Spirits in the Night: Ghostly Rock Stars Who Linger

Back in the day, Neil Young sang, “Rock and roll can never die.” In some cases, the meaning is literal. Among famous rock stars who have died, there are those who aren’t quite ready to get off the stage.

Just in time for Spooky Season, here are some artists who continue to linger, long after the last note has been played.

ELVIS PRESLEY

The death of Presley in 1977 stunned the world. But you just can’t kill The King. His spirit has been sensed inside the studios where he made his records, and around his Memphis home, Graceland. He’s buried on the grounds next to his parents, his daughter, and his grandson Benjamin Keough, who passed in 2020.

Workers at a local Burger King also swear he’s been spotted more than once. Maybe the name of the place confused him?

BUDDY HOLLY

Holly, along with the Big Bopper and Richie Valens, tragically perished in a 1959 plane crash near Clear Lake, IA. Don McLean famously sang about “the day the music died” in “American Pie.”

While the physical bodies of these rock pioneers may have died, there have been regular sightings of eerie lights at the crash site. A few locals also claim to have seen/heard a phantom small plane in the sky around each anniversary (February 3) of the tragedy.

“Rave on,” indeed.

JIM MORRISON

He once sang, “No one here gets out alive” – and he wasn’t kidding. The Lizard King was obsessed with Native American spiritual lore and told his bandmates that he’d been temporarily possessed by the spirits of various indigenous people at different times.

I’d like to know which one encouraged him to allegedly drop trou in Miami, 1969.

Anyway, after passing away in Paris in 1971, his ghost has reportedly hung around Sunset Sounds Studios in Hollywood, where the group recorded many of their albums. His surviving bandmates have also noted how he shows up in some very vivid dreams as well.

Guess “the end” wasn’t what we thought it was.

MAMA CASS ELLIOT

Her Laurel Canyon home was a welcoming gathering place for some of the biggest names in 60/70s music. After her death in 1974, the home was either rented or sold to artists including Harry Nilsson, Ringo, and Dan Akroyd.

Akroyd claimed that it was haunted by her lovely spirit, noting that jewelry would audibly be moved around inside the dresser, and that exercise machines would turn on in the middle of the night. He also claims he felt someone/thing get into bed with him on more than one occasion.

He’s a Ghostbuster; he should know.

JANIS JOPLIN

In 1970, Joplin OD’d in room 105 of the Landmark Motor Hotel (now the Highland Gardens Hotel) in Hollywood, joining the infamous “27 Club” (which would include Morrison, Brian Jones, and Jimi Hendrix). Since then, staff and guests have noted that closet doors will open and close at odd times, and lights will flicker when her name is mentioned.

The room has become something of a shrine, where fans check in to leave artwork, notes, and bottles of Southern Comfort.

That’s an entirely different category of “spirit,” but it was her favorite, so…

GRAM PARSONS

One of the architects of country rock passed away in 1973, in room 8 of California’s Joshua Tree Inn. While his family in Louisiana wanted his body returned home for a proper burial, Parsons’ manager and some friends stole it from the airport, took it to the desert, and attempted to burn it in a funeral pyre, in accordance with Parsons’ wishes. (It didn’t quite go to plan, and they were given a $750 fine.)

Fans can still stay in Room 8, where the spirit of the Flying Burrito Brother is said to hang around.

SID VICIOUS

After brutally stabbing and killing his girlfriend, Nancy Spungen, in 1978, Sid took off, dying of an overdose a few days later. His ghost has frequently been spotted around the scene of the crime, New York’s storied Hotel Chelsea. Staff and guests often see him in the elevator.

KURT COBAIN

The death of the Nirvana frontman in April of 1994 rocked the grunge world. Later, a bench was dedicated in his memory in Seattle’s Viretta Park. Fans often sense his presence hanging near that memorial.

Courtney Love also noted that she’d seen her former husband right after she and their daughter moved into a home in L.A. He said, “Hi,” then vanished.

Smells like teen spirit, alright.

JOHN LENNON

Opening in 1884, New York’s Dakota apartment building had built up plenty of haunted history before John Lennon and Yoko Ono moved in in 1973. There’s a reason it was chosen for the filming of Rosemary’s Baby.

Right before his death in 1980, Lennon reportedly saw the ghost of “the crying lady” in the cavernous halls. She had lived there in the early 1900’s and still roams the building, sobbing uncontrollably in search of a daughter lost to a tragic accident.

Since his murder, several people claim to have seen Lennon’s spirit around the area outside the building where he collapsed that night in December; in each sighting, he’s surrounded by a ghostly light. Yoko reported seeing him sitting at his white “Imagine” piano in their living room.

During the 1994 recording of “Free As a Bird,” his Beatle bandmates all claimed to have felt his presence as they worked. Paul noted, “There were a lot of strange goings-on in the studio—noises that shouldn’t have been and equipment doing all manner of weird things.”

He added, “We put one of those spoof backwards recordings on the end of the single for a laugh, to give all those Beatles nuts something to do…Then we were listening to the finished single in the studio one night, and it gets to the end, and it goes ‘zzzwrk ngggwaaahh jooohn lennnnon qwwwrk.’ I swear to God.”

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This post was previously published on CultureSonar.

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