Musicians Who Died Right At The Peak Of Their Fame

Let's face it, musicians don't exactly have the most dangerous jobs on the planet. They're certainly not comparable to, say, lumberjacks or soldiers or those people who live on oil rigs. In fact, usually, the most dangerous day-to-day things a musician might encounter are high stages, late nights, and grouchy sound techs. Despite their relatively non-hostile workplaces, however, the deaths of musicians are often highly publicized and deeply mourned among the wider cultural community. These deaths don't usually come from mid-gig accidents or health and safety disasters, but from problems extending beyond the stage, and sometimes they happen when the artists are at the height of fame.

Drug overdoses, plane crashes, and shootings have been counted among the disasters that have taken some of the world's finest musicians away from us far, far too soon. It may not be the riskiest job out there, but there can be little doubt that there is something about musicians that seems to invite tragedy.

The following article mentions addiction, domestic abuse, and death by suicide.

Biggie Smalls — that's the Notorious B.I.G. to you — was born Christopher Wallace in New York in the early '70s. He attended the George Westinghouse Career and Technical Education High School, the same establishment that gave the world DMX, Jay-Z, and Busta Rhymes. He dropped out at the age of 17 and, after a small stint in jail for dealing cocaine in North Carolina, Smalls released a demo tape which was picked up by The Source magazine in 1992. Before the year's end, Smalls had been signed to Sean Combs' label, Bad Boy Records. Over the course of his career, he released two critically acclaimed studio albums, worked with icons such as R. Kelly and Michael Jackson, and developed a vicious rivalry with Tupac Shakur.

In 1997, however, after leaving a party in Los Angeles, Smalls was murdered by an unidentified gunman who had pulled up beside his SUV at a red light. Smalls' death marked the end of the East Coast/West Coast feud that had enveloped the hip-hop world. To this day, the mysterious nature of his murder has inspired endless speculation and countless conspiracy theories, some of which include him among those celebrities considered to have faked their own deaths.

Janis Joplin was a titan of psychedelic rock and one of the true icons of the 1960s. By the time of her death in 1970, she was one of the world's foremost female singers and musicians. She had found fame at the 1967 Monterey Pop Festival, where she fronted the band Big Brother, with which she continued down the road to stardom over the next two years, thanks in part to the patronage of Bob Dylan's manager, Albert Grossman.

By 1969, she had become far more well-known than Big Brother itself and left to form the Kozmic Blues Band. Her success grew further, making repeated appearances on television and touring pretty much without end. By 1970, she was preparing to release her latest album, "Pearl," which she had recorded with the Full Tilt Boogie Band. Her career and her life, however, came to a swift and tragic end. On October 4, 1970, she was found dead in her Hollywood hotel room, joining the tragically long list of stars who died at 27 years old. After a short investigation, her death was ruled to have resulted from an accidental heroin overdose. "Pearl," which was released posthumously, ended up going quadruple platinum through the years.

Of the various members behind N.W.A., Eazy-E brought one thing to the group that the others could not: authenticity. Whereas Ice Cube went to college and Dr. Dre was once in an electro-funk band called World Class Wreckin' Cru, Eazy was the member who, according to Will.i.am (via Vibe), "never seemed like he was playing a role." He personified the ideal of the gangster-turned-rapper, and can be counted as one of the few figures who truly set the scene for the genre of gangsta rap.

Eazy-E began Ruthless Records with money he had made from dealing drugs, and helped front N.W.A. as they rose to fame — and infamy — on the LA rap scene. Just as his contribution to N.W.A.'s image can't be understated, neither can his impact on the revolutionary ideals of Black communities during the '90s. In 1995, however, at a time when he was reportedly worth $50 million, Eazy-E checked into a medical center in LA with what he believed to be asthma. He was instead diagnosed with AIDS and died a month later.

Marc Bolan (born Mark Feld) began his career playing skiffle music that was inspired by Lonnie Donegan, the world-renowned "King of Skiffle." By the mid-'70s, he would become one of music's most famous glam rockers. He formed T. Rex in the late '60s, and by the beginning of the next decade had begun to perfect the rockier, psychedelic sound for which the band had become so well-known. Over the course of the '70s, T. Rex became one of Britain's most prolific glam rockers, releasing well over half a dozen chart hits and selling out gigs across the country.

After a brief career stumble and a foray into heavy drug misuse, Bolan came back to form in 1977 with the release of "Dandy in the Underworld," a new tour, and a slot presenting an evening television show on ITV. In September 1977, however, Bolan's second wind was stopped in its tracks after he was killed in a car accident while coming from a party at a London restaurant. His long-time friend and rival, David Bowie, described Bolan to Rolling Stone as "the greatest little giant in the world."

Aaliyah Dana Haughton, better known simply as Aaliyah, was an R&B singer from Brooklyn. She moved to Detroit with her family when she was 5, studied dance at the Detroit High School for the Fine and Performing Arts, and by 14 had released her first album, produced by R. Kelly. "Age Ain't Nothing but a Number" sold over a million copies and put Aaliyah on the path to superstardom.

In 1996, she released her second album, "One in a Million," which sold twice as many copies as her first. She soon branched out into modeling and acting and had just released her third album, "Aaliyah," when she was killed in a plane crash in the Bahamas in 2001, while filming the video for her single "Rock the Boat." Eight other passengers, including crew members for the shoot and a close friend of Aaliyah's, were killed in the tragic crash.

Hank Williams was to country music what Jimi Hendrix was to rock music, what David Bowie was to pop, and what Janis Joplin was to psychedelia: a legend within a genre. Born in Alabama and affected throughout his youth by a severe spinal condition, Williams found solace in music, learning to overcome his shyness by writing and recording songs inspired by the blues musicians, gospel songs, and folk ballads of his home state. He found success quickly: Within six years he recorded almost 66 songs, 37 of which were smash hits.

That same success battered Williams, though, physically and mentally. The stresses of touring worsened his back issues, and the pressures of his career pushed him toward heavy drinking. He missed shows and was unable to maintain his big gigs. In 1952, he hired a bogus doctor who supplied him with highly dangerous prescription drugs. In December of that year, Williams died en route to a couple of small shows that had been arranged for New Year's Eve and New Year's Day.

Selena Quintanilla-Pérez was, among other things, a singer, songwriter, model, actress, designer, and speaker. She is one of the most prolific Hispanic musicians and celebrities ever, and is generally credited for bringing Latin music genres into the wider American mainstream. Born in Texas in 1971, Selena found fame in the world of Latin music in 1989 with the release of her self-titled debut album. Her second LP, "Entre a Mi Mundo," was No. 1 on the Billboard Mexican Albums chart for eight consecutive months. All the while, Selena (who had barely left her teens) became a renowned community activist and civic personality.

In 1995, as the 23-year-old Selena seemed set to take the world by storm with the release of her first English-language album, she was shot dead by Yolanda Saldívar, the head of her own fan club, who had recently been fired for embezzling funds from the club. Within two years of her death, media outlets were comparing her to Marilyn Monroe and Elvis, and a 2017 Hollywood Walk of Fame ceremony in her name drew the largest-ever crowd for those events. Her impact on pop music and contemporary fashion is still felt today.

Otis Redding wasn't merely a successful musician and a beloved artist, he was also a revolutionary. Born in Georgia in 1941, he grew up in a world that was white-dominated, to say the least. Even during the '60s, for a Black musician to utilize his physicality and sexuality during performances as Redding did was, to many, nothing short of sacrilege. However, his courage yielded great reward. By the time of his death, Redding was considered to be one of his generation's finest soul artists.

Redding had toured in Britain, France, Scandinavia, and America, and had begun to record music that was growing ever more ambitious. This all came to a swift end, however, when Redding was killed in a plane crash in Wisconsin in 1967. The five teenage members of the Bar-Kays, the band backing him on his tour appearances at the time, were also killed. Redding was 26.

Soul singer Sam Cooke was one of the first musicians to bridge the gap between white and Black audiences. On top of this, he was one of the first Black musicians to found a record label (and a publishing company), and also became a stalwart figure in the civil rights movement. His career began in the 1930s, singing in the choir in his father's church; by the '50s he had released some of the decade's most successful hits. Cooke's music brought together the R&B, gospel, and pop genres into a sound that was utterly unique for the era.

Cooke's success grew during the '60s and peaked with a legendary show at the Harlem Square Club in Miami. But in 1964, Cooke was caught up in an altercation with the night manager of a motel. He was shot dead after — allegedly — attempting to attack her. The exact circumstances surrounding his death have since been questioned, and the truth of what happened that night still remains a mystery.

Duane Allman, in giving his surname to the band he helped found, secured for himself one of the most famous names in rock and blues. He began playing music with his brothers in 1961 and saw some success (Duane's band The Escorts even once opened for the Beach Boys), but he didn't find real fame until the foundation of the Allman Brothers Band. By the '70s, it was one of music's most influential rock groups, achieving considerable critical acclaim with its album "At Fillmore East."

In 1971, the whole band took a long-overdue vacation, spending some time with friends and family in Georgia. Duane had been celebrating the birthday of the wife of Berry Oakley, the band's bassist, and was on his way home when his motorcycle collided with a truck. He died after three hours of surgery at a nearby hospital, and nearly 300 people attended his funeral.

Nirvana combined elements of punk rock with hard rock to help popularize — along with other Seattle era grunge bands — a new kind of commercially viable but artistically vital music: alternative rock. The chief songwriter and artistic visionary behind the band that delivered '90s anthems like "Smells Like Teen Spirit," "In Bloom," and "All Apologies" was Kurt Cobain, who really had a knack for writing lyrics that were both cryptic and voiced a deep cynicism for mainstream society. Alas, Cobain became saddled with a title he didn't want: "the voice of a generation."

Nirvana wasn't just a Cobain vehicle, it was a tight, heavy power trio thanks to bassist Krist Novoselic and drummer Dave Grohl. Nirvana released only three studio albums: "Bleach," "Nevermind," and "In Utero." "Nevermind" ultimately moved about 10 million copies and knocked Michael Jackson's "Dangerous" out of the No.1 spot on Billboard's album chart. "In Utero" debuted at No. 1 on the same list in October 1993, and so when the group taped its episode of "MTV Unplugged" a month later, it was legitimately the biggest band in the world. 

Cobain had long dealt with severe depression, and tragically, just a few months later, the 27-year-old rock star died by suicide at his Seattle home in April 1994.

Before he emerged as one of the most popular and era-defining rappers of the 1990s, Tupac Shakur, or 2Pac, as he was known in his musical career, bopped around on the fringes of the hip-hop world for years, serving as a roadie and occasional vocalist for Digital Underground. (Yes, the group who did "The Humpty Dance.") In 1991, 2Pac was ready to go solo, and he broke through in a big way with the stark and sad single "Brenda's Got a Baby." 

By 1993, he'd be a regular presence on the charts and MTV with one hit after another, some of them vividly painted pictures about the often difficult life he'd had as a Black person living in the inner city, such as "Keep Ya Head Up," and others boastful party jams like "I Get Around." All of it expressed the same themes as songs by other artists associated with the "gangsta rap" movement, but none as poetically and viscerally as 2Pac. At the same time, the rapper enjoyed an acting career — he starred in "Juice," "Poetic Justice," and "Above the Rim," among others.

When Shakur was gunned down in a drive-by shooting in Las Vegas in September 1996, the 25-year-old star had reached a career milestone just two months earlier: His double A-side single "How Do U Want It" / "California Love" hit No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100.

Virtually any list of the greatest rock guitarists of all time will rank Jimi Hendrix near or at the top. That praise and legend stems from a mere four years in the spotlight for Hendrix, an American who found his first taste of success in England in 1966, taking "Purple Haze" and "The Wind Cries Mary" into the Top 10 with his band, the Jimi Hendrix Experience. Hendrix combined remarkable technical skills with dark blues flavor and riffs and a wild, drugged-out, psychedelic sensibility, providing the soundtrack for the acid-dropping counterculture of the hippie '60s.

The Jimi Hendrix Experience recorded three albums in 1967 and 1968, all of them classics: "Are You Experienced?," "Axis: Bold as Love," and "Electric Ladyland." Hendrix led the way on a fourth album with his new group, Band of Gypsies, but that was it. Scarcely a year after his landmark appearance playing "The Star-Spangled Banner" at the landmark festival of the time (and perhaps of all time), Woodstock, Hendrix was dead from a barbiturate overdose. He was just 27 years old.

Buddy Holly's death was so shocking and tragic that it inspired Don McLean's lugubrious and lyrical "American Pie," a song that sort of equated the death of Holly in a February 1959 plane crash (along with Richie Valens and the Big Bopper) with the death of rock 'n' roll while still in its infancy, and which foretold the death of America itself. Don McLean did speak to at least one undeniable truth: Buddy Holly was absolutely huge, ranking near Elvis Presley in terms of popularity and influence, and filling the void in the still-burgeoning genre of rock 'n' roll in the late '50s, when Presley dropped out for a while to join the military.

Holly was in the middle of a package rock 'n' roll tour, thrilling crowds in towns across the country with jangly, catchy, straight-forward hits like "That'll Be the Day," "Peggy Sue," and "Not Fade Away." In fact, he'd already scored seven top-40 hits at the time of his death in 1959. His career had lasted just over two years.

Trained in classical guitar, Randy Rhoads applied the techniques he learned to his heavy metal music. His first major band was called Quiet Riot, and when he was barely out of his teens, Rhoads played on the group's first two Japan-only releases in the late 1970s, "Quiet Riot" and "Quiet Riot II." He left before the group scored its commercial breakthrough "Metal Health," but that's okay, because he connected with the biggest metal idol of all: Ozzy Osbourne. 

After leaving Black Sabbath for a solo career, Osbourne hired Rhoades to be a guitarist in his band. Rhoads' hard-charging, vaguely menacing guitar work served as an ideal counterpoint to Osbourne's vocals, and he played on Osbourne's first two seminal albums: "Blizzard of Ozz" and "Diary of a Madman." Rhoads hit the road with the self-proclaimed prince of darkness in 1982, and after a show in Knoxville, Tennessee, the band's bus headed to Orlando. When an air conditioner broke down, the bus stopped next to an airstrip occupied by a few planes. Bus driver Andrew Aycock was also a pilot, albeit with an expired pilot's license, and he thought it might be fun to sneak aboard a plane and take it for a spin. 

On his second trip, he took Rhoads and makeup artist Rachel Youngblood along. Then Aycock thought it would be hilarious to "buzz" the tour bus. Aycock got close on the first two attempts, but on the third try he clipped the bus and crashed the plane. While no one on the ground was hurt, all three people on board died, including Rhoads, who was barely 25.

The folk craze, led by Joan Baez and Bob Dylan, hit big in the mid-'60s, which gave way to the singer-songwriter boom of the early 1970s. What set Jim Croce apart from other guitar-toting troubadours of the era was that he remained loyal to the classic folk sound, and he also liked to tell a story. Croce showed off his chops on a small 1966 release called "Facets" and 1969's "Croce," a joint album with his wife, Ingrid. Croce wouldn't find a big audience until he signed with ABC Records (and grew that fantastic '70s 'stache) and scored two smash hit albums in 1972 and 1973: "You Don't Mess Around with Jim" and "Life and Times." Included on those albums were Croce's signature musical tall tales and personal declarations, including what's probably his best-known song, the No. 1 hit "Bad, Bad Leroy Brown." 

Clearly, Croce was poised to be the voice of the '70s, but it wasn't to be. Croce, 29, died in a plane crash in September 1973. His gut-wrenching single about the fleeting nature of life, "Time in a Bottle," topped the Hot 100 a few months after his death.

Mac Miller, a Pittsburgh rapper and musical prodigy, was only in the big time for less than a decade. In 2010, his mixtape "K.I.D.S. was released when Miller — born Malcolm McCormick — was merely 18. One year later, his first studio effort, "Blue Slide Park," topped the charts; a rare feat for an indie release. His status as an up-and-coming star was solidified further as he released more big albums and hit singles like "Self Care," "Loud," and "The Way," the latter being a collaboration with his girlfriend at the time, Ariana Grande. 

By 2018, Miller was hugely famous and at the top of his professional game, but his personal life was not so rosy. In May 2018, he both broke up with Ariana Grande and ran his car into a utility pole, for which he was charged with a DUI. Miller also dealt with depression and substance abuse, and addiction eventually got to him. In September 2018, he was found unresponsive by a friend at his California home and was pronounced dead. Authorities determined the cause of death to be accidental, caused by an overdose of the painkiller Fentanyl mixed with cocaine.

The '70s were a fruitful period for new kinds of rock. Exciting styles emerged, including everything from punk to heavy metal to Southern rock. Most definitive of the Southern rock style, which is a little bit country and a whole lot rock 'n' roll, was Lynyrd Skynyrd. The band is best known for the genre's unofficial theme song, "Sweet Home Alabama," and one of the most epic rock songs ever, "Free Bird." While other Southern rock bands like .38 Special and the Marshall Tucker Band would have some success, none of them were as crucial as Lynyrd Skynyrd, which started its run with a streak of five hit albums. The band's sound had gelled and their popularity was peaking when it released its fifth album, "Street Survivors," on October 17, 1977.

Out on the road at the time "Street Survivors" hit stores, Skynyrd boarded a charter flight after a concert in Greenville, South Carolina, bound for the next gig in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Somewhere over Mississippi, the plane ran out of fuel, and pilots Walter McCreary and William Gray attempted an emergency landing. Tragically, they didn't make it, and the plane crashed. Lead singer Ronnie Van Zant died, as did guitarist Steve Gaines, backup singer Cassie Gaines, assistant road manager Dean Kilpatrick, and the pilots. The rest of the band and crew survived, although injured, and decided to split up for the time being.

After releasing a slew of songs and albums on Soundcloud beginning in 2014, XXXTentacion dropped his first official single, "Look at Me," in 2016, and it hit the upper level of the Billboard pop chart. His first two full-length, non-Soundcloud albums captured a huge audience: "17" hit No. 2 on the album chart, and "?" went to No. 1. And that's all before the guy turned 21.

For as much success as he had in music, the rapper — born Jahseh Onfroy — had a troubled and disturbing personal life. In 2016, he assaulted a romantic partner and threatened to cut out her tongue, reportedly because he caught her singing a song that wasn't one of his own songs, and a few months later, held a knife to the same woman's throat when he believed she was being unfaithful. When that same woman told XXXTentacion she was pregnant, he allegedly beat her, threatened to kill her, and locked her in an apartment. She escaped after two days of captivity and XXXTentacion faced numerous charges, but the case was never resolved. Then on June 18, 2018, XXXTentacion was fatally gunned down in Florida.

XXXTentacion's career never had a chance to fizzle out because it was still on the rise; he'd charted 30 songs already. He was so fresh on the scene that there was legitimate buzz he could've received a posthumous Best New Artist nomination at the 2019 Grammy Awards. (He was ultimately ruled ineligible because he'd released too much music to still be considered "new.")

DJs are the rock stars of the 2010s, holding court over huge crowds not by singing a note or strumming a guitar, but by creating a loud, musical experience through electronic musical manipulation. The most famous and popular of this new breed of musicians, who made EDM a mainstream musical genre, were Calvin Harris, Skrillex, and, perhaps biggest of all, Sweden's own Tim Bergling, aka Avicii.

While a highly sought-after and highly paid live entertainer, Avicii made himself even more ubiquitous by translating and distilling his sound into a few hit singles, including "Levels," "You Make Me," "I Could Be the One," and especially "Wake Me Up." The latter was a No. 4 smash on the Billboard Hot 100 and is destined to appear on every "best of the 2010s" compilation until the end of time.

While all his musical dreams came true, Avicii suffered from health issues offstage, including pancreatitis, which he attributed to excessive drinking. At age 24, he had his appendix and gall bladder removed, and soon after, he stopped doing live gigs because they were too physically rigorous. By spring 2018, the 28-year-old DJ was gone, reportedly death by suicide.

Jeff Buckley was in the public eye for such a short period of time and released such a small, exceptional body of work that it only adds to his legend. A songwriter and guitarist, Buckley boasted a voice that was ethereal, sensual, and soulful to the point of painful, and it propelled his one and only studio album, "Grace," to critical acclaim and multiple "best of the year" lists. Released in 1994, the album didn't really hit big until 1995, thanks to standout singles like "Grace" and "Last Goodbye," and his definitive, devastating cover of Leonard Cohen's new standard "Hallelujah." In 1995, Rolling Stone and the MTV Video Music Awards singled out Buckley as one of the best new artists of the year.

The 30-year-old Buckley seemed on the cusp of becoming one of his generation's most important musicians, but it didn't come to pass because of the musician's mysterious death just two years after he received the music world's warm embrace. In May 1997, Buckley, in Memphis to work on his second album, went swimming in the Mississippi River, fell under the surface, and didn't come back up. His body was recovered a week later.

When Amy Winehouse emerged in the mid-2000s, she offered something new by offering something old. With her beehive hairdos and vintage stage outfits, Winehouse looked like she had just time-traveled from the early 1960s. She also sounded amazing, dazzling crowds with her powerful, bluesy voice. The modern twist came from slick production by superstar knob-turner Mark Ronson, as well as Winehouse's often dark and very personal lyrics. For example, Winehouse sang from experience on her best-known song, the No. 9 hit "Rehab." Her one-time manager, Nick Shymansky, claims he's the one who asked Winehouse to go to rehab, but she decided otherwise.

Nevertheless, "Rehab" made Winehouse an international star, and she cleaned up at the 2008 Grammys. Industry voters found her catchy, retro pop with more than a hint of darkness to be simply irresistible. The singer took home three out of the four biggest awards of the night: Record of the Year and Song of the Year (both for "Rehab") and Best New Artist. But Winehouse never overcame the substance abuse issues that led to her most famous song. On July 23, 2011, the 27-year-old singer died of alcohol poisoning.

Chances are high that the phrase "big band" will conjure up the mental sound or image of the Glenn Miller Orchestra. That style of jazzy, brassy, instrumental dance music is synonymous with the late 1930s and the World War II years, and Miller's group absolutely dominated the pop chart. From 1939 to 1941, the Glenn Miller Orchestra sent a whopping 94 songs into the upper reaches of the hit parade and made it to the No. 1 position 18 times. Miller's versions are the recordings that became the standards ingrained into history and the collective consciousness, particularly "Moonlight Serenade," "Tuxedo Junction," "Chattanooga Choo Choo," and "In the Mood."

Miller, the leader and trombone player in the biggest-selling band in the world at the time, walked away from commercial pop to serve his country during World War II. He enlisted in the Army's Air Force, where he created and headed up the 418th Army Air Forces Band to provide comfort and entertainment to troops far away from home. While he was on his way to a military show in Paris in December 1944, Miller's plane disappeared somewhere over the English Channel. His body was never found; the bandleader was 40 years old.

The first two albums of ska-punk from California band Sublime sold steadily throughout the early 1990s, building the band's fan base slowly but surely. Some rock radio and MTV airplay led to a lucrative record deal, and by the spring of 1996, Sublime had completed work on its self-titled album, its first for a big label. To promote it, Sublime hit the road for a cross-country tour of large and historic venues that it could easily fill. On the evening of May 24, 1996, Sublime gave a concert in Petaluma, California, after which crooning frontman Bradley Nowell retired to his room at the Ocean View Motel in San Francisco in advance of a sold-out concert the following night. 

Hours before it was set to take place, the 28-year-old Nowell was discovered dead at his motel. Nowell had a long history of heroin misuse, and despite having attempted several times to treat his substance misuse issues, Nowell had died of an overdose of heroin. Two months later, the "Sublime" album was released and went on to sell 5 million copies and spawn four hit singles.

As the 2020s approached, it seemed to be a foregone conclusion that rapper Juice WRLD would dominate the world of hip-hop in the years to come. His first full-length album, "Goodbye and Good Riddance" hit No. 4 on the Billboard album chart on the strength of hits like "Lean wit Me," "Wasted," "All the Girls are the Same," and particularly "Lucid Dreams," a No. 2 pop and No. 1 R&B smash. Juice WRLD kept up the momentum, unveiling album number two, "Death Race for Love," in March 2019, which immediately topped the American album chart. The music industry thanked Juice WRLD with numerous accolades. "Death Race for Love" captured the rapper the 2020 iHeartRadio Music Award for Hip-Hop Album of the Year, the American Music Awards gave him the 2020 prize for Favorite Male Artist – Rap/Hip Hop, and he earned Billboard's Top New Artist prize in 2019. All but that last one arrived after Juice WRLD's death in May 2019.

Days after he turned 21 years old in December 2019, the rapper endured a seizure in Chicago's Midway Airport. Bleeding out of his mouth, he was sent to a hospital. He died there, from what was later determined to be a combined overdose of codeine and oxycodone.

The dark, harrowing, visceral, and sometimes crime-glorifying subgenre of gangsta rap was huge in the early 1990s, and in the late 2010s it enjoyed a comeback thanks in large part to Nipsey Hussle. Once a member of the Rolling Sixty Crips, a large and powerful Los Angeles-based gang collective, the rapper turned his experiences into art — and a lot of it — in a relatively short period. Primarily after 2010, he self-released numerous mixtapes, recorded more than a dozen singles, and created one official studio album. That record, "Victory Lap," registered sales of 2 million units and earned Nipsey Hussle a Grammy nomination for Best Rap Album.

Just over a month after Nipsey Hussle contended at the Grammys, in what was a critical and commercial milestone, he was dead. The thesis of his entire musical career was to not just describe the violence and crime he was a part of during his time with the Rolling Sixty Crips, but to rehabilitate the community and help it past gang activity. Nipsey Hussle bought a strip mall in his home neighborhood, the often crime-afflicted area off Crenshaw Boulevard, where he planned to open shops and build new homes. While standing outside his clothing store, Marathon, in March 2019, Nipsey Hussle was targeted in a drive-by shooting, and he died of the wounds he sustained. The rapper was 33.

The Bob Marley and the Wailers album that more Americans own than any other is "Legend," a carefully selected collection of the reggae group's most lasting and crowd-pleasing work, or at least the ones about love and togetherness; it's scant on the incendiary political stuff. It's sold more than 15 million copies in the U.S. and spent more than 15 years on the album chart. First released in 1984, it consists of songs produced between 1973 and 1980, all of them well-known Marley totems like "Get Up Stand Up," "No Woman No Cry," "Stir It Up," and "Jamming."

"Legend" was a way for Island Records to quickly capitalize on the demand left after the death of Marley. A superstar and popularizer of the Jamaican musical form of reggae throughout the 1970s in the U.K., he was a big presence on R&B radio in the U.S., and when he died, it was an international tragedy. Marley's doctors found a lesion on the musician's toe in 1977 that turned out to be skin cancer. Amputation was recommended, a treatment Marley refused, and the cancer spread throughout his body, killing the singer in 1981 at age 36.

By the mid-1990s, mainstream rock was primarily of two minds: the dour grunge of alternative rock bands like Nirvana and Alice in Chains, and the hard-rocking classic rock of Aerosmith and Meat Loaf. Into that atmosphere came Blind Melon, which split the difference between the two camps, merging college rock vibes with the psychedelic and folk rock sounds of the late 1960s and early 1970s. The band's self-titled album made it all the way to No. 3 on the Billboard album chart, while jangly single "No Rain," helped in no small part by a popular video in heavy rotation on MTV that starred a child in a bee costume, became Blind Melon's biggest hit, reaching No. 20. Two years later, Blind Melon came on strong with its sophomore album, "Soup." It featured more of what fans loved on the first Blind Melon record: the snarl-meets-Janis Joplin vocals of singer Shannon Hoon as he moved his way through songs about reflection and self-exploration.

Blind Melon toured in support of "Soup," and two months after its release, Hoon died during a stop in New Orleans in October 1995. He was discovered unresponsive in the band's bus, and couldn't be resuscitated. An overdose of cocaine killed the rock star at the age of 28.

Probably the hardest and edgiest band of the "British Invasion," The Who enjoyed some successes in the 1960s, but didn't become iconic and reliably massive until the next decade, when it found its critical and commercial stride. All of its studio and live albums that were made in the 1970s hit the top 10 of the U.S. album chart, while "Live at Leeds," "Who's Next," and "Quadrophenia" are universally regarded as some of the greatest LPs of all time. Singles like "See Me, Feel Me" and "Squeeze Box" were all over the radio, while The Who also became a massive touring draw. In 1976, it set a Guinness World Record for "Globe's Loudest Band," when a London concert registered at a painful 126 decibels.

A big reason for The Who's sound and success was the thunderous, propulsive, and joyful percussion of drummer Keith Moon. In September 1978, weeks after the seminal "Who Are You" reached listeners and hit No. 2 on the chart, Moon died at the age of 31. One of many rockers who partied way too hard, Moon drank heavily as a matter of course until 1978, when he tried to cut back after it got out of hand. A doctor prescribed the sedative Heminevrin (clomethiazole), which helps severe alcoholics stop drinking by blocking withdrawal symptoms. During a night of partying, Moon overdosed on the medicine, which sealed his esophagus and caused him to die in his sleep.

Trained in the gospel tradition and honing his soulful, expressive voice in soul and bar bands in the 1960s, Donny Hathaway emerged in 1972 with a series of minor hits. They were enough to earn the attention of soul superstar Roberta Flack, and in 1971 the duo began a decade-long collaboration. Their duets "You've Got a Friend" and "Where is the Love" proved to be massive hits, and the latter won Hathaway and Flack a Grammy Award for Best Vocal Performance by a Duo, Group, or Chorus. In 1978, the duet partners reunited after a six-year break and churned out their biggest hit ever: "The Closer I Get to You," a No. 2 pop and No. 1 R&B hit.

Less than a year later, and still in the afterglow of the beloved song, Hathaway died. After spending January 13, 1979, recording and writing songs with Flack in anticipation of another project, he returned to his room at the Essex House hotel in New York City and died by suicide. The singer was 33 years old.

Tammi Terrell signed her first recording contract at age 15, but she didn't really pop until she joined the legendary Motown Records at age 20, during the label's fruitful 1960s hit-making era. Discovered by company founder Berry Gordy when he heard her singing in a Detroit lounge, Terrell landed some minor hits from her debut album "Irresistible," then became a star when she teamed up with label-mate Marvin Gaye. Between 1967 and 1969, the pair regularly ran up the charts with their duets, including "Ain't No Mountain High Enough," "Your Precious Love," "If I Could Build My Whole World Around You," "Ain't Nothing Like the Real Thing," and "You're All I Need to Get By."

Early in that run of classic love songs, Terrell became very sick. During a show in Virginia, Terrell lost consciousness and fell into Gaye's arms on stage. She endured six brain surgeries conducted over a span of 18 months, and they ultimately failed to eradicate a diagnosed brain tumor. Terrell died at age 24 in March 1970.

Devotees of the blues and electric blues rock, as well as many guitar aficionados, had been well acquainted with expressive axman Stevie Ray Vaughan since the early 1980s. In addition to contributing to recordings by Stevie Wonder, James Brown, and David Bowie, Vaughan and his band, Double Trouble, got a lot of airplay on rock-focused radio stations with throwback, bluesy, lick-oriented tunes like "Pride and Joy," "Change It," and "Willie the Wimp."

In 1989, Vaughan started to break through into the mainstream. The album "In Step." It generated the No. 1 rock hit "Crossfire" and sold more than 2 million copies, presaging the Top 10 placement of 1990's "Family Style," recorded by Vaughan with his brother and fellow guitarist, Jimmy Vaughan. But just after the successful run of "Family Style" came the death of Stevie Ray Vaughan. After playing with Double Trouble, his brother, and an all-star lineup of blues greats like Buddy Guy and Eric Clapton in East Troy, Wisconsin, in August 1990, Vaughan boarded a helicopter bound for Chicago. The pilot had difficulty navigating fog, and ran into a mountain, killing everyone in the helicopter immediately. Vaughan was 35.

If you or anyone you know needs help with addiction issues, is dealing with domestic abuse, needs help with mental health, or is struggling or in crisis, contact the relevant resources below:

• The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration website or contact SAMHSA's National Helpline at 1-800-662-HELP (4357).

• The National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1−800−799−7233. You can also find more information, resources, and support at their website.

• The Crisis Text Line by texting HOME to 741741, call the National Alliance on Mental Illness helpline at 1-800-950-NAMI (6264), or visit the National Institute of Mental Health website.

• Call or text 988 or chat 988lifeline.org