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Born: 19 January 1943, Port Arthur, Texas, USA.
Died: 04 October 1970, Los Angeles, California, USA.

Joplin was the eldest of her siblings Odetta with the other rebellious kids in her neighborhood. She graduated high school in 1960, and in 1962, she quit university in the middle of her studies. The university then ran the headline, "She Dares To Be Different" in the student newspaper.

She went to San Francisco in 1963, first living in North Beach and later, Haight-Ashbury, where she begun the drug and alcohol habits that would tragically end her life. During this period, she recorded a session with Jorma Kaukonen that later appeared as the bootleg "The Typewriter Tape". Noticeably suffering from her addictions, she returned to Port Arthur in May 1965 and 'straightened up' for a year, enrolling as a sociology major at Lamar University.

In 1966, at the invitation of Grateful Dead to a house in Lagunitas, California. It was there that Joplin relapsed into hard drug use.

Joplin and the band signed with Kozmic Blues Band, releasing an album in September 1969. The group disbanded three months later, with Joplin again suffering from her addictions.

After taking time out in Brazil with close friend Linda Gravenites (wife of Bay Area musician Paul A. Rothchild.

By Saturday, October 3rd Joplin had already laid down a number of takes at Sunset Recording Studios in LA, including "Mercedes Benz". On the following day she failed to appear and John Cooke, the road manager of Full Tilt Boogie Band, drove to the Landmark Motor Hotel where Joplin was staying. There he found her dead on the floor of her room, the result of a seizure caused by a heroin overdose.

Joplin was cremated and her ashes scattered from a plane into the Pacific Ocean. Her unfinished recordings were assembled and the result was the posthumously released Janis Joplin - Pearl in 1971. It became the biggest selling album of her career.

Inducted into Rock And Roll Hall of Fame in 1995 (Performer).