'70s Musicians Who Died In Bizarre Ways

Rock stars tend to live large and do some pretty crazy things. That can happen when you are surrounded by fans and money and mind-altering substances all the time. The combination of those things also means that rock stars have a tendency to die in big, weird, or unexpected ways. 

Some of the most bizarre rock star deaths ever just so happened to occur to musicians who were big in the 1970s. Not all of them died during that decade, but there must have been something about the time that resulted in some particularly strange deaths. Not all of them were due to excessive partying, either: A surprising number of successful musicians died in completely freak accidents. Still, others died — or, in some cases, were murdered — in odd situations where many questions remain about what exactly happened even years later. Here are some of the '70s musicians who died in bizarre ways.

While probably not a well-known name to many Americans, the French singer Claude François was a massive star in Europe during the 1960s and '70s as part of the "yé-yé" movement. Known to his fans as "Cloclo," over a 16-year career, he sold 20 million records. He is probably most famous for co-writing and recording the song "Comme d'habitude," which Paul Anka then wrote English lyrics for before Frank Sinatra recorded it as "My Way." 

François would fit in well with the modern phenomenon of entrepreneur musicians. Long before it was common, he was running a mini-business empire with himself at the center. He owned companies that produced magazines (both a celebrity one and another that was more risqué) and perfume, started his own record company, and even helped pioneer the idea of music videos, making short films for some of his songs. François was also known for his incredible tour shows, complete with attractive female backup dancers and even special effects.

Tragically, on March 11, 1978, the French singer died in his bathroom. While no one else was there to see what happened, it appeared that he had just run a bath when he noticed a lightbulb was flickering above him. He reached up to adjust it, either with wet hands or while still standing in the bath and was electrocuted. Despite being discovered and rushed to the hospital, François died of his injuries. He was 39 years old.

Mike Edwards was the quirky cellist for the Electric Light Orchestra. An original member of the band's touring lineup, he stayed with them for just under three years, from 1972 to 1975, and played on some of their most iconic albums. He was a fan favorite, adding to their stage shows with ridiculous bits, like wearing a top hat, jumping off of speakers with his cello in hand, or pretending to play a cello that then exploded. Despite this, the band's manager treated him and many of the other musicians in the band as less important than the main members, and Edwards decided to leave.

After his pop star heyday, Edwards traveled, converted to Buddhism, and eventually settled down in rural England where he gave music lessons. The ELO years were behind him, although he did join a local classical music group.

In a tragic freak accident, the 62-year-old Edwards died when he was crushed by a runaway hay bale on September 3, 2010. The musician, who was working as a water delivery man at that point, was driving his van through the fields of Devon when a hay bale weighing over 1,300 pounds rolled down a hill and slammed into the vehicle, killing him instantly. Two years later, an inquest into the musician's death found that the two farmers involved in bailing the hay were not to blame and that they had taken all the normal safety precautions. 

Harry Chapin was a popular folk singer and unapologetically political during the 1970s. He was perhaps more famous for using his talents to raise money for good causes than for the number of records he sold. 

The tragic 1981 death of Harry Chapin is still a bit of a mystery. It was July 16, 1981, and the 38-year-old Chapin was scheduled to play a free concert that evening. He was driving on the Long Island Expressway when he was involved in a bizarre car accident. This, in and of itself, might not have been that shocking. Chapin had been fined for speeding and other infractions at least 15 times in the past eight years, had his driver's license suspended four times in five years, and was in fact driving without a license at the time of the crash, as it had been revoked again that March.

Even with all that in mind, however, Chapin's actions do not make sense. According to witnesses and various reports from the time, the musician's Volkswagen had its hazards on and was traveling as slowly as 15 mph. Chapin swerved between lanes repeatedly, before getting rear-ended by a trailer, which caused his car to burst into flames. Motorists who stopped managed to pull him out of the burning car. He was pronounced dead at the hospital, and, unexpectedly, his autopsy found that his actual cause of death was a heart attack, which may have occurred because of or even before the accident. 

Terry Kath was the guitarist for Chicago. In addition to playing in one of the most successful bands of all time, his other claim to fame was that Jimi Hendrix allegedly once said Kath was a better guitar player than he was. But the dark side of success meant he was taken too soon.

Despite his incredible talent, Kath began misusing drugs, especially cocaine. He also had other dangerous hobbies, according to his friends. "He collected guns and started taking them everywhere," Chicago drummer Danny Seraphine told Louder. "And guns and drugs are a bad combination."

On January 23, 1978, Kath had been on a multi-day cocaine binge when he accidentally shot himself while playing with a gun he believed to be unloaded. According to the one person who was there at the time, Chicago roadie Don Johnson, Kath was cleaning a pistol. When Johnson told him to be careful the guitarist showed him the gun's clip as if to indicate it wasn't loaded and therefore could not go off accidentally. However, unknown to Kath, there was a bullet in the chamber. His last words are said to have been, "What do you think I'm going to do? Blow my brains out?" (via Far Out). Then the gun went off. Kath was 31 years old.

If you or anyone you know needs help with addiction issues, help is available. Visit the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration website or contact SAMHSA's National Helpline at 1-800-662-HELP (4357).

Graham Bond was an incredibly talented musician who never seemed to find the success he believed he deserved. This hurt him especially badly when two members of his group, the Graham Bond Organization, went on to form Cream, one of the best supergroups in history.

Bond misused drugs and also had an obsession with the occult. He was adopted and somehow became convinced that he was actually Aleister Crowley's biological son. Singer Pete Brown believed Bond's occult fixation became worse after he got clean. Brown told Louder, "Aleister Crowley just seemed like a f***ing creep to me. Graham started off with so-called white magic, then I don't know where it went. People make some bad choices."

By the time he died, Bond at least claimed to be getting his life and career back together. Brown explained, "Right at the end, Graham said to me: 'I'm giving all the magic stuff up and I'm just going to play. I'm not going to do anything influenced by that anymore.' Then a few days later he was dead." While it's possible Brown's fall in front of a tube train on May 8, 1974, was suicide, there are many other theories, including that he was being chased by people he owed money to, or, despite his claims to have moved on from that part of his life, that it had something to do with his obsession with the occult.

If you or someone you know is struggling or in crisis, help is available. Call or text 988 or chat 988lifeline.org

The tragic death of The Yardbirds' Keith Relf came on May 12, 1976. While the group that brought him the biggest fame had disbanded in 1968, Relf had continued making and producing music throughout the 1970s, including founding a folk duo and two prog rock bands. Even if his most successful years were behind him by the time that decade rolled around, he still loved music.

So it should be no surprise that when he died, he was doing what he loved: playing guitar. Even though he was only 33 years old at the time, his death might not have been all that unexpected to his loved one. Relf had serious breathing problems including chronic asthma and emphysema; he had come close to death before three different times.

On that day, he was practicing guitar in the basement of his London home. The instrument was ungrounded, so when Relf stepped on a metal pipe, it sent a surge of electricity through his body. The freak accident killed him, although it's unclear if his already weak health meant he was more susceptible to the effects of the electrocution. Due to the intense privacy Relf's family wished for after his death, many things remain unclear and some rumors are still cited as fact. The date of his death is often erroneously said to be May 14, it's possible his 8-year-old son was the one who discovered his body, and some wrongly believe he was playing guitar in the bathtub when he died. 

Al Jackson Jr. was the drummer in Booker T & the MGs, as well as a successful session musician, but his marriage was anything but a success. On July 31, 1975, Al was having an argument with his wife, Barbara Jackson, which turned physical. Barbara would claim that she was forced to shoot her husband twice in self-defense, and Al, who survived, admitted he had physically assaulted her.  

He would not be so lucky a few months later, on October 1, 1975, when he was shot five times in the back during a home invasion. His wife was there this time as well, although she was tied up. Her story was that Al returned home as a man was robbing their house, and despite being told to take anything, the robber killed him. The drummer was 39 years old.

The police in the case were chatty with the press. One office said, "Whoever killed him really wanted him dead" (via The Guardian). In April 1976, Sergeant Jim Hester "We are very close to seeking indictments against those responsible for his death. We expect to move soon." Another police officer, Captain Tommy Smith, explained that "four suspects are under investigation." However, no more information was released on who these suspects were, although one theory is that the murder was committed by a boyfriend of Barbara's, and the indictments never came. As of 2025, Jackson's murder is still officially unsolved.

Billy Murcia (pictured left) was the original drummer for the New York Dolls, the eccentric and influential 1970s band. Sadly, two of its founding members died too young. While the death of Johnny Thunders remains one of the biggest mysteries of classic rock that are still unsolved today, Murcia's was just as tragic. 

The Dolls were on tour in England at the time, and Murcia was taking drugs at a party with a bunch of posh kids. After too many barbiturates, Murcia passed out. It is unclear if he would have survived the amount of drugs he had taken, but he seemed to be overdosing and people at the party panicked. Instead of calling for medical help, they tried to revive Murcia by forcing coffee down his throat and putting him in the bathtub. His cause of death is a little murky as some sources say it was asphyxiation, others say drowning, and still others cite an overdose. He was just 21 years old.

Dolls drummer Jerry Nolan, who described Murcia's death as a drowning said, "Billy's death may not have been foul play, but it was real abuse. ... These f***ing rich kids freaked out and ran away. They all split on the guy. What a waste" (via "Please Kill Me: The Uncensored Oral History of Punk"). Bandmate Sylvain Sylvain had the worst job, explaining, "It was hard when Billy died — I had to call his mother and tell her since I knew the whole family. She just couldn't believe it — I never heard anybody screaming that much in my life."

Peter Ivers was a cult-classic singer-songwriter, whose life was as eccentric as his music. He chose to live in a dangerous neighborhood, where he was found bludgeoned to death in his apartment on March 3, 1983. The investigation was botched so badly that the cops allowed one of the most likely suspects, producer David Jove, to take away bloody evidence, while friends were allowed to wander through the crime scene, and police ignored possible evidence. Not surprisingly, no one was arrested.

Retired LAPD detective Cliff Shepard told Entertainment Weekly that cops did have someone in mind for the crime: "They came up with a suspect, who was a rooftop burglar who fell off a roof..." But others believe it was Jove who had the reasons and the temperament to kill Ivers in such a brutal way.

Author Josh Frank, who co-wrote a biography of Ivers, told The Washington Post, "... Shepard, came up to me and said 'Josh, I want you to know you were very thorough. You found a lot of important pieces that were never looked into, and I just want you to know that I promise you it's not over. I'm gonna keep this open and as soon as I finish my next case, I'm gonna get back to it.' So he has a passion for it, and I feel that it's not over..." Shepard's book did, in fact, lead to the case being reopened in 2008, however, as of 2025, it is still unsolved.

Guitarist Leslie "Les" Harvey of the rock band Stone The Crows is one of the people on the long list of stars who died at age 27. His death was a freak electrocution accident — one that happened in full view of the audience waiting to see the iconic Scottish band play a gig in Wales on May 3, 1972. Some who were there remember what happened incorrectly. There are stories of a rainstorm, puddles, a blistering final guitar solo, and then Harvey writhing on the stage while no one realizes anything is wrong. But the indoor venue had no puddles on stage and no one was playing at the time since the gig had been delayed due to a technical issue.

Harvey's bandmates were off stage at the time and remember the moment they watched the tragedy unfold. "It was a fluke," the band's singer Maggie Bell told Louder. "We were standing at the side of the stage; we hadn't even started yet. Leslie said to the audience: 'There's a technical hitch,' and he touched the [ungrounded] microphone and the guitar. And that was it."

"We heard this deep humming sound," drummer Colin Allen remembers. "Leslie had the microphone in one hand and his guitar in the other, they kind of went together, and then like an arc-shape appeared. I was up really quickly and kicked the guitar out of his hand as he was lying on the floor." Harvey died instantly.