But occasionally, rock stars die in such a way that goes beyond being simply tragic into bizarre territory. These are the deaths that have that one extra detail (or sometimes, many of them) that are just so odd it makes you think about the sad event again and again, wondering just how it could have happened the way it did.
Terry Kath, lead singer and guitarist for the rock group Chicago, accidentally shot himself to death following Party.
A spokeiwoman for the group said the 33-year-old Mr. Kath spent the afternoon in the Woodland Hills home of a road crew member, Don Johnson, visiting and drinking with friends on January 23rd 1978 . The party had broken up, she said, and only Mr. Johnson and Mr. Kath remained when Mr. Kath pulled an automatic pistol he usually carried and began twirling the weapon.
Mr. Johnson asked him to stop playing with the gun, the account continued, and Mr. Kath replied, “What do you think I’m going to do? Blow my brains out?” These were allegedly Terry Kath’s final words before he accidentally put a bullet in his head in 1978. Don't worry, it's not loaded, see?” Mr. Kath put the pistol to his head and pulled the trigger, killing himself instantly, Mr. Johnson told police.
Terry Kath was a founding member and lead guitarist of Chicago, and fans the world over have marveled at his playing on the classic "25 or 6 to 4" for decades. He was also a singer and multi-instrumentalist who played banjo, accordion, bass and drums. He sang lead on such Chicago tracks as "Colour My World" and "Make Me Smile."
Lee Loughnane, trumpet player with the US rock band Chicago, vividly recalls January 23, 1978. It was the day his friend, Chicago’s guitarist Terry Kath, shot himself dead after a game of Russian roulette went horribly wrong.
“I took a call from our manager, who said: ‘Lee, are you sitting down?’” Loughnane says now. “He told me what happened. But I had to see for myself. They’d taken Terry’s body away, but there was blood everywhere.”
MIKE EDWARDS DIED IN A FREAK HAY BALE ACCIDENT
A cellist trained at the Royal Academy of Music doesn't sound like your standard rock star. But Mike Edwards was an original member of the Electric Light Orchestra (pictured, with Edwards at far left). He played with them from 1972 to 1975.
His death fit right in with his strange ELO stage persona. On September 3, 2010, the 62-year-old was killed in a freak accident, when a 1,300 pound hay bale rolled off a tractor and into a road, where it slammed into Edwards' car, crushing it.
At the time of his death, Edwards was playing with a local group called Devon Baroque. Fellow member Jasper Solomon told BBC News, "Mike's talent was his musicality. He could range over all genres from classical to jazz, modern to medieval renaissance. He lived for his music and it showed."
LES HARVEY WAS ELECTROCUTED LIVE ON STAGE
Everyone knows there is a long list of stars who died at age 27, but Les Harvey's inclusion on the list has to be one of the strangest (no, not the most shocking — that joke is inappropriate). He was in several bands in the U.K. before joining one called Power
On May 3, 1972, the group was preparing to perform at a gig in Wales. Some 1,200 people were in the audience, and according to contemporary reporting, some of them decided to take souvenirs in the form of wires out of the band's electronics before they took to the stage. This, of course, caused technical problems, which took time to fix. Harvey came on stage to explain the delay when disaster struck. "We heard this deep humming sound," drummer Collin Allen explained (via Louder). "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."
The accident was caused because a ground wire to the microphone had not been fixed, and when Harvey touched his metal guitar strings, he closed the circuit. He died a short time later in the hospital, aged 27.
RANDY RHOADS DIED WHEN HIS PILOT'S PRANK WENT WRONG
Ozzy Osbourne was already famous when he hired Randy Rhoads as his new guitarist within seconds of meeting him. Rhoads, who had previously been one of the founding members of Quiet Riot, played on some of the most classic Ozzy albums, including "Blizzard of Ozz" and "Diary of a Madman," and most notably the song "Crazy Train." While his accomplishments were enough to see Rhoads inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2021, sadly, he was only in Ozzy's band for a couple of years before he died.
While on tour, the band's bus stopped for a rest at a lot that held some small planes. The tour bus driver, Andrew Aycock, was also a pilot, and decided to take a couple of flights. The 25-year-old Rhoads, despite being afraid of flying, was a passenger on the final one, along with the band's 50-year-old seamstress Rachel Youngblood. On his previous flights, Aycock had flown close over the tour bus, trying to wake up the people sleeping inside it. On this flight, however, the prank went wrong, and the plane's wing clipped the bus, causing the plane to crash and killing all three of the people inside. (Grunge Magazine)
