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Culture September 18, 2017
Janis Joplin, Kurt Cobain and Jimi Hendrix... What do they all have in common?
You’re in your college dorm room and you’re looking to roll up some doobs with one of your bros. The Cheetos are bought, the Coca-Cola is fizzing and you plant yourselves on one comfy, smelly couch. All you guys need to do is puff the magic dragon.
As you reach in your pocket to blaze it up you reveal a beautiful white lighter. Uh oh.
If your friend cares about you at all, they’re probably yelling at you to put the lighter down. Why? Because they’re bad luck.
Back in the day when little ol’ Jimi Hendrix finished up a show, he decided to smoke and he wanted to smoke weed. After he packed himself some cannabis in his Sherlock Holmes of a pipe, he took one puff and he was found dead. At least, that’s how the legend goes.
Famous musicians, such as Janis Joplin, Kurt Cobain and Jimi Hendrix, died at the early age of 27.
What do all these musicians have in common? When all of them were found, they were found with a Bic white lighter in their pockets.
Thus, stoners all over the world have believed in the curse of the white light and have even tried to avoid packages that include a Bic white lighter. Better safe than sorry, right?
This tale, though terrifying, is very much a superstition.
No, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin and Kurt Cobain did not die at the hands of a Bic white lighter. One of the reasons this couldn’t have been possible is that disposable lighters were not around at the time Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin were alive.
The first disposable lighter released by Bic was sold in 1973. Jimi Hendrix died in 1970 and he died of a barbiturate overdose. As for Janis Joplin, she died also in 1970 from a heroin overdose.
Kurt Cobain was the lead singer in the grunge band “Nirvana.” And as the band took off, so did Cobain’s heroin addiction. And unfortunately, Cobain committed suicide in 1994 at his house in Seattle, Washington.
Years later, in 2014, photos were released from Cobain’s apartment and they found a pack a cigarettes, a winter hat, cigarette buds, among other things. They also found a cigarette lighter. But much to your disappointment, it was not white. From the pictures, it looked like it was yellow.
From various Reddit commenters, the color of the deathly lighter varies from region and generation. Some say that the color used to be yellow. Others, however, don’t use the white lighter because they believe you’ll see red, white and blue flashing behind you after using it.
At the end of the day, though, it’s a myth.
So if you really need a lighter and only a white one is available, you can go ahead and reach for it.
