It's pretty easy for a rumor to become fact in the public eye, especially if that rumor
involves somebody famous.
Of all the rock stars you'd expect to have died long ago, Keith Richards has to be at
the top of the list.
He's taken seemingly every drug there is, yet he survives and thrives more than 75 years
later.
"It's not just about livin' forever, Jackie.
The trick is living with yourself forever."
One of the more popular theories about the guitarist's long life has less to do with
healthy living and more to do with that in 1973, Richards paid for something every vampire
victim tries their best to avoid.
The theory goes that Richards needed to kick heroin in time for a major European tour that
year, so he traveled to Switzerland and had all of his blood, as in, every single drop,
replaced, immediately curing himself of his addiction in the bargain.
The theory is, of course, completely insane.
But if you believed it, don't be too hard on yourself.
After all, it had an official source: Keith Richards himself.
Apparently, the rocker had gone to Switzerland for an experimental blood purification process
- purification, not replacement - but was sick of reporters asking him about it, so
he decided to mess with them.
He actually told reporters he was chock-full of new blood.
Apparently, he played the joke too straight, because decades later some fans still think
Richards changes his blood as often as he changes guitar strings.
One tall tale about Fleetwood Mac singer Stevie Nicks is just completely asinine.
This particular urban legend tells us Nicks, a heavy cocaine user, snorted so much cocaine
it ate a big hole through her nose.
Unable to snort properly anymore, she started having cocaine shot into her butt by a presumably
very well-paid assistant.
It's perhaps the ultimate in rock star excess, if it were true, anyway.
In a 2001 interview with Q, Nicks refuted the cocaine-bum myth,
"Of course that never, ever happened.
That is an absurd statement.
It's not true."
At the same time, she did admit to the hole in her nose, which she quipped was big enough
for her to slip a belt through.
The one thing the myth gets right is that Nicks refused to quit cocaine in spite of
the hole in her nose.
She just kept on using, at least until she finished her 1986 Rock a Little tour, at which
point she finally hit bottom and went to rehab.
According to a lot of Pink Floyd fans, the English rock band had a covert agenda while
recording the legendary album Dark Side of the Moon, namely, to create a secret soundtrack
to The Wizard of Oz.
Apparently, if you play the film and the album at the same time by starting Dark Side at
the MGM lion's third roar, they sync up perfectly.
The truth of this theory?
"Wrong.
Wrong.
You're wrong.
You're wrong."
The Dark Side/Wizard synch-up been tested many times, and it just doesn't work.
Maybe a few moments work, like when Dorothy has a vision of Kansas as Floyd's "Time" sings
about being home, but it's entirely coincidental.
Drummer Nick Mason officially debunked the myth in 2010, telling the BBC,
"The Tin Man, and the Straw Man, and all the rest of it, had absolutely zero to do with
[Moon]."
You likely know Ozzy Osbourne as one of two things: a mumble-mouthed reality show star,
or heavy metal's undisputed Prince of Darkness.
A lot of what built that legendary heavy metal reputation was myth, like the notion that
he'd intentionally bite the heads off of live bats during concerts.
Technically, this story is true.
Ozzy did bite the head off a live bat on stage, but he didn't mean to.
According to his autobiography I Am Ozzy, he was playing a show in 1982 when a fan threw
a live, yet unconscious, bat on stage.
Ozzy, thinking it was a rubber toy, bit its head off.
He immediately realized his mistake.
As his wife Sharon panicked, Ozzy poetically mused,
"Oh f--- me, I didn't just go and eat a f---ing bat, did I?"
He was rushed to the hospital for rabies shots, proving that sometimes, people really do suffer
for their art.
Meanwhile, people were quick to believe Ozzy knew the bat was live and chomped it anyway.
Since then, Ozzy's had a reputation as a bat-meat aficionado, which certainly hasn't hurt his
record sales.
Just don't expect him to cameo in any Batman movies anytime soon.
"Don't hold your breath."