News flash: Rock stars more likely to die prematurely

The above headline was found in a recent Reuters report. And pity the poor British taxpayer who had to pay for that study -- obviously one conducted by those who never had a rock record in their collection -- otherwise they wouldn't have bothered studying the .

So what now? Guidance counselors to require that prospective rock stars sign a waiver before hitting the garage for their first session?

Here's where it gets silly. They based their sample on 1064 recording artists -- from 1956 to 2005. Nowhere in the article is it mentioned as to who made that list -- and who didn't. It would be nice to know. Take that as a sample for a particular population and you can prove just about anything -- or in this case, that 100 rockers of this group died prematurely. That comes up to the newsworthy stat that rockers are 2 to 3 times more likely to die than the population at large.

Of course, Tim Castle, the reporter has to gussy up the report by identifying some folks who died in their 50s such as Johnny Ramone. (Of course, Ramone died of prostrate cancer, so it's hard to make the connection with that disease and the rocking life style -- so it's conveniently omitted.)

Castle, shows his liberal leanings by quoting a the study's author who suggested that "impoverished" American ex-pop stars may not have any health insurance. (Hence the premature deaths.) It would have been appreciated, if they would bother to name just one.

Perhaps, in the future, these folks could do something meaningful -- like come up with a cure to cancer.