Musicians' Death Roster

Kurt Cobain (Nirvana) 04/05/94 - Cobain was murdered in his Seattle home by a paid-assassin who tried to make the scene look like a suicide. Suspects in the case are Eldon Hoke (aka El Duce), who was murdered after giving a BBC interview about being offered the job by Courtney Love, Allen Wrench, who claims to have done it, and Michael DeWitt, the Cobain's male, live-in nanny. Kurt Cobain's suicide attempt in Rome appears to be the first attempt to murder Kurt. Michael DeWeitt and Courtney Love were in Rome with Cobain.

Michael Hutchence (INXS) 11/22/97 - Hutchence was found dead in a hotel room in Sydney with a belt around his neck. His death was first ruled a suicide, but his girlfirend, Paula Yates, later said he didn't commit suicide and suggested that he died from an autoerotic asphyxiation mishap. Paula Yates died in 2000 when she took a cocktail of vodka and pills and then choked to death on her vomit.

Marc Bolan (T. Rex) 09/16/77 - Bolan was killed in an early morning car crash when his girlfirend, Gloria Jones, drove their car into a tree on a dangerous road in Barnes Common, London. Marc Bolan, who did not have a driver's license, always had a feeling he would die in a car wreck. After word of his death spread through London, fans rushed to his house and stole everything they could take, including valuable memorabilia and financial records.

Cliff Burton (Metallica) 09/27/86 - After a show in Stockholm the band loaded onto their tourbus headed to Copenhagen. On a two-lane, icy road the bus driver over-corrected the wheel causing the tourbus to fishtail and then flip on its side. The band and crew were shaken and had minor injuries, but Burton, who was sleeping on a top bunk, was thrown from a window and the bus fell on him.

Steve Peregrine Took (Tyrannosaurus Rex) 10/27/80 - Took died when he choked on a cherry stone after doing some mushrooms. He had signed away his rights to Tyrannosaurus Rex royalties as he fell deeper into drug abuse, but Tony Secunda helped him regain his rights. However, Took spent the reissued royalty check on morphine and magic mushrooms which lead to his choking death.

Jeff Buckley 05/29/97 - Buckley had lunch with a friend in Memphis, but the two got lost and didn't know how to get back to the studio. To kill time they decided to take a swim in the Mississippi River. Buckley began backstoking out into the water and soon saw a tug boat coming down the river. Buckley's friend turned for one moment to step from the rising wake, but when he turned around Buckley was gone. His body would be found downstream a week later by passengers on a riverboat.

Layne Staley (Alice in Chains) 04/05/02 - Staley's body was found in his Seattle home after he overdosed injecting heroin and cocaine. He had been dead for two weeks before his decompsed body was found.

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