The Tragedy of the 27 Club Trivia Quiz

Answer: Rolling Stones

Lewis Hopkins Brian Jones was born in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, England, on February 28, 1942. A founding member of the Rolling Stones, he was the one who gave the band its name. As Mick Jagger and Keith Richards started to write the songs, however, they also began to take control of the band.

Jones developed drug and alcohol problems which quickly got out of hand. He was replaced in the band by Mick Taylor in June of 1969. A month later Jones died by drowning at home in his swimming pool.

He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1989 as a member of the Rolling Stones.

Answer: Jimi Hendrix

Johnny Allen Hendrix was born November 27, 1942, in Seattle, Washington, USA. He was the oldest of five children. When Johnny was about four years old, his mother changed his name to James Marshall Hendrix in honor of Jimi's father and Jimi's late uncle, Leon Marshall.

After his father returned from military service, the family struggled financially. Both of his parents had addiction issues, and his youngest three siblings were given up for adoption leaving just him and his brother, Leon.

While in elementary school, Hendrix would carry a broom around with him and pretend to play a guitar. A social worker said that he took to it like it was a security blanket. She tried to get the school to buy him a real guitar, but they wouldn't and neither would his father. In 1957, he was helping his father with a side job for a woman cleaning out an apartment, and came across a ukulele with only one string on it. He was allowed to keep the ukulele and taught himself various Elvis Presley songs by ear by playing one note at a time.

In March 1967, he had a hit in the UK with "Purple Haze." It stayed on the charts for eleven weeks, reaching number six.

Hendrix died in 1970 at the age of 27, from asphyxia while intoxicated and high on barbiturates.

Answer: Me and Bobby McGee

Janis Lyn Joplin was born on January 19, 1943, in Port Arthur, Texas, USA. In high school, she was rejected by her peers, and subjected to a lot of taunting and teasing because she was overweight and had acne. She became friends with other outcasts who listened to blues singers such as Ma Rainey and Bessie Smith. It was listening to these albums, that she knew she also wanted to become a singer.

She recorded her first song, "What Good Can Drinkin' Do" in 1962. The following year she left Texas and hitchhiked to San Francisco, California. While there, she recorded several more blues songs and got heavily into drinking and drug use. In 1965, she returned to Texas, enrolled in college, and stopped using drugs. That same year she became engaged to a man she started seeing back in San Francisco. However, he broke the engagement off due to his frequent traveling.

Joplin was also seeing a therapist because she was concerned about returning to singing and drug use, a concern that would prove to be a reality. On October 4, 1970, Joplin was found dead by her friend, and road manager, John Byrne Cooke. She had overdosed on heroin.

In 1971, her album "Pearl" was released posthumously. The cover of the song "Me and Bobby McGee" was on the album. The song became her biggest hit.

Answer: The Lizard King

James "Jim" Douglas Morrison was born on December 8, 1943, in Melbourne, Florida, USA. While he was a student at UCLA he met Doors co-founder Ray Manzarek. It was during this time he wrote several of the Doors songs including "Hello I Love You".

In 1968, the Doors released their album "Waiting for the Sun". Originally the second side was supposed to have a piece called "Celebration of Lizard." It was a longer piece that ultimately did not make the album. However, Morrison's lyrics to the song did make it on the sleeve of the album. The lyrics included the line, "I am the Lizard King, I can do anything." People thought Jim Morrison was referring to himself, and the nickname stuck.

On July 3, 1971, Jim Morrison was found dead in the bathtub at the apartment of his girlfriend, Pamela Courson, in Paris, France. It was said he died of heart failure; however, no autopsy was done.

A few years later, Courson would become a member of the 27 Club herself when she died in 1974 at the age of 27 from an accidental drug overdose.

Answer: Cecilia

Evangelina Sobredo Galanes was born in Madrid, Spain, on October 11, 1948. She took her stage name from the song "Cecilia" by Simon and Garfunkel. Cecilia was the daughter of diplomats and traveled a lot as a child. As a singer-songwriter, she wrote and sang many Spanish protest songs in the 1960s and 1970s.

She started with a band called "Expression" in 1970. Originally she only wrote and sang in English. In 1971, she became a solo artist. At first she wanted to go by the name "Eva", but another singer in Madrid was using that name, so she chose to use the name, Cecilia, as "Cecelia," the song had just recently been released in Spain. As a solo artist, she began to write and perform in Spanish, not just English. In 1975, she was the first runner-up in the OTI Festival representing Spain. She sang the song "Amor de medianoche" ("Midnight Love").

On August 2, 1976, she and musicians were traveling near Benavente, Zamora, Spain, after finishing a concert. She and musician Carlos de la Iglesia were killed in a car accident. She was just 27 years old.

Answer: Daisy Miller

"Daisy Miller" (1974) was a Peter Bogdanovich film starring Cybil Shepherd as the titular character. It is based on the novella by Henry James.

Daisy is a newly rich woman visiting a Swiss spa with her mother (Cloris Leachman), and younger brother Randolph (James McMurtry). While she is there she meets Frederick Winterbourne (Barry Brown), an American living in Geneva. He is captivated by Daisy's beauty but finds her to be an uneducated git. As they spend more time together, he becomes more confused about her. Other people further confuse him as they also express their opinions about Daisy.

Barry Brown married Jennie Vlahos in March 1972, in May of the same year they were divorced. On June 27, 1978, Brown ended his life with a gunshot. He was only 27.

Answer: Colombia

Andres Escobar Saldarriaga was born on March 13, 1967, in Medellin, Colombia. During his school years, he played "futbol", and then became a professional player. His brother also played with him on the professional team "Atletico Nacional" until 1998, when he became a team manager.

Throughout his career, Escobar played as a defender and was jersey number two. He was known as "El Caballero del Futbol", The Gentleman of Football. In 1989 he helped Atletico Nacional win the "Copa Libertadores", which is a tournament with 21 teams. They ultimately beat Club Olimpia from Paraguay to win.

In 1994, during a FIFA World Cup game against USA he accidentally shot a ball into his own goal, causing the USA to get a 1-0 lead. USA ended up winning the game 2-1. Colombia was eliminated from the World Cup. Escobar was supposed to go to Las Vegas, Nevada, to see his relatives, but decided to return home to Colombia. On July 1, 1994, five days after Colombia was eliminated, Escobar was out with his friends. After they left, he was alone in a parking lot where three men approached him, and shot him six times. It is reported they yelled, "Gol!" ("Goal!") after each shot. Humberto Castro Munoz was arrested the following evening having confessed to killing Escobar.

Escobar is still remembered as a great player and a great person by his fans.

Answer: Louie Spicolli

Louis Mucciolo Jr was born on February 10, 1971, in San Pedro, Los Angeles, California, USA. In 1988, he was hired by the World Wrestling Federation under the ring name Louie Spicolli as a jobber, which is a person hired to lose matches. He did this until 1995, winning only three matches: one against The White Knight (which was his trainer Bill Anderson) one against The Lightning Kid, and his last match in March 1995 as Louie Spicolli, the jobber, against Greg Davis, he also won.

In April 1995, he joined the WWF as Rad Radford. Radford's persona was a grunge fan and boyfriend of Courtney Love. He had very little success under this name, however. He wrestled his last match in January 1996.

Spicolli was also having major drug issues, and he had gotten clean. However, he learned his mother was terminally ill with cancer, and he relapsed. On February 15, 1998, five days after he turned 27 years old, he overdosed on Soma and wine and asphyxiated in his sleep.

Answer: Thuy Trang

Thuy Trang was born on December 14, 1973, in Saigon, South Vietnam (present-day Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam). Her father was a member of the South Vietnamese army and had to flee with his family for safety in 1975. She, along with the rest of her family, was reunited with her father in Fountain Valley, California, USA, in 1980 after a long, difficult, and dangerous journey during which she almost died.

Trang earned a black belt in Shaolin Kung Fu. She went to the University of California, Irvine, planning to become an engineer like her father and siblings, however, she changed to acting upon being discovered while hanging out with some friends.

In 1993, she won the role of Trini Kwan, the Yellow Power Ranger in the TV series "Mighty Morphin Power Rangers". She was proud of the role as she felt there were not many roles for Asians that provided a good image, as most were "gangsters, hookers, things like that". Some people criticized the creators for using an Asian actress to play the Yellow Ranger, saying it was an ethnic slur, but the creators said the colors of the costumes had nothing to do with race.
She played the role during the entire first season, and in the second season through the 20th episode, which was her final episode.

In 1996, she played a manicurist in the movie "Spy Hard" - a spoof on spy movies starring Leslie Nielsen. That same year, she played Kali, a villain, in "The Crow: City of Angels." Kali was a member of a gang led by Judah Earl (played by Richard Brooks).

On September 3, 2001, Trang and Angela Rockwood, were traveling from San Jose, CA to Los Angeles, CA, where Rockwood was going to marry Dustin Nguyen. Trang was going to be her bridesmaid. The driver, Steffiana de la Cruz, (another bridesmaid), hit some loose gravel and lost control of the car. Rockwell was thrown 35 feet from the car, but survived and was left a quadriplegic. Cruz also survived, however, Trang died on the way to the hospital; she was 27.

Answer: Los Angeles Angels

Tyler Wayne Skaggs was born on July 13, 1991, in Woodland Hills, California, USA. He was drafted by the Angels right out of high school in 2009, but then traded to the Arizona Diamondbacks for pitcher Dan Haren. He played in the farm leagues for two years, and made his major league debut on August 22, 2012, against the Miami Marlins. He was a pitcher for the Diamondbacks.

In December 2013, he was traded back to the Angels where he was in the starting pitchers' rotation as the fifth pitcher until he was injured and needed Tommy John surgery in 2014. He returned in 2017, but between 2017 and 2019 he missed several games due to injury. His ERA was 4.41, and his win-loss record was 28-38.

On July 1, 2019, while in Texas playing the Rangers, he was found dead in his hotel room. He overdosed and asphyxiated. Eric Kay, the former Angels director of communications confessed to providing the opiates to Skaggs and other various Angel players. He was convicted on two counts in February 2022: distribution of controlled substances that resulted in death and conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute controlled substances.

In Skaggs' honor, the team wore his jersey number 45 on a patch on their jerseys for the rest of the 2019 season.