The Queen and Philip are very old and yet still remarkably well. The Queen Mother lived to be at least 3000 and made Methuselah look like a baby. I assume it's the constant medical intervention and prevention, and possibly bloody good genes.
Royals often live to a very old age. Rock and pop stars not so much. I'm trying to remember the last singing star who died of natural causes.
Still thinking...
Ray Charles? Johnny Cash was old but God knows he could have lived another 20 years had it not been for his hedonist lifestyle. He was probably just 45 but aged poorly.
That's the thing though, it's almost impossible to have great artistic talent and a well-balanced, even temperament, with no inclination to drink, take drugs, sleep with the wrong people.
I don't think it's planned or feigned or developed. I don't believe stars get addicted because they are in ''that environment''. I sort of believe, with absolutely no facts to prove it, that with great artistic talent comes the unwanted horror gift of great inner turmoil or misery.
Perhaps the brain is wired differently, and if you can hit high C, write a symphony at 8, or sing like a velvet-draped fallen angel (Amy Winehouse) then your brain also has a wire that sends you to the supermarket every three hours for more wine. I don't know.
When I read of George Michael's death I immediately, and I'm not proud of leaping to conclusions, thought "heroin overdose". I know lots of heroin addicts who have "died in their sleep".
My partner immediately thought Aids. "I wonder if he had Aids and no one knew about it."
Another friend's initial reaction was "pneumonia from neglect" and yet another assumed, like Prince, an accidental opiate overdose.
No one I know thought, "Weird. That was young to die in his sleep. Oh well, next event!"
What are the chances of him just dying because his heart stopped randomly? I guess if it was Bruce the tax accountant with no history of any drug or alcohol abuse, then maybe we'd all be going "Shit that's bad luck! Very young. Must have been a genetic tic no one knew about eh?"
Maybe that is what happened. Maybe in his family dying at 53 in your sleep is a regular occurrence, but I have a feeling that it may transpire that his death was due to complications from something that was a complication of something else.
Could Jim Morrison have ever made it to 80? Could Amy Winehouse have miraculously found the Nirvana of all rehabs and married a nice commercial lawyer and gone on to sing at Wembley on her 60th birthday? How would Michael Jackson have looked at 70? Would Prince have become an old recluse who hoarded sheet music and died at the mighty age of 93 surrounded by friends and family?
George Michael is dead at 53. It's not young, but I'd wager dying peacefully of heart failure in his sleep was not a random trick of fate. Would George have been appalled or amused that he died on Christmas Day and therefore did in fact have a Last Christmas? I rather think appalled.
