# How many rock stars really choked on their own vomit (or someone else's ;-))? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 4, 2017, 10:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-rock-stars-really-choked-on-their-own-vomit-or-someone-elses/788134 "2017-06-04T22:16:39Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![EinsteinsHund](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/einsteinshund/32/8400_2.png) [@EinsteinsHund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EinsteinsHund)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2017, 10:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-rock-stars-really-choked-on-their-own-vomit-or-someone-elses/788134/1 "2017-06-04T22:16:39Z")
I’m listening to AC/DC, “Ride On”, and I thought how this song foreshadowed Bon Scott’s death by, well, choking on his vomit sleeping in a car after a bender in town. This reason for death is such a clichè that it got spoofed in _This Is Spinal Tap_ (see parentheses in the title). But other than Bon Scott and Jimi Hendrix, I can’t come up with another case of a rock star dying this way. Are there other examples? ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2017, 10:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-rock-stars-really-choked-on-their-own-vomit-or-someone-elses/788134/2 "2017-06-04T22:24:06Z")
Led Zeppelin drummer John Bonham is also supposed to have choked on his own vomit after a day of extremely heavy drinking. ---
**Author:** ![snfaulkner](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snfaulkner/32/433_2.png) [@snfaulkner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/snfaulkner)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2017, 11:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-rock-stars-really-choked-on-their-own-vomit-or-someone-elses/788134/3 "2017-06-04T23:05:23Z")
Janis Joplin too, I think. ---
**Author:** ![Asympotically\_fat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e47c2d/32.png) [@Asympotically\_fat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Asympotically_fat)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2017, 11:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-rock-stars-really-choked-on-their-own-vomit-or-someone-elses/788134/4 "2017-06-04T23:09:20Z")
Bon Scott of AC/DC ---
**Author:** ![EinsteinsHund](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/einsteinshund/32/8400_2.png) [@EinsteinsHund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EinsteinsHund)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2017, 11:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-rock-stars-really-choked-on-their-own-vomit-or-someone-elses/788134/5 "2017-06-04T23:13:54Z")
> [@Asympotically\_fat](#): > > Bon Scott of AC/DC Well, that was the germ of this thread ;). ---
**Author:** ![Randolph](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Randolph](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Randolph)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2017, 11:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-rock-stars-really-choked-on-their-own-vomit-or-someone-elses/788134/6 "2017-06-04T23:22:21Z")
You can’t really … “dust for vomit.” ---
**Author:** ![eschereal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschereal/32/18939_2.png) [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2017, 12:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-rock-stars-really-choked-on-their-own-vomit-or-someone-elses/788134/7 "2017-06-05T00:13:23Z")
Bon Scott did [not](http://stuffnobodycaresabout.com/2015/02/18/remembering-acdcs-bon-scott/) choke on his own vomit. Or anyone else’s. ---
**Author:** ![EinsteinsHund](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/einsteinshund/32/8400_2.png) [@EinsteinsHund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EinsteinsHund)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2017, 12:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-rock-stars-really-choked-on-their-own-vomit-or-someone-elses/788134/8 "2017-06-05T00:24:18Z")
> [@eschereal](#): > > Bon Scott did [not](http://stuffnobodycaresabout.com/2015/02/18/remembering-acdcs-bon-scott/) choke on his own vomit. Or anyone else’s. Ah, come on, please don’t crush my rock’n’roll clichés ;). Next time you summon that guy who once insisted here that Jimi Hendrix really got murdered by his manager, his girlfriend, Eric Burdon or whomever. ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2017, 12:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-rock-stars-really-choked-on-their-own-vomit-or-someone-elses/788134/9 "2017-06-05T00:37:33Z")
I would have said Who drummer Keith Moon. And I would have been wrong. Checking around, I see that he died from an overdose of a sedative meant to combat his drinking problem. Ironically, the drug paralyzed his esophagus, preventing him from vomiting, which could have saved his life if he could have upchucked the pills. > **[The Day Keith Moon Died](https://ultimateclassicrock.com/keith-moon-of-the-who-dies-september-7-1978/)** > > Keith Moon died on Sept. 7, 1978, after a night of partying. ---
**Author:** ![eschereal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschereal/32/18939_2.png) [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2017, 12:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-rock-stars-really-choked-on-their-own-vomit-or-someone-elses/788134/10 "2017-06-05T00:39:24Z")
> [@EinsteinsHund](#): > > Ah, come on, please don’t crush my rock’n’roll clichés ;). Next time you summon that guy who once insisted here that Jimi Hendrix really got murdered by his manager, his girlfriend, Eric Burdon or whomever. It is an odd cliché, because this is prettymuch the first wind I have gotten of it. I was not a huge AC/DC fan at the time, but they were good enough (except for that damn _Dirty Deeds_ that repeats the refrain into Ragnarok). I heard the news, no mention of vomit, never got that idea stuck in my head, and have not been consorting with the AC/DC crowd. Michael Hutchence, though, he choked on something else entirely. ---
**Author:** ![EinsteinsHund](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/einsteinshund/32/8400_2.png) [@EinsteinsHund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EinsteinsHund)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2017, 12:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-rock-stars-really-choked-on-their-own-vomit-or-someone-elses/788134/11 "2017-06-05T00:56:34Z")
> [@eschereal](#): > > It is an odd cliché, because this is prettymuch the first wind I have gotten of it. I was not a huge AC/DC fan at the time, but they were good enough (except for that damn _Dirty Deeds_ that repeats the refrain into Ragnarok). I heard the news, no mention of vomit, never got that idea stuck in my head, and have not been consorting with the AC/DC crowd. > > Michael Hutchence, though, he choked on something else entirely. I was already around too when he died, being a twelve year old fan hooked on _Highway To Hell_, and I’ve always remembered the cause of his death as told in my OP. But memory can trick you… ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2017, 2:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-rock-stars-really-choked-on-their-own-vomit-or-someone-elses/788134/12 "2017-06-05T02:10:22Z")
> [@snfaulkner](#): > > Janis Joplin too, I think. She died of [a heroin overdose](http://ultimateclassicrock.com/janis-joplin-death/). She had gotten a batch that was much stronger than her usual supplier furnished. > [@](#): > > The following afternoon, Cooke received a call from Rothchild, who was concerned when Joplin did not show up for the session. Cooke drove to the hotel when calls to Joplin’s room went unanswered. Joplin’s Porsche, painted in psychedelic colors, was in the parking lot. “As I pass through the lobby, I stop at the desk and get a key to Janis’s room from Jack Hagy, the manager,” Cooke recounts in his memoir On the Road With Janis Joplin. > > “Janis is lying in an awkward position, her head and shoulder wedged against the bed and the bedside table. In her hand, there are four dollar bills and two quarters. On the side table, there’s a pack of Marlboros. > > “The story is obvious to an interested observer: She got change for a five, bought cigarettes for fifty cents from the machine in the lobby, came back to the room, sat down, and keeled over before she could light one. She was sitting on the bed and pitched over sideways. There’s dried blood on her face where her head struck the corner of the bedside table. > > … > > “The heroin Janis used that night she had purchased around 4PM that afternoon from George, her supplier for as long as she used the drug,” writes Joplin’s sister Laura in Love, Janis. “She was careful to use only one supplier, and he was careful about what he sold. Usually, he had a chemist check the drug before he sold it. For that batch, the chemist had been out of town. He had sold the dope without checking it. The dope Janis had bought that Saturday was four to ten times stronger than normal street heroin. It was 40 to 50 percent pure.” ---
**Author:** ![China\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/779978/32.png) [@China\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/China_Guy)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2017, 6:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-rock-stars-really-choked-on-their-own-vomit-or-someone-elses/788134/13 "2017-06-05T06:24:47Z")
Came in to this thread to say Jimi Hendrix. Here is a list: [Stuart Cable death: rock stars who choked on their own vomit](http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/music/music-news/8074599/Stuart-Cable-death-rock-stars-who-choked-on-their-own-vomit.html) ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2017, 12:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-rock-stars-really-choked-on-their-own-vomit-or-someone-elses/788134/14 "2017-06-05T12:16:47Z")
It was previously revealed on the Dope that Jimi Hendrix was murdered by being drowned in wine, [like bottles worth](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=548518). ---
**Author:** ![Biggirl](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/biggirl/32/3294_2.png) [@Biggirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biggirl)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2017, 7:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-rock-stars-really-choked-on-their-own-vomit-or-someone-elses/788134/15 "2017-06-05T19:39:12Z")
Not Mama Cass. Nor did she choke on a ham sandwich. She died of a heart attack. This thread should be about rock stars who didn’t die choking on their own vomit even though everyone thinks they did. ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2017, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-rock-stars-really-choked-on-their-own-vomit-or-someone-elses/788134/16 "2017-06-05T19:49:43Z")
> [@Biggirl](#): > > Not Mama Cass. Nor did she choke on a ham sandwich. She died of a heart attack. This thread should be about rock stars who didn’t die choking on their own vomit even though everyone thinks they did. Cass’ sister, Leah Kunkel, publicly debunked the ham sandwich story, explaining that as a Jew who observed dietary laws, Cass would never have touched a ham sandwich. ---
**Author:** ![eschereal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschereal/32/18939_2.png) [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2017, 7:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-rock-stars-really-choked-on-their-own-vomit-or-someone-elses/788134/17 "2017-06-05T19:53:54Z")
Well, I am pretty sure that they made turkey ham that long ago. ---
**Author:** ![Biggirl](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/biggirl/32/3294_2.png) [@Biggirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biggirl)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2017, 8:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-rock-stars-really-choked-on-their-own-vomit-or-someone-elses/788134/18 "2017-06-05T20:21:32Z")
> [@eschereal](#): > > Well, I am pretty sure that they made turkey ham that long ago. Yeah but the rumor wasn’t that she choked on a turkey ham sandwich. Because turkey ham would imply she was eating sensibly and where’s the fat joke in that? ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2017, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-rock-stars-really-choked-on-their-own-vomit-or-someone-elses/788134/19 "2017-06-05T20:24:51Z")
> [@Biggirl](#): > > This thread should be about rock stars who didn’t die choking on their own vomit even though everyone thinks they did. How about a thread on rock stars who _should have_ choked on someone’s vomit? ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2017, 9:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-rock-stars-really-choked-on-their-own-vomit-or-someone-elses/788134/20 "2017-06-05T21:18:05Z")
> [@cochrane](#): > > Cass’ sister, Leah Kunkel, publicly debunked the ham sandwich story, explaining that as a Jew who observed dietary laws, Cass would never have touched a ham sandwich. There goes a great joke (“If Mama Cass had given her sandwich to Karen Carpenter, they’d BOTH still be alive.”) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-rock-stars-really-choked-on-their-own-vomit-or-someone-elses/788134.md?page=2)