Exploits of the Music Industry’s Elite
But the celebrities I’m talking about aren’t the drunk, heavy metal musicians or the young, sex-scandal pop stars of today. There are the past. The history of music. The scandals that rocked music and lived to be talked about even today. So, let’s begin with the carefree days of the ’60s, and a band called The Beach Boys.
Dennis Wilson was a member of the Beach Boys, as was his brother, Brian. And although Brian’s troubles later in life are well known (drug dependence and a long campaign of rehabilitation led to the long-awaited release of his follow up to “Pet Sounds,” “Smile”), it is less well known that their are some people out there who partly blamed Dennis Wilson for the infamous Tate/LaBianca murders, perpetrated by Charles Manson. Dennis was friends with Charles Manson, long before he murdered Sharon Tate and her unborn child, and it took him years to talk about this friendship.
It is belived that Dennis introduced Manson to not only the area, but that he had get-togethers with Manson’s “family” and although he did not testify at Manson’s trial, he did talk about it years later when he said, “I know why Charles Manson did what he did. Someday, I’ll tell the world. I’ll write a book and explain why he did it. Over the years, people have always wanted to know what happened, what my relationship with Charlie was. We were just friends.” (wikipedia.org) Unfortunately, Wilson died before he could tell the world what he says he knew, after years of psychological problems, most likely stemming from his encounters with Manson and the years and years that he refused to talk about any of it.
Another big band from the 1960s was Jefferson Airplane. Everyone knows that Grace Slick, the lead singer, took psychedelic drugs and hallucinogens – she has admitted it openly in interviews. But did you know that she was also arrested for assault with a deadly weapon? Years and years after she left the band, Ms. Slick apparently pointed an unloaded gun at a police officer while being dangerously under the influence of alcohol. No one was hurt, but who would have thought that a former flower child would wave around a firearm in such a way? Grace Slick claims to have had an affair with the famous Jim Morrison back in the ’60s. And JIm was another rock star who was arrested amid scandal and indecent exposure.
On March 1, 1969, in Miami, Florida, Jim Morrison was arrested for I. Lewd Behavior; II. Indecent Exposure; III. Open Profanity; and IV. Drunkenness. Eyewitness reports of the incident, which occured onstage, have been harried and clashing, at best. But , it is said that Morrison not only used profanity when addressing and insulting the crowd, but exposed himself to the audience, making lewd motions and noises. He was convicted of everything but the lewd behavior, sentenced to eight months in jail, let out on an appeal, and moved to Paris, France, where he and his wife, Pamela, lived without Jim’s charges hanging over them. He died in Paris, and never spent the eight months in prison.
And finally, we come to the Chairman of the Board. Frank Sinatra was one of the hottest, most popular singers of his time, not to mention that he was a wildly successful movie star as well. And at 23 years old, he was a good looking, virile young man, who, apparently, liked to pursue women. In 1938, a female filed a complaint in New Jersey. Although this kind of charge would be laughable today, Sinatra was charged with “Seduction.” The charges were later changed to adultery when it was discovered that the woman was married, and finally dismissed in the state of New Jersey, but Sinatra’s reputation would now precede him – a lady’s man, a charmer. When he died in 1998, generations of women weeped for the charming man known as Old Blue Eyes.
This is only a sampling of the trouble music legends have gotten into over the years. But Frank Sinatra, the Beach Boys, Jefferson Airplane and Jim Morrison have been some of the biggest names in popular music, and they’re human just like the rest of us. So, sit back, relax, and think of what you would do if you were in the front row when Jim Morrison exposed himself, or if you had an illicit affair with Frank Sinatra. Would you press charges? It’s all about who you know (Dennis Wilson’s acquaintance with Charles Manson), what you own (Grace Slick’s unloaded gun), what you flaunt (in Morrison’s case) and who you open up your private life to (good ole Blue Eyes). But most of all, it only makes a good story if you’re famous and we all want to know, “What happened?”
