One of the most iconic and successful rock performers of her era, she was noted for her powerful mezzo-soprano vocals, [ 1 ] as well as her "electric" stage presence. In , Joplin rose to prominence following an appearance at the Monterey Pop Festival , where she was the lead singer of the then little-known San Francisco psychedelic rock band Big Brother and the Holding Company. She performed at the Woodstock festival and on the Festival Express train tour.
Joplin died of a heroin overdose in , at the age of 27 , after releasing three albums two with Big Brother and the Holding Company and one solo album. A second solo album, Pearl , was released in January , three months after her death. It reached number one on the Billboard She was posthumously inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in She had two younger siblings, Laura and Michael. Her parents felt that Janis needed more attention than their other children.
Joplin stated that she was ostracized and bullied in high school. I read, I painted, I thought. I didn't hate niggers.
Joplin graduated from high school in and attended Lamar State College of Technology in Beaumont, Texas , during the summer [ 25 ] and later the University of Texas at Austin UT , though she did not complete her college studies. Her name is Janis Joplin.
While at UT she performed with a folk trio called the Waller Creek Boys and frequently socialized with the staff of the campus humor magazine The Texas Ranger. Joplin cultivated a rebellious manner and styled herself partly after her female blues heroines and partly after the Beat poets. She left Texas in January , "Just to get away," she said, "because my head was in a much different place", [ 31 ] hitchhiking with her friend Chet Helms to North Beach, San Francisco.
