Some musicians possess more than just charisma and talent. They’re mysterious. They make people whisper about deals with the devil and conspiracy theories long after the musician’s deaths. Some of them have become legends grapping our attention even today and drawing us in in their dark and hidden lives.
Ghost
The Swedish occult rock group Ghost is without any doubt one of the most mysterious bands of all time. With lyrics like “Lucifer, we are here for your Praise,” and “Rise up from hell,” the band is the embodiment of blasphemous devil rock. But what makes the band really intriguing is that all six members remain completely anonymous.
They are known as nameless ghouls with one front man wearing the outfit of an antipope. In an interview, they compared their concerts to a mass.
Tupac
Tupac was famous for his contradictorily violent music, and he was involved in gang activities. But all that is certain about his death is that Tupac was shot with four bullets (witnesses weren’t even sure where the bullets hit him) while driving in a car and stopping at a traffic light. Still alive, he was transported to Medical Center of Southern Nevada, where he died six days later on September 13, 1996.
However, rumor has it that Tupac survived the shooting and now lives in seclusion in a villa on Barbados or Cuba. There exist several photos that try to prove that he is still alive.
Giuseppe Tartini
Giuseppe Tartini is the musician on this list that only expert violinists will know. He was born 1692 in the Venetian republic and was the first known owner of one of the famous Stradivariuses. In 1765, just a few years before his death, Tartini had a dream in which he met the devil. The devil played him a piece on the violin, and Tartini, after waking up, tried to write it down.
The Violin Sonata in G minor or “The Devil’s Sonata” became one of his most famous works. It is such a complicated and difficult piece that people in his time murmured that Tartini must have six fingers to be able to play it. (It was also rumored that everyone who played the complete piece would inevitably lose his soul to the devil. Would you try it? Find the sheets here).
Niccolo Paganini
The rumors and myths surrounding Paganini are endless. Born 1782 in Italy and starting to play the violin at age five, Paganini became one of the first rock stars. He had his first mental breakdown at 15, was a drinker, gambler, and womanizer, and doubtless was one of the best violin players ever to wander the earth (playing 12 notes per second).
His skill soon made people think he had bargained with the devil, but his appearance also made them suspect he was the devil’s son. Paganini was very tall, thin, pale with a long nose and hollow cheeks. His lips were said to possess a sardonic smile and his eyes to blaze. Doppelgangers of Paganini were spotted in the audiences or sometimes seen on stage.
Another rumor claimed that he had murdered a woman, trapped her soul in his violin, and used her guts as eternal strings. Before he died, he turned away a priest for last rites, and after his death, he was not buried in consecrated ground.
Syd Barrett
Syd Barrett, real name Roger Keith Barrett, was one of the founding members of the psychedelic rock group Pink Floyd. Barrett was singer and guitarist but stayed only two years in the band. Due to excessive drug use, he started to develop schizophrenia and to hallucinate. At one gig, Barrett tried to style his hair with a tube of Brylcreem (having crushed Mandrax in it). When he turned up on stage, the lights caused chemical reactions with the cream, and half his face melted away.
After he had to quit Pink Floyd, he started anew with a band named Stars. Stars was never highly successful, but a very creepy rumor ranks around one of their never published albums, The Melting Lady. In one of the songs, “Two Little Towers,” Barrett allegedly speaks about towers that crumble in 2001. Not only is he predicting 9/11 but also his own death in 2006.
David Bowie
Throughout his career, Bowie has always used the metaphor of the fallen star. He was Ziggy Stardust, The Man Who Fell to Earth, and sang about Starman and Astronauts. With his otherworldly look and music, it is not hard to see why people often thought he came directly from space.
There have been countless speculations over his last album Blackstar and the song “Lazarus,” with hidden messages of Bowie coming back from the dead in the lyrics (Lazarus being a biblical figure, resurrected by Jesus). It is known that in his young years Bowie was very interested in Kabballah (rooted in Judaism, Kabballah is a foundation of mystical or religious interpretation), and he was nearly obsessed with protective pentagrams. Moreover, Bowie was very interested in Aleister Crowley and even refers to him in his songs (like “Quicksand,” 1971).
All his mysterious interests made people very shortly after his death think about the possibility that Bowie was not dead at all, and the Internet was flooded with theories about satanic and religious symbolism in his videos. The rumors of David Bowie faking his own death did not die down, and people still try to decipher all the messages hidden in his art.
