Jim Gordon was one of the top rock drummers of the 1970s. But that all
changed when a schizophrenic break landed him in prison for murder. Tragically,
he wasn't the only '70s rock star to get involved with the law.
Frontman of the pioneering heavy metal group Black Sabbath throughout the 1970s, Ozzy Osbourne had
arguably his biggest career moments in that decade. Known for his wild personality, and
even wilder on-stage persona, he's also had his share of run-ins with the law. Arrested in 1984 in
Memphis for public drunkenness, and again in 1989 for attempting to kill his wife Sharon Osbourne
while in a drug-fueled haze, his most well known run-in with the law came in Texas in 1982.
According to Rolling Stone, while visiting San Antonio for a concert in February of that year,
Ozzy was caught urinating at a monument near the famous Alamo landmark and was
subsequently arrested and jailed for public intoxication and urination.
"Look what I'm doing to the United States of America, man! I'm a public threat!"
Thankfully for his thousands of fans who came to the city to see him perform,
Ozzy was able to make bail and play the gig at the HemisFair Arena. Banned from the state for
a decade, he would eventually be pardoned for the offense after donating to a local charity,
and in 2015 he made an emotional visit back to the site of his famous failure.
Trailblazing funk legend George Clinton came to fame in the 1970s as the leader of the
iconoclastic Parliament, as well as founder of psychedelic funk rock group Funkadelic. Over the
years his collective of rotating musicians became known as "Parliament-Funkadelic," and Clinton has
become widely known as the Prime Minister of Funk. With the ability to blend disparate musical styles
together, Clinton was an industry outsider who managed to forge a legacy in the genre matched
by few others, and his style and influence in music and fashion cannot be understated.
But as the foremost artist working in the psychedelic genre, it should come as no
surprise that Clinton was mixed up in the drug scene from the very beginning. He faced serious
charges in different incidents throughout his career, but at least one of those charges led
to consequences. As reported by the Los Angeles Times, in 2003 he was arrested for drug possession
when officers found him in his car with a large quantity of cocaine and other drug
paraphernalia. Clinton voluntarily admitted what he had on him and pleaded no contest.
He was handed down a sentence of 200 hours of community service and two years of probation.
As part of the pioneering folk rock group Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young, David Crosby had quite
the musical career, but also a controversial personal life. While he and Stephen Stills, Graham
Nash, and Neil Young were lighting up the airwaves with hits like "Our House," Crosby himself was
battling drug problems, particularly a cocaine addiction. In 1982, however, things became more
serious when he was arrested on drug and weapons charges at a Dallas nightclub for possession of a
handgun and use of cocaine. After failing a stint in rehab as part of a plea deal, he was sentenced
to five years in prison, though he was ultimately released on parole after just five months.
"Any place else in the country, I would have been dismissed, not even brought to trial."
Unfortunately, his drug problems — and legal issues —returned to haunt him. In March of 2004,
Crosby was taken into custody at his Times Square hotel in New York City after playing
a show in Wayne, New Jersey. Apparently, Crosby had left behind an incriminating piece of luggage
that contained not just drugs — in this case marijuana and associated paraphernalia — but
also a loaded .45 caliber handgun. Crosby pled guilty this time and received a fine.
Kiss became a quintessential 1970s arena rock band thanks
to a unique hook. Its members took on the personas of mythical characters,
donning costumes and wearing makeup. Alongside Paul Stanley, Gene Simmons, and Peter Criss,
Ace Frehley played lead guitar on Kiss rockers like "Detroit Rock City," "Rock 'N' Roll All
Nite," and "Plaster Caster." According to Guitar World, Stanley and Simmons fired Frehley from Kiss
in the early 1980s for his unreliability, brought on by substance abuse issues.
In May 1983, Frehley was driving his DeLorean in White Plains, New York,
when he got involved in a small wreck. As he argued with the driver of the other vehicle,
police arrived, prompting Frehley to flee. A high-speed pursuit ensued,
during which Frehley reached speeds of 90 mph — nicking other cars along the way — then drove
around a roadblock before he abandoned the car and was arrested while on foot.
Frehley was charged with drunken and reckless driving, and after entering a guilty plea was
sentenced to five years of probation. Two years after that incident, Frehley was arrested again.
He and his wife, Jenette, were charged with criminal possession of forged instruments after
they were caught allegedly attempting to buy a controlled substance with a phony prescription.
The Steve Miller Band's "Greatest Hits 1974–1978" is one of the best-selling albums of all time,
with more than 15 million copies purchased. The group, led and fronted by San Francisco
guitarist and singer Steve Miller, still dominates classic rock radio with well-known,
blues-inflected '70s standards like "Take the Money and Run" and "Fly Like an Eagle."
But it hasn't exactly been smooth sailing. On his 29th birthday in 1972, according to Rolling Stone,
Miller drank two bottles of wine, then hit a Dallas bar for scotch. Later that night,
he was arrested in the Dallas suburb of Highland Park for public intoxication and prowling.
Then in April 1975, police responded to a call at Miller's house and found a large
fire burning. Its contents: the clothing and possessions of Miller's friend Benita
Diorio. Miller was reportedly responsible for the bonfire. When confronted by police, Miller got
into an altercation and was booked on a charge of resisting arrest. All charges were later dropped.
The Clash helped usher in the age of punk rock in the late
1970s. Highly political with lyrics heavily critical of institutions,
the U.K. band would bring in reggae, dance, and disco elements to round out their sound,
reflecting a commitment to being a mouthpiece of Britain's disaffected youth.
In 1978, according to Chris Salewicz's "Redemption Song," the Clash played a show
at the Apollo Theater in Glasgow, Scotland. The punk band put on a charged performance
that agitated the audience to the point where bouncers and security guards allegedly roughed
up some fans. Frontman Joe Strummer witnessed the violence and got so mad that he ended the
band's performance and left the stage. At that point, other fans confronted Strummer and took
him to task for not doing more to stop the bouncer attacks. According to Clash member Mick Jones,
"He was so angry he smashed a bottle and was immediately jumped on by plainclothes policemen."
Two years later, Strummer would be arrested for another violent concert incident. While
playing a show in Hamburg, Germany, several fans stormed the stage and attempted to grab
the microphone to accuse the Clash of selling out. Strummer grew so incensed that he struck
one fan in the head with his guitar. He was arrested and charged with assault.
Big-voiced and soulful, Boz Scaggs injected some musical flavor into the guitar-based
mainstream rock of the 1970s. An early member of the Steve Miller Band, Scaggs went solo
and incorporated blues, jazz, R&B, and horns into pop-rock, scoring big hits in the process
with "Lido Shuffle" and "Lowdown," as well as the multi-platinum, disco-adjacent LP "Silk Degrees."
In August 1985, according to the Associated Press, Scaggs was arrested and charged a long
list of vehicular crimes. After driving through a red light in San Francisco,
police stopped the musician and issued a field sobriety test. Scaggs didn't pass, and police
took him in and booked him at San Francisco's City Prison for suspected driving under the influence
of alcohol, along with running a red light, and driving without his license on his person.
He was a sideman, backing musician, and session drummer, but Jim Gordon ranks among the most
prolific and important rock performers of the 1960s and early 1970s. Among the major
recordings that included Gordon's drumming: Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers' debut album,
Harry Nilsson's "Nilsson Schmilsson," the Beach Boys' "Pet Sounds," and Derek
and the Dominoes' "Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs." That last one
was an Eric Clapton-fronted band best known for its enduring classic rock
radio staple "Layla," a hard-rocking lament of unrequited love that Gordon co-wrote.
But by the late 1970s, Gordon's career and mental well-being declined. In 1978,
Gordon sought treatment for his issues for the first of more than 15 times.
Professionals were unable to stop what Gordon claimed was the voice of his mother,
mentally torturing him on the inside. In 1983, he told police detectives that
he "just snapped" — and that's why he fatally stabbed his 71-year-old mother.
Gordon remained in prison ever since his admission of murder and was denied parole
in 2018 after his own attorney expressed worry that the musician could potentially
hurt other people if ever released. He died March 2023, while still incarcerated.
Keyboardist and singer Billy Preston was a prodigy, backing up gospel icon Mahalia
Jackson and appearing on the Nat King Cole show by age 11 before recording with Little Richard
in his teens. He became a full-fledged rock star in the early 1970s after he joined the
"Beatles" on the "Let It Be" album, leading to solo hits like the funk jam "Outa-Space"
and the number one hits "Will It Go Round in Circles" and "Nothing from Nothing."
According to the Associated Press, in August 1991 Preston drove to an assembly spot for
day laborers and hired a 16-year-old boy. Preston then took the teen to his
home in Malibu where he smoked cocaine, and then showed the boy photos of a pornographic nature
before attempting to assault him. Authorities filed charges of felony cocaine possession,
misdemeanor counts of molestation, and showing explicit material to a minor.
Preston additionally faced charges over an incident that occurred the day before
the encounter with the teenager: He allegedly hired another day laborer, took him to his home,
and assaulted him with a deadly weapon. Preston entered a no-contest plea to some of the drug
and assault charges as part of a deal, and the sexual crime charges were dismissed. Preston
received a sentence of nine months in a drug rehab center and three months of house arrest.
Detroit-based hard rocker Ted Nugent fancied himself "The Motor City Madman" for his energetic,
stunt-heavy, and shirtless stage performances. Primarily a guitarist and sometimes a singer,
Nugent racked up a string of big hits in the '70s and early '80s that touched on violence,
debauchery, and criminality, including "Stranglehold," "Cat Scratch Fever,"
and "Jailbait" , the last being about a man's pursuit of a 13-year-old girl.
Being a man well into adulthood who is still going after minors was a subject Nugent was reportedly
personally familiar with. In his episode of VH1's "Behind the Music," Nugent confirmed that he'd
engaged in multiple encounters with women who were under the age of 18. He also discussed how in the
1970s, he convinced the parents of his 17-year-old girlfriend to make him her legal guardian.
"They figured better Ted Nugent than some drug-infested punk in high school."
In 2018, Nugent denied the legal maneuvering on "The Joe Rogan
Podcast," claiming he never adopted a teenage girlfriend. Presumably he doesn't watch VH1.
Aerosmith have been scoring hits and filling arenas since the 1970s. The chief creative
force in the band: songwriter and lead singer Steven Tyler, who has wailed his
way through 50 years of hits like "Dream On," "Love in an Elevator," and "Cryin'."
In 2019, California lawmakers created a three-year period in which the victims
of sexual assaults could file lawsuits against their abusers,
even if criminal charges couldn't be assessed due to the statute of limitations. In December 2022,
Julia Misley registered a case in Los Angeles Superior Court alleging sexual assault and
battery on the part of 50 defendants, among them Aerosmith singer Steven Tyler.
"A new lawsuit accuses Aerosmith frontman Steven
Tyler of sexual assault of a minor back in the 1970s."
Misley alleged that when she was 16, she met 25-year-old Tyler at a 1973 Portland concert,
and that he took her to his hotel room. Misley confirmed she was a minor,
but according to the court documents, Tyler allegedly, quote, "performed various acts of
criminal sexual conduct," then flew her to other Aerosmith concerts for more encounters. In 1974,
the Aerosmith singer filed to become Misley's legal guardian so as to keep
her close while touring. She alleges Tyler plied her with drugs and alcohol,
continued to assault her, and urged her to abort an unplanned pregnancy.
If you or anyone you know has been a victim of sexual assault,
help is available. Visit the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network
website or contact RAINN's National Helpline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673).