Dead rock stars, ranked in order of how much potential great music was lost to this world by their untimely passing. The key criteria for this list is to guess "how much greatness they left behind" - in other words, it would be very difficult to justify, for example, Syd Barrett on this list, because although he is a dead rockstar, he died long after he had stopped making music at all. Similarly, although Elvis Presley died an untimely early death, if you were equally a fan of Kurt Cobain and Elvis Presley, you would only rank them equally if you thought Elvis's post-77 output would equal Cobain's post-'94 output (although you might still keep Elvis somewhere on your list - he was still playing live and could certainly have cleaned up and made a comeback). Recently-deceased musicians, such as Avicii, are eligible for inclusion as well as those who passed years ago.
To keep the spirit of this list, your ranking should reflect a combination of a) musical talent (as a performer, songwriter, and recording artist) and b) how much of that talent you think the world missed, based on how early in their career the artist was taken from us, and what you think their output would have been had they lived a full life. Please note that this list is focused on ROCK artists, so while you aren't going to be prohibited from adding Hank Williams or Billie Holiday, most would argue that country, jazz, and even blues greats aren't rock musicians (people have been including soul and hip-hop, however). Lastly, this list is about dead individual singer/songwriters and musicians, not bands – so Ronnie Van Zandt counts but Lynyrd Skynrd does not. Ranking this list requires some thinking - while most rock stars tend to have a finite time of peak talent (particularly with songwriting and recording), certainly there are examples today of artists who have had career resurgences and done some of their finest work into their 50s and 60s. This list includes solo artists as well as the lead singers to some of the best rock bands responsible for some of the best albums of all time - and many who had illustrious careers as both.
This is a list where we hope to see lots of people making their own ranked lists, because ranked lists can be aggregated far more accurately than just votes. See this Forever 27 list for an eye opener about how many of these untimely rock deaths happened at age 27.
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9,2052,212Died 1991, age 45Freddie Mercury (born Farrokh Bulsara; 5 September 1946 – 24 November 1991) was a British... more2
7,2102,753Died 1970, age 27James Marshall "Jimi" Hendrix (born Johnny Allen Hendrix; November 27, 1942 – September 18,... more3
4,6561,751Died 1981, age 36Robert Nesta Marley, (6 February 1945 – 11 May 1981) was a Jamaican singer and songwriter.... more
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6,8542,612Died 1994, age 27Kurt Donald Cobain (February 20, 1967 – April 5, 1994) was an American singer, songwriter, and... more5
6,8122,810Died 1980, age 40John Winston Ono Lennon (born John Winston Lennon, 9 October 1940 – 8 December 1980) was an... more6
4,6681,829Died 1959, age 22Charles Hardin Holley (September 7, 1936 – February 3, 1959), known professionally as Buddy... more7
2,9531,088Prince Rogers Nelson (June 7, 1958 – April 21, 2016) was an American singer, songwriter,... more8
5,3362,256Died 1971, age 27James Douglas Morrison (December 8, 1943 – July 3, 1971) was an American singer, songwriter... more9
4,2101,797Died 1977, age 42Elvis Aaron Presley (January 8, 1935 – August 16, 1977), also known mononymously as Elvis, was... more10
3,3851,148David Robert Jones (8 January 1947 – 10 January 2016), known professionally as David Bowie (,... more11
3,8791,681Died 1990, age 35Stephen Ray Vaughan (October 3, 1954 – August 27, 1990) was an American musician, singer,... more12
4,0691,899Died 1970, age 27Janis Lyn Joplin (January 19, 1943 – October 4, 1970) was an American rock, soul, and blues... more13
3,3151,497Died 2001, age 58George Harrison (25 February 1943 – 29 November 2001) was an English musician,... more14
2,5631,170Died 1959, age 17Richard Steven Valenzuela (May 13, 1941 – February 3, 1959), known professionally as Ritchie... more15
2,6201,202Died 1967, age 26Otis Ray Redding Jr. (September 9, 1941 – December 10, 1967) was an American singer,... more16
3,1821,498Died 1984, age 44Marvin Gaye (born Marvin Pentz Gay Jr.; April 2, 1939 – April 1, 1984) was an American singer,... more17
1,992792John R. "Johnny" Cash (February 26, 1932 – September 12, 2003) was an American... more18
2,5641,234Died 1977, age 29Ronald Wayne Van Zant (January 15, 1948 – October 20, 1977) was an American musician, known as... more19
3,4871,700Died 1980, age 32John Henry Bonham (31 May 1948 – 25 September 1980) was an English musician and songwriter,... more20
2,6991,090Died 2017, age 52
Christopher John Cornell (né Boyle; July 20, 1964 – May 18, 2017) was an American musician,... more21
2,1131,025Died 1973, age 30James Joseph Croce (; January 10, 1943 – September 20, 1973) was an American folk and rock... more22
2,8871,401Died 1982, age 25Randall William Rhoads (December 6, 1956 – March 19, 1982) was an American heavy metal... more23
2,3551,358Died 1971, age 24Howard Duane Allman (November 20, 1946 – October 29, 1971) was an American guitarist, session... more24
2,6811,387Died 1980, age 33Ronald Belford "Bon" Scott (9 July 1946 – 19 February 1980) was an Australian singer,... more25
1,7861,040Died 1964, age 33Samuel Cook (January 22, 1931 – December 11, 1964), known professionally as Sam Cooke, was an... more
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