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Kurt Cobain’s resonance on the music world was recently remembered as people paid him respects on the 15th anniversary of his death on April 5th. Being a musician doesn’t mean you are at greater risk of death than other people but there have been some musicians that have embraced the more perilous elements of life.

It’s not just modern musicians either. In 1961, the ‘King of Western Swing’ Spade Cooley beat his wife to death in front of his 14-year-ancient daughter. He died soon after of a heart attack and was never tried for the killing.

The Housemartins’ drummer Hugh Whitaker served 5 years for firebombing the home of a business associate and then hitting the man in the face with an axe.

Varg Vikerns, the man behind black-metal band Norsemen Burzum enjoys a excellent church burning and is currently doing time for murdering Mayhem’s Oystein Aarseth.

We would be remiss to forget gangster rappers, who probably need life insurance more than any other musician due to their often risky lifestyle choices.

Not many are as violent as Huge Lurch though. The West Coast rapper that worked with Notorious B.I.G., Snoop Dogg, and Jay-Z among others was convicted of killing Tynisha Ysais in her apartment and then eating parts of her face and lungs while high on PCP.

Another well-known rapper, Ol’ Dirty Bastard served 14 months prison time for murder attempt, robbery, possession of weapons, and drugs charges. He died in 2004. The New York Medical Examiner final results said that he had died from an overdose of prescription painkiller Tramadol and high amounts of cocaine.

Musicians don’t necessarily lead more perilous lives but their deaths tend to be more publicized then those of average people. It’s always sad to lose artists like Cobain, before they could have produced many other fantastic works.