27 Club

Welcome to DISGRACELAND in 2024. Jake Brennan will continue to bring you the most insane stories about rock stars getting away with murder and behaving very badly ... and will also tell other stories about icons from beyond the world of music who possess dangerously compelling rock 'n roll hearts. Like Anthony Bourdain. Andy Warhol. Hunter S. Thompson. Kobe Bryant. Garth Brooks. Public Enemy. Van...

Ron “Pigpen” McKernan’s lifelong devotion to drinking wasn’t the cause of his medical issues – chalk those up to a genetic disease. But no matter how he tried, Pig couldn’t kick the illness, he couldn’t repair the damage that had been done. He played music, followed his diet, and hoped against all hope that something would turn around. But nothing ever really did. He could never quite get up that...

Against doctor’s orders, Ron “Pigpen” McKernan hit the road one more time with the Grateful Dead. The band’s 1972 tour of Europe is legendary. But at the time, Pigpen was just trying to stay above ground. You could hear it in his voice when he took the mic onstage. Close your eyes and his voice was a window into the past. But listen closer, and you’d hear something else. Something you couldn’t qui...

A dark cloud of death hung over the Grateful Dead as they went into the studio to make what is arguably their masterpiece, American Beauty . Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, Brian Jones of the Rolling Stones…they were all gone. All dead at the age of 27. But time didn’t stop. Time marched on. The cold hands of death could close in on any of them. But who? When would they go? And how would they go? Sour...

Busted down on Bourbon Street. Fleeced by a member of the family. Plastered on a runaway train barreling through the Canadian countryside. As the Grateful Dead faced a number of new challenges and detours, their music moved steadily ahead on solid footing – evidenced by the back-to-basics songs that made up Workingman’s Dead , their best album in years. Sources: A Long Strange Trip: The Inside Sto...

Though Ron “Pigpen” McKernan continued to feel like he was being pushed out of the Grateful Dead’s creative circle, he could still make an impression. Just ask Led Zeppelin, who got an up-close and personal look at Pig’s .22-caliber pistol. The fear that they felt standing next to what seemed like, to them, to be an American cowboy in the flesh was dwarfed months later…by the fear and violence tha...

As Haight-Ashbury devolved from a counterculture mecca to a commodified tourist haven, and the Grateful Dead searched for the perfect sound to complement their continued evolution, Ron "Pigpen" McKernan found that his musical contributions were becoming obsolete. It wasn't long before he had to face the fact that the he was finally losing control of the group he had created. Sources: A Long Strang...

As the Grateful Dead’s star continued to rise, Ron "Pigpen" McKernan felt he would rather be a dark star, invisible to the world. But he couldn’t hide. Not from the throngs of fans. And not from the San Francisco Police Department. Maybe they saw Pig’s leather vest and cowboy hat and figured he was an outlaw. Or maybe they just wanted to outlaw his type and the whole freaky scene along with him. A...

Ron "Pigpen" McKernan wonders if he's the only person not tripping inside a warehouse in the burned-out Watts neighborhood of Los Angeles, where the Grateful Dead are soundtracking yet another acid test. He further wonders if he's the only one who recognizes the gravity of the situation when the LAPD burst in. Later, he falls hard for a likeminded blues lover who turns on her lovelight. But not be...

Ron "Pigpen" McKernan could already feel his influence in the band waning from early on. Even back when the Grateful Dead were still known as the Warlocks. Whereas Pig subsisted on raw power fueled by alcohol and blues music, the rest of the members of the band were functioning on a completely different level. They listened to music, talked literature, and explored the cosmos...while loaded to the...

Ron "Pigpen" McKernan was the primary figure and driving force at the core of the Grateful Dead's origin story. He was an old soul, a digger of deep moods, a devotee of biker chic, and a tireless student of the blues. His devotion to classic Americana kept the band grounded even when they found themselves lost in experimental improvisation. But as the Dead evolved and became more famous, Pigpen be...

Get ready for Season 5 of the 27 Club to take the strange and not-so-long trip of Ron "Pigpen" McKernan, a founding member of the Grateful Dead. Pigpen wasn't just a member of the Dead. He was the Dead. But just like Brian Jones in the Rolling Stones or Syd Barrett in Pink Floyd, Pigpen felt his role in the Grateful Dead shrink as the rest of the band members expanded their minds and their sound.&...

When Amy Winehouse died on July 23, 2011 at the age of 27, the world mourned. For many, the grim reality was far from surprising. What was surprising, however, was what happened next. Sordid stories were told about her last night that contradicted the accepted narrative. An autopsy was called into question. And years down the line, there was a contested attempt to bring not just her music but her...

Five years had passed since her last album. Her ex-husband was facing jail time for burglary. But Amy Winehouse chose to focus on the positive. She may not have been entirely sober, but she was no longer using. She had found a new person to love, and one who loved her. And then...the bottom dropped out. For more info on the 27 Club and other great shows, visit the Double Elvis website and follow D...

One of Amy Winehouse’s final collaborators was Tony Bennett, who, unbeknownst to her, had his own stories to tell about struggling with addiction and fear. But no one, not even Tony Bennett, could help Amy Winehouse. A concert in Serbia became a new low point. Hallucinations and paranoia turned reality into a nightmare. And there wasn’t one tabloid, blog, or social media platform that wasn’t there...

Amy Winehouse wasn’t sure exactly what she was getting into when she accepted a £1million offer to play a private show for an anonymous Russian oligarch. Even more concerning was the uncertainty that lay ahead. After she squandered an opportunity to collaborate with a living legend and tried to burn the bridge of one of her most steadfast musical partners, Amy faced a crossroads. The two paths wer...

Amy Winehouse gravitated towards trouble like a moth to a flame. She hung out with the libertines of London’s seedy society, which regularly left her life in shambles. A multi-day drug binge left her on death’s door. She left decorum at the front door when a holiday trip to the theatre turned violent. Yet despite all this, she still managed to give the people the one thing they were never expectin...

When Amy Winehouse first met with producer Mark Ronson, their candid conversation would become a musical legend. That fateful meeting led to a career-defining song, a critically acclaimed album, and a creative vision that would cement her place in the pop pantheon. It gave her confidence to wage a war against the people who were hurting her the most – and win. But that momentum would prove no matc...

Amy Winehouse made music that sounded like alchemy, thanks in large part to collaborators like producer Salaam Remi. Alchemy was something that became increasingly absent from Amy’s time outside the studio; in its place were lurking paparazzi, incessant boos, cases of Jack Daniels, and a life-sized gallery sculpture that predicted the worst. For more info on the 27 Club and other great shows, visi...

There were two sides to Amy Winehouse. One side was triumphant. The other side was a disaster. Two consecutive appearances at the Glastonbury Festival made that crystal clear; one presented Amy at her best, and the other presented her at her lowest. But no matter which side she found herself on, she pulled no punches. She even threw some punches of her own. For more info on the 27 Club and other g...

Amy Winehouse didn’t compromise her sound for anyone. She had her creative vision under control. Meanwhile, her personal life spiraled out of control. She ran for her life down a dark London street following an unhinged and violent domestic dispute. Her money was offered up in an extortion deal to prevent her husband from doing time for the assault of an innocent man. And in 2007, London police ma...

Amy Winehouse fused the past with the present to make music for the future. Her own future was compromised by a series of escalating challenges that coincided with the worldwide success of her sophomore album, Back to Black . She accepted a Grammy Award while her beloved Camden burned. Her violent antics inside and outside the pub were pure paparazzi fodder. And just as she reached the upper echel...

Listen to Season 4 of the 27 Club to hear the insane details behind the life of one of rock's greatest icons — Amy Winehouse. With a voice that seemed to come from another time and an attitude that defied time itself, Amy Winehouse fused the past with the present to make music for the future. But as a central figure in the dawn of 24/7 tabloid and social media celebrity coverage, Amy Winehouse’s s...

When Janis Joplin turns up dead in her room at the Landmark Motor Hotel in Hollywood on October 4th, 1970, the pressure is on to walk backwards through that fateful day, into that past week, and even back through the past few months to put the puzzle together and find out exactly what happened. For more info on the 27 Club and other great shows, visit the Double Elvis website and follow Double Elv...

The final months of Janis Joplin’s life are a chaotic blend of ups and downs. She starts a relationship with a drug dealer she just met. She gets into a fight with Jerry Lee Lewis backstage at one of his shows. She races her producer, Paul Rothchild, on the PCH in dueling Porsches. And when she doesn’t show up to the studio for a scheduled session, everyone fears the worst. For more info the 27 Cl...