Biography for
Janis Joplin More at IMDbPro »

Date of Birth

19 January 1943, Port Arthur, Texas, USA

Date of Death

4 October 1970, Hollywood, California, USA (heroin overdose)

Birth Name

Janis Lyn Joplin

Nickname

Pearl

Height

5' 6" (1.68 m)

Mini Biography

Janis Lyn Joplin was born at St. Mary's Hospital in the oil-refining town of Port Arthur, Texas, near the border with Louisiana. Her father was a cannery worker and her mother was a registrar for a business college. As an overweight teenager, she was a folk-music devotee (especially Odetta, Leadbelly and Bessie Smith). After graduating from Thomas Jefferson High School, she attended Lamar State College and the University of Texas, where she played auto-harp in Austin bars. A fraternity voted her the Ugliest Man on Campus in 1963, and she spent two years traveling, performing and becoming drug-addicted. Back home in 1966, her friend Chet Helms suggested she become lead singer for Big Brother and the Holding Company, an established Haight-Ashbury band consisting of guitarists James Gurley and Sam Andrew, bassist Peter Albin and drummer Dave Getz). She got wide recognition through the Monterey Pop Festival in 1967, highlights of which were released in Monterey Pop (1968), and with the band's landmark second album, "Cheap Thrills". She formed her "Kosmic Blues Band" the following year and achieved still further recognition as a solo performer at Woodstock in 1969, highlights released in Woodstock (1970). In the spring of 1970, she sang with the "Full Tilt Boogie Band" and, on October 4 of that year, she was found dead in Hollywood's Landmark Motor Hotel (now known as Highland Gardens Hotel) from a heroin-alcohol overdose the previous day. Her ashes were scattered off the coast of California. Her biggest selling album was the posthumously released "Pearl", which contained her quintessential song: "Me & Bobby McGee".

IMDb Mini Biography By: Ed Stephan

Trade Mark

Raspy voice

Trivia

Was a member of the Glee Club and the Future Teachers of America while in high school.

Was arrested for using "vulgar and indecent language" while performing at Curtis Hixon Hall in Tampa, Florida, on Sunday, November 16, 1969. Unlike Jim Morrison, who was arrested onstage in the middle of his Florida performance earlier in 1969, Joplin was allowed to finish her concert and then got handcuffed by police backstage. Was released on a $504 bond after spending approximately an hour behind bars. During the four days she remained in the Tampa/St. Petersburg area awaiting a preliminary hearing, she went fishing. At the hearing she was advised by a local lawyer she hired, Herbert Goldburg, that jail time was unlikely. A photographer for Associated Press captured the two of them leaving police headquarters after the proceedings. The image shows Joplin, clad in a fur coat, grinning and flashing a "V" sign with her fingers. Goldburg looks displeased. Joplin made a point of telling the AP that her sign stood for "victory, not peace." The following March she was fined $200 in absentia and the case was closed without her ever returning to Tampa. Curtis Hixon Hall has been demolished.

Inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1995.

In 2001 Topps trading cards, in their American Pie Baseball brand produced a 'Piece Of American Pie' memorabilia insert set that included a Joplin-worn dress that is seen on her "Pearl" album.

Ranked #3 on VH1's 100 Greatest Women of Rock N Roll

She was voted the 47th Greatest Artist in Rock 'n' Roll by Rolling Stone.

Was friends with Jimi Hendrix.

Was good friends with Grace Slick.

Was good friends with Kris Kristofferson. He wrote her song, "Me and Bobby McGee," which became her only 45 single to reach #1 on Billboard chart.

Loved to drink Southern Comfort.

Was cremated and her ashes were scattered on the Pacific Ocean.

Was the oldest of three children. Had a younger sister, Laura Joplin, and a younger brother, Michael Joplin.

October 4, 1970: Died of a heroin overdose while she was legally drunk in room 105 of the Landmark Motor Hotel located next door to the Magic Castle in Los Angeles. After she mainlined the drug she was able to leave her room, walk to the lobby, ask the desk clerk to change a five-dollar bill so she could spend 50 cents on a pack of cigarettes, pull the rigid knob on the cigarette machine, return to her room and remove some of her clothes. She then fell suddenly, breaking her nose. The desk clerk later stated that while he was giving her change she talked happily about the new album she was recording, although he believed, based on having interacted with her since her August 24 check in, that she "was not a happy person." Body was discovered approximately 18 hours later by her road manager, who was the son of Alistair Cooke.

Wrote her will shortly before her death. Drawing up the document with her Los Angeles lawyer, she set aside $2500 for her friends to throw a party in the event of her death. After she died of a heroin overdose on October 4, 1970, her friends followed her wishes and threw a party in her honor at a club in San Anselmo, California. The party invitations read: "Drinks Are On Pearl." Younger sister Laura Joplin, six years her junior, was among those who attended.

The character Frankie in American Pop (1981) was based partially on her and partially on Jefferson Airplane singer Grace Slick.

Was high school classmates, in Port Arthur, with former Dallas Cowboys coach Jimmy Johnson, who gave her her nickname of "Beat Weeds".

Canadian singer-songwriter Leonard Cohen penned "Chelsea Hotel #2" about her.

Is portrayed by Zooey Deschanel in Gospel According to Janis (2010).

The manual dexterity displayed during the very last moments of life (changing a five-dollar bill, using a cigarette machine and undressing despite drunkenness and expectation of a heroin high) was a lifelong trait. Biographer Myra Friedman was told by Joplin's parents that when they interacted with other new parents in Port Arthur, Texas in the 1940s, everyone noticed their first-born child's dexterity with eating utensils, drinking glasses and napkins. The Joplins often took their toddler to the homes of other new parents to demonstrate these motor skills. Regularly drove drunk in California (in her custom-built Porsche) during the last two years of her life. No accidents were ever reported (in newspapers or several biographies), and only one instance of getting pulled over is noted (in a book by Peggy Caserta, who claimed the officer recognized the singer and let her go with a warning). Only one known injury during a performance, which happened in College Park, Maryland and turned out to be a source of humor on "The Dick Cavett Show" (1968). Manual dexterity and the appearance of controlling her own destiny, no matter how drunk or stoned, diverted many people's attention from the possibility of imminent death. Personal manager Albert Grossman, however, expected it and took out an insurance policy on his client in case of accidental death. Grossman, famous for signing the young Bob Dylan, collected $100,000 almost four years after his female client's "accident.".

The Landmark Motor Hotel, on Franklin Ave. in Hollywood, where she died in 1970 is now known as the Highland Gardens Hotel (October 2008).

Her good friend and former lover Kris Kristofferson has on numerous occasions stated that he is absolutely sure she did not commit suicide, but also believes that the course that Janis had chosen to take was a dangerous, self-destructive one, a fact the he knows she was also aware of.

Died at 27 years old, making her a member of the "27 Club"; The 27 Club is a group of prominent musicians that died at the age of 27. Other members include Rolling Stones co-founder Brian Jones, guitarist Jimi Hendrix, The Doors frontman Jim Morrison, and Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain.

Personal Quotes

My advice to everyone is come to California and I'll buy you a drink.

On stage, I make love to 25,000 different people, then I go home alone.

[asked by a reporter what "acid rock" was] I wouldn't know. I'm a juicer.

You know, I have to have the umph. I've got to feel it, because if it's not getting through to me, the audience sure as hell aren't going to feel it either.

They're frauds, the whole goddamn [hippie] culture. They bitch about brainwashing from their parents and they do the same damn thing. I've never known a one of those people who would tolerate any way of life but their own.

I don't believe in gate-crashing. The people aren't up there when I'm sweating on a stage at a festival, breaking my ass. You can get the money [to buy a concert ticket], man. Sell your old lady, sell your dope. Look at me, man, I'm selling my heart.

Most [TV] shows are such shit, like selling plastic raindrops.

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