It’s long been said that 27 is a particularly dangerous age for musicians. Legendary bluesman Robert Johnson, Rolling Stones cofounder Brian Jones, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Big Star cofounder Chris Bell, Nirvana front man Kurt Cobain, and Amy Winehouse are all members of the Forever 27 Club, so named because of their age at the time of their deaths. Of course, this sort of clustering could likely be found with many ages (for example, Otis Redding, Gram Parsons, and Nick Drake all died at age 26), but humans seem to be predisposed to perceive such connections, even when they amount to little more than coincidence.
It turns out that this is exactly what the Forever 27 Club is. Age 27 is no worse for rock musicians than for the general populace. Indeed, the authors of a 2011 British study found that there was no peak in risk around age 27. However, the risk of death for musicians in their 20s and 30s was significantly higher than it was for the general population, a finding that was attributed to the lifestyle associated with an actively touring elite-level performer.
According to actuarial tables, 27 tends to be a good safe age for most people, rock musicians included. A phenomenon known as confirmation bias describes the tendency of people to ignore facts that refute a preferred hypothesis while emphasizing the ones that support it. On the strength of statistics, one might just as well say that 57 is an ill-fated year for rockers because Prince, Who bassist John Entwistle, punk pioneer Ian Dury, and soul legend Curtis Mayfield all died at that age.