Consider the following, admittedly morbid, parlor game: If every prominent musician who died prematurely had lived to the present day, who would have the best discography? It’s impossible to know, of course, but there aren’t any easy answers. Would Jimi Hendrix have continued inventing new ways to play the electric guitar, or would he have settled into a comfortable career of middling, lucrative blues rock, the way Eric Clapton did? Would Kurt Cobain’s cynical songwriting genius have cut through the noise of the post-grunge yarl era, or would he currently be collaborating with Jelly Roll and Post Malone? Would Bon Scott have just sung on all the AC/DC albums that Brian Johnson ended up singing on, most of which are utterly forgettable? There are no guarantees, least of all when it comes to musicians aging gracefully.
