This is interesting - Researchers at the Centre for Public Health at Liverpool John Moores University have come up with a study that shows exactly how rock stars face their mortality by showing that they're more likely to die than any other average joe. Duh. But the fact that it's quantifiable is interesting. They go through and look at people's backgrounds and causes of death, as well as their track record and was focused on over a thousand artists between the United States and Europe. Average age of death? 42 for those from North America and 35 for European Artists. And, the first five years of fame are the most dangerous.
Read the full study here: http://jech.bmj.com/preprint/bellis.pdf
