Chuck Berry is known as the “Godfather of Rock’N’Roll” John Lennon, Paul McCartney, everyone in the Rolling Stones, Jimi Hendrix, Bob Dylan, The Beach Boys, and AC/DC have been very vocal about how berry influenced them…he was rock’s first guitar hero, and he was among the first group of musicians to be inducted into the rock and roll hall of fame. But if we dig into his life, we’ll find that he was often in trouble with the law…robbery, tax evasion, assault, a hidden camera in a women’s restroom, and more.  This is episode 53 of “Uncharted: Crime and Mayhem in the Music Industry” …and this time, we’re looking at the accusations levelled against and the crimes committed by the man who helped invent rock’n’roll. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

From Nelly Furtado’s million-dollar gig for the Gaddafi family to Beyoncé, Mariah Carey, and Jennifer Lopez entertaining corrupt regimes...why are some of the largest global music superstars performing private shows for some of the world’s most notorious figures? Some artists were duped, others donated their fees, and a few embraced the payday...all while dealing with the moral complexities of music, money, and power. This is episode 52 of “Uncharted: Crime and Mayhem in the Music Industry.” The inside story of playing gigs for dictators, oligarchs and criminals. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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The 1970s were a dangerous time in Ireland. An era known as “The Troubles” began in the late 1960s. It was protestants vs. Catholics, British loyalists against Irish unionists, the British army vs. the IRA, the UDA, and other groups… There were bombings, assassinations, guerrilla campaigns, and roaming paramilitary groups, both official and unofficial. It saw civil disobedience, riots, mass protests, segregation, and many, many deaths…more than 3500 people, mostly civilians, died before things calmed down in the late 90s.  July 31, 1975, was one of the bloodiest nights in the history of Irish music…in fact, it rivals some of the worst violence against musicians outside hits involving drug cartels in Mexico and South America…and people are still looking for answers. I’m Alan Cross, and this is episode 50 of “Uncharted: Crime and Mayhem in the Music Industry”. This is the story of what became known as “The Miami Showband Massacre”. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Imagine being David, a 15-year-old kid growing up in Southern California. You’re already typically confused because, well, you’re 15. You’re an only child, and your mom and dad have divorced, resulting in a joint custody situation that adds to your confusion. Your mom is dating again. Her current boyfriend doesn’t seem to be a good dude…your only solace is music… Then, one morning in late February 1983, you’re sick in bed and home from school. Mom is out for a morning jog. That’s when you hear someone breaking into the house.  When you get up to look, you’re confronted by someone pointing a gun at you by someone you know…you’re handcuffed and locked in the bathroom…when his mom got home, she argued with the gunman. Before he took off, the guy let Dave out of the bathroom and told him, “Don’t say anything…keep your mouth shut—or else”—and then he left. Young Dave was terrified, so he kept his mouth shut. But that wasn’t the end of it, though…a week later, this same guy returned to the house and shot David’s mom and her best friend dead…he then went on the lam for nearly a decade…  The trauma that David experienced was unimaginable…even though he grew up to be the guitarist for Jane’s Addiction, one of the iconic alt-rock bands of the late 80s and 90s, processing what happened on that day in February 1983 sticks with him to this day… I’m Alan Cross, and this time, it’s all about Dave Navarro and his witness to murder. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The influence of organized crime extends everywhere…drugs, loan-sharking, protection rackets, shakedowns, gambling, prostitution, money laundering, waste disposal—and the music industry.  It’s not something we hear about so much anymore…but in the 50s, 60s, 70s, and 80s, it was very much a thing…and if you were operating in the music business during those decades, you would have come across Morris Levy.  He liked to project the image of the savvy businessman, an entrepreneur running a successful record label who was also a philanthropist, raising money for charities like opera companies and children’s hospitals.  But sitting atop his pyramid of companies, Levy stole money from artists, shook down record retailers, laundered money, cheated record pressing plants, and threatened people who got in his way…his influence was far, far greater than the size of Roulette would indicate. If you wanted to stand up to Morris, you had to be careful…there was a .38 in his desk drawer and he had several associates on the payroll that carried baseball bats in case a meeting turned difficult…and if that didn’t scare you, there were his silent backers in the mafia. With this backroom help, Morris was able to get his way with everyone from young emerging singers to—believe it or not—John Lennon. Levy ran his corner of the music business his way for decades—until he couldn’t.  This is part two of “Morris Levy: music’s most mobbed-up man”. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

There are all kinds of shady and dangerous creatures lurking in the music industry. Since about the mid-20th century, the mob has found ways to extract money by getting involved in record labels, radio stations, artist management, and live music venues. Although things aren’t what they used to be, the mob’s involvement played a key part in the development of the music industry for decades. One of the key figures in all this ran a New York-based label called “Roulette Records,” which started business in 1957. One of the co-founders was Morris Levy, who got his start in jazz clubs. At his peak, Levy headed 90 companies employing over 900 people, including music publishing, the independent record label game, running record stores, operating record-pressing plants, tape-duplicating facilities, artist management, and a music distribution company. Some called him an “entrepreneur”…but the truth was Morris—“Mo” or “Moishe” to his friends (and a few enemies)—was a crook who controlled far more of the industry than people realized…and much of his business was connected to organized crime. Morris was probably the most mobbed-up music man in history…a lot of people were ripped off for tens of millions of dollars…and more than one person got hurt. I’m Alan Cross, and this is episode 47 of Uncharted...Crime and Mayhem in the Music Industry Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

You don’t get much more Rock Star than Ozzy Osbourne. Through more than 50 years, his wild persona and crazy behaviour not only made him an icon of rock 'n' roll, but also a larger-than-life cultural figure popular with three or four generations. Given the abuse that he inflicted upon himself, it’s a miracle that he made it to age 76.  On this edition of Uncharted, we’re going to trace the insanity that was Ozzy from birth to death. And you can’t do that without honouring his music. He will be rightly remembered as the Godfather of Heavy Metal. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Theft is rampant in the music world, and it takes many forms. Musicians regularly deal with stolen gear…guitars disappearing from stages, rehearsal spaces being robbed, or entire vans being emptied. These losses hurt, but they’re tangible…physical items taken by force or opportunity. Then there’s the more invisible kind of theft…the kind that bleeds artists financially. Fraud, embezzlement, and dodgy managers can silently drain income. In today’s digital age, streaming fraud has emerged as a new threat, with royalties being diverted through suspicious tactics. Identity theft, stolen song credits, and outright plagiarism all fall into this category, along with illegal file sharing and bootlegging from inside CD factories. But the rarest and most cinematic form of music theft? Stealing the recordings themselves right from the source, at the recording studio. Such a theft like this should be entirely impossible, yet this is what Green Day says happened to an album they were working on called “Cigarettes and Valentines”. They went into work on the record one day, and the tapes were just…gone! Green Day has always insisted that these tapes were stolen. However, there was never any police investigation, no suspects were named, and no trace of the tapes or the music contained has ever been found anywhere outside official channels.  This is episode 45 of “Uncharted: Crime and Mayhem in the Music Industry”… the real story behind Green Day’s stolen “Cigarettes and Valentines” album. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Just after midnight on March 9, 1997, one of the greatest rappers of all time, Notorious B.I.G  left for a party in the Hollywood Hills. Tensions were high, he felt he was in enemy territory because six months earlier Tupac Shakur had died in a drive-by shooting on a Las Vegas street and many blamed him. The two had been embroiled in a bicoastal feud that cost many their lives. That night a man lowered the window of his vehicle drew a 9 mm pistol and fired six shots killing the world-renowned rapper This week we look at what became known as the East Coast West Coast hip hop war and how Notorious BIG's death became the linchpin that helped broker peace. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Before the internet, it was reasonably easy to just disappear. Get a fake ID, leave the country with some cash, and you were gone. These kinds of mysteries can also be found in the world of music; artists who disappear without a trace…and I’m not talking about musicians who retired and then become recluses…there are plenty of those. We haven’t seen much of Steve Perry since he left Journey…he’s very much alive but isn’t interested in being famous anymore…Syd Barrett tripped out on too much LSD, got fired from Pink Floyd, and was rarely seen by anyone until he died of cancer in 2006…John Deacon of Queen gave up his music career after Freddie Mercury died…we haven’t seen anything of him. Then there are the musicians who disappeared involuntarily…one day they were here and the next day, they were just gone…and this has happened a lot more than you may realize. This is episode 43 of “Uncharted: Crime and Mayhem in the Music Industry”…and the next of this program is “Missing and Presumed Dead”. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Getting your hands on a concert ticket can be a difficult (if not impossible) task...beyond the cost (which can be substantial), there are all the hoops one must jump through to secure a ticket. You must be computer literate, you need to be at your computer, ready to go when the appointed on-sale time arrives, and you must be prepared to jockey for position in the queue with other fans who are not just from your area but who are logging in from around the world. And then there are the scalpers, the crooks, and the shysters who somehow elbow their way to the front of the line to scoop up hundreds of tickets before you even get a chance to enter your credit card number. These people—and the tools they employ—cause all kinds of headaches and heartbreak among fans who just want to go to a show. And how they operate often involves tactics that are not exactly legal. So, who are these people who cheat their way to the best seats? And how do they do it? I’m Alan Cross and this episode 42 of “Uncharted: Crime and Mayhem in the Music Industry”. This time, our focus is on the tactics, misdeeds, and crimes of scalpers who prevent you from buying a concert ticket. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The music industry isn’t exactly the most moral or law-abiding place, either…if you know where to look, you’ll find crime all over the place. We’ve tackled this topic before…episode 4 of this podcast dealt with the mysterious disappearance of $200,000 of Led Zeppelin’s money from a hotel safety deposit box…there was the time when Joe Strummer and Topper Headon from the clash were jailed for stealing some pillowcases from a holiday inn…and another episode featured the epically violent theft of two of Lady Gaga’s dogs…  We’re going to build on those stories with more tales of people in the music industry who took things they had no business taking… I’m Alan Cross and this is episode 41 of “Uncharted: Crime and Mayhem in the Music Industry”…and this time, it’s some wild stories of robbery and theft. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On the evening of February 25, 1682, Alessandro Stradella was stabbed to death in a square in genoa, Italy…Stradella was a classical composer of some renown…it appears he was killed by three brothers looking to avenge the honour of their sister…and when the knives were put away, Stradella became the first documented case of the murder of a professional musician.  Fortunately, the purposeful killing of musicians was a rare thing until we got to the 20th century…then came a string of shootings, stabbings, beatings, and strangling’s.  Some of these killings were high-profile—Sam Cook, John Lennon, Tupac, and Biggie, for example, and we still talk about those murders…but what about all the others?  Many have faded from memory because we’ve either moved on, the case didn’t get much attention, or the murder was solved and there’s nothing else to say…but the victims need to be remembered because they were human beings.  This is episode 40 of “Uncharted: Crime and Mayhem in the Music Industry”…this time, it’s a survey of musicians whose lives were cut short by someone with a gun, a knife, and even torture devices…and wow: there are some wild stories here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This is a show about censorship…wait, wait!...don’t run away…i know that can be a very touchy subject and once the arguments get started, all the grey areas fade away, everyone ends up in a big fight, and needless to say, the party breaks up.  Let try this from a different angle…there is an area of study i’m trying to promote called “stupid history”…learning about the past doesn’t have to be about memorizing dates, who fought what wars, who was king or queen or emperor when.  Humans are dumb creatures, and that dumbness is always on display…and this can be really, really funny…if more of this stuff was taught in history classes, we’d have more historians and writers and people curious about the human condition.  Let me give you an idea…instead of going through the details of the war of the roses, include this in a history less…in Britain in the 16th and 17th centuries, it was common knowledge that ground of bits of mummies stolen from tombs in Egypt was good for you…mix in a little chocolate and you have a nice little snack…so yes, cannibalism in powdered form use to be a thing…and this true: it’s why there aren’t many ancient Egyptian mummies around anymore. Here’s another…Andrew Jackson was the 7th President of the United States when he died in June 1845, his beloved parrot was thrown out of his funeral because the thing kept swearing. One more…Jack Daniels—yes, the bourbon guy—died of an infected toe…he stubbed it very badly when he kicked a safe to which he’d forgotten the combinations… See what i mean?...and here on “Uncharted: Crime and Mayhem in the Music Industry,” talk about some seriously grisly and awful things…let’s try something a little lighter for a change…  Yes, it is about censorship…but it’s also stupid history…it’s episode 39…and boy, this is one is dumb…it’s the insane true story of The Kingsmen and “Louie Louie”. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I once had a conversation with someone about the craziest tours in the history of music…the usual names came up.   The who trashing hotel rooms…led zeppelin’s tours with their private jet, groupies, and tons of drugs…that time in Atlanta when Ozzy drank himself into oblivion, passed out in the wrong hotel room for 24 hours, and missed a show as a result.   In 1976, ZZ Top tried to take the entire Texas experience on the road, which involved transporting real live animals to every gig…a buffalo escaped and managed to wreck nine rented limos that were parked at the gig.   Around the same time, there was the disastrous Sex Pistols tour of America…there were also stories about The Rolling Stones, Metallica, Van Halen, and all the usual suspects. But the conversation turned to the subject of the most depraved and dangerous tour of all time…who was responsible for that?... Motley Crue?...Marilyn Manson?...Oasis?   The debate when on for some time—until someone mentioned a road trip in 1993 that nearly killed every member of the group.   We’re not talking about any sort of violence…it was a tour featuring so much alcohol, so many drugs, and so much stupid behaviour that members suffered heart attacks, seizures, serious mental illness, and overdoses so serious that one member was clinically dead for two minutes.  That was a summary of something called “The Devotional Tour”…at the centre of it was Depeche Mode…it has gone down in rock history as “the most debauched rock tour ever”.   This is episode 37 of “Uncharted: Crime and Mayhem in the Music Industry”…an inside look at the tour that nearly took down Depeche Mode forever…and it was all their fault. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It’s happening with increasing frequency…we’re doom-scrolling, and we see the message…we wake up to read the news…we get a text from a friend…or we turn on the radio and hear what happened…another rock star has died…   This always comes as a shock…it’s mitigated somewhat if the rock star in question is older or has known health or substance issues…but when it’s someone young or seemingly healthy, it’s extra hard to deal with.   This was the situation on the morning of Saturday, March 26th, 2022…Foo Fighters fans awoke to the news that Taylor Hawkins, the band’s beloved drummer and Dave Grohl’s best friend in the whole wide world, had died.   This didn’t make any sense…the guy had the greatest job in the world…he loved what he was doing…he had Dave and the highly protective Foo Fighters’ organization to look after him…he was physically active…he had a loving family…he had supportive friends throughout the music industry and beyond…and any drug problems he had were at least two decades behind him.   Taylor’s death was completely unexpected and a complete shock to the entire music world…it was one of the most high-profile rock star deaths of the 21st century…but strangely, there are gaps in what the public knows about what happened…and when there are gaps, conspiracies abound.   This is episode 37 of “Uncharted: Crime and Mayhem in the Music Industry”…this is everything we know about the death of Taylor Hawkins…and it is quite the story Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

When you go to a concert or attend a festival, you have every right to expect to be reasonably safe…there’s security…there’s inevitably a police presence…and EMS people are standing by with their medical tents and ambulances. In the last 25 years, security has stepped up…there are bag searches, pat-downs, and maybe even drug-sniffing dogs and magnetometers…there is also greater attention paid to everything from the paths people walk to crowd control to monitoring the weather. It’s not that organizers want to the authoritarian about anything…it’s just business…the business of staging concerts involves following local laws…and then there’s the matter of insurance. When hundreds or thousands of humans gather in one place where alcohol and drugs are in use, dangerous and weird things can happen…people get angry, drug, high, and just carried away—and that leads to trouble. As the organizer of the gig, you do not want anyone to get hurt (or worse) because that inevitably will lead to legal problems and lawsuits. But sometimes imagination about what could go wrong fails us—probably because we can possibly conceive of something so horrible ever happening. Such was the case on the Las Vegas strip on October 1, 2017…it was a country music festival called “Route 91 Harvest” …things started as usual…but just after 10, the festival was transformed into a shooting gallery. By the time it was over, 60 people were dead and nearly 900 were injured… how?... A single gunman with an arsenal of weapons perched on the 32nd floor of a famous hotel across the street…it was the deadliest mass shooting by a lone gunman in the history of the United States. I’m Alan Cross and this is episode 36 of “Uncharted: Crime and Mayhem in the Music Industry” …it’s an account of the horrific Route 91 Massacre. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Chelsea Hotel sits at 222 West 23rd Street in Manhattan…since it was completed in 1884, the place has been a hangout for some very colourful characters…most were New York eccentrics and bohemians who needed a place to live…but it also attracted some famous people. At one point or another, it was home to sci-fi writer Arthur C. Clarke who wrote a big chunk of “2001: A Space Odyssey” in his room…later, Stanley Kubrick, the producer of the movie version of the book would stay there… Other long-term guests included photographer Robert Mapplethorpe stayed there…so did included beat writer Jack Kerouac, playwrights Tennessee Williams, Arthur Miller, and Sam Shepherd, actors Dennis Hopper, Uma Thurman, Elliott Gould, and Jane Fonda…plus, for extra colour, poets William Burroughs and Allen Ginsberg—not to mention Andy Warhol and some of his crew. The Chelsea was also a favourite haunt of musicians…Bob Dylan, Patti Smith, Leonard Cohen, Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, Tom Waits, Jim Morrison, Jeff Beck, Joni Mitchell, Alice Cooper, the guys in Pink Floyd, and many, many others. But the most notorious floor was floor 1…it was designated the “junkie floor,” the place where guests with drug problems were placed so that staff could keep an eye on things… This was where ex-Sex Pistol Sid Vicious and his American girlfriend, Nancy Spungen checked in…they were given room 100. It was in that room Nancy died…it looks like she was murdered...but by whom? ...Sid was charged with killing her, but did he?. This is “Uncharted: Crime and Mayhem in the Music Industry”…and this time, it’s the wild story of the death of Nancy Spungen and the questions that still remain decades later…around whether Sid Vicious actually did it. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It’s right there…point four on the text downloaded to Moses’ tablet: “thou shalt not steal” …if you didn’t acquire something legally and morally, then it’s not yours and you can’t just take it…but humans being a thieving species, we need that spelled out in our religious texts and legal codes. Still, we steal a lot…money, food, clothing, cars, mobile phones, alcohol, drugs, jewelry, horses, razor blades—and music. There are two main ways to steal music: claim or copy something someone else has written as your own creation…or to illegally acquire a finished piece of music without properly compensating the creator and the owners who hold the rights to that song.  The music problem goes back centuries, but it became a global issue starting in the 90s…and there has been no end to people who willing to steal music or to facilitate its theft. I’m this time on “uncharted: crime and mayhem in the music industry,” we’re going to look at those people: the pirates who made stealing music possible and how they did it. These are some brazen, colourful, weird, and occasionally clueless people behind all that illegal (and often) free music out there…and boy, have I got some stories for you. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices