Al Jackson Jr.

popular name: Scrapper Blackwell

date_of_death: October 7, 1962

age: 59

cause_of_death: Murdered (solved but no arrest)

claim_to_fame: Music

best_know_for: Scrapper Blackwell, together with Leroy Carr are arguably the two most underrated blues musicians of the 1920s and 1930s. What is undeniable is the two together created some of the most recorded blues classics including How Long, How Long Blues, Mean Mistreater Mama and When the Sun Goes Down

popular name: Bon Scott

date_of_death: February 19, 1980

age: 33

cause_of_death: Acute alcohol poisoning

claim_to_fame: Music

best_know_for: Bon Scott, born Ronald Belford Scott on July 9, 1946, in Forfar, Scotland, was the iconic lead singer and lyricist of the Australian rock band AC/DC. His family emigrated to Australia in 1952, settling in Fremantle, Western Australia. Known for his distinctive raspy voice, wild stage presence, and rebellious charisma, Scott joined AC/DC in 1974 and quickly became a driving force behind the band's early success. He helped craft their raw, hard-hitting sound and contributed memorable lyrics to classic albums like High Voltage, Let There Be Rock, and Highway to Hell. Tragically, at the height of his career, Scott died on February 19, 1980, in London at the age of 33, reportedly from acute alcohol poisoning. Fans around the world visit his grave at Fremantle Cemetery in Australia.

popular name: Cootie Williams

date_of_death: September 15, 1985

age: 74

cause_of_death: Kidney disease

claim_to_fame: Music

best_know_for: Cootie Williams was an American jazz, jump blues, and rhythm and blues trumpeter who is best remembered for his tenure with the Duke Ellington Orchestra. Cootie first played professionally with the Young Family Band (which included the future tenor sax superstar Lester Young) when he was 14. In his later teens, he settled in New York and worked with James P. Johnson, Chick Webb, and Fletcher Henderson. Joining the Duke Ellington Orchestra in 1929, among the hundreds of Ellington recordings on which he is featured, the “miniature concertos” “Echoes of Harlem” and “Concerto for Cootie” are especially noted; he also led a small ensemble of fellow Ellington band members, Cootie Williams and His Rug Cutters, on outstanding recordings. Williams left Ellington in 1940 and spent a year in Benny Goodman’s band. In the face of the general decline of the big band business, he led a big band for much of the 1940s and rhythm-and-blues units after that. He rejoined Ellington in 1962; by then he was a somewhat coarser but no less dramatic player. After Duke’s death he played in the Mercer Ellington band into the 1970s.