Janis Lyn Joplin was born on this day in Port Arthur, Texas in 1943. She was a typical young football loving, church choir singing Texan until she read Jack Kerouac's book On The Road opened her eyes and ears to an alternate universe of fast, improvisational living and music she might otherwise never have heard. Her interpretations of songs from a number of those artists along with her extraordinary voice and compelling stage presence gained her a following that included Chet Helms, a fellow Texan that had started producing concerts in San Francisco. Once Janis got in front of bigger audiences backed by Big Brother and the Holding Company, her career and took off.
Although brash and exuding self-confidence on stage, out of the limelight Janis was quite shy and turned to alcohol and an array of readily available drugs to bolster her when out of the limelight. A new and exceptionally potent strain of heroin would cut her career and life short in October, 1970. Pearl, just her 4th album, would be released posthumously just before what would have been her 28th birthday in 1971.
A lot of great singers have come and gone since Janis, but the likes of her will probably never be seen or heard again.
Though tragic, her early death was not all together shocking given her hard, fast lifestyle and frequent periods of heavy drug and alcohol abuse. The death of another Rocker born on this day in 1949 did come as a shock. The always sharp dressed and clean cut singer Robert Palmer died after suffering a heart attack at 54 in a Paris hotel room on September, 26, 2003.
Other Noteworthy Classic Rock events on January 19 include...
1947 early Deep Purple lead singer Rod Evans born.
1951 Martha Davis of the Motels born.
1952 America singer, guitarist and songwriter Dewey Bunnell is born in Yorkshire, UK.
1967 The Beatles start recording A Day in the Life.
1976 Beatles members ignore an offer of $30 million for a reunion concert.
1977 Charlie Daniels Band and Marshall Tucker band play Jimmy Carter's Inauguration.
1978 Sex Pistols oust Johnny Rotten.
1988 Bon Jovi and Motley Crue manager Doc McGhee pleads guilty to importing more than 40,000lbs of marijuana to the US.
1988 Metallica starts recording And Justice For All.
1991 Sting played on Saturday Night Live.
1993 Fleetwood Mac plays inauguration concert for Bill Clinton.
1993 Supreme Court upholds $2.5 million paid by Frito Lay to Tom Waits after the company hired a sound-alike for a commercial.
1998 Rock pioneer Carl Perkins dies of throat cancer at 65.
1998 Joey Ramone hospitalized for a blood irregularity.
2006 Wilson Pickett dies of a heart attack at 64.
2010 Steven Tyler shows up at Karaoke night at Palm Desert, CA bar.
2011 Steven Tyler makes his American Idol judging debut on TV talent search show.
2018 Medical Examiner attributes Tom Petty's death to an accidental overdose of mostly pain medications...
