Celebrities are obsessed with their own legacy, and how the world will see them
after they're long gone. Sometimes, they make predictions that are so accurate, it's creepy.
These are the musicians who predicted their own death.
XXXTentacion, was a polarizing figure in his tragically short life. To his fans, he was an
artist like no other with bracing, confessional lyrics about depression and feeling alone.
But beyond the music he was notorious for legal troubles and alleged acts of violence,
which included stabbing a former manager;
assault, home invasion and robbery; battery, false imprisonment, and witness tampering.
By the end of 2017, X was facing a high-stakes trial at the same time that he was preparing for
the release of his second studio album, ?. In the midst of all these troubles,
he went live on Instagram to reflect on what could be his life and legacy.
He told his fans that if he died a tragic death, he at least wanted to know that listeners
perceived his message, turned it into something positive, and made something of themselves.
"If I'm gonna die, or ever be a sacrifice, I want to make sure that my life made at
least 5 million kids happy — or they found some sort of answers or resolve in my life."
The video proved eerily prophetic. Months later,
he was shot to death in Florida, a victim of armed robbery. He was only 20 years old.
Mac Miller's struggle with substance abuse was no secret. He mentioned it in his lyrics often,
and seemed to understand that he was risking his own life.
His last music video for the single "Self Care" featured an image of himself lying in a casket.
The theme of the video was the downward spiral of addiction,
and it even included a scene where Miller carves the Latin phrase "Memento mori"
into the casket — a phrase that means in English, "Remember that you die."
Miller's drug use was said to be exacerbated by criticism of his music and public image,
especially after the release of his first album. In 2013,
he told Complex that many reviews of the record seemed deliberately cruel, saying,
"A lot of the reviews were more on me as a person."
The weight of that negativity took its toll on the rapper,
who self-medicated with drugs. He died in 2018 of an accidental overdose at the age of 26.
Juice WRLD tragically died six days after his 21st birthday of a drug overdose.
In an ominous turn of events, he seemed to predict this fate was coming,
with his 2018 song "Legends" containing the ominous phrase,
"What's the 27 club? We ain't making it past 21."
The song was written as a tribute to fellow rappers XXXTentacion and Lil Peep,
both of whom died well before their time. The lyrics to the song also include the lines,
"They tell me I'm-a be a legend, I don't want that title now, 'Cause all the legends seem to die out"
Then, just a few days before his death, he tweeted out one of his final messages to his fans,
telling them in part: This life is yours, do great things, change the world,
and you'll be bigger than Juice WRLD will ever be — and he's going down as a legend.
Avicii saw his death coming with what seems like shocking clarity. The Swedish musician
and DJ behind the songs "Wake Me Up," "Hey Brother," and other hits, said in the Avicii:
True Stories documentary that if he didn't retire from performing, he was going to die.
This certainty of impending death seems to be what motivated his retirement from touring in 2016,
with his health problems and alcohol abuse threatening to
overwhelm him if he didn't step back from the spotlight.
Sadly, that wasn't enough, and Avicii died in 2018 at the age of 28.
It's tragic irony that one of Amy Winehouse's biggest hits is a song about defiantly refusing
to go to rehab. But if you believe Amy Winehouse's friend and hairdresser,
Alex Foden, the singer may have known she wasn't destined for a long life.
A former roommate of Winehouse, Foden told the Mirror after Winehouse's death,
"Amy always told me she thought she would die young and that she
knew she'd become a part of the '27 Club.'"
That's a reference to the many artists who've died at the age of 27 over the years,
including Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, Kurt Cobain,
and of course, Winehouse herself, who died from alcohol poisoning in July 2011.
Whitney Houston's health didn't appear to be in decline as her life neared its end.
According to Vanity Fair, the legendary singer was
seen doing handstands beside a hotel pool in the days before her death.
But she did have a long history of drug abuse, and in February 2012, her luck finally ran out.
She was found dead in her hotel bathtub in what the coroner called a case of accidental drowning,
with contributing factors of cocaine use and heart disease. She was only 48 years old,
so to most, her death was unexpected — except maybe to Houston herself.
"Now I grant you, I partied."
According to TMZ, she'd recently told friends that she thought the end was near,
and was even quoted as saying to them,
"I'm gonna go see Jesus ... I want to see Jesus."
Houston got her start as a gospel singer, so it wasn't unusual for her to talk about religion,
but her friends recalled she'd become more spiritual during her final days.
There was no evidence that her death was anything other than an accident,
which makes it seem that she really did see something coming that no one else could.
The public generally accepts the idea that Michael Jackson died from overdosing on a
drug called Propofol. But who was responsible for the overdose? According to the courts,
the answer was Jackson's doctor, Conrad Murray,
who was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter in Jackson's death.
However, not everyone buys the notion that Jackson's death was an accident. The singer's
daughter, Paris Jackson, told Rolling Stone in 2017 that she believes the truth is more sinister,
saying that "a lot of people" wanted her father dead. According to Paris,
"It sounds like a total conspiracy theory [...] but all real fans and
everybody in the family knows it. It was a setup."
One major piece of evidence may be the words of Michael Jackson himself.
In his last weeks alive, Jackson reportedly wrote letters to a friend of two decades,
claiming he feared was going to be killed, and that he was terrified for his life.
Rolling Stone also points out that Jackson's ex-wife Lisa Marie Presley once told a similar
anecdote to Oprah regarding the singer's belief that someone wanted him dead,
allegedly in order to seize the money from his music publishing catalog.
Whatever really happened, Jackson's dark prediction turned out to be dead on.
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