‘They told us we could be anything we wanted, and we believed them’ – the life of Janis Joplin, according to her siblings

​“The sound of her voice, the honesty of the way she talked to the audience, the lyrics of the songs she wrote.”

The US singer-songwriter cemented herself in music history through her hypnotic performances and defiance of 1960s female stereotypes. She broke through at the 1967 Monterey Pop Festival, which ushered in a new era for rock ‘n’ roll and was pivotal to the Summer of Love movement in San Francisco.

Her time forging a new path for female musicians was cut short in 1970 when she died aged 27 due to an accidental heroin overdose. But in the more than 50 years since, her legacy has continued to evolve as new generations discover her music. “The idea that young people today are noticing her music and singing along, I don’t think there’s anything better than that, other than if she was with us,” says Laura.

Born in Port Arthur, Texas, in 1943, Joplin thought of herself as a misfit in school, but she found connection with the blues of Leadbelly, Bessie Smith and Big Mama Thornton in her teens, strongly influencing her pursuit to be a singer. She went on to experiment with her own recordings, later joining the rock band Big Brother And The Holding Company.

With them she released two albums, a self-titled debut in 1967 and the 1968 record Cheap Thrills, which went to number one in the US charts and earned Joplin acclaim.

Her emergence as a solo artist propelled her further, and in 1969 she performed at Woodstock with her back-up group the Kozmic Blues Band. Her last album, Pearl, was released posthumously the year after her death. It went quadruple-platinum and became the best-selling release of her career.

She was posthumously inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1995 and was given a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2005.

Her belief that she did not have to be confined by the limitations imposed on women at the time was fostered from her childhood. Her mother Dorothy, a registrar at Port Arthur college, taught women how to acquire jobs and to be self-sufficient.

“That concept of feminism hadn’t existed yet, but she was just showing it,” says Joplin’s younger brother Michael about his mother. “She was just being it and doing it. I think Janis took a lot of flak for that too because she did say what she was thinking.

“(The idea) that ‘you’re a woman, you’re supposed to be shy and timid over there’ – that kind of mental state. And our family was not that.

“Thank you mom, and I really appreciate (our) dad for supporting that.”

The Joplin parents also cultivated an appreciation of literature and an openness to various opinions by taking their children on weekly trips to the local library and getting them to debate against each other on a host of topics.

“So that love of words and written material was very important to all of us, very much,” recalls Michael.

Their daily family activities were soundtracked by everything from rock to musicals. “We had one LP playing records and we would crank it up and then we’d clean the house, or we’d cook dinner or whatever, but it was to music,” recounts Laura.

Laura, who was six years younger than Janis, went on to write a book, while Michael, who was a decade younger than his eldest sister, became an artist.

“They told us we could be anything we wanted, and we believed them,” Michael says.

Joplin’s younger siblings have jointly watched over her estate since her death. “I felt an obligation, without there being an onus of an obligation, just a responsibility as a brother protecting my sister,” Michael tells me about his sister’s legacy over a video call from Arizona.

“When somebody dies in your family, or somebody that you love, they usually go away and you have photographs and fond memories, and that’s beautiful.

“(With Janis) I’m talking to you across the world decades later, and its totally amazing.”

Laura, who joins the call from California, adds: “I don’t think we were really allowed to let it fade. It evolved. It changed. It affects different generations differently. I think we learned different aspects about her just by listening to people talk about what mattered to them.”

Joplin’s overdose came around a year after Rolling Stones founder Brian Jones died, two weeks after the death of pioneering guitarist Jimi Hendrix, and nine months before that of The Doors’ frontman Jim Morrison.

All were aged 27 when they died, leading to the concept of the infamous “27 Club”. Joplin’s association with the group has arguably led to more intrigue surrounding her death than her work, with the unanswerable “what could she have been?” forever looming.

But what fans can hold on to is the music she left behind. Since 2011, she has been remembered in a hit musical, A Night With Janis Joplin. Over the years it has been staged on Broadway, toured the US and travelled to Japan. Mary Bridget Davies played Joplin, receiving a Tony Award nomination for best lead actress in a musical.

The production is travelling across the Atlantic for a limited run in the West End’s Peacock Theatre, with Davis to reprise her role. Joplin’s sister Laura says having the music preserved in a musical is a “joyous” thing, second only to having her still with the family.

l A Night With Janis Joplin will run at the Peacock Theatre from August 21 to September 28.