Eric Richardson [Flickr]

Janis Joplin's custom-painted Porsche is in the Grammy Museum's lobby for Strange Kozmic Experience, which opens today.

DOWNTOWN LOS ANGELES — The Grammy Museum today opens "Strange Kozmic Experience," a look at the influences of three rock icons who passed away at the age of 27, all within a year of each other. The deaths of Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin and Jim Morrison marked the end of an era.

“Forty years later, the music of The Doors, Joplin, and Hendrix still resonate in rock circles and popular culture, an enduring testimony to the power and freedom of 1960s rock,” said Museum Executive Director and music historian Robert Santelli in a statement. The common love-in of music that itself was influenced by blues and rock and roll is "rock’s most fertile and provocative period."

"Strange Kozmic Experience" includes more than 60 artifacts and 30 rare photographs, all in commune together for the first time in Los Angeles. Among the items that provide an intimate look at the artists are journals from Morrison, and formal handwritten letters from Joplin that are striking contrast to her all-voice-out stage persona.

On Wednesday, April 7, the Museum will screen the documentary When You’re Strange: A Film About The Doors before its theatrical release.

Strange Kozmic Experience / The GRAMMY Museum / Through February 13, 2011 / 800 West Olympic Boulevard / L.A. LIVE