CB Top 5: Overdose Or Alcohol Related Death

5. GG Allin


Amy Novak: It’s not hard to imagine a kid who began life with a name like Jesus Christ spending the short span of it trying to prove he’s actually the Devil. To say that GG Allin got off on offending his fans would be like saying Martha Stewart is kind of arts-n-craftsy. Aside from his work with the (still touring) Murder Junkies, he really wasn’t known best for anything other than fucking himself up, fucking you up or threatening to fuck your baby sister up. But GG’s style was undisputedly his own. He was one of punk’s great kings, often photocopied but the original is gone forever. Because of how often he talked about doing it, some think that his New York summer of ‘93 Heroin overdose was actually a suicide, but it has come to be accepted as an accidental overdose. Only Jesus himself knows the truth. How could anyone presume to know what thoughts swirled around the head of a guy whose last gig involved walking offstage after two songs completely naked and covered in feces and blood, before stumbling to a nearby apartment where his friends partied with his dead lifeless corpse till dawn? Because of his quiet love for quality country music legends and personal level of musical talent (he could play many instruments very well, not including the jagged beer bottle or broken mic stand) many consider GG Allin to be misunderstood. In reality, anyone who names an album Freaks, Faggots, Drunks and Junkies understands exactly what people are going to think of him. And he loved to be hated.

Mack Rawden: Having a premature overdose list without including GG Allin would be like putting together a bulletin of rich, overweight black ladies and excluding Oprah. It just can’t be done. Jesus Christ Allin was like The Aristocrats joke come to life. His stage shows routinely included shitting, fire-hosing it on stage, screaming at female patrons to perform fellatio on him, and occasionally some spoken word poetry. If a dominatrix had sex with Albert Fish’s corpse, their union wouldn’t produce a child half as bloodily outrageous. True to life, his funeral even turned into a raucous party. Mourners filled his casket with booze and drugs, before pouring Jim Beam into his lifeless but still thirsty mouth. After all, why should a little thing like death stop the good times? For thirty-six years, GG Allin both literally and figuratively shit all over normalcy. He broke every law the Man threw at him and still found time to change music forever. He also may or may not have knocked up your little sister. I wouldn’t expect any child support payments.

4. Elvis Presley


Amy Novak: Rarely has one individual influenced music history the way Elvis Presley did. For more than twenty years and nearly three dozen Top Ten hits, Elvis chipped away at what America previously had set in stone about rock ‘n’ roll, the blues, church music, onstage obscenity and most importantly, white boys with soul. But also rarely has there ever been an individual who was able to carry the burden of revolutionary change without the help of a prescription medication bottle that doesn’t have his name on it. Of all the King-like qualities Elvis possessed, gluttony was probably his worst. Though his 1977 death was seemingly a long time coming (because of his failing health), it changed the lives of many, especially those fans who were then forced to turn the family Rec. Room into an living Elvis shrine. Regardless, his ghost still haunts popular music, even to this day.

Mack Rawden: Elvis Aron Presley died taking a shit, a victim of 10,000 pill-a-month diets, too much Burnin’ Love, and not enough gyrating. Like a wounded elephant, hunted for his ivory goodness, the former legend’s body was soaked with an obscene amount of sedatives. It’s a miracle he even crawled off the toilet before succumbing to his drug-induced heart attack. But this mid-defecation coronary is strangely fitting. He couldn’t have perished any other way. The details of his life are too legendary. So, why shouldn’t his undoing be equally outrageous? In just forty-two short years, Elvis amassed a legion of fans, pissed off the old-guard, and shot his seed inside more women than In vitro fertilization. It’s no wonder he recorded “Suspicious Minds.”

3. Janis Joplin


Nikki Pierce: Before Melissa Etheridge, before Mary J. Blige, and before Gwen Stefani, there was Janis—bold, real, raw Janis. She was unbridled and she didn’t care. Before Janis, no one, and certainly no woman, was able to define what it meant to be an artist that lived true to him or herself and reflect that truth in their music. If you’ve ever seen Janis’ 1967 Monterey Pop Festival performance, then you saw her—I mean, really saw her. Everything inside her came out like a beautiful exorcism that inspired and changed the face of music, especially for women. She held nothing back when she sang, and that raw originality, coupled with her wild free spirit, sparked a revolution in blues rock that subsequently shook the rest of the music world. It didn’t take a rocket scientist; it didn’t even take a man—all it took was Janis.

Mack Rawden: Take a look at everyone else on this list: Hendrix, Vicious, Elvis, and Allin. With all due respect to those great artists, their early deaths don’t even compare to the heartbreaking tragedy that was Janis Joplin’s premature demise. She had so much more to show the world. She had so many more songs left in her arsenal. And she had so much more love to give. Her voice was a throaty, beautiful gift from God, and her rugged individualism was an inspiration. Janis was a hippy before the word existed. She was a rock star before the term was applied to woman. And she is the reason I love music.

2. Sid Vicious


J.D. McNamara: Remember Bambi? Yes, Disney’s Bambi. Now picture his first attempt to balance himself on ice. It was a disaster right? The Sex Pistols bassist’s initial attempts to actually play the instrument were strikingly similar to the young buck’s first escapade on ice. As far as I can tell, he still hadn’t learned how to play the bass when he died at the tender age of 21. So you might be wondering why the hell he’s on this list? Well, in spirit of Sid, I say you can fuck right off. He’s on this list because he was accepted into one of Britain’s most influential punk bands because he was just that fuckin’ cool. Period.

Mack Rawden: The details surrounding the life and death of John “Sid Vicious” Ritchie are like some bad soap opera, scrapped because the producers felt it was too far-fetched. Born fatherless to a drug dealing mother, Vicious joined the most famous punk band of all time, may or may not have murdered his girlfriend/manager/complete bitch, and then died after shooting heroin, bought by his mother, which later turned out to be over ninety-nine percent pure. Not bizarre enough for you yet? How about the time he vomited and shit all over a groupie mouth deep in his man area? Or the time he plunged a steak knife into his own palm, finishing the meal with his right hand before removing the object. You just can’t make that shit up. Most music purists prefer to remember him as an awful bassist, but the man referred to as “the attitude of punk” did produce a memorable cover of Frank Sinatra’s “My Way.” That has to count for something. Right?

1. Jimi Hendrix

J.D. McNamara: Jimi Hendrix is not just the logical number one choice, he’s the only number one choice. Who else could’ve gotten away with performing “The Star Spangled Banner” infused with guitar riff bombs and machine guns, much less turn it into the defining moment of a decade? Who else could’ve influenced the differing sounds of rock, heavy metal, blues and punk all at the same time? The answer is nobody, which is why Hendrix’s death at age 27 is one of the rock’s biggest tragedies. It causes veritable mental overload to imagine the endless musical possibilities had Jimi survived all these years. As it is, Hendrix is probably rolling in his Vesperax induced grave at the thought of music’s current landscape. Now please excuse me while I go crank “Little Wing” and cry myself to sleep.

Nikki Pierce: Sixty-five years ago, a guitar came to earth as a human and provided a new doctrine of rock. His name was Jimi Hendrix. This rock prodigy waltzed onto the music scene at the ripe age of 24, changed the game and upped the ante. Hendrix taught us how to use feedback, volume and overdriven amps as musical devices, making his extra limb of a guitar snarl its notes. He dared to experiment. Even in the studio, Hendrix played with phasing and stereo sound, pioneering new musical uses for them. That aside, music was never about mechanics to him, but about heart and color, and those elements made their presence known through the innovative techniques Hendrix used. He was madly passionate in his music and had a bona fide relationship with his guitar that became obvious on stage. The man practically made love to his guitar when he performed, working the fret board and making that thing squeal licks that blew people’s minds (listen to the solo in “Are You Experienced?”). Hendrix played psychedelic rock, acid rock and blues with no signs of stopping until his untimely death at age 27. His time was short and losing him was tragic, but the music and rock ideology he left as parting gifts made his death bittersweet.

Nominated but didn’t make the cut: Layne Staley, Tim Buckley, Jim Morrison, Shannon Hoon, Bradley Nowell, Hillel Slovak, Keith Moon, John Bonham, Bon Scott