K-pop star joins the ill-fated '27 Club'

Kim Jonghyun was found on Monday (Dec 18) in a Seoul hotel room in what police said was suicide. (Photo: AFP/Yonhap)

He was found on Monday (Dec 18) in a hotel room in the South Korean capital Seoul in what police said was suicide.

Rolling Stones founding member Brian Jones, guitarist Jimi Hendrix, singer Janis Joplin, The Doors singer Jim Morrison, Nirvana singer and guitarist Kurt Cobain, and British soul singer Amy Winehouse are the other major "members" of the notorious club.

AMY WINEHOUSE

Winehouse, one of Britain most famous soul singers, was found dead in her bed at her London flat on Jul 23, 2011 after years of drug and alcohol addiction.

The singer of Back to Black and Rehab, won six Grammy awards, one of them posthumously. She died of alcohol poisoning.

KURT COBAIN

Cobain, who died on Apr 5, 1994, had a well-documented struggle with heroin during his brief career with US grunge rockers Nirvana. But it was not drugs that claimed his life, but his own hand.

Just weeks after taking an overdose of tranquilisers in Rome, Cobain, who was married to troubled rocker Courtney Love and best known for the hit Smells Like Teen Spirit, killed himself with a shotgun at his house in Seattle.

JIM MORRISON

On Jul 3, 1971, the US Doors singer of the hits Light My Fire and the brooding masterpiece The End died in his bathtub in his Paris flat, alcoholic and obese, after suffering a heart attack.

His grave is one of the most visited at the Pere-Lachaise cemetery in Paris.

JANIS JOPLIN

On Oct 4, 1970, US singer Joplin, known for her bluesy vocal style, dies of a suspected heroin overdose. Her album Pearl was released posthumously and became her biggest seller.

JIMI HENDRIX

Hendrix, the pioneering US guitar wizard whose whose hits included Purple Haze and Hey Joe, died on Sep 18, 1970.

He choked on his own vomit in a hotel in London after swallowing sleeping pills and drinking red wine.

BRIAN JONES

Jones, who left the Rolling Stones after disagreements with Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, had problems with drugs and alcohol.

He drowned in the swimming pool on his estate in Sussex, southern England during the night of Jul 3, 1969 and was found by his girlfriend. An inquest recorded a verdict of death by misadventure.

RELATED CONTENTS:
	No autopsy for SHINee's Jonghyun, death ruled as suicide: Police
	SHINee's Jonghyun dies in apparent suicide: Yonhap