Layne Staley
1967-2002
Alice in Chains frontman
Cause of Death: Overdose
Inelegantly Wasted: Locking himself away in his apartment and doing drugs for five years until he died, only to be found two weeks later after his accountant noticed he hadn't spent any money for a while, Staley's was one of the grimmest rock deaths ever. Despite selling 11 million albums, Alice in Chains were always in the shadow of the twin peaks of Seattle rock, Nirvana and Pearl Jam. Similarly, after Kurt Cobain sensationally took his own life, Staley's death--long after grunge's own--caused little stir. A local vigil held the day after his body was discovered drew only 200 mourners.
Breaking the Chain: No new material has been posthumously released. In 2005, Alice in Chains performed a Tsunami benefit show with guest singers including Maynard James Keehan of Tool, but there are no permanent reunion plans.
Memory Layne: Pearl Jam's Eddie Vedder recorded the tribute "4/20/02," a reference to the date he heard of Staley's death. Staind also marked the singer's passing with the song "Layne." Staley's mother, Nancy McCallum, established the Layne Staley Fund, a drug-treatment charity for heroin-addicted musicians that hosts an annual benefit.
Layne Staley (50)
Stephen Foster (49)
Stephen Foster
1826-1864
America's first professional songwriter
Cause of Death: Impoverishment
Tarnished Star: The 19th century's most famous tunesmith had no copyright protection, and so made no bank. The composer of "Camptown Races" and "Oh! Susanna" died after a feverish collapse in a cheap New York hotel. His fortune was the 38 cents in his pocket.
Two-Faced: Pennsylvania native Foster wrote about the South but rarely left the North. He was white, but used the now-horrifying slang of blackface minstrelsy. None of this helped his post-civil-rights-era rep. In 1996 the only two African-American members of the Yale Glee Club protested three Foster songs slated for a public performance; two were cut and the Glee Club president publicly burned a copy of the music.
Salvage Job: Foster's status began changing around the time documentarian Ken Burns made the Civil War hip again. Ken Emerson's 1997 biography, the first in 60 years, contextualized Foster's functional racism; a PBS doc and a tribute album followed. Americana lovers from Dylan on down revived Foster's songs; twinkle-toed choreographer Mark Morris wrote a dance using them. Foster's still not quite the bomb, but his phantom's on the mend.
Aaliyah (48)
Aaliyah
1979-2001
R&B princess
Cause of Death: Plane crash
One in a Million: Talked-up as her generation's answer to Diana Ross before her death, Aaliyah has since achieved a kind of sainthood, destined to be remembered for her "Beautiful smile, long hair and the voice of a hummingbird," as Missy Elliott put it on her 2002 tribute, "Can You Hear Me."
The Final Cut: Unlike those made legends by their demise, Aaliyah remains a superstar-in-waiting. Despite her string of Timbaland-produced hits, only her final album, Aaliyah, topped the charts, and there was always a feeling she was about to step up another level. Hollywood, for one, was calling--she was the best thing in Queen of the Damned and had three movies in production when the plane she was traveling in crashed just after takeoff.
Peer Plaudits: Her family, who settled a negligence suit with the aircraft's operators out of court, established the Aaliyah Memorial Fund and announced that a portion of the profits from her music would be donated to charities. Posthumous compilation I Care 4 U went platinum, but there's little unreleased material left for future releases--and her planned collaboration with Nine Inch Nails' Trent Reznor will sadly remain forever unrealized.
Bobby Darin (47)
Bobby Darin
1936-1973
Finger-popping vocalist
Cause of Death: Complications from open-heart surgery
Swinging Into Oblivion: A showbiz trooper, Darin literally worked himself to death. In 1973 he was making $75,000 a week in Vegas, but he pushed his chronically weak ticker until an infection felled him. His son Dodd now maintains his dad's estate with the help of Darin's longtime manager, Steve Blauner.
Unhip Years: A catalogue wavering between the Rat Pack and the counterculture hurt Darin's reputation. Hits like his finger-snappin' "Mack the Knife" killed on oldies radio, but his folk-rock efforts weren't freaky enough for Gen X. A classy 1995 box set showed range, but failed to focus interest.
Big Mack With Cheese: Advertisers love Darin--Kodak, Oral B and Carnival Cruise Lines have hawked products using his plastic croon. But there's a fine line between love and exploitation: The estate sued McDonald's in 1989 over a campaign imitating "Mack the Knife." The case could have set an intellectual-property precedent, but was settled.
Lost at Sea: Just when baby Darin imitators Michael Bublé and Jamie Cullum surfaced, superfan Kevin Spacey released the disastrous biopic Beyond the Sea, sinking all hope for a revival.
'Dimebag' Darrell Abbott (46)
'Dimebag' Darrell Abbott
1966-2004
Pantera guitarist
Cause of Death: Shot dead by fan
Dropping the Dime: Largely unknown in the mainstream during his lifetime, death made Abbott suddenly world famous--when he became the first musician ever murdered onstage, shot repeatedly by deranged gunman Nathan Gale in Columbus, Ohio.
Live and Dangerous: As guitarist in Pantera, Abbott was part of one of the most successful hard-rock band of the '90s: The band's 1994 release, Far Beyond Driven, debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard charts and was nearly as instrumental in the demise of hair metal as the advent of grunge.
The Memory Remains: Pantera split in 2001, and Abbott's next band, the somewhat less influential Damageplan, released just one album and dissolved the instant he died. Those wishing to remember Abbott in model form can purchase a commemorative action figure--only 3,333 made at $99 apiece.
My Best Friend's Shredding: David Draiman of Disturbed described the day Abbott was killed as "the 9/11 of rock."
Keith Moon (45)
Keith Moon
1946-1978
Hyperactive Who drummer
Cause of Death: Choked on vomit after OD on pills
Who Went First: Neither Moon's early death nor the fact that he left an estate valued at just $750,000 was surprising for a rock superstar who spent his extensive off-time between Who tours and albums partying and spending hard. He died intestate, making it difficult for his daughter, Amanda, to collect what she could have. But even though Pete Townshend wrote almost all the Who's songs, today they're licensed so widely and lucratively--in commercials for cars, computers and allergy medicine as well as the title music for all three CSI TV shows--that Moon's share likely exceeds seven figures.
Peer Plaudits: Though widely recognized by other drummers as a unique stylist and breathtaking performer, Moon remains best-known as the godfather of nihilistic rock-star excess--and for a career of stripping naked in airports, destroying hotel rooms and drum kits and consuming record quantities of alcohol and pharmaceuticals.
Give the Drummer Some: Bandmate Roger Daltrey's 10-year quest to produce a biopic of Moon finally bore fruit last October when Mike Myers agreed to handle the role.
Warren Zevon (44)
Warren Zevon
1947-2003
Mordant singer-songwriter
Cause of Death: Lung cancer
Life After Death: In 2002 the heavy-smoking Zevon was diagnosed with cancer and given three months to live. In fact, he survived for over a year--in which time he was the subject of a VH1 documentary, appeared as the sole guest on an episode of The Late Show With David Letterman and recorded a CD, The Wind. Released two weeks before his death, the album debuted at No. 16 on the Billboard charts (its predecessor had failed to crack the top 200).
Mr. Bad Example: Both a one-hit wonder and a much-covered songwriter whose titles have so far inspired two movies (Things to Do in Denver When You're Dead and I'll Sleep When I'm Dead), Zevon's legacy is peculiarly diverse. But it's safe to say that "Werewolves of London" will feature on radio stations' Halloween playlists until the universe implodes.
Peer Plaudits: As soon as Zevon's condition was made public, Bob Dylan began including a range of his songs in his live shows, while a 2004 tribute album featured Dylan, Springsteen and the Pixies. Last year another covers CD, Hurry Home Early, was recorded by up-and-coming artists.
Sid Vicious (43)
Sid Vicious
1957-1979
The Sex Pistols' couldn't-play bassist
Cause of Death: Heroin overdose
Pretty, Vacant: Sid contributed nothing to the Pistols' music but everything to their legend, checking out while on bail for the murder of his girlfriend Nancy Spungen at New York's Chelsea Hotel. Actual royalties are limited to proceeds from perennial Sid single "My Way" and album tracks from unlovable exploitation albums-but value accrues from the estate's co-ownership of priceless film footage of the band, wrested from flamboyant former manager Malcolm McLaren in 1987. Sid's mom, Anne Beverley, was the initial beneficiary before she, too, OD'd in 1996. Today the estate is controlled by high-powered MGM executive Anita Camarata.
His Way: The apotheosis of punk's spiky biker look and wrecked moron schtick, Vicious has become antiestablishment shorthand, co-opted by stars as varied as Rancid's Lars Frederiksen, Avril Lavigne and Duff McKagan--who still steadfastly rocks Sid's trademark padlock-on-a-neckchain. Conversely, John "Johnny Rotten" Lydon's undignified recent foray into British reality TV has devalued the Pistols brand, while Sid wannabe Pete Doherty has rendered the affably doomed junkie archetype somewhat tired. A TV documentary, Sid: The Last 24 Hours, airs later this year in the U.K.
Rick James (42)
Rick James
1950-2004
Lycra-jumpsuited satyr
Cause of Death: Enlarged heart, pneumonia, effects of multiple drugs.
He Knew From Superfreaks: James' off-stage adventures included a $10,000-a-week coke habit and holding women hostage on two occasions, torturing one with a hot crack pipe. Unfortunately, his musical life was less sensational in later years. While his death brought some interest in the catalogue--including the hits "Super Freak" and Hammer's rap doppelganger "U Can't Touch This," both of which make money for James's daughter Ty and sons Rick Jr. and Tazman--all James's later albums tanked, and the double CD he'd been working on with Kanye West among others is as yet unreleased.
Saved by Chappelle: Comedian Dave Chappelle singlehandedly rehabilitated James's badass image with a Falstaffian characterization that made "I'm Rick James, bitch" the tagline of 2004, fueling DVD sales of Chappelle's comedy show to well over $50 million and bringing James back into the public eye. Paramount optioned James's unpublished autobiography, Memoirs of a Super Freak, as a starring vehicle for Chappelle. But if neither book, film nor double CD come out, some posthumous lean years may follow James's legendary high times.
Alan Lomax (41)
Alan Lomax
1915-2002
Folklorist and ethnomusicologist
Cause of Death: Complications from stroke
Old Folk's Home: Lomax is celebrated for finding and recording Muddy Waters and promoting a long list of American folk legends including Leadbelly, Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger. Along with Harry Smith, whose folk recordings for the Smithsonian would become a touchstone for generations of serious folkies and eggheads, Lomax's work forms the spine of the recorded American folk legacy.
Life After Death: Lomax's estate got fat in recent years when his recordings were used on the soundtrack to O Brother, Where Art Thou? and sampled extensively on Moby's Play. The estate also has a rare reputation for diligence in tracking down descendants of performers to pay them royalties.
In the Vault: Lomax's catalogue of recordings is enormous, and Rounder Records has spent the last decade compiling and releasing nearly 100 CDs of his work, with plans for many more.
The Bad News: Lomax's reputation has been tarnished recently by allegations that he played down the contribution of his collaborators--particularly legendary African American scholar and musicologist John Work III--and that he stiffed Muddy Waters out of a promised $20 recording fee.
Elliot Smith (40)
Elliot Smith
1969-2003
Morose indie troubadour
Cause of Death: Suicide by stabbing
Enduring Mystery: Smith was transformed from cult miserablist into Joaquin Phoenix-endorsed doomed genius poet as details of his drug-addled final months emerged. Adding grist to the controversy mill, a Kurt-like murder theory circulates, based on medical examiner Lisa Scheinin's report that "possible defensive wounds" on his arms and hands "raise the possibility of homicide."
Life After Death: Smith's posthumous 2004 album From a Basement on the Hill hit the Billboard charts at No. 19, 80 places higher than his previous release, although super-harrowing tracks such as "Suicide Machine" were excised by Smith's complicated estate (father Gary, birth mother Bunny and Elliott's stepmother Marta).
In the Vault: A cache of twenty-two unreleased songs were leaked onto the Internet in fall 2005, fueling persistent rumors of another archive release, while Smith's contributions to the soundtrack for the film Thumbsucker maintain the illusion of an artist more prolific in death than in life. The inevitable tribute album, To: Elliott From: Portland, is slated for February 2006.
Robert Johnson (39)
Robert Johnson
1911-1938
Delta blues progenitor
Cause of Death: Pneumonia
Sympathy for the Devil: The myths surrounding Johnson's early death have helped build the enduring legend of the doomed blues Prometheus cursed for his gifts. The most popular story--that he sold his soul to the devil in exchange for his guitar skills--inspired the 1986 Ralph Macchio vehicle Crossroads.
Estate of Confusion: Johnson died with neither legitimate children nor will, leaving his recordings to an unknowing family until 1973, when the last heir, a half-sister, was located by a music historian, to whom she assigned all rights to the small estate. When Columbia's The Complete Recordings went platinum not long after its 1990 release, however, royalties to the estate rose to $1.3 million and a truck driver named Claud L. Johnson emerged, claiming to be Johnson's illegitimate son. In 2000, after an eight-year hearing, he was named sole heir.
Peer Plaudits: Johnson is the blues icon: Eric Clapton famously said that "his music remains the most powerful cry that I think you can find in the human voice." The White Stripes covered his "Stop Breaking Down Blues," and if you think Jack White's penchant for fedoras owes nothing to Johnson, think again.
Curtis Mayfield (38)
Curtis Mayfield
1942-1999
Politicized soul pioneer, quadriplegic
Cause of Death: Never verified, though years of poor health followed his paralysis after a 1990 onstage accident.
Enemy of Estate: From '60s R&B trio the Impressions through his monumental solo career, Mayfield recorded more than 100 charting singles and amassed an impressive estate. In 2003, however, Mayfield's widow Altheida successfully settled a suit to remove Marv Heiman, the artist's manager and trustee, from the family's trusts, alleging that Heiman had paid himself millions in fees and caused tax difficulties for both her and her six children.
Peer Plaudits: Mayfield's music continues to be part of hip-hop's DNA: Kanye West's recent song "Touch the Sky" is essentially Curtis's "Move On Up" with different lyrics. In 2002 Mayfield's family placed an ad in Billboard thanking rappers like Snoop and Jay-Z who had sampled his music (and provided a contact number, presumably to drum up more business). The same year, Heiman was quoted as saying he received five sample requests a month--each one can fetch up to $350,000 for Mayfield's estate.
Lisa 'Left Eye' Lopes (37)
Lisa 'Left Eye' Lopes
1971-2002
TLC firebrand
Cause of Death: Car crash
Microphone Fiend: The most successful female R&B group of all time, TLC sold 22 million albums in the U.S. alone--and the rapping and maverick behavior of Lopes was what really set them apart
On the TLC Tip: After Lopes was killed while taking a vacation in Honduras, a reported 10,000 people attended her funeral in Atlanta. Seven months later, TLC's fourth album, the well-received 3D, was released with Left Eye's vocals on five of the tracks-and a greatest-hits CD followed the next year. The 2005 reality TV show R U the Girl With T-Boz and Chilli offered hopefuls the chance to perform and record with the remaining members, though emphatically not as a replacement for Lopes. A single, "I Bet," was cut with the show's winner, O'so Krispie, but failed to chart.
Coming Soon: Later this year, VH1 will show The Last Days of Lisa Lopes, a feature-length program including exclusive home video footage shot by the singer during her final retreat in Central America.
John Peel (36)
John Peel
1939-2004
Pioneering BBC DJ
Cause of Death: Heart failure
Last Night a DJ Saved My Career: Peel was an early champion of acts from Pink Floyd to the Fall and the White Stripes. Admired by hipsters on this side of the Atlantic, he was utterly beloved in his native U.K., where the first anniversary of his final broadcast was marked by "John Peel Day"-during which the BBC devoted six hours of programming to its former employee and more than 300 concerts were held in his honor.
Life After Death: Peel's autobiography, for which he was paid $2.6 million and which was posthumously completed by his wife, became an instant bestseller in Britain when published last fall. Many of those who benefited from the DJ's long career of patronage feature on the predictably eclectic range of Peel Sessions CDs-the latest, featuring Galaxie 500, hit stores last November-while a planned website supervised by Peel's son Tom will continue his mission of showcasing new acts.
Peer Plaudits: After news broke of Peel's death, Radiohead's Thom Yorke moaned, "Who am I going to listen to now?"
Darby Crash (35)
Darby Crash
1959-1980
Singer of L.A. punk act the Germs
Cause of Death: Intentional heroin overdose
Early Exit: Dying at 22, with only one album to his name, the self-mutilating star of L.A. hardcore earned the postmortem mystique of a goth Peter Pan. Although Crash blew it on the death date (John Lennon was shot 24 hours later, eclipsing Darby's newsworthiness), his timing was otherwise perfect. Neither his fledgling solo career nor brief stay in England-from which he returned looking ominously like Adam Ant-augured greatness.
Crashing In: The Germs' rep has solidified since Crash's death, thanks to Rhino's MIA: The Complete Anthology and shout-outs from the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Nirvana and the Offspring. But the real surge should come later this year, with the release of Rodger Grossman's What We Do Is Secret. Recreating Crash's gambol through L.A.'s punk scene, the film, whose music supervisor is Germs guitarist Pat Smear (lately of Nirvana and Foo Fighters), features performances by Bijou Phillips as Germs bassist Lorna Doom and Shane West (a.k.a. Dr. Ray Barnett on ER) as Crash himself-donning blue contacts and prosthetic chipped teeth for the role.
Jam Master Jay (34)
Jam Master Jay
1965-2002
Run-D.M.C. turntablist
Cause of Death: Murder
Hip-Hop Pioneer: Despite being in one of the most important and successful hip-hop groups of all time, Jay reportedly left as much as $500,000 in debts at the time of his shooting. The trio's biggest hits came on the small Profile Records, and they stayed with the label even after declaring bankruptcy in 1993. After Jay's death, friends and admirers-including Russell Simmons, LL Cool J and Eminem-contributed to a fund to help support his family.
Peer Plaudits: Just before his death, Missy Elliott paid tribute to Jay by sampling "Peter Piper" on "Work It." And right after his death, Adidas released a limited-edition "Run-D.M.C. Superstar" shoe and a Dr. Pepper commercial memorialized the DJ. There's little chance Run-D.M.C. itself will continue, however: The three albums released since Jay's death have all been retrospective compilations.
The Future: While the family has championed a Jam Master Jay Foundation for Music to support inner-city music programs, the DJ's murder rather than his music appears destined to keep him in the public eye, with federal prosecutors examining alleged ties between Queens gangs and the rap world.
Brian Jones (33)
Brian Jones
1942-1969
Weird, druggy Rolling Stones guitarist
Cause of Death: Drowned in his swimming pool
This Could Be the Last Time: Lewis Brian Hopkins-Jones founded the Rolling Stones and steered them into their weirdest territories, but by early June 1969, the original junkie rock star was enough of a drug casualty that they booted him. A month later he was dead, and the supposed mystery of his youthful demise has continued to make him considerably more famous than, say, living ex-Stones Bill Wyman and Mick Taylor.
Baby, You're out of Time: The 2005 British biopic Stoned depicted Jones's death as a murder-but even if he's exhumed, as one former girlfriend has suggested, it's past the point where anyone but his fan club could care.
Time Wasn't on His Side: Jones's songwriting contribution to the Stones was minimal (a handful of co-written non-hits), and they shrugged off his influence after ditching him. His most significant musical legacy may be helping to invent the "world music" concept by producing The Pipes of Pan at Jajouka, a recording of Moroccan musicians issued in 1971-or maybe having the Brian Jonestown Massacre named after him.
Jeff Buckley (32)
Jeff Buckley
1966-1997
Angst-ridden indie pinup
Cause of Death: Drowning
Mystery White Boy: Buckley's otherwordly voice, moody good looks and bloodline (his dad, singer-songwriter Tim Buckley, also died young) made him a cult hero; drowning in a Mississippi riptide made him perfectly tragic. He has inspired songs by peers from Aimee Mann to Rufus Wainwright and is the industry standard for dreamy singer-songwriter comparisons.
A Prolific Afterlife: Mary Guibert, Buckley's mother and estate manager, joked that she'd become "Jeff Buckley Inc." after his death. She oversees his growing post-mortem catalogue, including three versions of his debut, Grace, one of them a Legacy Edition that pushed sales of the record to nearly 800,000. Buckley's archives may be limited, but Guibert's skilled repackaging keeps them fruitful. Further feeding the myth are a 2004 documentary, a thoughtful bio-recently optioned for film-and a heady book on Grace by Princeton prof Daphne Brooks.
Dial Jeff for Sad: Buckley's voice has become the sound of onscreen sorrow: Recently, characters have grieved to his version of Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah" in The West Wing, The O.C., House and the Nic Cage flick Lord of War.
Chic (31)
Chic
Disco hit factory
Causes of Death:
Bernard Edwards (1952-1996): Pneumonia
Tony Thompson (1954-2003): Cancer
Yowsah, Yowsah, Yowsah: Despite the deaths of two founding members, Chic remain a cash cow. The single "Le Freak" sold six million copies in the U.S. alone; that was frosting for Edwards and partner Nile Rodgers, who, as writers or producers, moved upwards of 100 million records by Sister Sledge, David Bowie and Duran Duran. Rodgers's 1995 Sony deal for his catalogue earned him millions, luckily, he's still breathing.
Ghosts in the Machine: The Chic vault has been hip-hop's hall closet since the Sugarhill Gang sampled "Good Times" in 1979; artists from the Beastie Boys to Joe Budden love them so much that in 2003 Rodgers was declared the most-sampled artist of all time. He and Edwards settled with the Gang after hearing "Rapper's Delight," gaining credit and a hefty royalty-and beginning the regulation of sampling.
Life After Death: Rodgers now oversees bestselling Xbox soundtracks and is still pushing a reconstituted Chic, with a 2006 studio album in the works.