He may have had the Folsom Prison Blues, but it wasn’t until Johnny Cash found himself in a
real Ring of Fire that the feds came a-knockin'... and he isn't alone on the wrong side of the law.
"Papa" John Phillips was one of the most important musicians of the '60s,
due in large part to his work with The Mamas & the Papas. He was also an afflicted man,
with a life marked by drug addiction and unstable relationships. In 2009, his daughter, Mackenzie
Phillips — a successful actor and singer in her own right — leveled a shocking allegation against
him: that they had an abusive relationship throughout the early part of her life.
In her book "High on Arrival," and in a subsequent interview on "Oprah,"
Mackenzie claims she awoke to him assaulting her around age 17,
and that it went on for a decade. It only ended after she got pregnant.
"I had an abortion. And I never let him touch me again."
While the rest of the Phillips family acknowledge that John wasn't exactly a saint, they're all of
different minds on Mackenzie's allegations. John's ex-wives, Michelle Phillips and Geneviève Waite,
didn't believe the allegations: Michelle told The Hollywood Reporter that Mackenzie was mentally
unwell, while Geneviève released a statement saying she did not believe John was capable of it.
John and Michelle's daughter Chynna Phillips, however, fully believes her half-sister.
"Yeah, I knew. I knew for 13 years."
Jessica Woods, daughter of John's bandmate Denny Doherty, emailed "Oprah" and said,
"Everything she said is true. My dad told me the awful truth.
He was horrified at what John had done and knew all of it."
On January 16, 1980, Paul McCartney flew into Tokyo to kick off a tour of Japan with his band,
Wings. As History details, upon arrival, Japanese authorities found about half a
pound of marijuana in McCartney's belongings and arrested him. He was charged with smuggling,
even though he claimed it was for personal use — which didn't exactly help his case.
The entire ordeal saw him detained for nine days before getting deported from the country.
"I still am hazy as to how that happened, but it did."
It's true that The Beatles were always associated with drug use. And, even though
it's still illegal in many places, a rock legend smoking a joint is largely a victimless crime.
That is, unless you're in Japan — a country with both stringent drug laws
and, as Vice notes, a strong social stigma against drug use.
Though the legal consequences are enormous, the social consequences are life changing.
As Japan-based journalist Brian Ashcraft explained in a column on Kotaku:
"If you're in Japan, keep this mantra in mind: Never do drugs in this country. Ever."
Besides the risk of lengthy jail sentences, stars — big and small — have seen their
careers come to screeching halts after getting charged with drug possession.
McCartney got off easy. In 2004, he revealed why he was so cavalier about taking drugs on a plane:
"This stuff was too good to flush down the toilet, so I thought I'd take it with me."
In March of 1969, The Doors performed in Miami, Florida. Lead singer Jim Morrison was,
by most accounts, drunk and erratic. By some accounts, he taunted the crowd and exposed
himself. This led to him getting charged with a felony and three misdemeanors for his behavior.
Whether or not he disrobed is a source of contention to this day, but there's
a preponderance of evidence that he didn't. History notes that almost all the witnesses
for the prosecution had connections to the cops or the district attorney. Indeed, the Miami Herald
interviewed at least three people in attendance, all of whom deny that Morrison dropped trou except
for an off-duty cop present that night. Doors drummer John Densmore told The Hollywood Reporter:
"He didn't do it! I was there; if Jim had revealed the golden shaft, I would have
known. There were hundreds of photographs taken and tons of cops and no evidence."
Either way, the trial ended with Morrison convicted of indecent exposure and open
profanity. Morrison posted bail and was still appealing his conviction when he died in France.
In 2010, Florida Governor Charlie Crist posthumously pardoned Morrison. Per Reuters,
Crist said this was because Morrison's death robbed him of the right of appeal.
Wilson Pickett gave us "Land of 1000 Dances" in the mid '60s. He also
became the "Man of a Dozen Crimes" in the '90s, most of them drunk-driving related.
In 1991, Pickett was charged with drunk driving
after flooring his Chevy Silverado over his neighbor's yard and threatening him,
per UPI. This neighbor just happened to be the mayor of Englewood, New Jersey.
"The wicked, wicked, wicked, wicked Wilson Pickett."
Jet reported that Pickett agreed to perform
a charity concert in order to have the charges dropped.
This was far from the end of his problems with drunk driving:
While intoxicated behind the wheel, Pickett drove his car into an 86-year-old pedestrian in 1993.
The AP reported a strict sentence for that one: one year in prison, five years' probation,
a $5,000 fine, alcohol treatment, and 200 hours of community service. No charity concert here.
The Who were synonymous with destruction, and drummer Keith Moon in particular has his share
of wild stories. Many of those stories are tragic, including the little-remembered incident where he
accidentally killed a man. The precise details are a bit fuzzy, but coverage by
Rolling Stone and research by journalist and Moon biographer Tony Fletcher suss out a sorry scene.
In January of 1970, Moon and some friends visited a pub in Hatfield, Hertfordshire. Among those
friends was Neil Boland, a chauffeur he hired with the expectation of being wasted. When the group
left the pub, they were accosted by skinheads, who weren't pleased seeing a rich man with a fancy car
in their neighborhood. Boland either left the car or was pulled out, at which point Moon took
the wheel and drove to safety — unknowingly driving over, dragging, and killing Boland.
Moon pleaded guilty to drunk driving, driving without a license, and driving without insurance.
Even so, after more details emerged, the court cleared him of all charges.
According to Rolling Stone, the judge even said:
"You had no choice but to act the way you did and no moral culpability is attached to you."
Even though he was exonerated, Moon was wracked with guilt. Pamela Des Barres,
a famous groupie and brief romantic partner of Moon,
recalled that he once broke down and claimed he was a killer. She told The Sun:
"He would wake up screaming. It was so sad because it was obviously an
accident but he blamed himself."
"It would often come up. 'Oh, how could I have done that? I'm a murderer.'"
Peter Yarrow is best known as the "Peter" in Peter, Paul,
and Mary. He's remembered as much for his peace activism as he is for "Puff, the Magic Dragon."
"He's talking!"
"Aw, Mom. Dad."
He was also convicted of assaulting a teenage girl in 1969,
a charge to which he has openly and repeatedly admitted.
The victim, who identified herself as Barbara Winter to the Washington Post,
recalled that her older sister was president of a Peter Yarrow fan club in Washington,
D.C. The two were invited to his hotel room, where he answered the door without clothing
and sexually assaulted Winter, who was 14 at the time. Yarrow pleaded guilty to "immoral
and improper liberties" and was sentenced to one-to-three years in prison, with all but
three months suspended. He's often called it, quote, "the worst mistake I have ever made."
A decade later, he petitioned President Jimmy Carter for a pardon,
a petition supported by powerful political friends. He was granted a
pardon on Carter's last day in office, to the disgust of the Winter family.
The Post also reported that this was far from the only time Yarrow was accused of this.
Winter's family sued him on top of the criminal charges,
claiming the molestation continued. This ended with an undisclosed settlement. The
Cincinnati Enquirer reported that the father of a 15-year-old girl made similar charges in 1967,
only to be ignored by a grand jury. Another woman sued Yarrow in February of 2021,
claiming that he groomed and assaulted her in 1969. A settlement was reached around April.
Billy Preston had a few solo hits, including two No. 1's in "Will It Go Round in Circles"
and "Nothing From Nothing," but he's probably best remembered as one of the most important sidemen in
rock history. He performed with everyone from Little Richard to the Red Hot Chili Peppers,
but his time with The Beatles stands out. His obituary in The New York
Times notes that he's the only man to ever share a credit with The Beatles,
with "Get Back." He was part of their legendary rooftop concert chronicled in "Let It Be."
"If you'd like to do that you're welcome."
"Sure. Beautiful."
"Right. And then you'd be on the album."
"You're kidding."
That same obituary states that Preston also had a severe drug problem. His
issues became especially pronounced in the '90s. He pleaded no contest
to assault and cocaine possession charges in 1992 and spent the next nine months at
court-ordered rehab. He was sent to prison again in 1997 after violating probation.
But drug addiction is more an illness than a crime. His most serious crime was the
$1 million insurance fraud scheme, which he was charged with while already serving time.
The indictment in 1998 claimed that Preston, his manager, and at least five other people burned
their own houses and faked burglaries for almost a decade to scam insurance companies. Preston
pleaded guilty a month later and cooperated with prosecutors, with his publicist telling the AP:
"Preston has taken responsibility for his past mistakes and is looking forward to the future."
Much of Johnny Cash's mystique was wrapped up in his outlaw image. The black suits,
the legendary live albums recorded in prisons, and enough drugs and bad decisions to fill a
biopic helped maintain that image. Even so, he never spent all that much time in a jail cell,
recounting one such time where he got locked up for trespassing and picking flowers in
"Starkville City Jail." That said, he did face trouble with the federal government
on one big occasion: when they accused him of burning down a national forest.
On June 27, 1965, Cash was — one way or another — at the center of a massive fire in Los Padres
National Forest. Cash's FBI file claimed the fire was started by a "defective exhaust system"
on Cash's camper. Damon Fielder, Cash's nephew and camping buddy that day,
had a different story. The Los Angeles Times reports that he saw his uncle fanning a fire
he lit himself, likely drugged out of his mind and trying to stop it.
Cash wrote in his 1997 autobiography that during
this time he was drugged to the gills and ready to fight.
"Um, I don't really remember what the charges were, a lot of 'em."
During a deposition, upon being told that the fire scared off or
killed dozens of California condors, he responded:
"I don't give a damn about your yellow buzzards."
When asked in court if he started the fire, he snapped back:
"No, my truck did and it's dead, so you can't question it."
Cash ultimately paid $82,000 in damages.
James Brown's many criminal charges, from the alleged to the convicted to
the confessed, are numerous enough to fill a book.
This includes multiple lawsuits from women accusing him of sexual assault.
"Now how did all this trouble begin?"
"Livin' in America!
There's nothin' wrong."
The most prominent and public of his accusers was Jacque Hollander, who told her story in depth to
CNN. Then a songwriter, she worked with him on a charity single. She claims that he violently
assaulted her in 1988 and later blacklisted her from the music business. Hollander spent years
trying to get her case heard, to no avail. She eventually tried suing him in 2005,
saying the stress from the assault gave her Graves disease, but,
per the Chicago Tribune, it was dismissed for being past the statute of limitations.
CNN also uncovered three other lawsuits against Brown, each from women he employed, and each
claiming in gruesome detail how he demanded sexual favors from them. Two were withdrawn,
and one resulted in a jury finding him liable for wrongful termination but not sexual harassment.