During the writing of my book Rock Shrines, about dead rock stars and their memorials, I veered towards famous and influential stars cut off in their prime. Along the way, however, I came across some deaths that were odder than others. These would fit an alternate and rather morbid rating system based on the manner in which they’d died. The following, then, may not be household names (with a couple of possible exceptions) but can lay claim to being the most bizarre deaths in rock’n’roll.
Steve Peregrine Took
In 1969 Marc Bolan separated from musical partner Steve Peregrine Took , splitting hippy duo Tyrannosaurus Rex. He shortened the band’s name and became a glam rock icon. Took, a friend of both Syd Barrett and Hawkwind, only ever achieved minor success as a cult underground figure. However, he makes this list by dint of death by cocktail cherry. A prodigious drug user, he combined morphine and magic mushrooms to disastrous effect on 27th October 1980 when, under the influence, he accidentally inhaled said cherry into his windpipe.
Sam Cooke
On 11th December 1964, seminal soul legend Sam Cooke, 33, picked up dodgy good time girl Elisa Boyer and took her to a seedy LA motel. Matters then become murky. Boyer claimed Cooke started to get rough so she escaped, taking his clothes, however she was later found to be a scam artist who picked up men, stole their wallets then nicked their clothes to stop them giving chase. Whatever the truth, a raging Cooke, clad only in his coat, confronted the elderly female motel manager. She shot him down and beat him with a broom handle.
Jeff Porcaro
Jeff Porcaro was one of the most technically gifted drummers of the 70s and 80s yet he’s as often remembered for his death fulfilling the Spinal Tap line about their drummer dying in “a bizarre gardening accident”. A founder member of naff US soft-rockers Toto, Porcaro went on to play on many multi-million-selling records, including Michael Jackson’s ‘Beat It’. He died aged 38 on 5th August 1992 when he suffered a heart attack induced by accidentally inhaling insecticide while working on his garden.
Jeff Buckley
Influential singer-songwriter Jeff Buckley came to a tragic but peculiar end aged only 30. By May 1997 he’d moved to Memphis, ready to record a follow-up to his debut album, ‘Grace’. On 29th he and friend/roadie Keith Foti drove around looking unsuccessfully for their rehearsal rooms. As dusk approached they parked near Wolf River where, as Foti’s boombox blasted classic rock, Buckley suddenly, randomly went for a swim while singing Led Zeppelin. He disappeared from Foti’s sight. Six days later his body was found.
‘Dimebag’ Darrell Abbott
‘Dimebag’ Darrell Abbott was one of heavy rock’s fieriest guitarists. He made his name with 90s metal masters Pantera but when they split in 2001 Abbott formed another band, Damageplan. On 8th December 2004 as Damageplan played a venue in Columbus, Ohio, Nathan Gale, a schizophrenic ex-Marine who believed Pantera could read his mind, broke into the gig, shot Abbott five times onstage and killed three others before the police eventually shot him dead as he held the band’s drum technician hostage.
Terry Kath
On the afternoon of 23rd January 1978 Terry Kath, 31 year old guitarist with iffy power ballad merchants Chicago, sat around drinking copiously at the Los Angeles home of his friend and roadie Don Johnson. A gun nut, he kept pulling the trigger of an empty revolver while pointing it at his head. He then did the same with an automatic pistol, explaining first, “Don’t worry, it’s not loaded.” The magazine was, indeed, empty. The chamber wasn’t. Thomas H Green’s Rock Shrines (Ilex Press) is available now.
Words by Thomas H. Green
