Pick a Day

Music History Events: Deaths

March 8, 1973 Grateful Dead keyboard player Ron "Pigpen" McKernan, a founding member of the band, dies at age 27.More

November 11, 1972 Berry Oakley (bassist for The Allman Brothers Band) dies at age 24 after a motorcycle accident in Macon, Georgia, just three blocks from the site of Duane Allman's fatal motorcycle crash a year earlier.

January 30, 1972 British soldiers open fire on 26 unarmed civilians during a peaceful protest march in Derry, Northern Ireland, resulting in 14 deaths. The incident inspires Paul McCartney to write "Give Ireland Back To The Irish" (Wings' debut single) and gives rise to the U2 song "Sunday Bloody Sunday."

July 6, 1971 Louis Armstrong dies of a heart attack in his sleep in Corona, Queens, New York, a month shy of his 70th birthday. More

July 3, 1971 Jim Morrison of The Doors is found dead in a bathtub at age 27. No autopsy is performed, and while drugs are suspected, the official cause is listed as "heart attack induced by respiratory problems."More

October 4, 1970 Janis Joplin is found dead at the Landmark Hotel in Los Angeles after a heroin overdose. She was just 27.More

September 18, 1970 Jimi Hendrix is found dead in his basement. He had taken nine pills of the barbiturate Vesparax, that along with alcohol, caused a fatal overdose.More

January 4, 1970 The Who's Keith Moon accidentally runs over his chauffeur, Neil Boland, killing him. Apparently, Moon's car was under attack from some unruly teenagers, and when Boland jumped out to get them to move, Moon, in a panic, got behind the wheel to drive the car away himself. Unfortunately, the crowd had since pushed Boland under the car.

July 3, 1969 Brian Jones of The Rolling Stones is found dead in his swimming pool in England. The death is ruled accidental, although Jones, 27, has high levels of alcohol in his blood.

April 4, 1968 US civil rights activist Martin Luther King Jr. is killed after being shot on a Memphis motel balcony. King's life inspires a number of songs, including U2's "Pride (In The Name Of Love)."More

February 28, 1968 Frankie Lymon dies of a heroin overdose at age 25.

December 11, 1964 Sam Cooke is killed at age 33 when the manager of the Hacienda Motel in Los Angeles (where rooms cost $3 a night) shoots him three times. The manager claims that Cooke assaulted her and that he tried to rape his companion. The incident was ruled a justifiable homicide.

October 15, 1964 Cole Porter dies of kidney failure at age 73. He had suffered with chronic pain since the late-'30s when he was severely injured in a horseback-riding accident, leading to years of operations and an eventual amputation of his right leg.

November 22, 1963 US president John F. Kennedy is assassinated in Dallas, Texas. The incident inspires several songs, including Connie Francis' "In The Summer Of His Years" and The Beach Boys' "Warmth Of The Sun."

April 10, 1962 Stu Sutcliffe, original bass guitarist for The Beatles, dies at age 21 of a brain aneurysm.

April 17, 1960 "Summertime Blues" singer Eddie Cochran dies in England when the taxi he is riding in crashes. He is just 21.

July 17, 1959 While under arrest for illegal possession of narcotics, Billie Holiday dies at age 44 at Metropolitan Hospital in New York City, where she has been since June 12. Years of drug and alcohol abuse took their toll on the singer, who suffered from cirrhosis of the liver.

February 3, 1959 Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and J.P. "The Big Bopper" Richardson are killed in a plane crash. Don McLean would call it "The Day the Music Died" in his 1971 hit "American Pie."More

September 30, 1955 James Dean is killed in a car accident at age 24. Dean dies around the same time rock and roll comes alive (the #1 song the day he dies: Pat Boone's cover of "Ain't That A Shame" - clearly America is at a crossroads).More

April 23, 1616 William Shakespeare dies at 52. His play Romeo and Juliet becomes an archetype for songs about love that ends in tragedy.

February 7, 2026 3 Doors Down frontman Brad Arnold dies at 47 after a battle with cancer. Their song "When I'm Gone" is an epitaph of sorts. He told Songfacts: "It's asking a question, just please love me when I'm gone. And not just like when I'm dead and gone."

January 10, 2026 Grateful Dead guitarist and founding member Bob Weir's long strange trip comes to an end as he dies following a battle with cancer. He sang lead on "Truckin'" and co-wrote many Dead classics, including "Sugar Magnolia" and "Born Cross-Eyed."

October 22, 2025 David Ball, an electronic musician known for his work in Soft Cell and The Grid, dies at 66.

October 16, 2025 Ace Frehley, the longtime lead guitarist in Kiss known as the Spaceman, dies at 74. Frehley had a solo hit in 1978 with "New York Groove."

October 14, 2025 D'Angelo, a neo-soul pioneer known for his albums Brown Sugar (1995) and Voodoo (2000), dies of pancreatic cancer at 51.

September 6, 2025 Rick Davies, who along with Roger Hodgson was the main singer and songwriter in Supertramp, dies at 81 after a battle with blood cancer.

July 22, 2025 George Kooymans, guitarist and founder of Golden Earring ("Radar Love"), dies at 77. He performed with the group until 2019, when he was sidelined with ALS.

July 22, 2025 Horn player Chuck Mangione, known for his 1977 hit "Feels So Good," dies at 84. Mangione appeared several times on the animated series King Of The Hill, where he often performed his hit.

July 22, 2025 Seventeen days after his farewell concert with his band Black Sabbath, Ozzy Osbourne dies at 76. After launching his successful solo career in the '80s, he became the centerpiece of the metal community with the Ozzfest tour, which ran 1996–2008 and a few years thereafter. Ozzy tried retirement a few times (first in 1992) but always got bored and returned to action.

July 16, 2025 Connie Francis, one of the most popular singers of the late '50s and early '60s, dies at 87. Her hits include "Who's Sorry Now" and "My Heart Has a Mind of Its Own," but Gen Z knows her for "Pretty Little Baby," a B-side from 1962 that went viral in 2025.