The Needle and the Damage Done Quiz

Answer: Red Hot Chili Peppers

Hillel Slovak was born in Israel in 1962 and immigrated to the United States with his parents when he was a small child. He met future Red Hot Chili Peppers band mates Anthony Kiedis and Michael Balzary ("Flea") in high school. He and his friends began playing as the Red Hot Chili Peppers in 1983, though they also played together under other names prior to that. Hillel Slovak played guitar for the first two Chili Peppers studio albums, "Freakey Style" (1985) and "The Uplift Mofo Party Plan" (1987).

Both Hillel Slovak and Anthony Kiedis developed heroin habits as young men, and they both struggled with sobriety. Slovak apparently struggled more, and was found dead of an overdose about three weeks after the band returned to the US from their European tour in support of "The Uplift Mofo Party Plan".

Answer: Janis Joplin

Janis Joplin gained fame in the mid-1960s with the band Big Brother & the Holding Company. Following her split with that band, she also recorded and performed with the Kozmic Blues Band and the Full Tilt Boogie Band. She received praise from critics during her lifetime, being called, for example, "the most staggering leading woman in rock" by "Vogue" writer Richard Goldstein. Joplin was also named number 46 on "Rolling Stone" magazine's list of "100 Greatest Artists of All-Time" (in 2004), and number 28 on the magazine's list of "100 Greatest Singers of All-Time" (list compiled in 2008). She was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1995.

Janis Joplin was found dead in her hotel room on October 4, 1970. She died of an accidental heroin overdose; it was thought that she had accidentally been given a batch of heroin that was far too potent.

Answer: Layne Staley

Layne Staley and band mate Jerry Cantrell formed Alice in Chains in 1987. The band's first big hit was "Man in the Box", the second single released from their debut album "Facelift" (1990). Their 1994 release, "Jar of Flies", debuted at number one on the charts, a first, not only for the band, but it was also the first EP to achieve this feat. Around this time, following the release of "Jar of Flies", the band started taking hiatuses due to Staley's personal problems, including his drug use and deteriorating health. In addition to his own struggles, his father died of drug use, and so did his fiancée, Demri Lara Parrott (d. 1996). From the late '90s until his death, Staley was little seen in public.

He was found dead in his Seattle apartment on April 19, 2002 after his mother phoned the police because no one had heard from him in weeks (which, according to friends asked after his death, was not unusual). His autopsy revealed that he overdosed on a mixture of heroin and cocaine, and his date of death was estimated to be April 5, 2002. If that is the correct date of death, that would mean Layne Staley died exactly 8 years to the day after fellow Seattle grunge pioneer Kurt Cobain did. This coincidence is referred to in a 2003 song by the band Cold, called "The Day Seattle Died"; the 'day' is April 5.

Answer: Kristen Pfaff

Kristen Pfaff played bass with the band Janitor Joe, a band that was fairly popular in its hometown of Minneapolis, Minnesota. They did, however, travel and play in other cities and states, and it was at a Janitor Joe show in California that Kristen Pfaff was 'discovered' by Courtney Love and Eric Erlandson of the band Hole. She at first resisted joining their band, but ultimately decided it would be a good career move for her, as Hole already had a large fan base and was signed to a major label. It wasn't until Pfaff moved to Seattle and befriended the members of Hole, as well as Kurt Cobain, who was married to lead singer Courtney Love, that she fell into the world of drugs. She did manage to get herself clean for a while, but after Cobain's death in April 1994, Kristen relapsed.

She planned to return to Minneapolis and Janitor Joe that spring, to get her life back on track, but on the morning she was supposed to leave Seattle, June 16, 1994, Kristen was found dead in her home. Her death was ruled an accidental heroin overdose. Like Kurt Cobain, Kristen Pfaff is considered by many people to be in the 'second generation' of the "Forever 27 Club" - a group of musicians who all died at age 27 (the 'first generation' includes people like Janis Joplin, Jim Morrison and Jimi Hendrix).

Answer: Jim Morrison

Jim Morrison was the iconic lead singer of the rock band The Doors. He started the band with Ray Manzarek in 1965 after they graduated from UCLA. One of Morrison's films, called "First Love", appeared in a documentary about the film "Obscura". He also created and starred in a film called "HWY: An American Pastoral" in 1969. Also in 1969, he published two books of poetry called "The Lords/Notes on Vision" and "The New Creatures". More of his poetry was published after he died, in "The Lost Writings of Jim Morrison, Volumes 1 ("The Wilderness", 1988) and 2 ("The American Night", 1990).

Morrison's actual cause of death is a bit of a question mark. He was found dead in his rented apartment in Paris on July 3, 1971. His death was ruled accidental and there was no investigation or autopsy. However, people who were in Paris with him, including his long-time girlfriend Pamela Courson, have stated that Morrison suffered a hemorrhage after insufflating heroin, thinking it was cocaine. Courson also died of a heroin overdose, three years later.

Answer: Dee Dee Ramone

Dee Dee Ramone, his friend John Cummings (better known as Johnny Ramone), and Jeffrey Hyman (Joey Ramone) started the band The Ramones in 1974, one of the earliest and most influential bands in the New York punk scene. Dee Dee was a primary writer of most of the band's music and lyrics until he left the band in 1989. After that, he had a short career as a rapper under the name Dee Dee King, then played with other bands (such as The Murder Junkies) and recorded solo music under his stage name Dee Dee Ramone. He wrote two autobiographical works (with some elements of fiction), "Poison Heart: Surviving the Ramones" (also called "Teenage Lobotomy") in 1998, and "Legend of a Rock Star", in 2001. He also wrote the novel "Chelsea Horror Hotel", set in New York's Chelsea Hotel, in 2001.

Dee Dee Ramone was found dead in his Hollywood home by his wife on June 5, 2002. An autopsy confirmed that he died of a heroin overdose. He is buried at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery, and when Johnny Ramone died and was cremated in 2004, a cenotaph honouring him was erected near Dee Dee's grave.

Answer: Kurt Cobain

Kurt Cobain formed the band Nirvana with his high school friend Krist Novoselic in Aberdeen, Washington in 1987. Drummer Dave Grohl joined them in 1990, in time for the band to achieve great success in 1991 with their album "Nevermind". Cobain's struggle with stardom and his personal demons (including heroin addiction, bipolar disorder and strained family relations) have been well documented in mediums such as his journals, which were published under the simple title "Journals" (also known as "The Kurt Cobain Journals") in 2003.

Kurt Cobain was found dead in his home on April 8, 1994. Medical examiners placed his date of death on April 5. His death was officially ruled a suicide, from a gunshot wound, not a heroin overdose (though he had a huge amount of heroin in his system when he died). The suicide ruling has been a point of controversy over the years, with many people believing the case should be re-examined. Investigative journalists Ian Halperin and Max Wallace authored two books, "Who Killed Kurt Cobain? The Mysterious Death of an Icon" (2000) and "Love and Death: The Murder of Kurt Cobain" (2004), outlining bits of evidence or anomalies that were not investigated at the time of death.

Answer: Bradley Nowell

Bradley Nowell formed the band Sublime in 1988 with Eric Wilson and Bud Gaugh while they were in college at Cal State Long Beach. In 1989, Nowell helped to create a indie record label, Skunk Records, which produced Sublime's early work. Their first full-length album released on the Skunk label was 1992's "40 Oz. to Freedom" which didn't garner much success until a few years later, after the band's major label debut. In early 1996, Sublime recorded their album "Sublime" (originally titled "Killin' It") with MCA Records. It went on to sell over 5 million copies.

Bradley Nowell died before "Sublime" was released (and just a week after he married Troy Dendekker, the mother of his child). Bud Gaugh was the one who discovered that Nowell was dead; they were in a hotel room, preparing to go on tour, and Nowell had overdosed on heroin in the middle of the night. Despite the success of the band's album, they opted to not replace Bradley Nowell, and Sublime dissolved after his death.

Answer: Frankie Lymon

Frankie Lymon, from Harlem, New York, first began singing at age 12, with a doo-wop group called The Coupe de Villes. The group changed its name a couple of times before settling on The Teenagers. They achieved radio success in 1955 with the song "Why Do Fools Fall in Love", and the group became known as Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers, because Lymon stepped up as the lead singer when they recorded the song. Lymon left The Teenagers in 1957 in favour of a solo career, but struggled as he got older and his voice changed. It was during this time that he developed a heroin habit.

Lymon stayed for clean for awhile when he was drafted into the US Army in 1965. He was dishonourably discharged in 1967, and he was later found dead of a heroin overdose on February 27, 1968, at the age of 25. Despite his young age, he left behind three ex-wives - Zola Taylor, Elizabeth Waters and Emira Eagle (though there was confusion over which one[s] he'd actually legally married).

Answer: Sid Vicious

Early in his career, Sid Vicious (still known as Simon Ritchie) played with the bands The Flowers of Romance, and Siouxsie and the Banshees. He joined The Sex Pistols in 1977, and was nicknamed Sid Vicious by Johnny Rotten (whose real name is John Lydon). The band's manager Malcolm McLaren thought that Sid, out of all the members, really embodied what 'punk' was, and said that he'd have made Sid the band's frontman if he hadn't joined the group after they were already formed. When the band broke up while in California in 1978, Sid and his girlfriend Nancy Spungen stayed in America.

Sid Vicious did some solo work after the Sex Pistols and played with some other musicians, but his life took a downturn following Nancy's death on October 12, 1978. He'd previously gotten himself clean, but was found dead of a heroin overdose in his mother's home on February 2, 1979.