Janis Joplin Slept Here--or at Least She Slept Next Door

It was a great twist on Haight-Ashbury hippie history--the house where drug-plagued rocker Janis Joplin once lived was being turned into a drug rehab center. Just one problem--she really lived in the house next door.

The San Francisco Chronicle told the dramatic story Thursday, complete with corroboration from such ‘60s musical luminaries as Country Joe McDonald, who was Joplin’s beau back then and briefly lived with her in the Lyon Street house--whichever one it was.

“It just shows how mythological the whole thing is,” said McDonald, her roomie for three now-fuzzy months.

“Before you know it, they’ll just go by that street some day and say, ‘Janis lived somewhere in this three-block area,’ and leave it at that,” said McDonald. “It’s hilarious.”

He laughed at his own confusion, saying, “I don’t know, I took a lot of drugs back then and my memories are pretty fuzzy. Heck, maybe I got Janis mixed up with someone else!”

On Friday, the newspaper reported that other friends of Joplin turned up to set the record straight after the story appeared and spread far and wide.

While memories may be fogged, Joplin’s California driver’s license listed her address as 122 Lyon, next door to the Golden Gate Community rehab center at 124.

Golden Gate managers say they had believed the story that their four-story, 103-year-old Victorian had sheltered Joplin for so long, that they stopped questioning it years ago. When they sent a news release this week announcing the new center, they mentioned the connection with Joplin, who died of a heroin overdose in 1970 at age 27.

“Maybe that’s part of the rock god mystique,” said Thomas Reynolds, the center’s director of development. “After a while, everyone believes these guys stayed everywhere. In fact, World Entertainment News in London called to say they heard Joan Baez lived in this house.”

“Whether she lived here or not, our center is still true to the spirit of the ‘60s in the Haight, in that it’s all about people helping each other,” Reynolds said.

Peter Albin, bass player in Joplin’s band, Big Brother and the Holding Company, and Linda Gravenites, Joplin’s Lyon Street roommate and clothing designer, both were amused by the mix-up.

“If the stories about Janis’ house can help something like a rehab center for mothers, then that’s cool,” said Albin. “She would have gotten a good laugh out of it.”

The folks who today live in the real Joplin house say they enjoy watching tourists snapping pictures of at least four different houses--including theirs--that tour guides cite as Joplin’s.

“It’s kind of cool to think that Janis lived here, a nice connection to the old days, but we don’t make much of it,” said Tom Mills, 41. He lives one floor down from her old apartment, which has been empty for about six months.