Music History

Hank Williams was dismissed from the Grand Ole Opry and told not to return until he was sober. The reason was his drinking problem and frequent absences. He died four months later.

Hank Williams was arrested for drunkenness and disorderly conduct in Alexander City, Alabama. The arrest came just days after he had been fired from the Grand Ole Opry because of his drinking.

Pete Seeger testified before the House Un-American Activities Committee, where he was asked whether he had performed for communists. Seeger stated that he had sung for Americans of all political beliefs and that he was proud never to have refused to sing to any audience regardless of its religion, skin color or circumstances in life.

A London judge fined Sidney Turner three pounds and ten shillings for "creating an awful noise" after he threatened his neighbors that he would "drive them mad". From 2:00 to 4:30 p.m., he played Bill Haley and His Comets' "Shake Rattle & Roll" as loudly as possible.

A rock 'n' roll enthusiast was fined $9.80 at a London court after playing Bill Haley's “Shake Rattle and Roll” at full volume all day and neighbors complained.

Bill Buchanan and Dickie Goodman had the third-best-selling song in the US with their novelty song “Flying Saucer”. It sold 500,000 copies in just three weeks and eventually surpassed one million. The recording's concept involved two radio reporters asking questions that were humorously answered with excerpts from mid-1950s hits. Buchanan and Goodman were sued for copyright infringement by seventeen different record companies, but all the lawsuits were dismissed with the ruling that the parodies did not interfere with sales of the original recordings.

Barry White was sentenced at the age of 16 to four months in prison for stealing tires worth $30,000. He was released on parole after three months. While in prison, he heard Elvis Presley singing “It’s Now or Never”, which inspired him to devote his life to music. He left his street gang, joined the group The Upfronts, and later became a singer and producer. He sold more than 100 million records worldwide and earned numerous gold and platinum singles.

The Four Seasons sued their financially struggling first record company, Vee Jay Records, over unpaid royalties and subsequently moved to Mercury/Philips Records. According to the source, this marked the beginning of a series of problems that led to the label's collapse.

Paul McCartney was fined £31 and lost his driving licence for one year after being caught speeding.

Paul McCartney was fined £25 and lost his driving licence for one year after being caught speeding. He received additional fines of £3 each for two further charges involving the late presentation of his driving licence and insurance document, bringing the total penalty to £31. Police stopped him at 11:45 p.m. on June 14, 1963, on Seabank Road in Wallasey while he was driving the other Beatles back to Liverpool after their performance at the Tower Ballroom in New Brighton.

The Doors officially signed a seven-album contract with Elektra Records. The band also reluctantly agreed to release “Break On Through” as their first single. The lyric “She gets high” was changed to “She gets” for radio airplay.

The new Marine Broadcasting Offences Act came into force in Britain, forcing all but one of the famous “pirate”, or unlicensed, radio stations to cease broadcasting. Radio Caroline continued broadcasting until March 1968.

Bob Dylan renewed his recording contract with Columbia Records.

Bobby Darin sold his music publishing company for one million dollars.

Cynthia Powell Lennon initiated divorce proceedings against John Lennon because of his infidelity. After returning from a vacation in Greece, she discovered that John was with Yoko Ono, who was staying at their London home. She filed the petition on August 22, 1968, one day before the sixth anniversary of their wedding; the subsequent decree nisi was issued on November 8, 1968.

He was arrested at a motel in La Jolla, California, for possession of cocaine and barbiturates after being found crawling along a corridor in a confused and combative state. He was later released on $2,500 bail. It was another complication for Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, who did not tour together again until 1974.

During a four-week engagement at the International Hotel in Las Vegas, a security employee received a threatening phone call saying that Elvis Presley would be shot during his final performance. The caller demanded $50,000 in exchange for the name of the potential assassin. Later, a meal card with a damaged image of Elvis’s face and a drawn gun pointing at his heart was found in Elvis’s hotel mail. Elvis performed his final show without incident.

The Rolling Stones, together with Brian Jones's father Lewis Jones, filed a lawsuit in the High Court against former managers Andrew Loog Oldham and Eric Easton. They alleged that in 1963 the managers had made a secret agreement with Decca Records intended to deprive the group of appropriate royalties.

Former Grateful Dead manager Lenny Hart was arrested for embezzling $70,000 from the group’s funds.

The Rolling Stones sued their former manager Andrew Loog Oldham over unpaid royalties.

The Jefferson Airplane concert at the Rubber Bowl in Akron, Ohio was accompanied by an unusually heavy police presence because of a bomb threat. Fans began throwing rocks at the police, who responded by using tear gas. The band sided with the fans, and bassist Jack Casady called the police “pigs”, prompting the officers to intervene directly on stage and arrest him. A fight broke out, during which guitarist Paul Kantner was knocked to the ground and singer Grace Slick was hit with tear gas. Jack Casady, Paul Kantner and Grace Slick were later arrested and had to return to Akron to resolve the charges. Each was fined $50 and given a suspended 30-day jail sentence. Another member of the group was also injured during the incident.

“Papa” John Phillips of The Mamas & The Papas filed a lawsuit against his former record label, Dunhill Records, on August 2, 1973, seeking $60 million in unpaid royalties.

John Lennon testified in federal court that the Nixon administration had sought to deport him because of his participation in anti-war demonstrations during the Republican convention in Miami, Florida, in 1972. He also said he suspected that his phones had been tapped and that he had been followed by government agents. The federal appeals court overturned the deportation order on October 7, 1975.

Variety reported that Marvin Gaye faced two consecutive five-day jail sentences in Los Angeles County for contempt of court over failure to pay child and spousal support.

Marvin Gaye faced two consecutive five-day jail sentences in the Los Angeles County Jail for contempt of court over unpaid alimony and child-support payments.

Judge Richard Owen ruled at the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York that George Harrison was guilty of "subconscious plagiarism". The court found that the melody of Harrison's 1970 solo song "My Sweet Lord" was legally identical to "He's So Fine", written by Ronnie Mack and recorded by The Chiffons in 1963. The royalties from the song were awarded to Mack's estate, and Harrison eventually paid $587,000 in damages to copyright holder Bright Tunes. The Chiffons subsequently recorded their own version of "My Sweet Lord".

Sid Vicious of the Sex Pistols was fined £125 at a London court after being caught with a knife at the 100 Club punk festival the previous year.

Waylon Jennings was arrested by federal agents at American Sound Studio in Nashville and charged with conspiracy and possession of cocaine with intent to distribute. Shortly before, he had been named honorary police chief of Nashville. The monitored shipment contained 27 grams of cocaine and had been sent to Jennings in Nashville. The charges were later dropped because of procedural defects in the arrest and search warrants; before the agents could correct the error, drummer Richie Albright flushed most of the cocaine down the toilet. The incident later inspired Jennings's song „Don't You Think This Outlaw Bit's Done Got Out of Hand“.

Three men were arrested in Memphis while attempting to steal Elvis Presley's body from his mausoleum at Forest Hills Cemetery and demand a ransom for it. Police were waiting for them after receiving a tip about the planned break-in. The city of Memphis subsequently approved Vernon Presley's request to change the use of the land at Graceland and establish Presley Family Cemetery. Elvis's remains were then moved to the Meditation Garden at Graceland, where they were placed in safety.

Judge Joseph Evans ruled that Elvis's estate no longer had to make further payments to Colonel Tom Parker, ending his 36-year control over a large part of Elvis's finances. The question of Parker's identity and citizenship was also revealed for the first time.

Phil Lynott of Thin Lizzy appeared before Kingston Crown Court in London, where he was fined £200 for possession of cocaine. He later publicly expressed great concern about how the case and sentence would affect his career.

Mark David Chapman, who murdered John Lennon outside the Dakota building in New York on December 8, 1980, was sentenced to 20 years to life in prison. His parole requests were repeatedly denied.

The jury failed to reach a verdict and the judge declared a mistrial in the case of Dead Kennedys frontman Jello Biafra, who was accused of distributing harmful material to minors because of H. R. Giger's illustration “Work 219: Landscape XX”, known as “Penis Landscape”, which was included as a poster with the 1985 album “Frankenchrist”. It was the first case in which a musician was prosecuted over an album cover, and the costly trial contributed to the subsequent breakup of Dead Kennedys.

Three members of LL Cool J's backing group were arrested and charged with the rape of a 15-year-old girl. The incident allegedly occurred after a concert after the girl obtained backstage access through a radio contest.

Ringo Starr obtained an extension of a preliminary court injunction intended to prevent producer Chips Moman and CRS Records from releasing material that Starr considered to be of poor quality because of his deteriorated condition at the time it was recorded. In January 1990, the court ordered Starr to pay Moman $74,000 in costs; in exchange, Moman handed all the master tapes over to the former Beatle.

Izzy Stradlin of Guns N' Roses was arrested at Phoenix airport after urinating on the floor of an airplane, reportedly angered by having to wait to use the toilet. His publicist said it was his “way of expressing himself”.

Billy Joel fired his manager and former brother-in-law Frank Weber after an audit uncovered serious financial irregularities, substantial depletion of his accounts and a $5 million debt to the US Internal Revenue Service. The following September, he sued Weber for $90 million, accusing him of fraud, breach of fiduciary duty and extortion under federal law. A few days after the lawsuit was filed, Weber declared Chapter 11 bankruptcy to protect his remaining assets. The legal dispute eventually ended in an out-of-court settlement, and Joel recovered only part of the lost funds, approximately $8 million. Frank Weber was never criminally prosecuted or imprisoned.

Izzy Stradlin of Guns N' Roses was arrested for disorderly conduct during a flight in the United States. He urinated on the floor, verbally abused a flight attendant and smoked in the non-smoking section of the plane.

A judge in Dublin ruled that Adam Clayton of U2 would not be sentenced for possession of marijuana, despite his admission to the offense. Clayton agreed to make a financial contribution to a women's center in Dublin.

Ozzy Osbourne was charged with threatening to kill his wife Sharon after attempting to strangle her at their home in Buckinghamshire. He later said he had no memory of the attack. He was released on condition that he immediately enter detoxification, and the case was later dropped after the couple reconciled.

Judas Priest were cleared of liability in Reno, Nevada, in a civil case concerning the suicides of two seventeen-year-old fans who had listened to the album „Stained Class“. The victims' families claimed that the music contained subliminal messages that led to their actions and sought a total of $6.2 million.

Rick James and his girlfriend Tanya Hijazi were arrested in Hollywood on August 2, 1991, and charged with, among other offenses, assault with a deadly weapon, torture, and unlawful imprisonment.

Billy Preston was arrested in Los Angeles on charges of assaulting a sixteen-year-old boy. Later, in a separate case involving possession of cocaine and a dangerous weapon, he pleaded no contest and received five years' probation and 90 days of house arrest.

A U.S. doctor filed a $35 million lawsuit against Southwest Bell. He claimed that his wife died because he was unable to get through to the 911 emergency line, as all telephone lines were overloaded by demand for tickets to a Garth Brooks concert.

During the controversy surrounding the song “Cop Killer”, Ice-T appeared in “Rolling Stone” magazine wearing a police uniform. Inside the magazine was an interview titled “You Gotta Problem With That?”. He had already removed the song from future editions of the “Body Count” album after employees of his record label Warner Bros. had received death threats.

Los Angeles police began investigating allegations of child abuse made against Michael Jackson. No criminal charges were ultimately filed, and the civil lawsuit was settled out of court in January 1994.

Police raided Michael Jackson's Neverland Ranch after a child staying there made allegations of sexual abuse. Jackson allowed police to conduct a personal search, which was deeply humiliating for him. He was not charged, but later faced further allegations.