Which artist/musician has the most tragic story? :(

Makes me think of Marvin Gaye's death.

 

Lynrd Skynrd

Aaliyah

 

Hiram King "Hank" Williams, Sr. would rank right up there.

 

Being killed by your own father a day before your birthday is even worse.

 

Buddy Holly....

 

For me, it's Elvis. It still upsets me that so many 'friends' of his stood by and let it all happen. I know he takes a lot of blame, but I wonder how it could have turned out differently. If Johnny Cash could get it back together..

 

Yes. Hank suffered a life of pain from spina bifida before his untimely death, hastened by treatment by a quack.

 

Tammi Terrell.

 

Johnny Cash relapsed into drug addiction several times...in the 70s, 80s, and early 90s. He didn't have an easy ride once he first got off of drugs in the late 60s. Any of those relapses could have killed him, but luckily he survived. The sad thing is that after he finally seemed to kick the drugs and make his artistic comeback is when his health started to fail him.

Regarding Elvis, he simply loved perscription drugs too much and had fooled himself into thinking they weren't harming him. (Perhaps deep down he knew the truth, but he wasn't readily admitting it.) The Memphis Mafia could have done little to change his mind or get him off of drugs...especially since they were living the same lifestyle themselves.

 

Nick Drake

 

Not being able to pay medical bills in the United States is a tragic story, Alejandro Escovedo, Vic Chesnutt, two examples.

 

that's right he was 19/ I saw him live in about 1988 at the Whisky a go go...was amazing..he and Marty with Cacophony.

I'd also seen them about two years early at the NAMM show playing in a small demo room with NO ONE watching them....clearly they were up and comers though...but yeah I am going to guess..that was 1986 or 87/

 

I was going to say Badfinger also. and since I happen to believe he was murdered, I'd also say Cobain and Nirvana.

 

Roy Orbison. A lifetime of pain and loss.

 

Kirsty MacColl.

Her career was up and down, but it was the very end that was so tragic.

She was in a new relationship with a man from Cuba, and had a wonderful new album drawing on music from Cuba, and had developed a new interest in scuba diving. She was diving in a clearly marked area with her sons, when Guillermo González Nova, Mexico's biggest grocery baron, came barreling through the dive area in a speed-boat. Kirsty managed to push one of her sons out of the path of the boat, but was struck in the head by the boat and killed.

Even worse, this sleezeball managed to get one of the boat-hands to claim he was at the wheel. And in Mexico, you can buy your way out of jail by paying a percentage of your yearly income. And in the case of the boat-hand, that was roughly 61 pounds.

 

Third for Buddy. There's no telling what he could have done.

 

Tragic indeed, just as she seemed to be reaching a very happy place in her life.

 

I also vote for Buddy Holly.

Watching the Nilsson documentary made me think his life story was pretty tragic.

 

Agreed. Only time a Wikipedia article has made me tear up.

 

Woody Guthrie - ravaged by Huntington's disease and spent his final years mostly alone in some pretty awful mental institutions.

 

I've been listening to Buddy Holly's Apartment Tapes (from Down the Line disc two) a lot.
It's Buddy for me.

 

How about Victor Jara?

Víctor Lidio Jara Martínez (Spanish pronunciation: [ˈbiktor ˈliðjo ˈxaɾa marˈtines]; September 28, 1932 – September 15, 1973)[1] was a Chilean teacher, theatre director, poet, singer-songwriter, political activist and member of the Communist Party of Chile. A distinguished theatre director, he developed Chilean theatre by directing a broad array of works, ranging from locally produced Chilean plays, to the classics of the world stage, to the experimental work of such playwrights as Ann Jellicoe. He also played a pivotal role among neo-folkloric musicians who established the Nueva Canción Chilena (New Chilean Song) movement; this led to an uprising of new sounds in popular music during the administration of Salvador Allende. Shortly after the Chilean coup of 11 September 1973, Jara was arrested; he was tortured under interrogation and ultimately shot dead. His body was later thrown out into the street of a shanty town in Santiago

 

You'll laugh, I'm sure, but GG Allin. Screwed up by abusive and wacko-religious parents virtually from the instant that he was born. He never had a chance.

 

Phil Ochs

 

Booker Little died so young, at 23, of uremia. He was an amazing trumpeter, simply astonishing.
Billie Holiday's life was quite tragic since she was a little girl.
Well, there's so many examples...