Is Kanye West David Bowie’s foretold successor?
What was Mary J. Blige’s creepy prediction after Aaliyah’s plane crash?
Keep watching for some of the most bizarre celebrity death theories out there.
Though Michael Jackson lived a troubled life in the public eye,
his death in June 2009 was a major shock to his millions of fans. At the time of his passing,
music lovers were anticipating his long overdue comeback as well as a highly publicized 50-date
residency at London's O2 Arena that was set to begin the following month.
Jackson's passing remained in the headlines for months as the details came to light.
The cause of death turned out to be an overdose of the anesthetic propofol, which was administered by
his private physician Dr. Conrad Murray, who was later found guilty of involuntary manslaughter.
But official proceedings have barely slowed the whirlwind of speculation and conspiracy
theories concerning Jackson's untimely death. Some have suggested that he was in fact murdered,
including his own daughter, Paris, who in 2017 claimed that "a lot of people" would've wanted
her father dead. A more bizarre theory claims that Jackson actually faked his own death.
That idea gained some prominence after a video was posted online that purported to
show a Jackson-esque figure getting out of the back of a coroner's van alive and well.
Jackson was reportedly $500 million in debt at the time of his death,
a fact that conspiracy theorists argue gave him cause to quit his life in the spotlight.
Some fans even suggest that Jackson took up the identity of Dave Dave, a conceptual artist and
friend of his who was interviewed on Larry King Live on the day of Jackson's funeral.
For the vast majority of her fans, Avril Lavigne has been
the evergreen voice of teen angst for the better part of two decades.
But the world of Lavigne fandom also contains one unorthodox subset: the "Avril Rangers,"
who allege that the Lavigne we see on stage today isn't the real Avril, and hasn't been since 2003.
As reported by Vice in 2015, the Rangers believe that Lavigne was found dead at her home shortly
after the release of her breakout debut album Let Go. They also claim that she was subsequently
replaced by an actress named Melissa Vandella, who was first employed by Lavigne's team as a
lookalike whose job was to wrongfoot the paparazzi and stop their constant pursuit of the real Avril.
"According to those who believe this conspiracy,
Lavigne was allegedly struggling to deal with her fame during the height of her career."
As reported by The Guardian, this bizarre theory first arose on a Brazilian blog.
Evidence of a purported cover-up includes analysis of the two women's differing skin blemishes
and clothing styles, as well as cryptic lyrical allusions to the real Lavigne's untimely demise.
The creator of the blog has since disavowed his outlandish theory,
though that hasn't stopped it from occasionally resurfacing on social media.
The theory that Elvis Presley is still alive has been around
so long that it's become something of a recurring joke in pop culture.
"Can you keep a secret?"
"It's just me and you in here."
"I'm Elvis."
"What?!"
Among the fans who refuse to believe that the King died in the bathroom of his Graceland home
in August 1977, some believe that the singer and noted UFO enthusiast was abducted by aliens.
They story goes that they had appeared to
him throughout his life and had perhaps even helped him throughout his career.
A marginally more plausible but nonetheless still
bizarre theory contends that Presley was in fact working for the FBI,
and that he had effectively entered a witness protection program before evidence that he was
an agent was made public. However, as noted by Time Magazine, there's no mention of Presley's
being involved in the FBI in the 760 files the agency released concerning the late singer.
Much of the speculation has been fueled by the unavailability of the results of Presley's
autopsy, which his father Vernon sealed to prevent their contents falling into the public domain.
They're finally due to be published in 2027 on the 50th anniversary of his death.
In the age of the internet, it only takes one person with a website to propagate an
outlandish theory and for it to enter into public consciousness. One such person is Steve Lightfoot.
He's the creator of the website "Lennon Murder Truth," which first went online in the early
1990s. According to Lightfoot, he gave up his dream of being a professional golfer after he
discovered government codes in news magazines that supposedly linked the government and horror
writer Stephen King to musician John Lennon's murder. Lightfoot's thesis seems to be based
pretty much exclusively on King's physical resemblance to Mark David Chapman, Lennon's
real killer. Chapman has been incarcerated since pleading guilty to the murder in 1981.
Lightfoot's theory also claims that King murdered Lennon at the behest of both Ronald
Reagan and Richard Nixon, who had taken exception to Lennon's left wing activism.
In addition to his website, Lightfoot has for many years promoted his ideas
by pasting his claims on the side of his van, but very few people have taken him seriously.
Apple founder and CEO Steve Jobs was the closest thing that the tech world had to
a rock star following the dawn of a triple threat of products: the iPod,
iPhone, and iPad, all released between 2001 and 2010.
Jobs passed away from cancer on October 5, 2011, just 18 months after the iPad's initial release.
By then, the innovations he oversaw had already changed the landscape of home technology forever.
Jobs' death felt unbelievable for many of his fans. Even though he'd been ill for several years,
he always seemed in good health during his public appearances.
Thus, it probably shouldn't be too surprising that a sense of denialism about the loss of Jobs
is still pervasive a decade later. For example, in 2019 the internet lost its collective mind
when an image was posted that claimed to show Jobs alive and well in Cairo, Egypt. Jobs was of
Syrian descent, and there's a Reddit post that claims that he had a love of the Middle East
and likely decided to fake his death and move there to enjoy a quieter life.
There have supposedly been other numerous sightings, including once in Rio de Janeiro.
On February 3, 1959, the world of rock 'n' roll suffered a terrible tragedy, as Buddy Holly,
Ritchie Valens, and J. P. "Big Bopper" Richardson all perished aboard a small plane that crashed
into a cornfield in Iowa. But a theory then quickly emerged that the crash wasn't an accident.
Or at least, it wasn't an accident in the way that it had been originally reported.
Holly's gun, which he was known to carry for protection,
was reportedly found months afterward at the crash site, and rumors spread that the gun
had been fired. Conspiracy theorists raised the possibility that Holly may have killed
his fellow passengers and captain, or that an accidental gunshot had brought down the aircraft.
In 2007, J.P. Richardson's son Jay hired forensic anthropologist Bill Bass
to exhume and re-examine his father's body to put to rest the rumors about foul play.
The subsequent autopsy revealed that Richardson had died instantly as result of the crash
and found no traces of ammunition in his body.
"Every family has an Aunt Susie who watches CSI, and they become a crime scene investigator."
Born into a devout Baptist family in Valdosta, Georgia,
Bill Hicks drew on the firebrand performances of the preachers he encountered in his childhood to
create his own brand of cutting edge, rage-fueled comedy. He gained fame as one of the angriest
young comics of his generation before his tragic death in 1994 at the age of 32. But some
conspiracy theorists have argued that the story doesn't end there, and that in fact the comedian
has continued to ply his trade as a loudmouth social critic in a far less comedic form:
that of far-right conspiracy theorist Alex Jones.
As reported by Texas Monthly, this incredible theory first emerged in 2014
when a 33-minute-long video was posted to YouTube claiming that Hicks had undergone
the transformation after being recruited into the CIA to become "controlled opposition"
against the mainstream media. Critics of this theory have argued not only that these two men
exist on wildly different sides of the political spectrum, but also that being loud, white, male,
and rotund isn't a particularly unique profile among American public figures.
The exact meaning of the title of David Bowie's final album, Blackstar, has been widely debated
among his fans. This is especially true in light of the timing of the album's release,
as it came out just two days before his death on January 10,
2016. Many point to the album's themes of death and transformation
and argue that it's a perfectly crafted swan song that turned Bowie's death into "a work of art."
But to some conspiracy theorists, Blackstar is the final piece of a puzzle that goes all the
way back to 1972 and the release of Bowie's classic concept album The Rise and Fall of
Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars. As reported by Rolling Stone, adherents to the theory
claim that Bowie used that earlier album to foretell the coming of his musical successor:
Kanye West. Two details propel this theory: first, the album cover shows Bowie in his Ziggy garb
standing conspicuously under a sign that reads "K. West." This kernel is then expanded by the
album's opening track "Five Years," which true believers claim is a reference to West's birth
five years after the album's release. According to this theory, not only is
West supposedly the "Starman," he's also the titular "Blackstar" of Bowie's farewell album.
The death of a star as big as David Bowie had to attract more than just one bizarre
conspiracy theory, including that the Thin White Duke is still alive and kicking on planet Earth,
despite all evidence to the contrary. Bowie had avoided the limelight for more than a decade
before his passing. Although he'd released two well-received albums and several singles since
his 2013 comeback, he avoided all press, public appearances, and performances. But the impeccably
choreographed release of both 2013's The Next Day and 2016's Blackstar seemed to suggest something
significant to the conspiracy-minded. Back in the 60s, Bowie had timed the release of his single
"Space Oddity" to coincide with the Apollo moon landing. So, as this theory goes,
he was still a master of manipulating the media, and his supposed death was just his latest trick.
Conspiracists have pointed to the similarities between Bowie and his
former colleague and fellow Brit Jack Steven, a music mogul who was interviewed on Sky News
shortly after Bowie's death. There are certainly some physical resemblances,
and many commenters pointed to something that Steven said at the start of his interview.
"I actually felt that part of me had died, I have to say."
Some people have taken this as evidence that Bowie and Steven are the same person,
positing that this interview was a coded farewell to his eagle-eyed fans who knew the truth.
Aaliyah was a rising star in the world of R&B when she was tragically killed in a plane crash
immediately after wrapping the filming for the music video for "Rock The Boat."
However, not everyone believes that her death was an accident,
despite no evidence to the contrary ever coming to light.
One highly prominent name in the "Aaliyah was murdered" camp is fellow R&B sensation Mary J.
Blige. In a 2005 interview with The Guardian, she pulled no punches in letting readers know that she
was certain that there was more to Aaliyah's unfortunate death than there at first seemed,
and that she herself might be next. According to Blige,
"When I saw her die, that's when I discovered the fact that I'm next.
I don't know how or when, but I'm next. I don't know what kind of freak accident
they're going to put me in, or what kind of overdose of heroin they're going to sort out,
but at the end of the day, I knew I was next. I just thought, I'm scared."
Thankfully, Blige is still alive as of 2021.
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