Drugs, Alcohol, ... or Dodgy Equipment?
Many rock stars die young but there seems to be a peak age of demise after which the survivors go on to become ancient rockers and are now about the same age as a good proportion of the audience at this talk.
A study of rock stars from Elvis to Eminem, covering 35 years, showed the main cause of death to be drugs and alcohol, accident, suicide and violence.
But who would have thought electrocution by your own guitar would figure in the statistics.
Some had more conventional deaths from heart conditions, cancer and AIDS.
For some in the audience, it was thought provoking that more than one rock star has died as the result of malpractice by their personal doctors - mainly through extraordinary over prescribing.
John outlined the drug regimes of both Elvis and Michael Jackson as examples of this.