Overseas car crashes, overdoses, and the fatal mistakes of pilots. After spending so
much time and energy on the road, these are the prolific artists that never reached middle age.
Jim Croce
The '70s were the era of the singer-songwriter, and among that particular strain of artist,
few were more distinctive than Jim Croce. Croce struggled for years to pay the bills
with music after an early effort as a duo with his wife Ingrid went nowhere. By 1970,
Croce had a baby on the way and things looked grim.
That all changed in 1972, when his debut solo album You Don't Mess Around with Jim,
with its classic singles "Time in a Bottle" and "Operator (That's Not
the Way It Feels)," finally gave Croce a taste of success. His 1973 followup Life
and Times yielded the #1 single "Bad, Bad Leroy Brown," priming Croce for
major mainstream stardom. Unfortunately, that success would come posthumously.
On September 20, 1973, Croce was en route to Sherman, Texas after a gig at Northwestern
State College when his single-engine plane collided with a tree and crashed. All
six people aboard were killed, including Croce and his guitarist, longtime friend,
and collaborator Maury Muehleisen. The singer left behind his wife, two-year old son Adrian,
and one more gift for his fans — his final album I Got a Name, which was released just 10 days after
his death. Adrian, who performs as A.J. Croce, is proud of the legacy his father left behind.
"He had a lot of friends, and I heard a lot of stories from a lot of great people."
Jeff Buckley
Even though his career began in tiny lounges and coffee houses in New York's East Village,
Jeff Buckley was a performer who seemed destined for major stardom.
Buckley was often accompanied only by his guitar,
yet his performances generated the kind of buzz that most singer-songwriters can only dream of.
His first EP, 1993's Live At Sin-é, was recorded at his favorite East Village coffee joint;
by the time his debut LP Grace dropped in 1994,
he and his band were touring Europe and readying themselves to take America by storm.
"The rest are simply overwhelmed by the swooning passion of his performances."
For the next few years, Buckley cruised around the States gigging,
building a fan base and a strong reputation as a brilliant songwriter and mesmerizing
performer. In the meantime, he nearly completed a sophomore album,
although he was unsatisfied with the recording and intended to re-record the entire thing.
Unfortunately, while living and recording in Memphis in May 1997, Buckley decided to take
an impromptu, late-night dip in the Mississippi River; caught in the wake of a passing boat,
he was dragged under the water, and drowned. His near-complete album, together with a few
home demos, was released in 1998 under the title "Sketches for My Sweetheart the Drunk."
Eazy-E
Compton, California's Eric "Eazy-E" Wright's impact on popular culture
exceeded all expectations for the rapper. It all started when Wright became acquainted
with Jerry Heller, a music industry vet who had associated professionally
with such legends as Marvin Gaye, Elton John, and Creedence Clearwater Revival.
After being introduced to Heller, Wright decided to use funds he earned selling
drugs to start a record label, Ruthless Records, alongside the manager. Together,
they introduced the world at large to the legendary group NWA, and consequently,
the fledgling genre of gangsta rap. Wright left his mark on hip hop,
both as a member of NWA and as a solo artist. His undeniable charisma was
so present it made the shockingly violent content of his lyrics seem almost endearing.
With such a vast cultural footprint, fans were floored when, in early 1995, Wright announced
that he had been hospitalized with respiratory issues brought on by AIDS. He died of AIDS-related
pneumonia just weeks later. To this day, rumors persist that infamous music mogul Suge Knight,
who had poached legendary producer Dr. Dre away from Wright's Ruthless to form
his own Death Row Records, had somehow been responsible for Wright's death.
Lisa "Left Eye" Lopes
Boy bands may have ruled the '90s, but girl groups were moving a few CDs during the pastel decade as
well, with TLC heading the pack. Consisting of Tionne "T-Boz" Watkins, Rozonda "Chilli" Thomas,
and Lisa "Left Eye" Lopes, TLC's smash singles "Creep," "Waterfalls," and "No Scrubs" kept
the group in the public eye throughout the '90s. While shady business practices saw
them file for bankruptcy at the height of their popularity in 1995, the hits just kept coming.
Lopes was the group's rapper, and along with her rhyming skills, she made waves
for a highly public spat with her boyfriend, NFL wide receiver Andre Rison. That is to say,
she accidentally burned down Rison's mansion after setting fire to some
items in a bathtub following an argument in 1994, The Los Angeles Times reports.
The incident did little to damage her group's popularity, though, and after three hugely
successful albums, TLC were readying for their first release of the new millennium when tragedy
struck. While vacationing in Honduras, Lopes lost control of her rented vehicle, which left
the road and flipped several times, according to The New York Times. Lopes was pronounced dead at
the scene, bringing an abrupt end to one of the most successful girl groups of all time.
"The fact that she's not here is just something that we'll just always have
to deal with and it will always be something very hard to deal with."
Patsy Cline
There is country music royalty, and then there is Patsy Cline,
whose inauspicious early years preceded a career that would see her become the most
revered female country singer in the history of the genre.
She is the first woman to ever be inducted into that hallowed institution as a solo
artist; she's sold somewhere in the neighborhood of 15 million records,
and her distinctive vocal style on hits such as 1960's "I Fall to Pieces" and 1961's Willie
Nelson-penned "Crazy" influenced far too many legendary artists to name.
Cline survived a scary auto accident in 1961, but it turned out to be an
omen of the tragedy to come. After a Kansas City performance on March 5,
1963, Cline boarded a small plane bound for her hometown of Nashville, along with her
manager Randy Hughes and fellow artists Lloyd "Cowboy" Copas and Harold "Hawkshaw" Hawkins.
At a refueling stop, Hughes, who was piloting the plane,
was advised not to continue due to poor visibility, but opted to take off anyway.
He lost control in the poor conditions, and the plane crashed in a patch of woods,
killing everyone aboard. Cline's legend only grew after her untimely death; her Greatest Hits album,
released six years after the fateful crash, has sold north of ten million copies.
Andy Gibb
Andy Gibb was the younger brother of Barry, Robin, and Maurice Gibb,
better known as the Bee Gees. While that group was rising to dominate the pop airwaves in the '70s,
Andy Gibb was carving out a pop career of his own with an assist from Barry's crack songwriting;
his first three singles, "(Love Is) Thicker Than Water," "I Just Want To Be
Your Everything," and "Shadow Dancing," all shot to No. 1 on the pop charts.
He also conquered television with a hosting gig on popular musical variety show Solid Gold,
and even Broadway with a role in a production of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat — but
unfortunately, along for the ride during his rise to stardom was a massive cocaine addiction.
Cocaine obliterated Gibb's employability, relationships, and finances in the 1980s,
and by the time he was able to get clean and attempt a comeback, it was too late. Shortly
after his 30th birthday, Gibb was admitted to the hospital for an illness that turned out
to be myocarditis, an inflammation of the heart. He passed away on March 10, 1988.
Steve Clark
Among the British metal bands to invade the States in the early '80s,
few were more commercially successful than Def Leppard. Guitarist Steve Clark was half
of the band's twin-lead onslaught, and also one of their primary songwriters,
which means he deserves a good chunk of the credit for their meteoric rise.
Speaking with Louder Sound, the band's former tour manager Malvin
Mortimer remembered that when performing live,
Clark's electrifying stage presence could ensnare crowds from the second he got on stage.
With Clark's rock 'n' roll lifestyle came a titanic drinking problem,
however. The issue steadily worsened throughout the '80s,
forcing the band to send Clark on sabbatical while in the midst of recording their 1992 album
"Adrenalize" — a six-month breather from which Clark would not return.
On January 8, 1991, Clark was found dead in his London home,
having overdosed on prescription painkillers mixed
with alcohol. Reflecting on his bandmate's addiction, bassist Rick Savage recalled,
"Because he was such a nice person, you tried to protect him... It's only after
he died that I realize how much energy we spent worrying about him and trying to care for him."
Dave Williams
Part of the nu-metal boom of the early '00s, Drowning Pool began
life in 1996 as an instrumental trio consisting of guitarist C.J. Pierce,
bassist Stevie Benton, and drummer Mike Luce — a configuration that quickly went
out the window once they were joined by powerful vocalist Dave Williams.
An early demo tape caught the ear of members of Sevendust, and after a couple years of touring
with that band and several other hard rock outfits, the band broke through with their 2001
debut album Sinner. Their single, from that era, "Bodies," also garnered heavy rotation on MTV.
Williams didn't get to enjoy his band's success for long. On August 14, 2002, the singer fell
asleep on the band's tour bus and never woke up. It was later discovered that no drugs or alcohol
were involved in Williams' death, and that he had suffered from an undiagnosed heart condition.
Drowning Pool has carried on recording and touring with replacement singers in
the intervening years, but given the fact that Williams was just getting started,
one can't blame fans for wondering what might have been had he lived.
Pete Farndon
The Pretenders began life in 1978, when American transplant Chrissie Hynde hooked
up with guitarist James Honeyman-Scott, bassist Pete Farndon, and drummer Martin
Chambers. The quartet's cover of the Kinks' "Stop Your Sobbing" cracked the British Top 40,
and by 1980, the band had a No. 1 smash in the U.K. with their debut, self-titled album.
An EP succinctly titled Extended Play and a sophomore LP even-more-succinctly titled
Pretenders II followed in 1981, and the band was starting to gain traction stateside after a tour
of the U.S. Unfortunately it was at this point that tragedy intervened, not once but twice.
In June 1982, Farndon was dismissed from the band due to excessive drug use — but
it was Honeyman-Scott who, just two days after this event, died from an overdose
of heroin and cocaine. Hynde, who was pregnant at the time, briefly withdrew from the public
eye. Less than a year later, Farndon's life was also claimed by a drug overdose.
The twin tragedies would have finished many bands for good, but Hynde put together a new iteration
of the Pretenders — one that would have a smash success on both sides of
the pond in 1983 with the aptly-titled, critically lauded LP Learning To Crawl.
"The band was great. I was a great band leader."
The LP went Platinum in the U.S., and the Pretenders — a band that embodies
the spirit of perseverance — went on to have a long and varied career.
Criss Oliva
Formed by brothers Jon and Criss Oliva in 1978, Savatage positioned itself as
the American answer to the new wave of British heavy metal acts such as Iron Maiden and Judas
Priest. The band never got to be a household name to the degree of their contemporaries,
but the Tampa, Florida, outfit spent the '80s perfecting their brand of progressive metal.
Well over a decade into their career, their sound reached its zenith with their 1993
release Edge of Thorns, and though the band never had a proper commercial breakthrough,
they might have if not for one tragic happenstance.
The Tampa Bay Times reports that Oliva had been cruising along on Florida's
Highway 301 when another motorist, traveling in the opposite direction,
attempted to pass a slow-moving vehicle at precisely the wrong
moment. He careened head-on into Oliva's Mazda, with Oliva and his wife inside.
Oliva's wife suffered several traumatic injuries, but was able to pull through;
he was not so lucky. The driver of the other vehicle, who had been drinking,
survived and was charged with DUI manslaughter. His five-year prison
sentence likely did little to console fans of Savatage, who would go on to release seven
more albums — including 1999's Ghost in the Ruins, a tribute to their fallen guitarist.