Forever 27: Kurt Cobain would have been 46 yesterday

Happy Birthday Kurt Cobain, you should have turned 46 yesterday. You are loved for who you were. The music lives on.

The frontman of the much sought after multi-platinum grunge band, Nirvana, Cobain was born in Aberdeen just outside of Seattle in the southwest. His parents, Don and Wendy Cobain, divorced when he was 7. Though Cobain was given guitar lessons to keep him out of trouble, he dropped out of high school and left Abderdeen with his friend Christ Novoselic, co-founder of Nirvana.

Ironic to the name of the much sought after band, Nirvana lead singer Kurt Cobain committed suicide in 1994. After a few suicide attempts, Cobain went MIA after escaping from a rehab centre and found a few days later at his Lake Washington home with a shotgun pointed at his chin and a suicide note.

Known to be a drug addict, a high concentration of heroin and amounts of Valium were also said to have been detected in his system. Cause of death: suicide.

With Kurt Cobain's sad death, he joined the club of troubled musicians who died early – apparently he spoke about joining the club before his death. His mother, Wendy O'Connor, famously said after his death: "Now he's gone and joined that stupid club, I told him not to join that stupid club."

Founded in 1986, Nirvana, which included Christ Novoselic on bass and Dave Grohl on drums, produced its first album, Bleach, in 1990. Nirvana's greatest hits include Smells Like Teen Spirit, Come As You Are, The Man Who Sold The World and the Heart-Shaped Box among others.

Coming Up: Celebrity deaths at age 27

On July 23, 2011 - iconoclastic British singer-songwriter, Amy Winehouse, was found dead in her London home. The cause of death was not immediately known, but she had sought treatment, just a month before her death, for health problems that have been reported to include drug and alcohol abuse, with some reports suggesting early-stage emphysema (a chronic respiratory disease) while others say that it was 'dodgy' drugs. Winehouse, a five-time Grammy winner, died aged 27.

One of the greatest electric guitarists of the years gone by, Jimi Hendrix died in the early hours of September 18, 1970. After a party, Jimi was taken to his girlfriend's Notting Hill apartment, where he died in the wee hours of the morning. Cause of death: asphyxiation on vomit due to the deadly combination of wine and sleeping pills, as per the coroner's report.

Eric Clapton once said Robert Leroy Johnson was “the most important blues singer that ever lived”.
The Americam singer and musician died August 16, 1938, due to unknown reasons. With differing accounts of his death, the most likely backstory to his death was poison – poisoned with strychnine by a lover's jealous husband.
Though Johnson wasn't given much credit for his talent while he lived, post his death, he became a legend.

It was ‘death by misadventure' for the founder and lead guitarist of the Rolling Stones Brian Jones.
Jones was found at the bottom of his swimming pool on the night of 2–3 July 1969, and declared DOA. Cause of death: drowning, added to which enlarged liver and heart courtesy alcohol and drug abuse.

The woman who wore many hats, singer, songwriter, painter, dancer and music arranger Janis Joplin died on the floor, by her bed, on October 4, 1970. Cause of death: probable heroin overdose, suspected to have been combined and rumoured to have been triggered by a bout of depression.

No stranger to controversy, The Doors frontman Jim Morrison died of “heart failure” in 1971, while in his Paris apartment bathtub. Under Parisian law, since no foul play was suspected surrounding the death, there was no autopsy. But, reports later came to suggest that the infamous singer had snorted heroin, leading to his death.

Valentín Elizalde, a popular Mexican banda singer, was gunned down in his car in November 2006, shortly after he left a concert. Along with him, his chauffeur and assistant were also killed. While rumours suggest that he had antagonized a drug trafficking ring, a result of which, he joined many other names of musicians who died at the age of 27. A year after his death, he was nominated for a Grammy.

Leslie Harvey, co-founder of Stone the Crows, was electrocuted mid-performance in 1972. Cause of death: touching his microphone with wet hands, one that was not earth grounded.

Ron "Pigpen" McKernan, founding member of Grateful Dead, was found dead at his home in Corte Madera in California. Cause of death: gastrointestinal hemorrhage.
His legacy remains – in 1994, along with his band members, McKernan was inducted into the Rock and Roll hall of Fame.
Not just musicians, there are others who succumbed to the curse of 27. Take a look.

Jonathan Gregory Brandis ironically began his career with the American soap One Life To Live in 1982, but a little over two decades later, the young actor hanged himself in 2003. Declared a suicide, minus a suicide note, his friends claimed that the The Never Ending Story II actor was lonely and depressed about his career.

Shortly after the 1994 FIFA World Cup, Colombian soccer player, Andrés Escobar was gunned down outside a bar in a suburb of Medellín, Colombia. The shooting is allegedly in retaliation to Escobar scoring an own-goal during the match that was counted in favour of the US team, hence, eliminating the Colombian team from the series.
According to reports, Humberto Muñoz Castro, a bodyguard, committed the crime on behalf of members of a powerful Colombian cartel, who made heavy losses due to bets on the Escobar's team.

Baseball player Steven Olin was killed in a boating accident on Little Lake Nellie, Florida in 1993. The boat he was in hit a pier killing him, another player and injuring a third.

Andrea Absolonová, aka Lea De Mae, was a Czech adult model. In 2004, she suffered from glioblastoma, an aggressive form of brain cancer.
Diagnosed in July 2004, the adult film actress succumbed to the fatal disease 17 days short of her 28th birthday on December 9, 2004.

September 11 changed Patrick Daniel Tillman's life. He left his professional football career and enlisted in the US army in 2002. In 2004, while deployed in Afghanistan, Tillman was caught in "friendly fire" and died on the spot on April 22, at the age of 27.