Walking past the grand facade of the Royal Albert Hall, Michael Joplin is surprised when the tears start falling.
The legendary concert venue was the site of his late sister Janis’s only solo performance in the UK. And returning there brings the memories of his beloved sibling flooding back. “I just happened to be out on a walk in the morning and saw it and I just started crying,” Michael says. “It was just so beautiful. My parents would have been blown away by the thought of Janis performing there.”
Michael was in London to oversee auditions for the new West End musical A Night With Janis Joplin, which opens in August. He was just 17 in 1970 when his sister, 27, was found dead from a heroin overdose on the floor of an LA hotel room. It was a tragic end for a musician who was riding the crest of a wave. Just 18 months earlier, in April 1969, Joplin had won rave reviews in the British press.
Pictures from the Mirror archive show the star, a cigarette in hand, relaxed and laughing for the cameras in central London. Buoyed by the success of her European tour, Joplin returned to the US, where her career went stratospheric. Teenage Michael watched in awe as his sister grew into a superstar.
Michael Joplin was left emotional after seeing the Royal Albert Hall (Piers Allardyce/REX/Shutterstock)
Janis was just 27 when she tragically died (Michael Ochs Archives)It was far removed from their roots growing up in ultra-conservative Port Arthur, Texas, in the 1940s. Their parents used to push them both academically and musically. “She was so articulate,” he recalls. “Our parents really urged us to be well-read. My dad used to have two volumes of this huge old dictionary, and at dinner, he’d open it up and say ‘You use this word during dinner’.”
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The whole family played instruments and sang. “My mother wanted to be a Broadway singer. And so there was singing all the time in the house,” Michael says. By her teens, Janis was being routinely bullied over her looks and bohemian sense of style. And rallying against Texan segregation laws “put a target on her back”, Michael says. “But my parents weren’t worried, in fact, they were proud. As for Janis, I think she relished the rebel attitude.”
Joplin rose to prominence in 1967 after appearing at the Monterey Pop Festival, where she was the lead singer of the then little-known band Big Brother and the Holding Company. After two albums, she left to continue as a solo artist. But despite the success, she struggled with addiction problems and would return home time and again to detox.
Her brother says: “She was strung out and in bad trouble... My parents were really worried, and rightfully so.” He remembers her death vividly, not least as he was suddenly left in charge of her estate, along with his sister Laura. “I was just from a little town in Texas, it was awkward,” he says.
Janis returned to her family home on multiple occasions to detoxDespite her success, Janis did not leave a fortune behind. “Janis is female and so she gets probably a 10th of what every other male rock star gets,” Michael says. “There’s not a billion dollars here.” As a glassmaker, Michael shares his sister’s artistic zeal. “I remember sitting with Janis and her giving me lessons on how to draw. She approached her visual art the same as her music – she just studied, studied and studied.”
It will make its UK premiere at the Peacock Theatre in London, running from August 21 to September 28. Janis is being portrayed by Mary Bridget Davies and Sharon Sexton, and the show will feature many of her classic hits, including Piece Of My Heart, Cry Baby, and Me And Bobby McGee.
The show has already been a huge hit on Broadway and there are similar hopes for its London run. Michael says it will not “mimic” or attempt to “recreate” his sister, adding: “It’s a celebration of her and her music.”
Frank offers confidential advice about drugs and addiction (email frank@talktofrank.com, message 82111 or call 0300 123 6600) or the NHS has information about getting help.
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