A new study finds that fame is linked to a lower life expectancy, shaving off an average four years of life. These findings are the result of research published in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health on November 25.
A research team at Witten/Herdecke University in Germany analyzed almost 560 singers, dividing them into two groups: famous and less‑famous. They paired each famous singer with a less‑famous counterpart based on gender, music genre, and nationality. The pairs showed that the less‑famous singers lived, on average, four years longer (about 75 to 79 years), an advantage comparable to that of a non‑smoker versus an occasional cigarette smoker.
Contributing factors such as performance pressure, lack of privacy, and intense public scrutiny appear to play a role, although they are not directly linked.
Fame is not the only cause of premature death for singers. Indeed, countless musicians have met untimely ends, sometimes in freak accidents, other times in gang feuds, and certainly far too many times due to drug overdoses. Take a look through the following gallery and remember the talented artists who left this world too soon.