Death before TV

Thirty-eight years ago today (3-29-69), Janis Joplin appeared at the Sports Arena for one of the first West Coast concerts with her new group, the Kozmic Blues Band. "Janis was flirting with a lethal combination of drugs, alcohol, and heroin," wrote Joplin's sister Laura of that period in her Love, Janis book.

"Linda Gravenites found Janis purple on the floor one day in March. At least she knew how to revive Janis from a heroin overdose.... The media pressure might have been one reason she gave herself for increasing her use of heroin."

Also in March '69, the New York Times magazine ran an article quoting Joplin: "Yeah, I know I might be going too fast. That's what a doctor said.... I don't go back to him anymore. Man, I'd rather have ten years of superhypermost [sic] than live to be seventy by sitting in some goddamn chair watching TV."

Joplin and the Kozmic Blues Band appeared in San Diego one other time (October 4, '69), exactly one year before her death.