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Something rock stars have always loved to say....

Of course, every now & then, there's a perfect example about as far outside of the twenty-seven club as you can get....
Someone who was so dedicated to their craft, that it kept them going just a little bit longer in the face of death, or they were in poor health & didn't want to go out old, forgotten........

For example, I've been listening to a lot of Roy Orbison lately...
I remember that I didn't really get into this guy until he performed with The Traveling Wilburys.
Then he put out a new album, & then he passed.
Wasn't until afterwards that I learned he'd had a rather meteoric rise, only to be hit by tragedy & a heart operation at a young age... 
At that point, he knew he should have been taking it easy, but he was so invigorated by newfound success over the past few years, that he had to get back in...

Another example is Alex Trebek...
I was never a fan of Jeopardy, or any other game show, but ever since he passed away in November, there's almost always a different person on the evening news talking about how driven he always was, from the day he started, to the last day of his life....

So, any other examples that it's "better to burn out than to fade away?"

I've never heard this before, but then again I never followed rock stars that closely to remember every quote.

Prince was quite busy prior to his passing. He was on tour, went to a dance party and concert days before he died.

^Yes, I understand Prince got around on his bicycle...^

I first heard that saying during the intro to Def Leopard's Rock Of Ages...
It's also in Neil Young's Hey Hey, My My (Into The Black), but it's a lot easier to hear in My My, Hey Hey (Out Of The Blue)
Kurgan also says in the chapel scene in the movie Highlander (1986), and Queen uses this soundbite in the song Gimme The Prize on the soundtrack.

I agree with John Lennon.

Sheff: You disagree with Neil Young's lyric in Rust Never Sleeps: "It's better to burn out than to fade away..."

Lennon: I hate it. It's better to fade away like an old soldier than to burn out. If he was talking about burning out like Sid Vicious, forget it. I don't appreciate the worship of dead Sid Vicious or of dead James Dean or dead John Wayne. It's the same thing. Making Sid Vicious a hero, Jim Morrison—it's garbage to me. I worship the people who survive—Gloria Swanson, Greta Garbo... I don't want Sean worshiping John Wayne or Johnny Rotten or Sid Vicious. What do they teach you? Nothing. Death. Sid Vicious died for what? So that we might rock? I mean, it's garbage you know. If Neil Young admires that sentiment so much, why doesn't he do it? Because he sure as hell faded away and came back many times, like all of us. No, thank you. I'll take the living and the healthy.

Theodore Roosevelt, one of my personal heroes.  He always said he was going to go like a steam engine  until he was sixty, then drop dead.
And that's pretty much what he did.  I mean, the guy took a bullet in the chest in 1912 on the way to a campaign event, and insisted on finishing his speech WITH A FREAKING BULLET BETWEEN HIS RIBS before he let the doctors treat him!  Then, when he lost that election, he decided to go explore an 800 mile long, previously uncharted branch of the Amazon River for grins and giggles. He got an infected wound in his leg, lost 40 pounds, and nearly got eaten by cannibals, but he and his crew mapped that river, which bears his name to this day!  Then when the USA entered World War I, he sought permission to organize a brigade, assume a general's rank, and go fight on the Western Front.  Woodrow Wilson wouldn't let him go, but TR made sure all four of his boys signed up and fought.  One of them, Quentin, never came back.  The rest were all wounded.  TR soldiered on to the end and was preparing for another run at the White House in 1920 when he died in Dec. 1919.  One of his friends said: "It is a good thing Death came for him as he slept, because otherwise there would have been a hell of a fight!"

^Yes, Indy, that's what I'm talking about; somebody who could keep on trucking!^

Trying to avoid people who cut their life's fuse short just because they could, but this is on point & very poignant....
Makes it that much more poignant how the over rated Darby Crash offed himself in a pathetic attempt to become famous the night before John Lennon was murdered...........

Who is Sheff?  
That is all a LENNON quote?  

edit:  I found the quote at wikipedia.  And NEIL YOUNG's own interpretation of his lyrics; he said Rock n' Roll is not about survival.  I agree with NEIL.  LENNON often took things too literally, and personally.  In a personal context, I agree with LENNON.

If I recall correctly, Rush Limbaugh's grandfather (of the same name) lived to be 104, and walked everyday to has private law practice until his death in 1996!

I'd like to live past 100. I know it ain't gonna happen- but I don't worry too much about it. If i'm dead, I won't know. I don't know. Nobody really knows.
Unless your a ghost.  :buggedout:

http://youtu.be/sog3etUwtSk (http://youtu.be/sog3etUwtSk)