Janis Joplin Janis Joplin Janis Lyn Joplin (January 19, 1943 – October 4, 1970), nicknamed "Pearl", was an American rock, soul and blues singer and songwriter, and one of the most successful and widely known female rock stars of her era. After releasing three albums, she died of a heroin overdose at the age of 27. A fourth album, "Pearl", was released in January 1971, just over three months after her death. It reached number one on the "Billboard" charts. In 1967, Joplin rose to fame during an appearance at Monterey Pop Festival, where she was the lead singer of the then
Janis Joplin two October 1968 performances at a roller rink in Alexandria, Virginia, were reviewed by John Segraves of the conservative "Washington Evening Star" at a time when the Washington metropolitan area's hard rock scene was in its infancy. An opera buff at the time, he wrote, "Miss Joplin, in her early 20s, has been for the last year or two the vocalist with Big Brother and the Holding Company, a rock quintet of superior electric expertise. Shortly she will be merely Janis Joplin, a vocalist singing folk rock on her first album as a single. Whatever she does and whatever she