#7 - Ann Marie
Law enforcement in Atlanta, Georgia, responded to reports of a shooting at the Buckhead
Intercontinental Hotel, on December the 1st of 2020. Upon their arrival, police officers found
Jonathan Wright lying on the floor of a room after having sustained an apparent gunshot wound to the
head. Despite the victim’s critical injury, he was reportedly able to communicate with the officers
and answer some of their questions before being transported to Grady Memorial Hospital for
treatment. The police also spoke with 25-year-old musician Joann Marie Slater. She’d released a
Billboard-charting R&B single titled “Secret”, in 2019, under the stage name “Ann Marie”. According
to subsequent police reports, Slater had been in the hallway, in a state of distress, when officers
arrived at the scene. She claimed that a gun had fallen off a table and accidentally discharged,
striking Wright in the head. Her version of the events didn’t align with the physical evidence
collected in the hotel room. Investigators reportedly found 2 shell casings lodged in
the bathroom door and one at the foot of the bed, indicating that multiple shots had been fired.
Slater was arrested for shooting Wright, whom she’d described as her best friend
since childhood. She faced charges of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and possession of a
firearm during the commission of a felony. After being held at the Fulton County Jail, Slater was
released on bond, whereupon she was ordered to remain on house arrest. The Chicago Tribune
reported that the singer was prohibited from making contact with Wright or his family, and was
also forbidden from possessing guns of any kind. #6 - Tim Lambesis
In the early 2010s, Tim Lambesis, the lead singer for the California metalcore band As I Lay Dying,
separated from Meggan, his wife of 8 years. Court records detailed how, in 2013, Lambesis
was unhappy with what he perceived to be his estranged wife’s intention of limiting his access
to their 3 adopted children. The 33-year-old also reportedly became dispirited and angry
about the amount of money Meggan would receive in a potential divorce settlement. It was around that
time that the metal vocalist began devising a plan to have his wife killed. On two separate occasions
Lambesis allegedly approached an individual at the gym about his murder plot and, shortly thereafter,
got in contact with someone whom he believed to be a hitman. Upon reaching an agreement with the
contract killer, Lambesis gave him an envelope containing $1,000 in cash, photographs of his
wife, her home address, and the code needed to get through her security gate. In order to establish
a solid alibi for himself, Lambesis planned to have the murder committed while he was with his
children. However, on May the 7th of 2013, the singer was taken into police custody on a charge
of solicitation of murder. It subsequently emerged that the hitman Lambesis had hired was actually
an undercover detective. The audio recording of their transaction was played during the
case’s legal proceedings, which culminated in May of 2014 with Lambesis being sentenced
to 6 years in prison. He was released on parole in December of 2016, and subsequently reunited
with the other members of As I Lay Dying. The band released an album titled Shaped by Fire in 2019.
#5 - Ari Lennox Ari Lennox, an R&B singer signed to
rapper J. Cole’s Dreamville Records, was taken into custody at Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam,
on November the 29th of 2021. Initial reports on the incident indicated that the 30-year-old
had been excessively confrontational towards an airline employee in the moments leading up
to her arrest. According to a spokesperson for the Netherlands’ national police force,
airport security had suspected that Lennox was intoxicated when they detained her for displaying
what was described as “aggressive” behavior. It was also subsequently reported that the
Royal Netherlands Marechaussee was investigating threats that Lennox had allegedly directed towards
the airline employee and a security officer during the incident. In the wake of her arrest,
the musician sent out a series of Tweets detailing her perspective on what had transpired. Lennox
revealed that she’d gotten into an argument with a female staff member for allegedly “racially
profiling” her and also accused Amsterdam security of “hating black people”. Her social media updates
on the situation garnered widespread support from members of her fanbase, many of whom considered
her arrest to have been unjust and discriminatory. #4 - Gretchen Wilson
On August the 21st of 2018, Connecticut State Police received reports of a minor disturbance
on an incoming flight to Bradley International Airport in Windsor Locks, near Hartford. According
to an American Airlines spokesperson, 2 passengers had gotten into an altercation during the flight,
prompting the airline to request that law enforcement meet the aircraft upon its arrival.
State Troopers subsequently conducted interviews with the plane’s passengers on the airport tarmac
in an effort to establish the sequence of events that had occurred on the flight. While they
were speaking with a middle-aged woman, later identified as country singer Gretchen Wilson,
she reportedly became “belligerent” to the extent that she was taken into custody and charged with
misdemeanor breach of peace. It was later detailed how Wilson had allegedly shoved a fellow passenger
on the plane after they’d gotten to the bathroom before her. The pair proceeded to make threatening
hand gestures towards one another throughout the remainder of the flight. 45-year-old Wilson,
who rose to prominence after releasing the Grammy Award-winning single “Redneck Woman” in 2004,
confessed to being “saddened” and “embarrassed” by the incident during an interview with
Taste of Country. #3 - Sam Hunt
Police in Nashville, Tennessee received reports of a vehicle traveling the wrong way down the
northbound lanes of Ellington Parkway, in the early hours of November the 21st of 2019.
When officers arrived at the scene, they initiated a traffic stop after reportedly witnessing the car
in question swerving in and out of its lane. The driver was identified as 34-year-old Sam Hunt,
a popular country music artist from the Nashville area. The resulting police report described
Hunt as having had bloodshot eyes, and the officers also noted “an obvious odor consistent
with alcoholic beverage”. Two empty beer cans were found in the passenger seat of the vehicle,
and the singer reportedly had trouble finding his driver’s license, instead handing the police
his credit card and passport at certain points during the traffic stop. He ultimately agreed
to perform a field sobriety test in which he allegedly showed obvious signs of impairment.
It later emerged that Hunt had been operating his vehicle with a blood alcohol content of .173, more
than twice the legal driving limit in Tennessee. He was arrested and taken to the Metro-Davidson
County Detention Facility on charges of driving under the influence and possessing an open
container. In August of 2021, it was reported that Hunt had pleaded guilty to his charges and was
consequently given a suspended jail sentence of 11 months and 29 days. The Grammy Award-nominee was
also ordered to complete an alcohol safety course, and his driver’s license was suspended for 1 year.
Today's topic was requested by It’s me BryanGh0stboi, Elizabeth Nash, Streetboard
Torbay and Micah Tisdale. If you have any other topics you'd like to learn about subscribe & let
us know in the comments section below. #2 - Big Lurch
Antron Singleton, who rapped under the name “Big Lurch”, emerged on the hip-hop scene in
the late 1990s as one of the founding members of the California rap group Cosmic Slop Shop.
The group’s debut 1998 record proved to be a commercial disappointment, despite the single
“Sinful” peaking on the Billboard Top 100. They disbanded without recording a second album,
and Singleton largely disappeared from public attention in the aftermath. Then, in April of
2002, he made international headlines after he was arrested for the gruesome murder of his roommate,
21-year-old Tynisha Ysais. According to eyewitness testimony, on the night of April the 10th,
the rapper had been partying with a group of friends at the apartment he and Ysais shared.
Singleton later recounted how they began smoking PCP, and shortly thereafter, he told everyone
to leave except Ysais. He then launched a brutal attack on his roommate, during which he allegedly
used a knife to cut open her chest. The police later came upon the man, covered in blood, walking
naked through the street. A medical examination uncovered that he had human flesh in his stomach,
and investigators determined that he’d eaten pieces of Ysais’ body after murdering her.
Singleton pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity to charges of murder and aggravated mayhem,
but he was ultimately convicted and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
In the years since his incarceration, the rapper maintained that he had no memory of the murder,
and also contended that he’d experienced drug-induced amnesia for nearly 2
weeks after his arrest. #1 - Varg Vikernes
In August of 1993, Norwegian black metal musician Varg Vikernes drove from the city of Bergen to the
Oslo residence of Øystein Aarseth, better known by the stage name Euronymous. The two men had
previously been part of the influential black metal band Mayhem, but experienced a falling
out in early 1993. On the night of August the 10th, Vikernes killed his former band mate by
stabbing him multiple times. Euronymus’ body was later found outside his apartment with 23
lacerations to his head, neck and back. Although the Norwegian media initially blamed the death on
black metal artists from Sweden, it was reported shortly thereafter that Vikernes had been found
responsible for the murder. Following his arrest, it emerged that Vikernes was not only facing
criminal consequences in connection to the deadly stabbing, but also for a series of arson attacks
on Christian churches that he’d carried out between 1992 and 1993. The prominent black metal
artist faced further charges after the authorities found more than 330 pounds of explosives
in his possession, which he’d allegedly intended to use towards the destruction of the Blitz House,
a communist and anarchist social center in Oslo. In May of 1994, Vikernes was convicted on all
counts levied against him, despite his claims that he’d actually killed Euronymous in self-defense.
He was sentenced to 21 years in prison, which was the maximum penalty possible
under Norwegian law. While incarcerated, Vikernes started the Norwegian Heathen Front,
an international neo-Nazi organization. Upon his release from prison, in 2009,
he continued making and releasing music under the name Burzum. He also uploaded video blogs to
a YouTube channel called ThuleanPerspective, which has since been deleted from the platform. Although
Vikernes has publicly disavowed Nazism in recent years, his extreme political and religious views,
along with his past crimes and convictions, have led to him being labeled “the most notorious metal
musician of all time”. Thanks for watching!
Would you rather be ridiculed in a hit song by your favorite musician or have your most
unflattering picture put on billboards worldwide? Let us know in the comments section below!