Janis Lyn Joplin was born on the 19th January 1943, in Port Arthur, Texas USA, and she passed away on the 4th October 1970 in Los Angeles, California, USA. She was best known for being a musician and singer, who released four albums – “Big Brother And The Holding Company” (1967), “Cheap Thrills” (1968), “I Got Dem Ol’ Kozmic Blues Again Mama!” (1969), and “Pearl” (1971). Her musical career was active from 1962 to 1970.
So, have you ever wondered how rich Janis Joplin was? It was estimated by authoritative sources that the total size of Janis’ net worth was over $5 million, which was accumulated through her successful involvement in the music scene as a singer.
Janis Joplin Net Worth $5 Million
Janis Joplin was brought up with two younger siblings by her parents Dorothy Bonita East, who worked as a registrar at a business college, and Seth Ward Joplin, who was an engineer. From an early age she started singing, when she became a member of a local choir. She attended Thomas Jefferson High School, from which she matriculated in 1960. Afterwards, she became a student at the Lamar State College of Technology in Beaumont, Texas, and later she transferred to the University of Texas at Austin; however, she didn’t graduate because she quit education and began pursuing a career in the world of music.
Janis’ career began in the early 1960s, collaborating with Jorma Kaukonen, who later became guitarist of the famous band Jefferson Airplane, recording several popular blues standards, and songs such as “Typewriter Talk”, “Kansas City Blues”, and “Nobody Knows You When You’re Down And Out”. However, she became addicted to drugs, returned home and entered a rehabilitation center.
After a few years of drug free life, Janis returned to her musical career, and was spotted by the band Big Brother And Holding Company. She became a member of the band, and with them released two albums, before she decided to launch a solo career. During that time her net worth began to increase, due to the success of the band, and she became recognised as the premier female vlues singer of the decade, partly because of her rough but controlled voice, and her emotional renditions.
To speak of her solo career, Janis released one album, entitled “I Got Dem Ol’ Kozmic Blues Again Mama!”, which reached No. 5 on the US Top 200 chart, and achieved platinum status, increasing her net worth by a large margin. After the release, Janis went on a tour, which also added a lot to the overall size of her net worth. She also started working on her second album; however she fell into drug addiction again, and died before the album could be released. Nevertheless, it came out in 1971, entitled “Pearl”, which achieved four times platinum status.
Thanks to her skills, Janis received numerous accolades, but most of them came after her death, including Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall Of Fame induction in 1995, and Grammy Lifetime achievement award in 2005.
When it comes to speak about her personal life, Janis Joplin was 27 years old when she passed away from an apparently accidental heroin overdose.
Grammy Hall of Fame, Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, Me and Bobby McGee, Piece of My Heart, Kozmic Blues
Music Groups
Big Brother and the Holding Company, Full Tilt Boogie Band, Kozmic Blues Band, Me and Bobby McGee, Piece of My Heart, Kozmic Blues
Nominations
Grammy Award for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance
#
Trademark
1
Shoulder-length brown hair
2
Distinctive raspy voice
#
Quote
1
Most television shows are such shit, like selling plastic raindrops.
2
Tomorrow never happens. It's all the same fucking day man.
3
Oh Lord, won't you buy me a Mercedes Benz? My friends all drive Porches, I must make amends.
4
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.
5
I don't believe in gate-crashing. The people aren't up there when I'm sweating on a stage at a festival, breaking my ass. You can get the money to buy a concert ticket, man. Sell your old lady, sell your dope. Look at me, man, I'm selling my heart.
6
They're frauds, the whole goddamn hippie culture. They bitch about brainwashing from their parents and they do the same damn thing. I've never known a one of those people who would tolerate any way of life but their own.
7
You know, I have to have the umph. I've got to feel it, because if it's not getting through to me, the audience sure as hell aren't going to feel it either.
8
[asked by a reporter what "acid rock" was] I wouldn't know. I'm a juicer.
9
On stage, I make love to 25,000 different people, then I go home alone.
10
My advice to everyone is come to California and I'll buy you a drink.
#
Fact
1
Her passing was acknowledged in Don McLean's classic song "American Pie": "I met a girl who sang the blues/And I asked her for some happy news/But she just smiled and turned away.".
2
She was posthumously awarded a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for Recording at 6752 Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood, California on November 4, 2013.
3
Pictured on a USA nondenominated commemorative postage stamp in the Music Icons series, issued 8 August 2014. Price on day of issue was 49¢.
4
Along with Grace Slick, she was one of the first female rock stars and an important figure in the directed change of rock music in the late 1960s.
Her good friend and former lover, Kris Kristofferson, has on numerous occasions stated that he is absolutely sure she did not commit suicide, but also believes that the course that Janis had chosen to take was a dangerous, self-destructive one, a fact of which he knows she was also aware.
8
The manual dexterity displayed during the very last moments of life (changing a five-dollar bill, using a cigarette machine and undressing despite drunkenness and expectation of a heroin high) was a lifelong trait. Biographer Myra Friedman was told by Joplin's parents that when they interacted with other new parents in Port Arthur, Texas in the 1940s, everyone noticed their first-born child's dexterity with eating utensils, drinking glasses and napkins. The Joplins often took their toddler to the homes of other new parents to demonstrate these motor skills. Regularly drove drunk in California (in her custom-built Porsche) during the last two years of her life. No accidents were ever reported (in newspapers or several biographies), and only one instance of getting pulled over is noted (in a book by Peggy Caserta, who claimed the officer recognized the singer and let her go with a warning). Only one known injury during a performance, which happened in College Park, Maryland and turned out to be a source of humor on The Dick Cavett Show (1968). Manual dexterity and the appearance of controlling her own destiny, no matter how drunk or stoned, diverted many people's attention from the possibility of imminent death. However, personal manager Albert Grossman expected it and (in June 1969) took out a $200,000 insurance policy on his client in case of accidental death. Grossman, famous for signing the young Bob Dylan, collected $112,000 from the San Francisco Associated Indemnity Corporation almost four years after his female client's "accident". During a three-week trial in the New York State Supreme Court, Grossman swore under oath he had not known in June 1969 that Joplin used heroin. He won the 1974 case against the insurer despite its efforts to prove Joplin's death had been a suicide.
9
Canadian singer-songwriter Leonard Cohen penned "Chelsea Hotel #2" about her.
10
Was high school classmates, in Port Arthur, with former Dallas Cowboys coach Jimmy Johnson, who gave her her nickname "Beat Weeds".
Wrote her will shortly before her death. Drawing up the document with her Los Angeles lawyer, she set aside $2500 for her friends to throw a party in the event of her death. After she died of a heroin overdose on October 4, 1970, her friends followed her wishes and threw a party in her honor at a club in San Anselmo, California. The party invitations read: "Drinks are on Pearl". Younger sister Laura Joplin, six years her junior, was among those who attended.
13
October 4, 1970: Died of a heroin overdose while she was legally drunk in Room 105 of the Landmark Motor Hotel located next door to the Magic Castle in Los Angeles, California. After she mainlined the drug, she was able to leave her room, walk to the lobby, ask the desk clerk to change a five-dollar bill so she could spend 50 cents on a pack of cigarettes, pull the rigid knob on the cigarette machine, return to her room and remove some of her clothes. She then fell suddenly, breaking her nose. The desk clerk later stated that while he was giving her change she talked happily about the new album she was recording, although he believed, based on having interacted with her since her August 24 check in, that she "was not a happy person". Her body was discovered approximately 18 hours later by her road manager, who was the son of Alistair Cooke.
14
Posthumously inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1995.
15
Was cremated and her ashes were scattered on the Pacific Ocean.
16
Loved to drink Southern Comfort.
17
Was good friends with Grace Slick and Kris Kristofferson. Kristofferson wrote her song "Me and Bobby McGee", which became her only 45 single to reach #1 on the Billboard chart.
She was voted the 47th Greatest Artist in Rock 'n' Roll by Rolling Stone.
20
Ranked #3 on VH1's 100 Greatest Women of Rock N Roll
21
In 2001, Topps trading cards, in their American Pie Baseball brand produced a "Piece of American Pie" memorabilia insert set that included a Joplin-worn dress that is seen on her album "Pearl".
22
Was the oldest of three children: has a younger sister, Laura Joplin, and a younger brother, Michael Joplin.
23
Was arrested for using "vulgar and indecent language" while performing at Curtis Hixon Hall in Tampa, Florida on November 16, 1969. Unlike Jim Morrison, who was arrested onstage in the middle of his Florida performance earlier in 1969, Joplin was allowed to finish her concert and then got handcuffed by police backstage. Was released on a $504 bond after spending approximately an hour behind bars. During the four days, she remained in the Tampa/St. Petersburg area awaiting a preliminary hearing, she went fishing. At the hearing, she was advised by a local lawyer she hired, Herbert Goldburg, that jail time was unlikely. A photographer for Associated Press captured the two of them leaving police headquarters after the proceedings. The image shows Joplin, clad in a fur coat, grinning and flashing a "V" sign with her fingers. Goldburg looks displeased. Joplin made a point of telling the AP that her sign stood for "victory, not peace". The following March she was fined $200 in absentia and the case was closed without her ever returning to Tampa. Curtis Hixon Hall has been demolished.
24
Was a member of the Glee Club and the Future Teachers of America while in high school.
$5 Million
