Biographic - Sunday October 4, 2020 Comic Strip Licensing and Permissions

Transcript

Janis Joplin This weekend marks 50 years since the death of Janis Joplin. Born in Port Arthur, Texas, on January 19, 1943. She was bullied and teased over her weight and acne problems in high school and became a loner who sought refuse in singing blues and folk, while attending U.T.-Austin, she sang with a folk trio before dropping out and hitchhiking to San Francisco in early 1963. Although she dabbled in music while there, her wild excesses took a toll, and by 1965 she was back in Texas, enrolled in college eschewing drink and drugs. But the lure of Rock & Roll and the hippie lifestyle proved to strong, and 1966, she accepted an offer to move back to the Bay area to become the singer with Big Brother and the Holding Company. Propelled by a hardy performance at the Monterey Pop Festival, the group's second album "Cheap Thrills" topped the Billboard charts in 1968. By the end of that year, Janis had moved on, assembling backup group The Cosmic Blues Band. But her substance problems had resurfaced, hampering her performances at the likes of the Woodstock Festival in 1969, and the group soon fell apart. She spent time in Brazil, trying to shed her addictions, but by the Summer of 1970. Her body was discovered in a Los Angeles hotel room. The 21-year-old had succumbed to an overdose of heroin, thought to be compounded by alcohol. Three months later "Pearl" - the album she had been recording prior to her death- soared to the top of the charts on release, as did the single "Me and Bobby McGee." In 1995, Janis was posthumously inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and in 2005, she was the recipient of a Grammy Lifetime achievement award. In 2014, the U.S. postal service issues a commemorative stamp in her honor.

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