A father kills his son. A deranged fan kills a legend.
Middle age was far too soon to lose these iconic musicians.
You can't talk about 1990s alternative
rock without mentioning the Cranberries. The Irish group scored international hits like "Dreams,"
"Linger," and "Zombie" throughout the decade, and they remain a mainstay on '90s Spotify
playlists to this day. One of the things that set the Cranberries apart from other
alt acts of the time was the signature voice of lead singer Dolores O'Riordan.
Sharp and powerful, O'Riordan's distinct voice cut through every single one of the
Cranberries' high-gain anthems. Selling more than 40 million records around the world,
the Cranberries have proven to be an enduring act that spans generations and continents.
"Things come and go in life, but the Cranberries has always been there since we were really young,
ya know? It's something solid that we can always go back to."
While fronting such a successful band, O'Riordan also dealt with her own personal struggles.
According to the Belfast Telegraph, the singer battled depression,
suicidal thoughts, and anorexia, but, as Rolling Stone reported,
she sounded like she was in a good place just days before her shocking death. According to NPR,
Dolores O'Riordan died on January 15, 2018 in her London hotel room. Her passing was
the result of accidental drowning brought on by alcohol intoxication. She was 46 years old.
Legendary pop powerhouse Whitney Houston was one
of the best selling artists of all time, making it big with hits like "I Wanna Dance With Somebody"
and an unforgettable cover of Dolly Parton's "I Will Always Love You". Not only did the singer's
first two albums go diamond, AllMusic reports that Houston was the first music artist to have seven
hits in a row reach No. 1. In essence, no one's hit it the mainstream quite like Whitney Houston.
While Houston's musical talent and achievements were nothing short of impressive,
she did have difficulties in her personal life which would eventually turn public.
She married fellow singer Bobby Brown in 1992, and their turbulent relationship was
the subject of numerous gossip headlines until their 2007 divorce. Houston also dealt with
drug addiction throughout much of her life, which came to have an impact on her career.
After years of struggling, however, it looked as though Houston was on
the brink of a comeback with her 2009 album I Look To You. Unfortunately,
Houston's optimistic future was cut tragically short. As CNN reported at the time, Houston
accidentally drowned in a bathtub while staying at a Beverly Hills hotel on February 11, 2012
at age 48. A heart disease and the use of cocaine are reported to have contributed to the accident.
Eccentric, iconic, and widely considered one of the greatest singers of all time, Freddie Mercury was the
once-in-a-generation talent who fronted the beloved British rock band Queen.
Mercury, whose birth name was Farrokh Bulsara, was born in 1946 in Zanzibar. He met his future Queen
bandmates while living in London in the 1960s, and together they created mega rock hits like
"Bohemian Rhapsody" and "Another One Bites the Dust" throughout the 1970s and 1980s.
Mercury wasn't just a phenomenal singer; he was a pure entertainer,
commanding the stage and welcoming the audience into his world.
A perfect example of this is Queen's iconic performance at Live Aid in 1985, where Mercury
proved he couldn't just entertain a crowd; he could unite it with his words and persona.
All wasn't glitz and glamor in Mercury's life, though. By the mid-1980s,
there were Queen fans who weren't exactly keen on Mercury's speculated sexuality and flamboyance.
Despite the gossip surrounding his sex life, Mercury went on entertaining the masses as
long as he was able. The Queen lineup changed forever on November 24, 1991,
when Mercury died following a very private battle with AIDS. He was 45 years old.
Adam Yauch was
one-third of the legendary rap group Beastie Boys, who first shot to fame in the mid-1980s
with their mega-successful debut album Licensed to Ill. The New York City trio,
consisting of Yauch, Michael Diamond, and Adam Horovitz — a.k.a. MCA, Mike D,
and Adrock — helped bring hip hop to the masses with their smash-hit debut.
Licensed to Ill was the first hip-hop album to reach the top spot on the Billboard 200 chart,
and features timeless Beastie Boys classics like "(You Gotta) Fight For Your Right (To Party),"
"No Sleep till Brooklyn," and "Brass Monkey".
The Beastie Boys continued to ride the success train decades after their debut, scoring hits
like 1994's rock-rap hybrid "Sabotage" and 2004's "Ch-Check It Out" along the way. However,
as Rolling Stone reported, things took a turn in 2009 when Yauch was diagnosed with salivary
gland cancer. Three years later, Yauch sadly succumbed to his illness at the age of 47.
He died just weeks after Beastie Boys were inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.
"He just was the older brother for us both. And,
and we talk about it in the book, that he just, somehow, had this capacity to know things."
Honoring a promise they made to Yauch, Diamond and Horovitz haven't made new Beastie Boys
music since his passing, according to NME. The group was officially disbanded in 2014.
Vocalist, pianist and TV host are just
a few of the titles belonging to the iconic Nat King Cole. Born in Montgomery, Alabama, in 1919,
Cole showed interest in music from a young age, and first started tickling the ivories
at 4 years old. At 15, he dropped out of school to pursue a career as a jazz pianist.
Cole first saw success in the 1940s as part of the King Cole Trio, where his soothing sound
helped score hits like "That Ain't Right" and "The Christmas Song." Cole's success continued
into the 1950s, with songs like "Nature Boy" and "Unforgettable" becoming pop hits.
On top of being a talented musician, Cole was very popular. His variety show,
The Nat King Cole Show, premiered in 1956. According to the Clarion-Ledger,
Cole was the first African American to land the role of host on a variety program.
Unfortunately, the show was canceled after only one season — but that one season on NBC,
paired with his crossover success in music, helped break the color barrier in TV and music for many.
The 1940s and 1950s were good to Cole, but the 1960s brought him tragic news.
Cole was diagnosed with lung cancer in 1964 and passed away from the disease on February 15, 1965.
He was just 45 at the time of his death.
Scott Weiland was a talented singer and songwriter whose career spanned three decades.
He was known to the masses as the singer for the rock band Stone Temple Pilots and the supergroup
Velvet Revolver. Born in California in 1967, The Washington Post reported that Weiland really
started getting into rock n' roll music while recovering from a football injury as a teen.
Though he had a post punk band in his early days,
Weiland wouldn't find mainstream success until Stone Temple Pilots.
The group signed to Atlantic Records in 1992, just in time for grunge to start hitting the airwaves.
While their first record didn't make many waves, Stone Temple Pilots' second album,
Purple, was hugely successful. Featuring hits like "Interstate Love Song" and "Big Easy", it claimed
the top spot on the Billboard 200 in 1994. Weiland was with STP until the band fired him in 2013.
"After 20 years, ya know?
I mean look at people that get married. Ya know, there's such a thing called divorce."
In the early 2000s, he also used his unique and adaptable
voice to handle lead vocals for Velvet Revolver.
Despite the success of his various projects, Weiland wasn't just known for his musical chops.
In an interview with Esquire, he explained how he publicly struggled with addiction,
using substances like alcohol, cocaine, and heroin while Stone Temple Pilots rose to stardom.
Weiland struggled with substance abuse throughout his life,
and sadly passed away due to an accidental overdose on December 3, 2015. He was 48.
The "King of Rock and Roll" himself,
Elvis Presley, is one of the most beloved and famous musical acts in history. Born Elvis
Aaron Presley in Tupelo, Mississippi in 1935, the music legend shot to fame in the mid-1950s with
his distinct sound and risqué stage performance. Elvis scored his first number one hit in 1955 with
"Heartbreak Hotel," and went on to release iconic songs like "Hound Dog" and "I Can't Help Falling
in Love With You." He also dabbled in film, starring in movies like 1956's Love Me Tender.
Alas, not everything was smooth sailing for The King in his kingdom.
The late 1960s saw a shift in the music scene, as bands like The Who and Creedence Clearwater
Revival were defining a fresh, new rock n' roll sound. This evolution wasn't exactly
beneficial to Presley, known for playing blues and ballads. He made a small comeback
in the late 1960s and early 1970s, but his status wasn't near what it was in the 1950s.
Presley was also dealing with personal issues outside of music.
Elvis and his wife, Priscilla, split in 1973. He also had an addiction to prescription drugs
and was putting on weight around this same time. Elvis' overall health was on the decline leading
up to his death on August 16, 1977. The star died of a heart attack at Graceland at the age of 42.
John Lennon is one
of the most iconic musicians and songwriters in modern music history. Born in Liverpool,
England in 1940, Lennon rose to megastardom in the 1960s as a member of The Beatles.
Lennon started playing music with Paul McCartney and George Harrison when they were just teens,
while Ringo Starr came into the picture in 1962,
completing the quartet that would rock the music industry to its core and kick-start Beatlemania.
To say the group saw phenomenal success is an understatement. As Insider reports, the Beatles
had a whopping 20 singles hit No. 1 on the charts, including timeless tunes like "Hey Jude" and "Let
It Be." Most unfortunately, all good things must come to an end, and the Beatles were no exception.
Paul McCartney dropped the bombshell news of the band's breakup in April 1970. Lennon dove
into his solo career post-Beatles, releasing several albums from 1970 to 1980 — including
1971's widely celebrated Imagine. He also collaborated with his second wife, Yoko Ono,
throughout his solo career. In fact, their album Double Fantasy was Lennon's last album.
John Lennon's life came to an abrupt end on December 8, 1980,
when he was shot and killed outside his apartment by an unhinged man named Mark David Chapman.
He was just 40 years old at the time of his death.
"I still miss the man. I love the man. I was close
to the man. And he went out just in such a stupid way."
Billie Holiday is an icon of jazz, with her unmistakably smooth yet compelling voice
defining the genre during her career. She had a way of soaking every word she sang with emotion,
and she commanded the full attention of everyone who heard her sing.
According to the PBS series American Masters, Holiday came from difficult beginnings.
She grew up in poverty and even worked as a prostitute before she started singing in
Harlem jazz clubs. She first started recording music in 1933, and would go on to collaborate
with jazz legends like Duke Ellington and Lester Young throughout her career.
Her popularity grew after she released the 1939 song "Strange Fruit," a haunting and powerful
anti-lynching number, and she remained a staple jazz performer throughout the 1940s and 1950s.
While Holiday had a successful professional life, her personal life was tumultuous.
She struggled with alcohol and drug addiction dating back to the earlier 1940s. Her drug use
led to several encounters with the police over the decade, and by the 1950s, her career and her
health were feeling the wrath of her vices. Billie Holiday was diagnosed with cirrhosis of the liver
in May of 1959, and passed away just two months later on July 17. She was only 44 years old.
You can't talk about Motown without
talking about the unbelievable talent that was Marvin Gaye. The legendary soul singer was born
in 1939 in Washington, D.C., and grew up under the watch of a violent and unpredictable father,
Marvin Gay Sr. Marvin Junior took refuge in music as a kid, and his passion for R&B grew
in his teen years. The undeniably talented Gaye was signed to Motown Records in 1961,
where he worked as a jack-of-all-trades musician.
It wasn't long before Marvin Gaye got behind the mic and released Motown hits of his own,
including 1965's "How Sweet It Is To Be Loved By You"
and 1968's "I Heard It Through The Grapevine". The 1970s were great to
Gaye as well: most notably, he released his legendary album What's Going On in 1971.
The beloved singles "Let's Get It On" and "Got To Give It Up" would come out just a few years later.
In 1982, he released the hit "Sexual Healing," featuring a performance that earned him a Grammy.
Things were starting to look up for the "Prince of Soul," who was living in Europe as a tax exile,
according to Britannica. Unfortunately, things took a horrific turn for Gaye in April 1984. Gaye
was shot and killed by his own father following an altercation on April 1, just one day shy of his
45th birthday. He was posthumously inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1987.
Chester Bennington had one of the most distinct,
versatile, and powerful rock voices of the 2000s. From MTV to FM radio, his singing was featured
anywhere that played rock music. Bennington was the frontman for Linkin Park, a nu-metal group
that hit the mainstream in the early aughts. Their debut album Hybrid Theory sold more than
30 million copies across the globe, and their 2003 album Meteora hit No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 200.
Paired with Mike Shinoda's raps, Bennington's performances on Linkin Park staples like "Numb"
and "Somewhere I Belong" helped catapult the group into rock stardom.
Bennington also had a stint as the lead singer for Stone Temple Pilots from 2013 to 2015.
While Bennington had an impressive music career, he struggled with some deeply personal issues.
As Rolling Stone reports, Bennington wrestled with depression and addiction,
which he had dealt with since his teens. However, according to CNN, he seemed to be
in good spirits in the days leading up to death, making his tragic passing all the more shocking.
Bennington died by suicide at age 41 on July 20, 2017.
"He was at his best before he passed. We were on a family vacation, he just had to go back home
to do a television commercial, and we were — I was gonna see him the next day."
Coincidentally, July 20 was also Bennington's close friend Chris Cornell's birthday.
Cornell, frontman for Soundgarden and Audioslave, had also committed suicide just two months prior.