How rock stardom can take years off your life

Warning by scientists after study reveals toll from accidents, drugs and alcohol

James Randerson, science correspondent
Tuesday September 4, 2007

Guardian

From suicide to drug overdose, murder to bizarre gardening accidents - the hallowed halls of rock legend are littered with fallen young men and women who took the phrase "live fast, die young" as more life instruction than metaphor.

Now scientists have penetrated the haze of trashed hotel rooms, coke-fuelled all-night binges and stories of never-ending promiscuity to uncover a cautionary tale for X-factor wannabes. Their conclusion: rock'n'roll seriously damages your health.

By comparing the lives - and more importantly, deaths - of rock and pop stars with the rest of the population they have found that in the first five years after chart success, the mortality rate of performers shoots up to three times that of the rest of us. And living fast as a rock megastar does make you die young - of the 100 performers in the sample who died early, the average age was 42 for North American stars and just 35 for those in Europe.

Showing that the lifestyle which famously prevented Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards from remembering the 1970s takes years off your life may not seem like rocket science, but the researchers say anecdotes about rock star deaths alone are not enough to understand the problem.

"Nine out of 10 of these people don't die young. You have to do this sort of analysis to quantify what the additional mortality is," said Mark Bellis at Liverpool John Moores University's centre for public health, who led the study. He said the data could be used to prevent rock'n'roll deaths.

The study may further cement the position of Elvis Presley as the epitome of rock success, then excess. His drug-induced death at 42 was bang on the average age for US stars. And the preponderance of pharmaceutically-aided death was startling. About a quarter of deaths in the sample were due to drug or alcohol related problems.

Professor Bellis and his team analysed the careers of 1,064 artists who had made it into a catalogue of the 1,000 best albums of all time, as voted for by a poll of more than 200,000 people in 2000. Of these, 100 had died by 2005 - 9.6% of the men and 7.3% of the women. Accidents (16), drug/alcohol overdose (19) and the less rock'n'roll cancer (20) were the top three causes of death, with suicide (3), drug/alcohol related accidents (4) and violence (6) lower down the list. The mysterious "other" category (10) presumably included only truly original exits such as those of the ill-fated Spinal Tap drummers in the spoof rockumentary who variously vacated their stool after a bizarre gardening accident, on-stage spontaneous combustion and choking on someone else's vomit.

The sample of rock and pop stars was compared with mortality rates in a sample of the general population in Europe and North America. The results suggest that the most dangerous time for a star is during their first flush of fame. Stars are over three times more likely to die than ordinary people in the first five years after chart success, and in the first 10 years they are still at more than two and a half times the risk. And right up to 25 years after launching a career in showbiz, rock and pop stars are still more likely to meet their maker than the rest of us. At this point US and European rockers diverge. On this side of the Atlantic, mortality rates for rock survivors return nearly to normal, while in the US they continue to die off faster than the rest of the population. The results are published in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health.

The study throws a spotlight on some of rock and pop's saddest moments. The careers of both Otis Redding, at 26, and Buddy Holly, 22, were cut short by plane crashes, while Sid Vicious, who lived faster than most, also died younger - of a heroin overdose in 1979, aged 21. Elvis, Freddie Mercury and Joey Ramone were more typical, dying in their 40s. Among the honourable exceptions still performing into their 60s are Sir Paul McCartney, Bob Dylan and the apparently indestructible Rolling Stones - although Jagger and Richards did lose guitarist Brian Jones, drowned in a swimming pool at the age of 27.

Prof Bellis and his team hope they can tame the sex, drugs and rock'n'roll lifestyle that leads to so many early deaths. "We come at this from a public health perspective," said Prof Bellis. "We've looked at this as an employment industry just like any other. When you do that you identify what people are at most risk of. Some of the key risks are still associated with alcohol and drug use."

For some though, rock'n'roll deaths have their place. "There is nothing sadder than an old rock star," said ex-NME journalist and author Steven Wells. "We have far too many middle-aged rock stars hanging around, clogging things up. It is a microcosm of the way the baby boomers have dragged youth culture into the grave with them."

Changing music's booze and drugs culture may seem a faint hope, but - the exploits of Pete Doherty and Amy Winehouse notwithstanding - there are signs that it is happening. When the team compared the mortality rate before and after 1980 they found a striking drop. Among more recent stars, just 1.5% died within five years of their first hit - before 1980 it was more than twice that rate.

Prof Bellis said the behaviour of pop stars mattered. "These people hold a special position to potentially influence the behaviour of millions of young people who look up to them."