Guide Note

Janis Joplin was a Blues inflected Rock singer and musician. Her signature raspy voice and fiery performances helped make her one of the most popular singers of her generation and an icon of the 1960s "Hippie" culture.

Joplin began singing in her teens and by December, 1962, had recorded her first song "What Good Can Drinkin' Do." She later joined the band Big Brother and The Holding Company in 1966. She toured with them until December 1, 1968. She then went on to found the groups Kozmic Blues Band and Full Tilt Boogie Band before going solo.

In 2004, Rolling Stone Magazine ranked Joplin in the forty-sixth spot on its list for the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time.

Fast Facts

1. Full Name: Janis Lyn Joplin
2. Born: January 19, 1943
3. Birthplace: Port Arthur, Texas
4. Died: October 4, 1970
5. Died in Los Angeles, California
6. Age at time of death: 27
7. Died of a drug overdose
8. Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award (2005)

"I'm a victim of my own insides. There was a time when I wanted to know everything...It used to make me very unhappy, all that feeling. I just didn't know what to do with it. But now I've learned to make that feeling work for me. I'm full of emotion and I want a release, and if you're on stage and if it's really working and you've got the audience with you, it's a oneness you feel."

"Don't compromise yourself. You are all you've got."

"Being an intellectual creates a lot of questions and no answers. You can fill your life up with ideas and still go home lonely. All you really have that really matters are feelings. That's what music is to me."

"On stage, I make love to 25,000 different people, then I go home alone."