Janis Joplin's custom-painted 1965 Porsche is being put on the auction block by Sotheby's in New York City and could fetch as much as $400,000 for the late singer's family.
The car has been parked at Cleveland's Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum for the past 20 years,
according to The Guardian. The white Porsche 365c 1600 cabriolet was bought used by the singer in 1968 and she drove it until her 1970 death in Hollywood at age 27 from a heroin overdose.
The wild blues rocker often drove the Porsche around San Francisco and to her Los Angeles-based recording studio, said
CNBC. The car was so recognized that fans often left notes for Joplin under the windshield when they saw it parked somewhere.
The car was also famous for its psychedelic mural which was painted on it by Joplin's friend and roadie Dave Richards, The mural includes images of Joplin's band, butterflies and jellyfish.
"Like most people and their car of choice, her Porsche is a direct link to Janis," said her brother Michael Joplin. "She drove it everywhere — and with everyone that was anyone in the San Francisco music scene — with the top down and her feathers flying. Her music, life and car are a part of rock and roll history."
The Porsche has been restored several times, said The Guardian, most notably in the 1990s.
The Texas native was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1995. Called "the greatest white urban blues and soul singer of her generation," Joplin was inspired by blues legends Odetta, Leadbelly and Bessie Smith, along with soul music icons like Otis Redding, Tina Turner and Etta James, according to her
Hall of Fame biography.
"It wasn't only her voice that thrilled, with its amazing range and strength and awesome wails," wrote biographer Myra Friedman. "To see her was to be sucked into a maelstrom of feeling that words can barely suggest."
Joplin performed with the band Big Brother before going solo in 1968.
The Porsche will be auctioned by Sotheby's on Dec. 10.
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