Forget biting the head off of a bat…
Did Ozzy really once try to kill his own wife?
The '80s were all about excess, and these rock stars did — or almost did — the unthinkable.
Tommy Lee and Nikki Sixx
If any one band embodied the menacing-meets-sleazy party rock scene of the 1980s, it's Mötley Crüe.
They were the toast of the L.A. glam-metal world, and sold millions of albums worth of
its proud tales of debauchery, relationships, and partying, with memorable songs like "Kickstart
My Heart," "Shout at the Devil," and "Dr. Feelgood."
In 1997, Mötley Crüe hit the road for its comeback "Generation Swine" tour and at the
end of a show at America West Arena in Phoenix invited the audience to storm the stage.
Fearing a destructive riot, security guards tried to hold back the crowd, but Nikki Sixx
and Tommy Lee didn't like that, so they allegedly kicked, pushed, and spat on guard Kenneth
Lee Chambers.
Hundreds of fans made it onto the stage and caused extensive property damage.
"I have never seen an incident escalate like it did last night."
According to the Los Angeles Times, Lee's sentence consisted of an $800 fine and 30
days in jail, which thanks to a plea bargain, he served as part of the six-month sentence
he was already serving at the time over an act of domestic violence involving his former
wife, Pamela Anderson.
According to the Greensboro News and Record, Sixx pleaded no contest, was convicted of
assault and inciting a riot, and received a 30-day suspended sentence and probation.
A big part of why Motley Crüe caused a sensation in the early 1980s was its frontman, Vince Neil.
He was arguably the quintessential poster boy of hair metal with his flowing, bleached-blond
locks and photogenic looks.
According to Ultimate Classic Rock, Neil was in the midst of a days-long party at a house
in Redondo Beach, California when, on the evening of December 8, 1984, he got in his
car to go buy more alcohol.
Already intoxicated, he brought along Nicholas Dingley, a.k.a.
Razzle, drummer for the band Hanoi Rocks.
At one point, Neil lost control of the vehicle and smashed into a Volkswagen.
The occupants of that car, Daniel Smithers and Lisa Hogan, suffered injuries, while Dingley
was pronounced dead upon arrival at a nearby hospital.
According to the Los Angeles Times, Neil was arrested that evening and was found to have
a blood alcohol level of .17%, well above California's then-legal designation of intoxication of .10%.
In September 1985, a court made Neil pay $2.6 million in restitution to Smithers, Hogan,
and Dingley's family.
That was part of a deal – Neil agreed to enter a guilty plea on charges of drunk driving
and vehicular manslaughter.
He was also ordered to serve 200 hours of community service, five years of probation,
and 30 days in jail.
Guns N' Roses ruled rock in the late 1980s: Their era-defining "Appetite for Destruction"
is the bestselling first album in history.
The band remained massive into the '90s, with frontman Axl Rose one of the most famous people
on the planet.
According to UPI, Rose got angry at a 1991 concert at Riverport Amphitheater near St.
Louis, when he spotted a fan with a camera, which he'd assumed guards had confiscated.
Rose then dove into the crowd to grab the camera and remained so mad that he and the
rest of Guns N' Roses left the stage, prematurely ending the concert.
That, in turn, incensed the crowd, who rioted.
Authorities say that about 3,000 fans participated, which led to $200,000 worth of property damage
and 60 injuries.
Rose was arrested for inciting a riot and was found guilty of assault and causing property damage.
"I basically spent my time writing autographs for cops and talking with them about rock n roll."
Ultimately, he was sentenced to two years' probation and made to donate $50,000 to charity.
Ozzy Osbourne is one of rock's most legendary, longest-lasting, and controversial figures.
He helped popularize metal in the 1970s as the lead singer of Black Sabbath before embarking
on a very successful solo career in the 1980s, recording hard-charging anthems like "Crazy
Train" and "Bark at the Moon."
All the while, the singer struggled mightily with substance abuse issues.
Osbourne's popular 2000s reality show "The Osbournes" depicted him in a calm and stable
marriage with his wife, Sharon, a long way removed from the night in 1989 when the self-proclaimed
Prince of Darkness tried to kill his spouse.
"It's f–king ridiculous."
As Sharon detailed in the documentary "The Nine Lives of Ozzy Osbourne", Ozzy approached
his wife in a dark and disoriented state one evening after she put their children to bed.
She recalled:
"I just couldn't get through to him.
And he just said, 'We've come to a decision that you've got to die.'"
Assuming he was under the influence of drugs, she recalled her husband then dove on her
and tried to choke her on the ground.
Luckily, Sharon had a panic button device nearby and activated it, which summoned police
and ended the attack.
Ozzy Osbourne was arrested for attempted murder, a charge that went away after the rock star
entered a six-month rehabilitation program.
Rick James was an innovative musician, blending the catchiest elements of funk and rock n'
roll to create a whole new kind of music, which can be heard on enduring party-starters
like "Super Freak" and "Give It to Me Baby."
After his creative peak in the '80s, James got more attention in the '90s for his legal problems.
According to the Los Angeles Times, in 1991 James and his girlfriend, Tanya Hijazi, were
arrested and charged with false improvement, assault with a deadly weapon, sexual assault,
making terrorist threats, and furnishing drugs.
According to police, James and Hijazi met a woman at a party and invited her to stay
at their home.
Soon after she arrived, James allegedly brandished a gun and threatened to kill the woman if
she tried to leave.
Then, according to reports, James and Hijazi physically restrained the woman and burned
her with a hot crack cocaine pipe around 20 times and forced her to perform sexual acts
and smoke crack cocaine against her will.
Upon release, the victim sought hospitalization, where medical staff called police.
Free after posting bail and awaiting trial, James and Hijazi were arrested again in 1992
after a woman accused the couple of physically assaulting her in a West Hollywood hotel room.
Acquitted on a torture charge from the first incident, James earned a two-year prison sentence
for the assaults, according to Billboard.
In December 1989, Skid Row brought its brand of heavy hair metal to the Springfield Civic
Center in Massachusetts.
According to MassLive, somebody in the crowd threw a drinking vessel at lead singer Sebastian
Bach, although reports vary over whether it was a cup or a glass bottle.
Bach retaliated by forcefully throwing a bottle into the crowd, where it struck 17-year-old
Elizabeth Meyers, breaking her nose.
Bach wasn't done — he jumped into the stands and kicked a man in the face in the process.
After the show, police arrested Bach and charged him two counts of assault and battery and
one count of mayhem.
Following a plea agreement, Bach received two years' probation, had to pay a $16,000
fine, and worked out a payout with one of the victims.
According to the Hartford Courant, it amounted to about $500,000.
Hard rock in the 1980s was all about shredding — who could play guitar the fastest and
with the most dexterity.
Ranking up there with the likes of well-known, America-launched Eddie Van Halen and Stevie
Ray Vaughan was Swedish guitarist Yngwie Malmsteen, who played his instrument with the speed and
energy of a classical pianist while fronting '80s metal bands like Steeler and Alcatrazz.
In August 1993, then-30-year-old Malmsteen was arrested in Miami Shores, Florida, and
charged with assault.
Police arrived after receiving a call from Elaine Potter, who alleged that her 19-year-old
daughter — and Malmsteen's girlfriend — Amber Landin was being held in the guitarist's home
without her consent.
When Potter tried to get Landin off the premises and return to the family home in Arizona,
Malmsteen allegedly turned frighteningly aggressive and violent.
Potter said:
"He took out a shotgun and he took out a handgun.
He said, 'If you think you are taking her anywhere you are not going or you are going
to find out how this gun works'."
After an hour-long standoff with police, Landin exited the home, followed by Malmsteen.
The musician was booked and charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon.
According to Guitarsite, the charges were eventually dropped and Malmsteen and Landin married.
"Mazel Tov!"
One of the loudest, heaviest, most unpretentious, straightforward rock n' roll bands of all
time, AC/DC emerged from Australia in the 1970s to become worldwide sensations in the
1980s, selling more than 50 million copies of its 1980 album "Back in Black."
It's chock full of head-banging standards like the title track, "Hells Bells," and "You
Shook Me All Night Long."
Providing the powerful rhythm for the majority of AC/DC's history was drummer Phil Rudd.
According to Rolling Stone, Rudd drummed for AC/DC during its late 1970s and early 1980s
heyday, sitting behind the kit from 1975 to 1983, and from 1994 until 2015, when his extensive
legal issues precluded him from participating in band activities.
In November 2014, police raided Rudd's home in Tauranga, New Zealand, and arrested the
drummer for attempting to order the murders of two men.
According to Rolling Stone, that charge was dropped the following day, but Rudd still
faced charges of possession of marijuana and methamphetamine.
A judge ultimately sentenced Rudd to eight months of house arrest and 24-hour-a-day surveillance,
to be served at his home in New Zealand.
A style and musical icon in the mid-1980s, Boy George sang anguished, sophisticated songs
of love and heartbreak as the frontman for the British group Culture Club.
He was as well known for his traditional gender-role-defying style of dress as he was for his many hits,
which included "Karma Chameleon," "Do You Really Want to Hurt Me," and "It's a Miracle."
According to The Guardian, Boy George brought model and escort Auden Carlsen to his London
apartment in April 2007.
After inviting Carlsen into his bedroom to ingest cocaine and pose for a nude photoshoot,
Boy George left to go buy cigarettes and upon his return, grew incensed when he became convinced
that Carlsen had accessed his computer.
Carlsen would later testify in court that Boy George then said, quote, "now you're going
to get what you deserve" and handcuffed the escort to his wall and beat him with chains
and leather straps.
Carlsen managed to break free and attempted to flee, and as he ran out, Boy George beat
him with a piece of metal.
In a 2009 court proceeding, Judge David Radford ruled that Boy George's actions were "premeditated,
callous, and humiliating" and left Carlsen "shocked, degraded, and traumatized."
The singer was sentenced to 15 months behind bars for false imprisonment.
Great White hit it big in the late 1980s, in the tail end of the hair metal era.
Fronted by lead singer Jack Russell, Great White found a big audience for its bluesy,
glam-metal sound and scored major hits like "The Angel Song" and "Once Bitten, Twice Shy."
In 2003, Great White played The Station, a small club in West Warwick, Rhode Island.
According to CNN, their tour manager opened the show with some unauthorized pyrotechnics
at the back of the stage.
That started a fire, and Russell and his bandmates escaped to safety via a fire door by the stage,
which a bouncer prevented any of the 400-plus fans in attendance from using, leaving them
to rush for the four posted exits — two of which had been barricaded.
The bottleneck of panicked people led to a large crowd trapped as the fire quickly engulfed
the building.
Liquor bottles exploded, beams cracked, and the ceiling collapsed.
"I see the horror, and it was ugly.
The roof was caving in.
Walls were caving in.
Body after body in front of me."
When it was all over, 100 people died at The Station that night.
No one in Great White faced criminal charges over the tragedy, but they did face a lawsuit
from survivors and the families of those who died.
Great White agreed to pay out $1 million, according to the Associated Press.
As part of the settlement, they didn't have to publicly admit wrongdoing.
Rick Springfield made a name for himself as a pop-rocker in the early 1970s with hits
like "Speak to the Sky," only to resurface a decade later with some of the most definitive
rock radio songs of 1980s, like "Don't Talk to Strangers," "Human Touch," and "Jessie's Girl."
Springfield spilled all in his 2010 memoir "Late, Late At Night", including details of
his mid-1970s relationship with actor Linda Blair.
At the time, Blair was a rising star, Oscar-nominated for her role as a demonically possessed child
in "The Exorcist."
"I'm Damien Karras."
"And I'm The Devil.
Now kindly undo these straps!"
When she began dating Springfield, she was 15, and he was 25 — a set-up that constitutes
statutory rape.
Springfield wrote:
"I am her first lover and she is an enthusiastic learner.
We're actually really shocked by the incensed articles in both teen and regular press about
our affair."
The singer would later meet Barbara Porter when she was 15.
Springfield told People he rejected her because she was, quote, "too young," but after she
turned 18 in 1981, they started dating.
Springfield married Porter in 1984.
In 2000, according to ABC News, police in Malibu, California, responded to an emergency
call at the couple's home and arrested the rock star on spousal abuse charges.