Janis Joplin

She was found dead on 4 October 1970 in a hotel room in Hollywood due to overdose of heroin, possibly compounded by alcohol.

Her personal life was very much the root cause of her sudden demise in 1970. She was facing enormous criticism for her personality and lifestyle which pushed her to a state of loneliness and isolation that eventually took her life.

Numerous books, movies and documentaries have been made on her life including ‘Love, Janis’ (1992) written by her sister, Laura Joplin.

Janis was born on January 19, 1943 in Port Arthur, Texas to Seth Ward Joplin, an engineer and Dorothy Bonita East, a registrar at a business college. She had two siblings, Michael and Laura, both younger than her.

She was a normal teenager until the age of 14, when puberty kicked in and she became overweight and developed deep scars on her skin due to acne.

She was a wild child after that and used to wear men’s shirts and shorts to distinguish herself from the crowd. She faced a lot of teasing and disgraceful comments on her lifestyle.

She became friends with guys who shared her love for music and this flared her passion for singing.

She graduated from high school in 1960 but didn’t complete her studies in spite of going to several institutions for further education.

In 1962, she began performing at musical gatherings and a local bar in Austin with Waller Creek Boys, an independent trio. She recorded her first ever song, “What Good Can Drinkin’ Do”, on tape at the home of a fellow student.

In 1963, she left for San Francisco to make a career in music industry. She recorded several tracks with Jorma Kaukonen but was unable to register her presence. On the contrary, with the use of alcohol and drugs she gained the reputation of a ‘speed freak’. Thus in order to stabilize herself, she came back to Texas in 1965.

Back in Texas, she adopted a healthy lifestyle in and got enrolled in anthropology major at a local university but the conventional life was not for her. Her first big break came in 1966, when she auditioned for psychedelic rockband Big Brother and the Holding Company.

The band signed several deals and she gave hits ‘Down on Me’, ‘Bye Bye Baby’, ’Call on Me’ as the lead vocal. ‘Cheap Thrills’, the band’s second album became an instant hit and topped the charts in US. Despite its success, she parted ways with the band in 1968 due to their lack of professionalism.

In 1969, her solo career started with the Kozmic Blues Band which received mixed reviews for her performance and negative criticism personally causing her much distress.

She was posthumously inducted in ‘Rock and Roll Hall of Fame’ in 1995.

She was honored with a ‘Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award’ in 2005, several years after her death.