Joey Ramone

popular name: Brian Connolly

date_of_death: February 9, 1997

age: 51

cause_of_death: Kidney failure, liver failure and repeated heart attacks

claim_to_fame: Music

best_know_for: As lead singer for the glam band Sweet, Brian Connolly and Sweet enjoyed a string of hits “Block Buster” topping the chart, followed by three consecutive number two hits in “Hell Raiser”, “The Ballroom Blitz” and “Teenage Rampage“. Their first self-written and produced single “Fox on the Run” also reached No.2 on the UK charts. Unfortunately a wicked smoking habit, excessive alcohol consumption and a vicious attack outside a nightclub in Staines all caused damage to his vocal chords and he was forced to leave the band.

popular name: Sandy Denny

date_of_death: April 21, 1978

age: 31

cause_of_death: Traumatic mid-brain hemorrhage and blunt force trauma from several falls

claim_to_fame: Music

best_know_for: Sandy Denny has been described as the pre-eminent British folk rock singer who was successful as a solo artist and as the lead singer of the British folk rock band Fairport Convention. For most fans of classic rock, she is remembered as the only female voice to ever grace a Led Zeppelin song. Sadly she suffered from depression, alcoholism, and self-harm which took it's toll on her personal and professional life. She died after a series of falls from stairwells that were labeled "accidental" by the coroners office.

popular name: Dave Brockie

date_of_death: March 23, 2014

age: 50

cause_of_death: Heroin overdose

claim_to_fame: Music

best_know_for: Dave Brockie was a Canadian-American musician, songwriter, performer and mastermind / lead singer of the heavy metal band GWAR, in which he performed as Oderus Urungus. If you've never seen or heard GWAR, then imagine if KISS had a love child with Alice Cooper using sperm donation from Leatherface from the Texas Chainsaw Massacre. And even then you're only at 50% of what GWAR brings to the table. Brockie formed GWAR in 1984 as a joke side project to his Richmond band Death Piggy. With the help of several co-conspirators, the group became an outlet for Brockie's wildly creative and outrageous imagination. Band members dressed in elaborate and grotesque latex costumes, took on stage names (Brockie was known as Oderus Urungus) and created elaborate shows that saw characters eviscerated and audiences spattered with fake blood. After the 1988 debut Hell-O, which leaned in a punk rock direction and was produced by New York institution Mark Kramer, GWAR switched to a more metal-oriented style on the 1990 follow-up, Scumdogs of the Universe. Aided greatly by the heavily-played video for "Sick Of You," the group was quickly embraced by the metal crowd and Scumdogs went on to become the band's biggest-selling album. Exposure on the hit TV series Beavis And Butt-Head only heightened GWAR's profile in the early 1990s, and the band would go on to be a mainstay in the American metal scene for the next two decades.