Biggest Rock And Roll Scandals

Between the sex, the drugs, and the rock n' roll - the music business is dangerous business indeed! The history of rock music is rife with scandal, so here are some of our favourite scandals from the sorted history of rock:

RockScandals

KEITH RICHARDS SNORTS HIS FATHER'S ASHES: Keith made major headlines when news surfaced that he had put the ashes of his dead father up his nose (about which he commented, ''Ashes to ashes, father to son'')... watch this

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SID AND NANCY: Sid Vicious and Nancy Spungen were easily one of the most notorious and volatile couples in music history - Sid was a member of the Sex Pistols and Nancy was his badass other half! Together, the two were like a tornado of all that is unholy! They were also totally consumed by each other, and their path to self-destruction seemed inevitable. On the morning of October 12, 1978, after a prolonged drug binge, Nancy was found dead on the bathroom floor of a room in the New York's Hotel Chelsea, with a stab wound to her abdomen. The knife belonged to Sid, who was also found stumbling around the hotel in a drugged-out stupor! According to one witness, Sid was overheard saying, ''I killed her ...I can't live without her'', but he also claimed that she fell on the knife. Sid was taken down to the station, where he was questioned and made a statement, confessing to the murder of his girlfriend. ''I did it because I'm a dirty dog,'' he allegedly told police. That afternoon he was charged with murdering Nancy. Ten days after Nancy's death, he attempted suicide by slitting his wrist, which landed him as a patient at Bellevue Hospital. He did some time at Riker's Island after that, but was released on bail on February 1, 1979. The night of his release he attended a party at his new girlfriend's house to celebrate, and despite the fact he had gotten clean by that point, he relapsed when his mom (who was no stranger to heroin) arranged for some drugs to be delivered to the house. Sid Vicious died of an overdose that night, and a few days later his mother found a suicide note in his pocket: ''We had a death pact, and I have to keep my half of the bargain. Please bury me next to my baby in my leather jacket, jeans and motorcycle boots. Goodbye''. They were, after all, some pretty cool boots!

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CHUCK BERRY'S POTTY CAM: It appears the father of rock and roll had a penchant for setting up hidden cameras... in the ladies bathroom of his own restaurant! In the late 80's, Chuck bought a restaurant in Wentzville, Missouri, called Southern Air, and although the food was good, the real action was to be found in the ladies bathroom (if you looked hard enough to spot the camera hidden in the ceiling). Apparently Chuck had installed the potty cam to spy on his customers of the fairer sex - and he got caught for it! All told, sixty women filed a class-action lawsuit, and Berry quietly settled all the cases by compensating the victims to the tune of 1.3 million dollars... I guess he was wrong when he wrote this little ditty

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KEITH RICHARDS SNORTS HIS FATHER'S ASHES: Keith made major headlines when news surfaced that he had put the ashes of his dead father up his nose (about which he commented, ''Ashes to ashes, father to son'')... watch this

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TED NUGENT ADOPTS HIS OWN LOVER: The Nuge is known for all kinds of unsavoury habits as well as his infamous crossbow, but one of his lowest moments had to be when he adopted a seventeen year old girl he was dating so that he could become her legal guardian in order to comply with laws regarding relationships with minors. The Motor City Madman also courted controversy for having been a (gasp!) draft dodger during the Vietnam War. The staunch right-wing war-lover claimed that in the 70's he got out of Army duty by keeping the dooty in his pants for an entire week leading up to his physical exam, at which point, he got a deferment! What a ham!
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SINEAD RIPS THE POPE: You want scandal? How about this.
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JOHN LENNON CLAIMS THE BEATLES ARE BIGGER THAN JESUS: John Lennon once claimed that the Beatles were ''bigger than Jesus''. Maybe... but it appears that Lennon was inspired by the J-man, too - look at this photo... imitation is the best form of flattery, no?
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JERRY LEE LEWIS MARRIES HIS 13 YEAR-OLD COUSIN: One of rock and roll's most important pioneers was also hounded by controversy throughout most of his life because he took a very young bride for his third marriage, but kept it a secret at first. He would have gotten away with it, too if it wasn't for a meddling reporter at London's Heathrow Airport, who asked young Myra Gale Brown who she was. According to an interview she did many years later, ''if they had just confided in me and said 'Myra keep your little mouth shut about who your are' I could have done it! I could have handled it! Because I was the one who let the cat out of the bag when we went to England. When a reporter came up to me, because he (the reporter) saw me get off the plane with the rest of the crowd. He knew I was a part of Jerry's entourage. He came up to me and he said ''Who are you?'' and I said ''Oh, I am nobody'' he said ''No, no, no...who are you Miss?'' and I said ''Well...I am nobody, but you know, I am Jerry's wife''. You would have thought I had shot a cannon in the air. The guy took off running.......it was a major explosion. I thought ''My God, what have I said?'' If Jerry's managers had been smart enough to tell me to keep my mouth shut hopefully I was smart enough that I would have done it. I am not positive I would have (laughs) but I think I would have had the idea to keep my mouth shut...you know''. Or maybe he shouldn't have married a 13-year-old girl in the first place!!!!
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OZZY BITES THE HEAD OFF A BAT: According the Ozzman, ''I got rabies shots for biting the head off a bat but that's OK - the bat had to get Ozzy shots''.
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PAYOLA: It may come as a shock (or not) to most people, but the music business is pretty corrupt! It's not, by any stretch, a level playing field, when it comes to getting songs on the radio! There are often all kids of backroom shenanigans happening when certain songs get chosen for airplay and others don't - shenanigans which often include the offer of cars and other assorted luxury gifts, or usually cold hard cash in exchange for promotion and airplay... and this practice has been going on since the early days of radio. Dick Clark's career was almost derailed in the early days from a Payola scandal - but it was Alan Freed, a prominent DJ who suffered the brunt of the Payola backlash. According to Life Magazine: ''By the late 1950s, ''payola'' was a long-standing and legal (if sleazy) practice whereby record companies paid radio stations for airplay. But squabbles over profits and hysteria about rock music-It was a communist plot! It encouraged race-mixing!-led the F.B.I. and Congress to investigate these quid pro quo arrangements. D.J. Alan Freed-the man who coined the term ''rock 'n roll''-never recovered from the scandal and died broke in 1965. For anyone who thinks the rock music business became crass and money-driven after its innocent, early years, this moment proves otherwise: In fact, it was always that way''.

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VINCE NEIL KILLS A WOMAN IN A CAR ACCIDENT: In 1984, Mötley Crüe frontman Vince Neil crashed his car while driving drunk, and ended up killing the passenger, Hanoi Rocks' drummer, named Razzle. He spent 30 days in jail and was fined $2.5 million, but in several interviews since the incident, he's admitted that he's still haunted by the accident and believes that the prison term he served for his part in the accident wasn't tough enough. ''I should have gone to prison. I definitely deserved to go to prison. But I did 30 days in jail and got laid and drank beer, because that's the power of cash. That's f**ked up...It's changed now. But you're 20-years-old and you've got a million dollars in your pocket and drugs and drink and women and fame and there are lawyers to protect you. We just thought we could do anything''. And now all these years later, they've got a residency in Vegas! Now, that right there, is the power of cash!!