Jim Morrison was in rock star retirement when he died in his apartment at 17 rue Beautreillis in Paris on July 3, 1971, aged — yes — 27. The official story, USA Today reports, is that he was found dead in his bathtub from heart failure. But some supposed witnesses have since come forward to say that he fatally overdosed on heroin in a nightclub toilet cubicle, and was carried, already dead, back to his apartment by a pair of drug dealers.

Morrison’s grave at Paris’ Père Lachaise Cemetery is one of the most famous in the world — which is impressive when you consider that he’s not even the most prestigious person in the cemetery. Père Lachaise is also the eternal home of world-renowned figures including Oscar Wilde, Marcel Proust, Edith Piaf, and Frédéric Chopin.

But crowds still gather to visit Morrison’s impressive shrine, which includes a bronze plaque engraved with his name, dates, and an Ancient Greek epitaph chosen by his father that reads “KATA TON DAIMONA EAUTOU.” As Electric Literature points out, this is usually roughly translated as “True to his own spirit” — but it could also mean “True to his own demons,” a potential reference to the troubles that drove Morrison to Paris in the first place.

Unlike those of his rock star peers who died suddenly, Beatle George Harrison spent nearly four years being treated for cancer, dying aged 58 on November 29, 2001. He was diagnosed with throat cancer in 1997, and then with lung cancer in 1999. That year, the Guardian reports, he also survived being stabbed multiple times by a home intruder. In 2001, Harrison had surgery to treat the lung cancer, and underwent more radiation to treat a brain tumor, but ultimately died from the disease.

Harrison was a follower of the Hare Krishna movement, a branch of Hinduism. In accordance with Hindu beliefs, he was cremated shortly after his death, at the Hollywood Forever Memorial Park, according to CBS News. Hare Krishna spokesmen told the press that Harrison’s wife Olivia and son Dhani would be scattering his ashes in the Ganges (a sacred river in Hindu theology) in Varanasi, India, and at the convergence of the Ganges and the Yamuna. Crowds of fans and press headed to the city, only for the society to retract its previous comments. It’s believed that Harrison’s family did scatter his ashes in the rivers, but that they waited until they could do it more privately.

The story of Nirvana frontman and grunge icon Kurt Cobain’s death is well known, even if certain aspects are disputed by some people. The most accepted story is that Cobain died by suicide on April 5, 1994, in his home in Seattle, Washington. His body was found three days later.

After Cobain’s death, his widow Courtney Love had his body cremated. As Esquire reported in 1996, the couple had been “intermittent Buddhists” and Love wanted to give Cobain’s remains the appropriate spiritual treatment. She divided the ashes, scattering some into the Wishkah River near Cobain’s childhood home, and keeping some herself, reportedly in a bear-shaped handbag alongside her wedding dress. She took these ashes to a Buddhist monastery in Ithaca, New York, and left some with the monks for consecration. The monks mixed the ashes with clay and turned them into tsatsas — described by Esquire as “cone-shaped sculptures three inches tall and painted gold,” intended to be kept in a small shrine.

Love took the remaining ashes, in the bag, back home. She kept them in the closet, but in 2008, she reported that they had been stolen, apparently by someone she knew.

If you or anyone you know is having suicidal thoughts, please call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline​ at​ 1-800-273-TALK (8255)​.

If you know Frank Zappa’s tragic real-life story, you’ll know that after a full-on life pushing boundaries and doing things, as Sinatra would say, his way, Zappa died of prostate cancer on December 4, 1993, aged 52. His family announced his death with the statement “Composer Frank Zappa left for his final tour just before 6 p.m. Saturday.”

Zappa was buried in Westwood Memorial Park in Los Angeles, a surprisingly conventional choice for someone who determinedly bucked convention at every opportunity. The cemetery is the final home of many superstars from movies, music, and the arts, including Marilyn Monroe, Dean Martin, Jack Lemmon, Truman Capote, Kirk Douglas, and Natalie Wood. According to the LA Times, in 2020, a single burial plot there cost $745,000.

There is one thing that’s unusual about Zappa’s resting place: he’s buried in an unmarked grave, supposedly near the also unmarked grave of Roy Orbison. His family hasn’t given an exact reason for this, but it fits in with someone who liked to take the less-trodden path.

Elvis Presley struggled to find privacy while he was alive, and even after his death, people couldn’t keep their hands off him. When Presley died of a heart attack on August 16, 1977, aged 42, the nation went into mourning. And in some cases, denial.

The day after Elvis’ death, his father Vernon Presley allowed around 30,000 fans to view his son lying in state in Graceland. At the funeral procession the following day, Elvis was taken to Forest Hill Cemetery in a white hearse, followed by 17 white limousines, for a private ceremony. According to the Daily Beast, Vernon had wanted his son buried at Graceland, but it wasn’t zoned for burials. Instead, Elvis was interred inside a steel-lined coffin weighing nearly 1,000 lbs., and placed in a large mausoleum next to his mother Gladys, which was sealed with a double layer of concrete, covered with a marble slab.

That wasn’t the end of it, though. On August 29, three men were caught trying to steal Presley’s body, with the intention of ransoming it. After that, the burial rules were waived, and Elvis and Gladys were returned to Graceland. When Vernon died in 1979, he was buried next to them. But some have accused Vernon of orchestrating the attempted grave robbery, to ensure Elvis would be moved back to Graceland.

If this list proves anything, it’s that rock star life can end suddenly: but David Bowie wasn’t worried. As his keyboardist Mike Garson explained to Billboard, Bowie had decades of advance warning, because in the 1970s, a psychic told him he would die at 69 or 70. Garson added, “[Bowie] didn’t doubt it for a second … [He] accepted it and planned his future out based on that.” Bowie died on January 10, 2016, after what was described in an official statement as an “18-month battle with cancer.” He’d turned 69 two days earlier.

That early warning (not to mention the cancer diagnosis) ensured Bowie had made his wishes clear. According to the New York Times, he asked that his ashes be cremated and scattered in Bali, following Buddhist rituals practiced on the island. Despite these very clear instructions and no evidence that his family had any intention of ignoring them, there were still rumors, reported in E! Online, that Bowie’s widow Iman had given permission for some of his ashes to be scattered at 2016’s Burning Man Festival. Bowie’s son Duncan Jones immediately took to Twitter to shut down the claim, writing, “What people will do & say for attention never ceases to amaze me. Not true. Kind of a gross claim as well.”

One third of the most famous girl group to emerge from Motown, Supreme Mary Wilson died suddenly on February 8, 2021, aged 73. The cause was later reported as hypertensive atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease: a build-up in the arteries caused by high blood pressure that eventually leads to heart failure.

In keeping with restrictions on funeral sizes imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic, Wilson’s family held a small private ceremony for her on March 16, with the intention of holding a larger gathering when it was safe, the Detroit Free Press reported. Wilson was buried in Holy Cross Cemetery in Culver City, California, which is also the final home of John Candy, Bing Crosby, John Ford, Rita Hayworth, and Sharon Tate. Most important to Wilson, she was buried next to her son Rafael Ferrer, who died in a car crash in 1994, aged 16. She left behind three other children, including a cousin whom she’d adopted; 10 grandchildren; and one great-granddaughter.

According to his New York Times obituary, Ray Charles once told an interviewer, “it’s not a question of how long I live, but it’s a question of how well I live.” Although there was never going to be a good time to say goodbye to the multi-talented, genre-defying Genius of Soul, Charles did live to 73, which is impressive by rock star standards, especially given that he experienced and overcame heroin addiction. And he continued to record music and play live into his last year. He died from complications of liver disease on June 10, 2004.

Charles was buried in Inglewood Park Cemetery in Los Angeles. Fellow famous people buried there include Ella Fitzgerald, Etta James, Betty Grable, Sugar Ray Robinson, and Robert Kardashian. His memorial service at LA’s First African Methodist Episcopal Church was also a star-studded affair — unsurprising, given Charles’ legendary status. The BBC reported that Stevie Wonder, Willie Nelson, and B.B. King all performed; Cicely Tyson and Clint Eastwood both spoke; and the 1,500 attendees included Reverend Jesse Jackson, Quincy Jones, and pre-disgrace Bill Cosby. Jones told the New York Times that he’d give anything to get Charles back, “but I know that heaven has become a much better place with him in it.”

Chuck Berry is so central to rock music that in 1986, he became the very first inductee into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Many consider his 1955 track “Maybellene” the seed that grew into the genre of rock and roll.

Berry started singing in his church choir aged six and picked up the guitar as a teenager, performing in talent shows. He was in his thirties when he wrote many of his most popular songs: he had eight top 40 hits between 1955 and 1960.

As he grew older, Berry continued to play. As Rolling Stone reports, in 2014, at 88-years-old, he was still playing a monthly gig at local St. Louis restaurant and bar Blueberry Hill. He used his 90th birthday to announce the release of what would be his last album, “CHUCK,” which he dedicated to his wife of 68 years, Themetta. Before it was released, Berry died of natural causes on March 18, 2017. He was buried in Bellerive Heritage Gardens in his native St. Louis, Missouri.

Johnny and Joey Ramone famously hated each other, so it’s probably a good thing that they’re buried on opposite sides of the country. The pair never exactly got on, but as Rolling Stone explains, the animosity boiled over when Joey’s girlfriend Linda Danielle cheated on him with Johnny: the couple later married. When Joey was dying of lymphoma, Johnny refused to visit him: the only former bandmate who did was Tommy Ramone. Joey died on April 15, 2001, and was buried in Hillside Cemetery in Lyndhurst, New Jersey. Attendees at his funeral included Tommy, members of Blondie, and Joan Jett — but no Johnny.

The following year, on June 5, Dee Dee Ramone died of a heroin overdose, aged 50, shortly after the band was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. He was buried in LA’s Hollywood Forever Cemetery. Johnny followed him there two years later, when he died of prostate cancer, aged 55, on September 15, 2004. Johnny was cremated, and Linda kept his ashes: but he had a four-foot statue of himself placed in the cemetery.

Joey isn’t totally alone on the East Coast. Tommy Ramone died on July 11, 2014, of cancer of the bile duct, and was buried in New Montefiore Cemetery, New York.