White lighter myth members of the 27 Club including Hendrix, Joplin and Morrison, and that disposable lighters produced by other companies were not widely available at that time. White lighter myth The white lighter myth or white lighter curse is an urban legend based on the 27 Club in which it is claimed several musicians and artists died while in possession of a white lighter, causing white lighters to be attributed to bad fortune. The myth is primarily based on the deaths of Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Patrick Hafner, Jim Morrison and Kurt Cobain. The myth has been integrated with cannabis culture. In
Janis Joplin two weeks of Joplin's stay at the Landmark, she did not know Caserta was in Los Angeles. Joplin learned of Caserta's presence at the Landmark from a heroin dealer who made deliveries there. Joplin begged Caserta for heroin, and when Caserta refused to provide it, Joplin reportedly admonished her by saying, "Don't think if you can get it, I can't get it." Joplin's publicist Myra Friedman was clueless during Joplin's lifetime that this had happened. Later, while Friedman was working on her book "Buried Alive", she determined that the time frame of the Joplin-Caserta encounter was one week before Jimi