Dead Rock Star Club...What if they didn't die?

As we have all read by now singer Amy Winehouse died and of course it is sad, but we all saw it coming.  Amy joins other 27 year olds who died way before their prime in what is an apparent direct linkage to drugs.  Jim Morrison, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Kurt Cobain, Brian Jones, and now Winehouse all passed way too early.  They were all extremely talented musicians and had a very, very dark side with drugs.  We know all that but what a lot of people don't think about is "What would it have been like if some of these musicians were still around?"  Would they have stayed popular and relevant?  Would they have flamed out and be thought of as just another musician?  So as always I have some thoughts on it, and no one will probably like it, but its just me. 

Jim Morrison Lead Singer of the Doors - Died of heart faliure in a bathtub in Paris July 3, 1971 - It was already fairly well known that Morrison didn't really want to continue on with The Doors when he died.  He was getting more into the blues and writing poetry, both of which he did very well.  So what would've happened if he stuck around?  Well Jim would've hung out in Paris for a few years writing poetry, performing in coffee houses, and doing heroin with street hookers.  After a near death experience in 1978 and with little money left, he contacts his ex-bandmates, the Doors, and tries to plan a reunion.  Kreiger and Manzarek are up for it but Densmore wants nothing more to do with Jim, so they hire another drummer and to get up to the times they hire a bass player as well.  Now, 1978 was a good time for rock but it was also during the terrible time of disco.  Morrison returns to the states and meets up with his old bandmates and they hit the studio.  Morrison is in desperate need of money so he wants to make a record that really will sell.  He has abandonded his dark side, done away with the blues, and wants to get things "funky".  So they record a rock/disco-type record, something that you can dance to and still feel a little rebellious with.  They record some reimaginings of their previous hits with a disco beat and changed up lyrics, with such songs as "Break On Through (to the Funky Side)", "Riders of the Love Rollercoaster", "Hyacinth Brick House", and the lone hit "Disco Woman."  The album is met with horrid reviews but they tour around with their new material to several disco clubs.  They make enough money to sustain for a little while but Morrison feels heartbroken for going down that god-awful road and breaks up the band again in 1980.  He becomes a solo artist for the duration of the 80's and also does several collaborations with other relics left from the 60's such as Robert Plant and the Rolling Stones.  Plant and Morrison even do an entire blues album together in 1990 called "LedDoor" it recieves mixed reviews and Morrison abrubtly quits the business.  He retires to the hills of Los Angeles to write poetry, do acid, and become a hippie activist.  No one pays attention to him anymore and everyone calls him a hack, a sellout, and a has been.  In 1992, Morrison ends his life successfully when he jumps off the top of the "H" on the Hollywood sign and breaks his neck.  When he is found, he is fat, bearded, and with toxic amounts of LSD, heroin, and cocaine in his blood.

Jimi Hendrix - Guitarist - Died choking on his own vomit in 1970 - Hendrix died as one of the most revered guitarists of alltime.  He was already a living legend at only 27 years old.  So what would've happened if he had stuck around?  Hendrix would've continued to play successfully for most of the 1970's, touring with Led Zepplin and the Rolling Stones at times but would've tired out around 1980 when he stated, "The music is so terrible right now, that I feel that I can't continue playing and be appreciated with all of this horrible shit surrounding me."  Hendrix would open his own blues club/bar in New Orleans in 1982 and call it "The Red House".  It would become a haven for blues musicians all throughout the world and even rival BB King in Memphis.  Every so often Hendrix would come out of his office or out from behind the bar, pick up his guitar and get up and jam on stage with whoever he thought worthy.  The Red House would grow in popularity through the 80's and in 1991 he was offered the chance of franchising his club to all the major cities across the US and some even in Canada.  The Red House became a huge corporate entity with Hendrix as its figurehead.  A copy cat club tried to start out franchising in 1992 called the House of Blues but The Red House put them out of business.  Hendrix would make appearances at all the Red Houses, and see all of the new talent coming through and would still go up on stage every now and then.  In 2002, Hendrix would sell his stake in The Red House franchise for a reported 325 million and retire to his home in New Orleans.  At the age of 63, Hendrix was in his mansion as Hurricane Katrina was hitting the coastline.  Hendrix reportedly died when the roof of his bedroom was torn off and he was slung into the sky and hit a telephone pole.

Janis Joplin - Lead singer for Big Brother and the Holding Company - died in 1970 of a heroin overdose.  It was pretty well know and accepted that Joplin loved to party.  She drank incessantly, had sex with men and women at random, and did copious amounts of heroin and other drugs.  But she had an amazing voice and loved to perform.  So what would've happened if she stuck around?  Joplin would continue on her wreckless path throughout the 1970's, missing death by inches on many occasions, but somehow persevered.  In, 1978 after touring and partying across the midwest Unitied States, Joplin met a young up and coming Pastor named Ted Haggard.  Haggard was younger than Joplin by about 14 years but their chemistry was unmatched.  Haggard reportedly helped Joplin come off drugs and by 1983 after years of dating and long after Joplin had left the limelight, they became married.  Joplin was a preacher's wife.  Never in all of her years did she think she would become this but she loved Ted and couldn't imagine a life without him.  Joplin played an integral part in helping Haggard set up his church in Colorado in 1984.  Joplin still had plenty of money from royalties coming in from her performing days and built him a massive church.  One of the attracting factors for many of the churchgoers was the fact that Joplin would sing hymns before and after the service.  Haggard would preach his sermons on the perils of sexual depravity, often using his wife as an example on how to overcome it, and the people would swoon and bring more and more people to church with them.  As their church grew, so did their family.  Joplin's uterus and cervix were of no use anymore after years of self abuse.  So Haggard and Joplin opted to adopt.  Over the years they adopted 15 different troubled teenage boys, Haggard and Joplin wanted to help the boys overcome their obstacles.  Joplin never found it odd or awkward that they were always teenage boys and mothered them all as her own.  In 2006, after 22 years of marriage and 15 adopted teenage boys, a scandal broke out that Haggard had been involved in a sexual relationship with a man.  Joplin couldn't believe it, she knew that Haggard was a gay bashing homophobe and that he would never do something like that.  She initially stood by her husband but he finally admitted it under increasing pressure from the media.  Joplin nearly lost it at that point and became enraged, but Haggard assured her that it was a one time thing.  She stayed with him until the first of the 15 teenage boys came forward that Haggard had sex with them on their 18th birthday.  Joplin left their home in their minivan and drove to Denver where she knew she could find drugs.  Joplin found her old friend heroin and loaded up a dose big enough to knock a cow down and died of an overdose. 

Kurt Cobain - Lead Singer for Nirvana - died in 1994 from self inflicted gunshot to the head.
Cobain, like Morrison, was already being rumored to break up his band around the time of his death.  Cobain wanted to be alone and do his own thing, maybe do an acoustic album or even write for a living.  So what would've happened if he stuck around?  Cobain overcame his depression and drug addiction after being forced into rehab for the remainder of 1994.  When he was released in 1995, Kurt was a new man.  He told Grohl and Novoselic that he appreciated them but wanted to move on with his career into a different direction.  He also divorced his wife, drug whore Courtney Love, shortly after his release.  Kurt wanted to move on from his past life and take advantage of his new found sobriety.  He took the year to write some new material for his comeback album and in 1996 he hit the studio.  Unfortunately, he had been out of the spotlight for some time and music had started moving on past the grunge era.  Sure Pearl Jam and Soundgarden were still around, but a lot of poppy bands with no soul were starting to sprout up.  Cobain later wrote, "I had helped to take down Hair Metal years ago, and by God I will help to bring down this soulless shit pop too."  Cobain came back where he left off, he recruited some young talented musicians, and came out with a landmark acoustic album, "Pop Sucks".  Initially album sales were modest but with each new release of a boy band or a shitty "rock" group he saw his album sales go up a little more.  People were getting so turned off by these horrible bands they knew that they had to go back to the record stores, return the crap that they bought, and get Cobains album.  In 1999, still touring from the success of his album he feared that he might be getting stale and made a punk album.  The same thing happened with this one, sales started off modest but rose with each new release of shitty music from other "artists."  By 2001, Cobain had basically scared off all the up and coming horrible groups like the Backstreet Boys and Nsync.  Music was taking a turn fully towards rock again, especially with his release of a "Nirvana" like album that year.  He would continue to do this until the current time.  Foo Fighters would still be around.  Courtney Love would've actually blown her head off.  And Nickleback would've been booed off of every stage they set foot on.  In 2011, along with Rage Against the Machine, he reunitied Nirvana for a series of soldout shows.

Amy Winehouse - Singer - died of what was probably drug related causes July 23, 2011.
Winehouse was known for her old soulful retro sound.  She had a string of highly successful hits including "Rehab" and "You know I'm no good".  But she was perhaps better known for her drug use.  She was a hard partying drug addict with a failed comeback and a failed stint in rehab.  So what would've happened if she stuck around?  She would've died on July 24, 2011.

So, those are just some thoughts and theories as to what would've or could've been in music over the past 40 years.  Some of it exciting but mostly not.  Although I love all of these artists, it was probably about the right time for Morrison and Winehouse, it woud've eventually happened to Joplin with her shitty luck, Hendrix and Cobain went way too early.