Musicians and conspiracy theories about death go together like country and cowboy boots, glam metal and pleather, folk music and harmonica racks…need we say more? The connection between the two isn’t all that surprising, either. The more popular an artist becomes, the more the public wants to believe fascinating lore about them. (Take, for example, the rumor that Alice Cooper came up with his name by communicating with a dead witch through an Ouija board. Cool story, very shock rock, but also untrue.)
Videos by American Songwriter
This kind of intriguing lore also contributes to conspiracy theories about an artist actually dying but everyone covering it up, á la Paul McCartney or Avril Lavigne. But conspiracies around faking one’s own death are a bit different. These more often stem from the deep parasocial connections we create with artists whose music touches our hearts and lives so deeply. When they die, it can be difficult to reconcile their absence. These conspiracy theories around faking death are weird, morbid ways of keeping them alive in our minds.
Conspiracy theories like these:
Elvis Presley
The conspiracy theory that Elvis Presley faked his own death began circulating mere hours after he was found unresponsive in his Graceland bathroom in Memphis, Tennessee, on August 16, 1977. Some people claimed to have seen a man who looked uncannily like Elvis boarding a flight to Buenos Aires at the Memphis International Airport under the name Jon Burrows that very afternoon. Days later, at the funeral, some said the coffin was suspiciously heavy, perhaps because of the cooling system installed to maintain a wax figure put there in place of Elvis. Even his headstone, which famously misspelled his middle name of Aron as Aaron, was thought to be a subtle clue that the King of Rock and Roll wasn’t actually dead.
In the years that followed his 1977 death, countless people have reported seeing the late musician around his Memphis estate. In 2016, a video of a maintenance man walking around Graceland sparked even more rumors that it was actually Elvis. Other wacky theories include the story of a homeless man in San Diego, California, who authorities posthumously identified as Presley with DNA and that Presley showed up as an incognito extra on the set of the 1990 film Home Alone.
Jim Morrison
Similarly to Elvis Presley (another conspiracy possibility?), Jim Morrison’s girlfriend, Pamela Courson, found the Doors frontman unresponsive in the bathroom of their Paris apartment. Due to French law not requiring an autopsy, his official cause of death has varied from heart failure to an overdose. His tragically young death and the fact that his speedy burial in a Paris cemetery have led to countless conspiracy theories that he faked his own death, including one that documentarian Jeff Finn outlines in his series Before the End. Per Finn’s theory, Morrison’s death was a hoax, and he’s actually living in Syracuse, New York, under the moniker Frank X. Finn said Frank, who works as a maintenance man in upstate New York, bears such a striking resemblance to Morrison that the rockstar’s past girlfriends “burst into tears” upon seeing a photo of Frank X.
Finn says a scar on X’s nose where Morrison once had a mole is more evidence of the death hoax, but locals aren’t so sure. “That’s the funniest thing I’ve heard in a long time,” promoter Chuck Chao told Syracuse.com. “I think I’ll go out now and tell people Jim Morrison is my neighbor.”
Kurt Cobain
While most conspiracy theories around musicians faking their own death usually involve the musician escaping their celebrity by living incognito under a new name, the theory surrounding the death of Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain is slightly different. In this theory, Cobain never actually committed suicide. He merely faked his death and came back as the glasses-clad, brunette frontman of Weezer, Rivers Cuomo. Online conspiracists have claimed the physical similarities between Cobain and Cuomo are too similar not to be the same person, despite the two men having different eye colors. Other forms of “evidence” include the musicians’ similar guitar playing styles, the fact that they were on the same label in the 1990s, and the title of Nirvana’s final album before Cobain’s death, In Utero. (Translating to “in the womb,” some believe this was a signal of Cobain’s rebirth as Cuomo.)
Of course, this conspiracy theory is just that: a theory. Cuomo has played along with the outlandish rumors in various interviews, like his appearance on Rick Rubin’s Broken Record podcast. But when you’re the subject of such a ridiculous storyline, sometimes, all you can do is laugh and go along with it, even if it’s demonstrably false.
Photo by Michel Linssen/Redferns
Leave a Reply
Only members can comment. Become a member. Already a member? Log in.