John Timmer reported on a study done of the life expectancy of rock-stars:

• In general, richer people have longer life expectancies than the general population; and rock-stars are quite rich.
• However the data shows that being a rock-star completely negates the benefits of being rich, and in fact, lowers your life expectancy when compared to the general population.
• European rock-stars have a longer life expectancy than American ones, but European rock-stars still have a lower average life-expectancy than the general European population for the first few decades of their life.
• However, after 35 years of fame, European rock-stars had the same life expectancy as average Europeans.
• In general difficult childhood circumstances led to a greater likelihood of rock-stars dying of substance abuse or other risky behaviour.
• This suggests that being a rock-star isn’t what leads famous musicians to engage in excessive drinking, drug abuse, or suicide. Rather it’s traumatic childhoods that causes it.

Read more about the limitations of the study, other findings from it, and the pool or rock-stars that were used over here.

Source: ArsTechnica