LONDON &#8212 Living fast and dying young has long been part of rock ‘n’ roll lore.

And now there are statistics to affirm the image, according to a study released Tuesday.

Researchers at Liverpool John Moores University, whose report appeared in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, studied a sample of North American and British rock and pop stars and concluded they are more than twice as likely to die a premature death as ordinary citizens of the same age.

The team studied 1,064 stars from the rock, punk, rap, R&B, electronic and new age genres in the “All Time Top 1,000” albums published in 2000. They compared each artist’s age at death with that of European and U.S. citizens of similar backgrounds, sex and ethnicity.

Mark Bellis, leader of the study, said his research showed the stereotype of rock stars was true – drugs and alcohol-fueled parties take a toll.

In all, 100 of the stars studied had died – 7.3 percent of women and 9.6 percent of men. They included Elvis Presley, Jim Morrison, Kurt Cobain, Janis Joplin and Jimi Hendrix.

Long-term drug or alcohol problems accounted for more than one in four of the deaths. The first years of success are the most dangerous, with both British and American musicians three times more likely to die than the average person.

“Being a pop star is a crash-and-burn sort of lifestyle,” said rock journalist and broadcaster John Aizlewood. “If you go into it, you want adulation.”

In good news for aging rockers, the study found that after 25 years of fame, stars’ death rates began to return to normal – at least in Europe. A European star still living 25 years after achieving fame faces a similar mortality rate to the European public. U.S. artists, however, continue to die in greater numbers.