Honoring Icons

[dropcap class=”kp-dropcap”]I[/dropcap]t is no secret that musicians can have a reputation for walking on the rebellious side, often straying away from what mainstream society deems as acceptable or normal. While in 2018 it’s more common for celebrities to vocalize support for cannabis, most are aware that this has not always been the case. However, despite the extreme taboos that have hovered over cannabis in the past, there were still a handful of daring individuals who chose to vocalize their love and advocacy for the green.

Many artists who passed away at the young age of 27 had reached immense success, only to pass away far too soon. Alongside Jimi Hendrix, there a few more artistic souls in the “Forever 27 Club” who expressed their positive relationships with cannabis in both their art and in the media.

Janis Joplin (1943-1970):

Texas-born Janis Lyn Joplin spent much of her youth looking for a way to break into the music industry, traveling to both San Francisco and New York City to succeed in her passions. Her break came in 1966 when she auditioned for the rock band, Big Brother and The Holding Company. At 23 years old, she became a member of the band, singing only in a few songs at first and playing the tambourine. Joplin soon realized her desires to develop further as an artist with a solo career and made the decision to part ways with Big Brother, performing with the band for a final time in December of 1968.

Joplin, like many musical artists was no stranger to cannabis. Her song titled “Mary Jane” unsurprisingly focuses on her devotion to cannabis. Both a musical ode and blues-infused song, “Mary Jane” consists of five verses. The first verse begins, “When I bring home my hard-earned pay/I spend my money all on Mary Jane/Mary Jane, Mary Jane Lord my Mary Jane.” Simple and sweet, Joplin’s “Mary Jane” details just how much she adored cannabis. An album released in 1975 titled, Janis, features a live recording of the song that was first performed in 1965. Before her passing, Joplin recorded her last album, Pearl, in Los Angeles, California.

Jim Morrison (1943-1971):

Florida native Jim Morrison was known to be an intelligent student as a child. He attended Florida State University in Tallahassee, later transferring to the University of California, Los Angeles to study film. After receiving his bachelor’s degree in 1965, Morrison, along with Robbie Krieger, Ray Manzarek and John Densmore, formed the band The Doors. Both a singer and songwriter, Morrison crafted and co-wrote several of the band’s most popular songs including “Hello, I Love You,” “People Are Strange” and “Riders of the Storm.”

While there is no official record of Jim Morrison publicly speaking out about cannabis, many feel the songwriter left subliminal messages in his music about the flower. Particularly in the song “Five to One” from the album, Waiting for the Sun. According to analyses by both Rich Weidman, author of “The Doors FAQ” and Dylan Jones who wrote Mr. Mojo: A Biography of Jim Morrison, the phrase “five to one” is likely to be a cannabis reference. Some believe the phrase was inspired by the ratio between non-smokers and smokers of cannabis during the time the song was written.

The Doors keyboardist Ray Manzarek, however, wrote in a transcript that Morrison would “smoke a joint now and then” upon a road case that once held a tape recorder for the band. Photos support this theory.

Amy Winehouse (1983-2011):

Singer and songwriter, Amy Winehouse is one of the more recent fallen artists to join the “Forever 27 Club.” Born on September 14, 1983 in London, England, she had several family members who were musically inclined. In 2003 her jazz-influenced and debut album, Frank, released and later received platinum sales. Three years later, her second album Back to Black, released in 2006, became an international success and led her to win five Grammys in 2008. Winehouse never seemed to shy away from talking about cannabis. Daily tabloid, The Mirror, released an interview in 2004 with Winehouse in which she openly discussed her relationship with cannabis. “I have smoked an ounce a week at times,” she shared. “When I smoke, I am just the happy me. I sing or whistle for three hours or go up and play guitar for four hours.” Winehouse even gave cannabis a cameo appearance in her single “Addicted” where the lyrics state, “I’d rather him leave you than leave him my draw/When you smoke all my weed man/You gotta call the green man.” Winehouse tragically passed away in 2011,

Kurt Cobain (1967-1994):

If there is one name that is synonymous with the early ’90s explosion of grunge music, it’s the late Kurt Cobain. As the American singer, songwriter and musician for one of the most notable bands of all time, Nirvana, Cobain was another talented artist whose success was cut short in the height of his professional career. According to his obituary in The Independent, Cobain starting smoking cannabis at the age of 14, which was after he had already started playing guitar. His obituary continued to share that he spent most of his school days under the influence of cannabis. In an attempt to “turn his life around” Cobain gave up smoking cannabis for the first time ever in order to pass the entrance exam for the United States Navy. According to The Independent, “Celebrating by smoking his first joint in months, he [realized] that becoming a US sailor was not how he wanted to see his life developing.”

When Rolling Stone published Kurt Cobain’s diaries in 2004, it was clear that Cobain suffered from severe stomach pain, in which he would use heroin to quell. Ten years later, in an interview with Cannabis Culture, Cobain’s widow Courtney Love admitted to this, saying, “Yes, that was true, and I used to say, ‘Kurt let’s just smoke instead.’” It was reported in his obituary by The Independent that he would drink and use drugs to combat his mystery medical ailment, often bringing himself to a catatonic state.

Other talented individuals have been anointed into this unfortunate club. Brian Jones was the original founder of the Rolling Stones, playing a wide array of instruments on albums and concerts, from the guitar to the saxophone. He passed away in 1969, as he drowned in his swimming pool while intoxicated. Other members of this club include American blues singer, musician and songwriter Robert Johnson, American artist Jean-Michel Basquiat and founding member, keyboardist and original member of Grateful Dead, Ron “Pigpen” McKernan.