NY Times former rock critic Mike Jahn reflects on the lifes of dead stars he used to know:

The number of dead rockers -- some of them good and talented people -- of my acquaintance stands at 44. A few are important music insiders. This year there are three additions who died in 2014. This year I’ve added expanded commentary and another yarn.

It's tempting to think that drugs were behind most of these abrupt departures. However, in many cases death came via largely unrelated medical problems -- heart attacks, strokes, or cancer, mainly. A number did die of overdoses of either drugs or alcohol, sometimes both. Others succumbed to crashes by aircraft, cars, and one by skiing into a tree. There was one fatal infection (I expected more). There also were murders and one suicide, possibly to avoid death by any of the aforementioned. 

If you're adding up and tracking deaths per band, we’re talking about three-fifths each of Canned Heat and MC5, half each of the Doors and Who, one-third of the Jimi Hendrix Experience and Peter, Paul & Mary, and a quarter of the Beatles.

They were rockers who died, died. Here's the list, 2014 update.