Kurt Cobain and Other Truly Shocking Pop Star Deaths

Elvis, Tupac, Cobain, Michael Jackson—here's a look at some of our biggest musical stars' most unexpected and untimely ends

By EOL Staff Apr 05, 2011 5:15 PMTags
Kurt CobainFrank Micelotta/Getty Images; AP Photo/The Daily World, MacLeod Pappidas)

It was 17 years ago, on April 5, 1994, that the shocking news came: Kurt Cobain had committed suicide at 27.

The sad occasion has been marked with a new tribute—a guitar statue was erected today in the Nirvana frontman's honor in his hometown of Aberdeen, Wash. The memorial is located in a park near Young Street bridge, which he name-checked in the band's "Something in the Way." The installation also includes a snippet from the song "On a Plain": "One more special message to go and then I'm done and I can go home."

Cobain wasn't the only pop icon to leave us way too soon. Not by a long shot. Elvis. M.J. Tupac. Selena. They all met untimely doom in the form of drugs, bullets and fiery crashes.

Check out our gallery of some of the world's most respected and talented musicians, all of whom died long before their time.

(Originally published June 28, 2009, at 8:05 a.m. PT)