Famous Corpses Who Used to be Musicians Quiz

Answer: Freddie Mercury

Queen singer Freddy Mercury died in November of 1991. Queen have continued on with replacement singers such as Paul Rodgers and Adam Lambert. Their tours have been successful, but many long-time Queen fans do not like the more recent versions of this band.

Answer: Tom Petty

Tom Petty died in 2017 from an overdose of pain killers. He is famous for hit songs such as "Free Fallin'" and "Runnin' Down a Dream."

Answer: John Lennon

John Lennon signed an autograph for a rabid fan named Mark Chapman in 1980. Chapman thanked Lennon by murdering him.

The question that I was referring to is "If I'm dead already, don't you know the reason why?"

Answer: Michael Jackson

In 2009, Michael Jackson died of a drug overdose. Some people think that his doctor purposefully prescribed deadly drugs to him. The coroner believed this, and ruled Jackson's death a homicide. Other people say that Jackson willingly asked his doctor to prescribe these drugs, so that he could get through these performances. Janet Jackson said that the family tried to stage an intervention to help Michael with his drug problems, but Michael didn't allow it.

Michael Jackson at the time of his death was the 2nd-most successful musician in history in terms of album sales, behind only Elvis Presley.

Answer: Chester Bennington

Chester Bennington was the lead singer of Linkin Park. At the time of Benningdon's death, Linkin Park were the highest-selling band of the 21st century, having sold over 70 million albums worldwide. They are famous mostly for their albums "Hybrid Theory" and "Meteora." The question refers to the song "Faint," which goes "I can't feel the way I did before." That's my favorite song by the group.

Chester Bennington also sang for the Stone Temple Pilots. Ironically Bennington died not long after Scott Weiland did. Bennington died of suicide by hanging. This is believed to be because one of his music idols had also just committed suicide. OneRepublic played "Hallelujiah" at a live show in Bristow, VA in 2017 as a tribute to him.

Answer: Donna Summer

Donna Summer was a huge hit in the 1970s disco era. People loved listening to her music and people loved watching her perform. She sold over 140 million albums worldwide and had at least 14 songs that were top 10 hits on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. She died of lung cancer in 2012.

Answer: David Bowie

David Bowie was a rock/pop star. He was popular in the 1960's, 1970's and 1980's often changing his style so he'd remain with the times. He is popular mostly for space-themed songs. He also had rock hits like "Jean Genie," which inspired Sweet's song "Blockbuster," and dance hits like "Let's Dance." His song "The Man Who Sold the World" was popularized by Nirvana.

He died in 2016 of cancer. He released his last album, "Blackstar," two days before his death.

Answer: Chris Cornell

Chris Cornell was a rock singer most famous for his work in the band Soundgarden. Soundgarden were a big part of the 90's grunge movement along with Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Stone Temple Pilots, and Alice in Chains. Soundgarden have sold over 22 million albums worldwide and were ranked #14 on VH1's list of top 100 hard rock artists of all time. They are known for songs like "Outshined," "Black Hole Sun," "Rusty Cage," and "Fell on Black Days." Chris Cornell also experienced some success with the band Audioslave, comprised of him and members of Rage Against the Machine. That band was short-lived, but had success with song like "Like a Stone." Some people think "Like a Stone" is about waiting for a woman. Actually, Cornell has confirmed that song was about waiting to die.

Chris Cornell hanged himself in 2017. His suicide is believed to have inspired the suicide of Chester Bennington, who said he didn't want to live in a world without Chris Cornell. Bennington hanged himself just two months after Cornell.

Answer: Elvis Presley

Elvis Presley was known as "The King of Rock and Roll." With his music, his hip-swinging, and his good looks, he became the biggest musical celebrity in history. He died at the young age of 42 in 1977 from drug overdose.

Answer: Ramones

The Ramones didn't sell a lot of albums, nor did they have many hits. However, their influence on music is nearly unprecedented. They have been dubbed the 2nd-most influential band of all time after the Beatles. Evidence of this is on what has got to be one of the best tribute albums in history. The "We're a Happy Family" tribute album to the Ramones includes performances from KISS, Metallica, Red Hot Chili Peppers, U2, Rob Zombie, Green Day, Eddie Vedder of Pearl Jam, and the Offspring. That's a pretty enviable group of artists to have paying tribute to you. U2 also released a song called "The Miracle of Joey Ramone" in 2014. Motorhead released a song called "R.A.M.O.N.E.S" in 1991.

Unfortunately, singer Joey Ramone died in 2001, bassist Dee Dee Ramone died in 2002, lead guitarist Johnny Ramone died in 2004, and drummer Tommy Ramone died in 2014. None of them committed suicide, I just wanted to reference one of my favorite Ramones songs in the question ("Poison Heart" from the album "Mondo Bizarro").