
Some of the greatest talents in modern music were cut down in their prime, leaving fans to guess what sort of heart-stopping guitar riffs Jimi Hendrix may have come up with had he lived past 27, or how John Lennon would have continued to shape rock & roll as we know it had he not been gunned down at age 40.



While there's no way to know the genius rock anthems that could have been, thanks to these 12 age-progressed portraits commissioned by Sachs Media we can at least see what our idols might look like today.



John Lennon, Jim Morrison, Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, Bob Marley, Keith Moon, Elvis Presley, Mama Cass Elliot, Kurt Cobain, Dennis Wilson, Bobby Darin, and Karen Carpenter have all gotten the treatment and the results make for a fascinating trip into a future denied by fate.



The project was made possible by Michigan-based group Phojoe using state-of-the-art specialized technology, the same that is used to create the age-progressed photos used in the search for missing persons.



'Through this series of images, we hope to honor them and evoke some of the magic they brought to millions of their fans,' said Sachs Media's CEO Ron Sachs, who commissioned the project, 'even as we ponder what wonderful new contributions they still could have made.'





Break on through FROM the other side: No, Jon Voight hasn't given up shaving. This is the Lizard King himself - The Doors frontman Jim Morrison - if he'd lived to see the new millennium. Jim would surely be sporting that full head of hair and intense gaze had he not died of heart failure in a Paris bathtub in 1971 at the age of 27, after years of hard living and drug and alcohol abuse. If Morrison were alive today, he would be preparing to turn 70 years old on December 8



Aging in Vain: The man who brought the Caribbean musical genre of reggae to the world, Bob Marley, would today be 68 had he not died tragically from cancer in 1981 at the age of 36. Marley sold an astounding 20 million albums over the course of his career, an unheard of feat for a musician who came from a nation as impoverished as Jamaica. Marley was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1994



Born Naomi Cohen in Baltimore in 1941, Cass Elliot - AKA Mama Cass - became an overnight success when she formed the Mamas And The Papas in 1965. Cass's soulful crooning was as much a part of the band's recipe for success as their signature harmonies. Cass embarked on a solo career after the group split in 1971 and in 1974 she was found dead at 32 from a heart attack in a London flat owned by singer Harry Nilsson. Cass would have celebrated her 72nd birthday in September



Smells like 40-something spirit: : Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain joined a dubious club when he died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound in 1994. Dead at the age of 27, he'll forever be listed alongside legends Jim Morrison, Janis Joplin, and Jimi Hendrix who also died tragically at that same age (Amy Winehouse recently joined the 27 Club). Today, Cobain would be 46 and apparently still sporting plaid flannel shirts



Bobby Darin found international success after his goofy song Splish Splash became a worldwide hit. The New York native was hugely popular in the 1960s and even starred in feature films alongside Rock Hudson, Gregory Peck, Tony Curtis and Pat Boone. He even helped catapult another singer, Wayne Newton, to stardom. After years of heart problems, Darin died of heart failure at just 37 years old. He was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1990. Today, Darin would be a ripe old 77



Yesterday once more: Karen Carpenter's hypnotic voice and drumming skills helped catapult her to stardom alongside her brother Richard as the group The Carpenters in the 1970s. Behind the fame, Richard battled a pill addiction and Karen was starving herself and taking laxatives in an attempt to stay thin. The years of starvation eventually caught up to Carpenter in 1983 when she succumbed to heart failure at the age of 32. Today, she would be 63



Hello, goodbye: Few musical artists are credited with molding rock music as single-handedly and as profoundly as John Lennon. He played a leading role in the musical stylings of he Beatles and, since his death in 1980, few music historians have ceased to wonder what else he would have produced if given the chance. He was murdered at the age of 40 outside his apartment in New York. Today, Lennon would be 73



Moon the loon: Keith Moon joined The Who at just 17 and burned very brightly until his death from a drug overdose in 1978 at the age of 32 (coincidentally, he died in the same Harry Nilsson-owned flat where Cass Elliot had died four years earlier. Understandably, Nilsson sold the flat). Moon was infamous for his erratic behavior, and he all-but invented the now industry-standard art of trashing hotel rooms. All this, and one of the greatest rock drummers to ever live too. He'd be 67 this year



'Time': Janis Joplin's raw, unrestrained vocals made her a force to be reckoned with on stage and her wild child ways made her an attention getter off stage. She would swill bourbon, choke down amphetamines, and use heroin as if it were part of her bluesy, soulful performances. But those crazy ways caught up to Joplin in 1970 when she died of an overdose at 27. Had she somehow conquered her demons and lived to today, Joplin would be 70 years old



The King: Elvis Presley found almost overnight success and became a rock star and feature film actor in the 1950s, thanks to the signature swagger that to this day is his lasting thumbprint on the genre he helped popularize. By the 1970s, though, The King's swag had cooled a bit and he'd become a Las Vegas staple more than anything else. He died in 1977 at the age of 42 of heart failure, having battled a prescription drug addiction. The King would be 78 today.



Happy birthday: Jimi Hendrix's legacy lives on in the continued generations of music lovers still enamored with his guitar prowess. Though he died at 27 after what was ostensibly a short career, he's known today as one of the greatest rock guitarists to ever live. He died in 1970 from complications from drug use. This month, Hendrix would be celebrating his 71st birthday

