Janis Joplin's Real Name: Janis Lyn Joplin

Quick answer: Janis Joplin's documented full name is Janis Lyn Joplin. Encyclopaedia Britannica records that she was born January 19, 1943, in Port Arthur, Texas, and died October 4, 1970, in Los Angeles, California, at age 27 (Encyclopaedia Britannica; Encyclopedia.com).

Real name and early life

Britannica gives the form "In full: Janis Lyn Joplin." She grew up in a middle-class family in southeastern Texas and was the eldest of three children of Seth and Dorothy (nee East) Joplin, Britannica says. At school she was bullied for her appearance, opinions, and style; she later told The Dick Cavett Show that classmates "laughed me out of class, out of town, and out of the state." She took solace in painting and in folk and blues records, especially Bessie Smith, Lead Belly, Odetta, and Big Mama Thornton. After attending Lamar State College of Technology and the University of Texas at Austin, she dropped out in 1963 to sing folk and blues in Texas clubs, first imitating clear soprano folk singers and later developing her own growling, unfettered delivery.

Career highlights

After a period in San Francisco, Joplin returned to Texas, then went back to San Francisco in 1966 to become the vocalist for Big Brother and the Holding Company, at the recommendation of Chet Helms, Britannica says. The band's appearance at the Monterey Pop Festival in 1967, highlighted by her rendition of Thornton's "Ball and Chain," brought wider attention. Cheap Thrills (1968) went to number one; the single "Piece of My Heart" reached number 12. She later formed the Kozmic Blues Band, whose I Got Dem Ol' Kozmic Blues Again Mama! reached number five on the Billboard album chart in 1969. Joplin and the band performed at Woodstock; Britannica says she was unsatisfied with the set. The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, which inducted her in 1995, describes a voice that applied blues, country, and R&B to a commanding stage presence (Rock & Roll Hall of Fame).

Death

In 1970, while recording with the Full Tilt Boogie Band, she died of an accidental heroin overdose in Los Angeles, Britannica records. The posthumous album Pearl topped the chart in 1971, as did the single "Me and Bobby McGee." She was 27, the same age as fellow rock figure Jimi Hendrix, who had died weeks earlier.

Name notes for searchers

Janis Lyn Joplin is the documented full name; she was known professionally as Janis Joplin. Searchers looking for the singer of "Piece of My Heart" or "Me and Bobby McGee," or for Big Brother and the Holding Company's lead vocalist, are usually aiming at the same person.