If anyone were going to have a posthumous party instead of a traditional, tear-filled wake, it would have been iconic rock singer Janis Joplin. Three weeks after she died of a drug overdose in a Los Angeles hotel room, her loved ones threw a party on her dime just under 400 miles away at the Lion’s Share nightclub in San Anselmo, California. Like most nightclubs, the Lion’s Share booked their calendar for months in advance. Consequently, the party was on a Monday, the club’s off-day.
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Thus, on October 26, 1970, around 300 people gathered from near and far to celebrate the life and legacy of one of the most inimitable singers in rock ‘n’ roll history. Attendees of the invite-only event included Joplin’s friends and colleagues from San Francisco and beyond, members of bands like Quicksilver and The Grateful Dead, members of the Hell’s Angels, Joplin’s sister, Laura Joplin, and other folks who loved the musician.
In true Joplin fashion, there was plenty of rock music and just as much drugs and alcohol. Partygoers passed around brownies, which they later discovered had hashish in them. Friends of Joplin who never danced before danced that night, seemingly to please the memory of their late loved one. It was as much of a celebration as Joplin’s surviving friends and family could muster after losing such a strong, powerful force in their lives.
Janis Joplin Paid for Her Wake After the Death of a Friend
Officials determined Janis Joplin’s overdose was accidental, which means she likely had no way of knowing that she would spend her last moments at the Landmark Motor Hotel in Los Angeles. However, she had already thought about her death and what arrangements she might like for events and ceremonies surrounding her passing. Three years before her death, Joplin attended a massive party-slash-wake for Hells Angel member “Chocolate George” Hendricks. Joplin and her band, Big Brother and the Holding Company, performed at the wake in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park, and she took to the idea.
“We got lots of beer, and the [Angels] got the Dead and us,” Joplin later recalled. “It was just a beautiful thing. All the hippies and Angels were just stoned out of their heads. You couldn’t imagine a better funeral. It was the greatest party in the world.”
So, Joplin set some money aside to use for a similar party for when she died, too. Invitations to the event at the Lion’s Share nightclub read, “The drinks are on Pearl.” Although everyone at the party tried to have a good time for Joplin’s sake, it was difficult. They were definitely under the influence, but no one got so under the influence that they forgot why they were there.
“I sat amid people trying to force themselves to be jovial,” Joplin’s sister, Laura Joplin, wrote in her biography, Love, Janis. “But they naturally turned to quiet conversations about who was doing what.”
Joplin’s remains were cremated and scattered over the Pacific Ocean off the California coast.
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