player. You never heard Jagger hanging out on a single note the way Keith Relf could."

After the Yardbirds fell apart in 1968, Relf continued his music career with various bands as his more well-known bandmates achieved greater commercial and critical success throughout the 1970s. According to Ultimate Classic Rock, on May 14, 1976, while playing an electric guitar in his basement, Relf accidentally electrocuted himself, ending his life. He was 33 years old.

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Musician Taj Mahal said of The Band in the documentary Once Were Brothers: Robbie Robertson and The Band, "If there were any American musicians that were comparable to what the Beatles were, it would have been them."

The Band featured (among others) drummer Levon Helm, bassist Rick Danko, and de-facto lead vocalist and multi-instrumentalist Richard Manuel, known for having a very soulful voice and the ability to sing in falsetto. Helm said of Manuel, "He was about the best singer I'd ever heard." Danko called Manuel "a force of nature in the band." Despite his immense talent, according to AllMusic, Manuel struggled throughout his life with alcohol and drug addiction.

In 1977, the group split up but reformed six years later without guitarist and lead songwriter Robbie Robertson. On the early morning of March 4, 1986, following a show at Winter Park, Florida, Manuel committed suicide. For years, Manuel had struggled with drug and alcohol addiction, as well as depression following the death of manager and mentor Albert Grossman earlier in the year, according to Chicago Now. Manuel was 42 years old at the time of his death. His former bandmates penned tribute songs to their friend, as did friend and admirer Eric Clapton with his song "Holy Mother."

If you or anyone you know is having suicidal thoughts, please call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline​ at​ 1-800-273-TALK (8255)​.

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According to Nick Talevski in his book Rock Obituaries — Knocking On Heaven's Door, when Paul Butterfield was only a teenager, he was already being tutored and performing with blues legend Muddy Waters in Chicago. The Paul Butterfield Blues Band helped popularize blues music, a predominately African-American genre, to a white audience. Living in Chicago, Butterfield was at the epicenter for the blues, as artists such as Waters, Willie Dixon, and his professional inspiration Little Walter lived and performed on Chicago's South Side. The rhythm section for his band, Sam Lay and Jerome Arnold, were hired from blues legend Howlin' Wolf.

Butterfield's aggressive blues harmonica playing led his bandmate and friend Michael Bloomfield to call him "the finest blues harmonica player in the world." Amid the backdrop of the early and mid-1960s, Butterfield would defend his racially integrated band and often get into confrontations from racist concertgoers, according to guitarist Paul Feiten. Butterfield was a living legend during his time. Author and journalist Greil Marcus said that during Woodstock, he saw other musicians from The Band and Blood, Sweat, and Tears act "deferential" towards Butterfield.

By the mid-1980s, Butterfield had developed a heroin addiction which had put a financial strain on him, and he'd been hurt by the loss of many of his close friends like Bloomfield, Waters, and his manager Albert Grossman during the decade. On May 4, 1987, Butterfield died of a drug overdose at the age of 44.

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From Oasis' Liam and Noel Gallagher to the Kinks' Ray and Dave Davies to the Jackson 5's Michael and Jermaine Jackson, sibling rivalries are not uncommon in music. 

However, few were as tumultuous and tragic as Creedence Clearwater Revival's feud between their two guitarists, John and Tom Fogerty. Despite being the younger sibling, John became the band's driving force, taking over all the singing and songwriting duties previously held by his brother. Tom did not enjoy losing control of his band to John, according to Ultimate Classic Rock. However, John's control of the band drove it superstardom in the late 1960s. After the 1970 album Pendulum, Tom left the band. Two years later, CCR dissolved from more internal conflict between John and the two remaining members.

Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, John became entangled in a series of contemptuous legal fights with the head of Fantasy Records, Saul Zaentz. In these fights, Tom was firmly in Zaentz's camp. John described Tom as having "some sort of weird Patti Hearst syndrome." During the 1980s, Tom was infected with AIDS from a blood transfusion. Even with death coming around, the brothers stayed at odds. John said one of the last letters he got from his brother read, "Saul is my best friend." Tom died of tuberculosis on September 6, 1990, at the age of 48.

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Most people first heard Stevie Ray Vaughan's guitar on the hit David Bowie song "Let's Dance." Bowie said in an interview with MTV in 1983 that when he first heard Vaughan, "This little kid from Austin, Texas, just played some of the most devastating city rhythm and blues I've heard in years." BB King described Vaughan's guitar playing as "fluent" and said, "He could get something going [...] and it would go on and on and ideas continuously flowed."

Vaughan was a music legend to other legends. Throughout the 1980s, he released four studio albums with his band Double Trouble. His guitar abilities placed him No. 12 on Rolling Stone's list of the 100 Greatest Guitarists, and Vaughan is credited for helping to re-popularize blues music during the decade.

Unfortunately, during the early morning of August 27, 1990, his career came to an abrupt end. According to Guitar World, Double Trouble had done two shows with fellow blues guitarist Eric Clapton, Buddy Guy, Robert Cray, and Stevie's older brother Jimmie Vaughan in East Troy, Wisconsin. Vaughan then boarded a helicopter to fly back to Chicago, but it crashed, killing all four people on board as well as the pilot. He was 35 years old. One month later, Vaughan's last album of original material, Family Style, was released, a duel album with his brother.

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Though mostly known in the United States for a single song, Kirsty MacColl was regarded as one of the finest artists of her generation in the United Kingdom. The BBC reported that U2 frontman Bono called MacColl "the Noel Coward of her generation," and Johnny Marr of the Smiths said she had "the wit of Ray Davies and the harmonic invention of the Beach Boys."

Her duet with the Pogues, "Fairytale of New York" has become a modern-day holiday season classic. Jem Finer, songwriter and banjoist of the Pogues, told The Guardian that he questioned whether MacColl could handle her side of the duet, but lead singer Shane McGowan had been a fan of her of music and said, "She could make a song her own and she made Fairytale her own."

On December 18, 2000, the 41-year-old singer and her two sons were swimming in Cozumel, Mexico, when a speedboat illegally entered the area they were in. She moved one of her sons out of the way of the boat but was struck and killed instantly. Kirsty's mother Jean MacColl launched the website justiceforkirsty.org, believing that the Mexican government hadn't been forthcoming throughout the investigation. The boat was owned by businessman Carlos Gonzalez Nova, who was on the boat. Deckhand José Cen Yam was found guilty of culpable homicide, although according to Kirsty's biography, written by Jean MacColl, Yam's wife and father-in-law both said he was not the driver.

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December 8 is a somber day in music history. The night of December 8, 1980, former Beatles guitarist and songwriter John Lennon was shot in the back while walking into his apartment building in New York City by a crazed former fan, Mark David Chapman. Twenty-four years later, another legendary guitar player would be murdered.

While performing with his new band Damageplan, Darrell Abbott, known as "Dimebag" Darrell, was shot during his band's set. He was 38. In 1981, Darrell helped formed the heavy metal band Pantera, and his guitar riffs helped drive the band to success until they split in 2003. Pantera reshaped the metal genre over their two-decade run. Pantera's drummer, Darrell's older brother Vinny Paul Abbott, said of the band in an interview with Rolling Stone in 1992 that, "We pulled the very best out of each one of ourselves, and with each record that we made, that mountain got taller and taller to climb."

The gunman, Nathan Gale, also took the lives of three other people: club employee Erin A. Halk, fan Nathan Bray, and Damageplan crew member Jeff "Mayhem" Thompson. He was killed by Columbus police officers minutes after the shooting. Rolling Stone reports that another fan saw Gale waiting in the parking lot and asked him if he wanted to come inside to stay warm. He responded that he was "gonna wait for Damageplan."

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When a rock star dies unexpectedly, the question of how they died can loom as large as the memory of how they lived. If the post-mortem math doesn't add up, it divides public opinion on how to interpret the circumstances. Multiple theories emerge, and it can be difficult to differentiate suspicious positions from legitimate suspicions.

Some allegations belong to a constellation of baseless rock star conspiracy theories. When Elvis checked into the Heartbreak Hotel in the sky, for example, a handful of shook-up fans denied that he even died. Ignoring irrefutable proof of his passing, Elvis truthers cited Elvis sightings and a tombstone typo as evidence that the King staged his demise. While a parade of crying clowns couldn't rival the laughable sadness of that idea, not every case suffers from such obvious fact-blindness. In the instances below, relevant details surrounding rock star deaths created reasonable doubts about whether the official narratives reflected reality.

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Rock and roll royalty bowed to Felix Pappalardi. A music school dropout who often outclassed major musicians, he could play virtually any instrument. Also a virtuoso at arranging music, Pappalardi produced multiple albums for Eric Clapton's group Cream and hammered out much of their hit single "Strange Brew." Afterward he became the bassist for Mountain and the basis for its sound. As the New York Daily News detailed, Mountain front man Leslie West credited Pappalardi with teaching him many music dos and don'ts.

After Mountain's popularity peaked with "Mississippi Queen," Pappalardi departed the band to save his hearing, but he kept busy with narcotics and extramarital affairs. Pappalardi had a very open marriage with lyricist Gail Collins, who wrote the strangest lines of "Strange Brew." She tolerated his tomcatting until 1982, when Pappalardi fell in love with would-be singer Valerie Merians. Collins mourned their moribund marriage. In April 1983, Pappalardi returned home after making bedroom music with Merians and wound up with a bullet in his neck.

Collins had shot him with a handgun he gave her as a gift. She then called her attorney, who advised her to call 911, which she hadn't done. When talking with police, Collins called the incident "an accident during a 6 a.m. firearms training session." Detectives discovered the ripped-up remnants of the couple's marriage certificate in the trash and understandably weren't convinced. A jury, however, was. Collins spent two years in prison for negligent homicide.

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Brian Jones named the Rolling Stones after Muddy Waters' "Rolling Stone Blues." He also assembled the band, imbuing its tunes with rhythm and blues. Those blues were painted black in 1969 when Jones got fired from the band and died a few weeks afterward. Partly relying on eyewitness testimony, a coroner concluded that Jones drowned in his swimming pool during a drug-fueled "misadventure." However, subsequent statements muddied the waters.

Per the BBC, the musician spent his final night alive with girlfriend Anna Wohlin, friend Janet Lawson (who found Jones' body), and builder Frank Thorogood. Lawson recalled that Jones and Thorogood went on an ill-advised "midnight swim" after consuming pills and alcohol. But when she spoke with a private investigator decades later, her version of events evolved.

As Rolling Stone recounted, according to Lawson's updated account, Jones and Frank Thorogood had horsed around in the pool around the time Jones died. She "saw Thorogood shaking badly" before seeing Jones' body. In 2005 Anna Wohlin made similar assertions, telling the Independent she thought Thorogood inadvertently killed Jones during "some sort of horseplay." She added that Thorogood made no effort to aid Jones.

A 1994 book also accused Thorogood, claiming he confessed on his deathbed to Rolling Stones driver Tom Keylock. In 2009 a former Stones road manager accused Keylock of killing Jones and silencing witnesses with threats. What about the supposed substance abuse? Drugs hardly turned up during the autopsy.

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When you look at the group's musical malleability and multi-generational success, it's tempting to call the Temptations the "Adaptations." As trends changed, they changed, according to the Rock and Roll Hall and Fame. Lead singer Dennis Edwards took the helm in 1968 and steered the Temptations into their funk-rock phase. According to his obituary, he proved instrumental in producing several memorable songs, including the hugely popular "Papa Was a Rollin' Stone" and "Cloud Nine," the latter of which earned the group its first Grammy Award.

Edwards died a legend in 2018 at age 74. His wife Brenda said he succumbed to meningitis. However, court records suggested something sinister. Shortly before Edwards passed away, the Health Care Consortium of Illinois filed an emergency protection order on his behalf. As the Detroit News detailed, the consortium accused Brenda of attempting to smother her Hall-of-Fame husband by pressing his face against a bed and denying him his hearing aids.

Adding to the suspiciousness, relatives related that Brenda increasingly isolated Edwards from the rest of his family. She even moved him from St. Louis, where he had lived for more than 30 years, to Chicago. Brenda denied harming her husband, and a coroner corroborated her meningitis claim. Nonetheless, it's worth noting that the timing of Edwards' demise suited her legally. Brenda was set to defend herself against the abuse allegations in court the week Edwards died. With no one left to protect, the case against her was dismissed.

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Formed in 1984, Norwegian band Mayhem birthed black metal, which The Guardian described as "the most extreme form of music imaginable." Mayhem weren't just dark; they made black holes seem like sunlight by comparison. The members sported stage names like Necro Butcher, unironically hailed Satan, and chucked animal heads at audience members. That's the tame stuff. Bassist Count Grishnackh (who later assumed the name Burzum and espoused Nazism) and guitarist Snorre Ruch would serve prison time for church burnings and murdering fellow Mayhem member Euronymous.

Grishnackh (real name Varg Vikernes) insisted it was self-defense. He and Euronymous (Øystein Aarseth) had a falling-out over finances and politics. Then Euronymous supposedly threatened to murder Grishnackh. According to Black Metal: Evolution of the Cult, Euronymous habitually threatened people and even bragged that he attempted to poison someone. Overall, he wanted to out-evil people, and sometimes he succeeded. Euronymous once assaulted someone with a broken bottle. He also prided himself on photographing a dead bandmate and apparently mailing pieces of the deceased's skull to other black metal musicians.

Most people dismissed Euronymous' threats as grim games, but Grishnackh (pictured above with his lawyer) wasn't playing. In 1993 he arrived at Euronymous' door with a knife. Bandmate Snorre Rush, who drove Grishnackh to the crime scene, said the slaying was premeditated. Grishnackh later maintained that he just wanted to beat the excrement out of his foe but was attacked. Either way, he ended up chasing and attacking Euronymous, who was found with 23 wounds — some from Vikernes' knife and some from allegedly falling on glass during the struggle.

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Remember the soothingly gloomy song at the end of Good Will Hunting? That was the Oscar-nominated "Miss Misery," which earned singer-songwriter Elliott Smith the moniker Mr. Misery. Known for his melancholic compositions, the gentle-voiced singer wrote about what he knew: addiction and dejection.

Sadly, Smith's dourness devoured him. As The Guardian detailed, despite performing during the 1998 Academy Awards ceremony and seeing substantial record sales afterward, "the unhappiest man in the land" sought solace in alcohol and hard drugs. He fretted when friends tried to help him. He frequently threatened to take his own life during disagreements, and in 2003 he might have.

Smith allegedly had a heated argument with girlfriend Jennifer Chiba. According to Chiba, she locked herself in the bathroom, heard a scream, and reemerged to find Smith with a knife through his heart. He supposedly wrote a suicide note. It seemed like a straightforward case, but the autopsy uncovered signs of a struggle. Smith had two stab wounds in his chest plus cuts that indicated he was defending himself. Moreover, he lacked the "hesitation wounds" typically left by suicide attempts.

When the findings appeared online, Chiba appeared on MTV News to express indignation and proclaim her innocence. She later sued Smith's estate for over $1 million per the Hollywood Reporter, claiming she deserved some of his earnings. She lost.

If you or anyone you know is having suicidal thoughts, please call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255).

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Jim Morrison was so awesome that paleontologists named a prehistoric lizard after him. The Doors lead singer had looks, locks, and lyrics. Equal parts poet and rocker, Morrison sang with entrancing intensity and howled like a musical Ginsberg. He lit everything up with "Light My Fire" and showed off-the-cuff creativity when performing "The End." But when 27-year-old Morrison met his end in 1971, the world was kept in the dark.

Morrison died in Paris on July 3, but Rolling Stone noted that Doors manager Bill Siddon didn't inform American news outlets until July 9, two days after the legend was laid to rest. (Siddon later related that Morrison's loved ones wanted privacy.) Journalists had heard days earlier that Morrison died, but when they tried to confirm what occurred, they were told the singer simply needed rest. Before discovering otherwise, French reporters even wrote that he had "minor malady."

According to Morrison's death certificate, he had a heart attack. But nobody conducted an autopsy. Morrison's wife, Pam, claimed he coughed up blood before apparently passing away while bathing. This supports reports that Morrison died of a respiratory ailment. However, the singer supposedly seemed healthy beforehand, and Pam apparently didn't witness his death. Band photographer Bobby Klein told The Guardian that the Doors' producer told him Morrison mistook heroin for coke and fatally inhaled it. Musician Marianne Faithfull blamed an ex-boyfriend, telling the Telegraph her former beau sold Morrison powerful heroin, inducing an accidental overdose.

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There's a reason they went by the "Sex Pistols" and not the "Love Guns." The U.K. punk rockers were the musical equivalent of an open-handed face slap. While the Pistols blew their shot at a long career, they'll long be remembered for bad-boy bassist Sid Vicious and his groupie girlfriend Nancy Spungen.

Although not a musician, Nancy was a rock star in her own right, according to NY Magazine. She was a prominent presence in the nascent punk scene and an acted as an able ambassador of punk rock. Sid, meanwhile, oozed unrepentant irreverence and famously simulated shooting his audience after a rock rendition of Frank Sinatra's "My Way" in a mockumentary. Things decidedly did not go Sid's way in October 1978 when Nancy was fatally stabbed in the New York hotel room they shared. Maybe?

Sid originally copped to killing Nancy, telling the cops, "I did it because I'm a dirty dog." But he soon barked a different tune, noted the Independent, claiming he was unconscious during the murder. A court never decided if the sleeping dog lied because Sid OD'd on heroin. However, some people pointed the finger at drug dealers who frequented Sid and Nancy's room. Furthermore, someone seemingly stole $1,500 from the pair, so maybe it was money-motivated murder. The plot further thickened when Sex Pistols photographer Peter Gravelle alleged that Sid's mom delivered the lethal heroin dose to her son to save him from prison.

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In 1992, Manic Street Preachers guitarist and lyricist Richey Edwards drunkenly moonwalked on top of a bar. Why? Because he was happy. That anecdote demonstrated a facet of the rock star that his fellow Preachers felt people overlooked, according to NME. Sadly, the other facets didn't moonwalk. Edwards suffered from depression and regularly resorted to self-harm.

Edwards' sadness saturated his work, most notably the album The Holy Bible. As The Guardian elaborated, his lyrics often referenced his personal demons. At the time his bandmates interpreted his lyrics as a "journalistic" exploration of "the cruelty of humanity filtered through Richey's amazing intellect." In retrospect it sounded like a cry for help. In February 1995, Edwards went missing from a London hotel. After three weeks of searching, authorities located his car at a bridge where people often end their lives, per the Independent.

In 2008 Edwards was presumed dead. However, many people reject the notion, noting that Edwards publicly stated he would never take his own life. Moreover, in the days preceding his disappearance, he consistently withdrew substantial sums of money from an ATM. There have been several unconfirmed sightings over the years. In 2018 Edwards' relatives learned the guitarist's car arrived at the bridge 12 hours earlier than originally thought, so for 20 years, requests for information have focused on the incorrect window of time.

If you or anyone you know is having suicidal thoughts, please call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255).

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It takes a special kind of talent to turn a song about an outlaw losing his freedom into an outlaw anthem. Luckily, Bobby Fuller brimmed with ability. Fittingly, his musical muse was Buddy Holly, whose buddy Sonny Curtis wrote "I Fought the Law," per The Guardian. First performed by Holly's band the Crickets in 1960 (the year after Holly perished in a plane crash), the song gained nationwide acclaim when Fuller covered it in 1966.

Ready to play Six Degrees of Buddy Holly? Fuller and his band (the Bobby Fuller Four) signed with record producer Bob Keane, who discovered Ritchie Valens; Valens died alongside Buddy Holly. Six months later Fuller died. He was 23. The details are as traumatic as they are tragic. The singer's mother discovered him dead in her car. He had a tube extending from his hand to a can of gasoline. Investigators instantly ruled it a suicide, declining to even collect fingerprints or evaluate other possibilities. Their judgment proved premature.

The Houston Press reported that Fuller was soaked with gasoline, bruised and bloodied, and had been decomposing for substantially longer than the car was parked. All these clues indicated an involuntary death, which some have attributed to mobsters. Unable or unwilling to pursue criminal leads, law enforcement reclassified the tragedy as an accident. However, the evidence doesn't gel well with that theory, either. As Fuller's brother wondered, "Who would pour gas on himself in a hot car?" Excellent question.

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In 1966 Iron Butterfly took flight with "In -A-Gadda-Da-Vida." The hauntingly trippy song made ideal ear fodder for flower children and Freddy Krueger. Philip Taylor Kramer took over as Iron Butterfly's bassist and lead singer from 1971 until the band disbanded in 1975. The Washington Post reported that he recorded two albums that floundered. He attained greater success in the tech world, though.

Described by Variety as "a science whiz kid" who built a laser capable of downing balloons at age 12, Kramer became a computer company executive. Soon after his company acquired pioneering video compression technology for CD-ROMs, he vanished. In 1995 the ex-rocker turned executive traveled to the LAX airport to pick up a business associate. Instead, he dialed 911 to announce he was killing himself and that "O.J. Simpson is innocent." Then, radio silence. It seemed inexplicable. Kramer seemed mentally sound, had kids he loved, and didn't do drugs.

Kramer's disappearance appeared on Unsolved Mysteries. His mother thought he'd been abducted, and because of his tech ties a congressman suggested his case had national security implications. The Washington Post pointed out that Kramer's business had gone belly-up around the time he vanished and argued that his confusing 911 call showed he had cracked under pressure. Per the LA Times, in 1999 hikers encountered Kramer's bones inside his van in a canyon.

If you or anyone you know is having suicidal thoughts, please call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255).