Random Rock Star Rumors That Are Actually Tru (19 items)

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  (#1) Charles Manson Wrote A Song For The Beach Boys

  This rumor has been bouncing around for a while, and it's somewhat true. Charles Manson wrote a song, in hopes of making a career as a singer-songwriter, and he ended up sharing it with Beach Boys drummer Dennis Wilson. They worked on the song together in Wilson's studio, where Manson demanded that they not change the song.

  However, while the basics of the song stayed the same, Wilson ended up changing some of the lyrics, the title, and its musical style before featuring it as a song on the B side of a Beach Boys album. Manson was not happy with this and the fact that he received no credit for the song. Manson and Wilson's relationship soon disintegrated and Manson headed down his well-documented path to becoming a criminal cult leader. 
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  (#2) Michael Jackson Wrote Music For 'Sonic The Hedgehog 3'

  Many believe that Michael Jackson might be the greatest pop star of all time, and Sonic the Hedgehog is one of the most successful video game franchises of all time. But, what you may not know is that Michael Jackson actually wrote music for the 1993 game Sonic the Hedgehog 3.

  This rumor began with one young man who obsessively poured over MJ music and Sonic the Hedgehog background music, and discovered that they sounded way too similar to be just a coincidence. After years of existing only as an internet rumor, in January 2016, the composers for the soundtrack confirmed that the King of Pop really did write music for the Sega game.
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  (#3) Tupac Shakur's Friends Smoked His Ashes

  While the "Tupac is still alive" rumors will undoubtedly live on, members of Tupac's rap group the Outlawz have stated that they smoked their fallen friend's ashes after mixing them with marijuana.

  It was said that the idea came from Tupac's song "Black Jesus," in which he rapped, "Last wishes n****s, smoke my ashes."
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  (#4) Rolling Stones Bassist Bill Wyman Fell For A 13-Year-Old

  As a member of the Rolling Stones for 30 years, it's not surprising that bassist Bill Wyman had more than his share of relationships, but what may be surprising is that one of these relationships was with a 13-year-old. Yes, back at the height of the Rolling Stones' fame, the then-48-year-old rocker was pursuing a relationship with the then-13-year-old Mandy Smith.

  Smith said they first slept together when she was 14, and were married right after her 18th birthday. 
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  (#5) Rapper Danny Brown Received Oral Sex While Performing

  Certain musicians are known for pushing the envelope in regards to onstage sexuality; in 1956, The Ed Sullivan Show decided to only film Elvis from the waist up in order to censor his gyrating hips.

  In 2013, rapper Danny Brown received oral sex from a fan in the front row while still performing during the entire act.

   
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  (#6) Ozzy Osbourne Will Apparently Bite The Head Off More Than A Bat 

  We've all heard the story of Ozzy Osborne biting the head off of a live bat while on stage, but that wasn't the first time that Ozzy decapitated a flying friend.

  Apparently, when first meeting with Columbia Records in 1981, Ozzy took a live dove with him to the meeting and bit its head off in front of the horrified executives. 
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  (#7) Jerry Lee Lewis Married His 13-Year-Old Cousin

  Rock and roll great Jerry Lee Lewis was a pioneer of the genre, and a pioneer of the rock star rumor after word got out that he had married his 13-year-old cousin at the height of his fame. In 1958, Elvis was drafted into the military, and Lewis was poised to become the biggest star in rock music, but before embarking on a European tour, Lewis married his cousin, Myra Gale Brown.

  When word got out, Lewis's fans deserted him, and it took years for him to shake off the stigma.
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  (#8) David Bowie And Mick Jagger Were Found Naked In Bed Together

  David Bowie was one of the most sexually ambiguous musicians, so it's no surprise that there are countless rumors regarding his love life. But one that definitely seems to be true is that he and Mick Jagger were found in bed together.

  David Bowie's first wife Angie claims that she found the two rock icons passed out and unclothed in bed together.

   
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  (#9) Steven Tyler Adopted A Girl So He Could Date Her

  Steven Tyler was known for having relationships with some of the most beautiful women of the day, but one of his most substantial relationships arose from much different beginnings. In 1975, Tyler gained custody of a 16-year-old groupie signed over to him from her mother reportedly so she could travel over state lines with him while he was on tour.

  They were together for three years, during which time she drank, used controlled substances, and remained his girlfriend. They split when she was 18, partly due to the strain that an abortion put on their relationship.
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  (#10) Keith Moon And Mama Cass Perished In The Same Apartment

  Rock stars are taken from us too young way too often, and it just so happens that two brilliant musicians perished in the same apartment and at the same age of 32.

  Singer Harry Nilsson rented out his London flat to friends when he was traveling. On June 29, 1974, Mama Cass of the Mamas and the Papas was staying in his flat while on tour and perished of heart failure in her sleep. On September 7, 1978, Keith Moon of the Who OD'd on a sedative in the very same apartment. 
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  (#11) Van Halen Really Didn't Want Any Brown M&Ms In Their Dressing Room

  Some people use this story as an example of all the prima donnas in rock music, and others use it to show that rock stars aren't quite as hardcore as society thinks they are, and still others simply can't believe it's true. But Van Halen really would not allow any brown M&Ms in their dressing rooms before a show. But it's not for any of the reasons listed above: In fact, it was a safety and stage set concern.

  Van Halen had an extensive contract with very specific safety guidelines and important requirements for their progressive light show, so in order to make sure that the venue had read every small detail of the contract, they buried a line in the contract about the candy. If there were brown M&Ms in their dressing room, it proved that the venue had not done their job and that the band needed to carefully inspect its stage and light set-up.
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  (#12) Van Morrison Recorded 30 Songs In One Day

  Rock legend Van Morrison has always been a brilliant and prolific songwriter, but no period of writing can quite compare to what he did in one day in 1967. At that time, Morrison was stuck in a bad contract that he desperately wanted to get out of, but he still owed the record company 36 songs.

  So, in one afternoon, Morrison recorded 30 new, nonsensical songs (dubbed "the revenge songs") that technically fulfilled his contract. So, while the rumor that Van Morrison recorded 30 songs in one day is true, the songs weren't exactly all winners.
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  (#13) Ozzy Osborne Snorted Ants

  You could do a whole list of true Ozzy Osborne stories, but this true rumor is particularly hard to believe.

  While on tour with Motley Crue, Osborne allegedly got into a one-upmanship dare contest with Nikki Sixx that ended with Ozzy snorting a line of ants. 
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  (#14) David Bowie Can't Remember Recording 'Station to Station'

  When David Bowie recorded Station to Station in the fall of 1975, he was so out of his mind on coke that he later couldn't remember the 10 feverish days he spent recording it.

  It goes to show how accomplished of an artist Bowie was - he could be completely out of his mind on coke and record an album that would redefine what rock music could be.

   
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  (#15) Keith Richards Doesn't Sleep

  While this isn't 100 percent true, there is a sliver of reality in the myth. In Richards's autobiography, Life, he bragged about how he recorded 1978's "Before They Make Me Run" in a five-day-in-a-row no-sleep studio session with multiple engineers tagging in and out. "One [engineer] would flop under the desk and have a kip, and I'd put the other one in and keep going."

  Another time, he stayed up for nine days straight, but that ended in an injury:

  Nine days without a wink, I fell asleep standing up, eventually... I was just putting another cassette back on the shelf, and I was feeling great, and I turned 'round and fell asleep. I fell against the edge of the speaker. Woke up in a pool of blood, wondering, "Is that claret?"
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  (#16) Gram Parsons's Body Was Stolen

  While Gram Parsons may not be a household name for millennials, he completely changed the face of rock and roll, alt-country, and country music when he joined the Byrds for Sweetheart of the Rodeo, started the Flying Burrito Brothers, and released two beautiful solo albums before OD'ing on alcohol and opiates in Joshua Tree.

  Before Parsons's body could be flown back to his native Louisiana, friend and producer Phil Kaufman tried to make good on the pact he had made with Parsons to spread his ashes at Cap Rock in Joshua Tree. Kaufman stole Parsons's body from LAX, set the coffin on fire with a couple cans of gasoline, was chased by police (but not caught) and fined $750. Kaufman's intentions were good, but unsuccessful. Parsons's remains were ultimately flown back and buried in New Orleans.

   
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  (#17) Prince Went Door To Door As A Jehovah's Witness

  It's a well-known fact that Prince was a practicing Jehovah's Witness for decades prior to his passing, but stories of the singer showing up at random homes to preach the good book genuinely sounded made up. Turns out that they weren't.

  In 2008, Prince told The New Yorker, "Sometimes people act surprised, but mostly they're really cool about it." While that's kind of interesting, it turns out people weren't always thrilled with his visit. A woman from Minneapolis named Rochelle describes her experience with Prince knocking on her door as legitimately annoying:

  My first thought is "Cool, cool, cool. He wants to use my house for a set. I’m glad! Demolish the whole thing! Start over!" Then they start in on this Jehovah’s Witnesses stuff. I said, "You know what? You’ve walked into a Jewish household, and this is not something I’m interested in." He says, Can I just finish? Then the other guy, Larry Graham, gets out his little Bible and starts reading scriptures about being Jewish and the land of Israel.
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  (#18) Axl Rose Recorded Himself Having Intimate Relations For 'Rocket Queen'

  There's a rumor that, on the Guns N' Roses song "Rocket Queen," which closes out the band's debut album Appetite for Destruction, you can hear Axl Rose having intimate relations with a woman who may be Adriana Smith, a 19-year-old stripper and drummer Steve Adler's girlfriend. According to Steve Thompson, an engineer on Appetite, "Axl wanted some pornographic sounds on 'Rocket Queen,' so he brought a girl in and they had sex in the studio. We wound up recording about 30 minutes of sex noises. If you listen to the break on 'Rocket Queen' it's in there."

  Do you think Adler cared? According to Smith, Adler "f*cking freaked out" when he discovered what happened. "I ended up drinking and using drugs over this for a really long time, because I had this extreme shame and guilt and stuff," she admitted to Rolling Stone. 
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  (#19) Rick James Was High As All Get Out On 'American Bandstand'

  Rick James revealed in his autobiography Glow that just before he made his national television debut on American Bandstand in 1978, he snorted a bunch of cocaine. When interviewed by Dick Clark after his performance, his nose started dripping profusely.

  James remembered, "I started sniffing and wiping myself until it had to be obvious to Dick and a million viewers what was really going on."

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