Browne was killed in South Kensington, London, in December 1966, when he crashed his car into another vehicle. Just 21 years old at the time of his death, he would receive a very surprising sort of immortality: an iconic Beatles song is said to have been inspired by his tragic end! Needless to say, this tragedy made headline news, and John Lennon and Co. were immediately privy to it. In his Anthology, Lennon claimed (via The Beatles Bible), “I was writing ‘A Day In The Life’ with the Daily Mail propped in front of me on the piano… I noticed two stories. One was about the Guinness heir who killed himself in a car.”

In this way, it’s said, Browne’s demise became the basis on which “A Day In The Life,” the beloved Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band closer, was written. As Far Out Magazine reports, Lennon would later claim: “I didn’t copy the accident… but it was in my mind when I was writing that verse.” In Barry Miles’ Many Years From Now, however, Paul McCartney is reported to have said, “I was not attributing it to Tara in my head. In John’s head it might have been… The ‘blew his mind’ was… nothing to do with a car crash.”

Regardless of Lennon, McCartney’s, or anybody else’s intent, though, the song has become intrinsically linked with this sad headline story.