Amy Winehouse, the brilliant but troubled soul singer who came to worldwide attention with her second album, Back to Black, died this weekend at the age of 27. 27, a popular year for rock stars to die, was also the age that Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Jim Morrison, Kurt Cobain and the Rolling Stone Brian Jones died. Astrologically speaking, 27 is right before the onset of the Saturn Return, meaning it’s basically the last timeframe you’ve got to die young and leave an attractive corpse (and legend) before Saturn forces maturity.

Salon.com reports: 

As the news filtered across the social media sphere about the death of singer Amy Winehouse, I found myself strangely saddened by this loss. After all, wasn’t this just another celebrity whose life had run amok in a very predictable fashion? But aside from the odd (and perhaps intentional?) fact that she died in her 27th year like so many other famous rock stars of the “27 Club” (including Kurt Cobain, Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, Jim Morrison and Brian Jones), something about Amy’s tragic exodus from life struck me in a distinctive way.

Even without knowing the exact cause of death, there really is very little doubt as to what ended the life of the diva most famous for refusing to go to rehab. I’m sure my first impression of “Well I saw that one coming” upon hearing the news was hardly unique.

Winehouse had attended rehab on at least three occasions even though her bluesy, instant hit “Rehab” emphatically stated, “No, no, no.” Multiple incidences of staggering intoxication during performances and well-publicized events of drug-induced insanity made it clear this woman was having serious trouble with substances.

What really struck me about this death, following so closely on a horrific scene of mass slaughter in Norway, was how many people opined that we should ignore Winehouse and focus instead on “real” world events: Norway, Libya, Afghanistan, Somalia and our own tens of thousands who die from lack of healthcare at home. After all, what’s the death of yet another junkie celebrity when compared to these horrors?

What do you think—why do so many rock stars die young, and specifically at age 27?