(1943-1970) Birthplace: Port Arthur Genre: Rock and Roll Influenced: One-of-a-kind

A major talent in the San Francisco rock scene of the late sixties, Janis Joplin captured the imagination of a generation with her hard-singing performances and hard-living lifestyle. In her short career Joplin produced anthem classics of the hippie era of free love and psychedelia from "Piece of My Heart" to "Me and Bobby McGee." But the passion that drove her was snuffed out by alcohol and drug abuse that ultimatley killed with an over-dose of heroin in 1970.

Janis Lyn Joplin grew up in a middle-class home in Port Arthur, the daughter of an engineer and a housewife, but showed early signs of an intense rebellion. In high school she began drinking heavily and partying with friends who liked to haunt the honky-tonks and roadhouses of southeast Texas and Louisiana. Unable to read music, and without any formal training, she began to learn her craft by imitating recordings of Odetta, Bessie Smith, and Willie Mae Thornton. After high school and a brief stint at Lamar State, Joplin left for Los Angeles to work, spending her spare time at Venice Beach hangouts. Joplin had a strong desire to create, however, and returned to Texas in 1962 to attend the University of Texas at Austin to study art.

But the urge to sing was more powerful than the will to work on a degree. The Student Union's Chuck Wagon provided an amateur outlet, but at Ken Threadgill's gas station-turned-bar and grill, Joplin found a place to perform and a lifelong friend in the owner.

San Francisco lured her in 1963, and Joplin stayed in the Bay area until 1965, singing at the North Beach Coffee Gallery. She returned to UT to study--and to recover from a serious weight loss brought about by use of amphetamines.

In 1966 an offer to audition as singer for a new band, Big Brother and the Holding Company, drew Joplin back to San Francisco and propelled her almost instantly to stardom. At the the Monterey Pop Festival of 1967 Joplin and Big Brother dazzled the audience and the critics with an unforgettable rendition of "Ball and Chain." Their 1968 album Cheap Thrills led to international success for Joplin, if not for her band. A new manager urged her to find better musicians, but a constant flux in lineups of the bands, Joplin's alcoholism, and a growing problem with hard drugs led to erratic public performances and a cooling of the critics' initial infatuation with Joplin by 1969. I Got Dem Ol' Kozmic Blues Again, Mama, featuring Joplin with a new group called the Kozmic Blues Band, received few raves. Recognizing she was having a problem coping, Joplin sought medical help for her dependencies.

By spring of 1970 Joplin had a new backup band that worked relatively well together. In the summer they toured with the Grateful Dead and began work on a new album that would be the crowning achievement of Joplin's short career. Pearl contained the definitive performance of Kris Kristofferson's "Me and Bobby McGee" and the song that might have served as Janis Joplin's epitaph: "Get It While You Can." Pearl was released posthumously in 1971 a few months after Joplin's death by heroin overdose in October 1970.