From Nelly Furtado’s million-dollar gig for the Gaddafi family to Beyoncé, Mariah Carey, and Jennifer Lopez entertaining corrupt regimes...why are some of the largest global music superstars performing private shows for some of the world’s most notorious figures?

Some artists were duped, others donated their fees, and a few embraced the payday...all while dealing with the moral complexities of music, money, and power.

This is episode 52 of “Uncharted: Crime and Mayhem in the Music Industry.”

The inside story of playing gigs for dictators, oligarchs and criminals.

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The 1970s were a dangerous time in Ireland. An era known as “The Troubles” began in the late 1960s. It was protestants vs. Catholics, British loyalists against Irish unionists, the British army vs. the IRA, the UDA, and other groups…

There were bombings, assassinations, guerrilla campaigns, and roaming paramilitary groups, both official and unofficial.

It saw civil disobedience, riots, mass protests, segregation, and many, many deaths…more than 3500 people, mostly civilians, died before things calmed down in the late 90s. 

July 31, 1975, was one of the bloodiest nights in the history of Irish music…in fact, it rivals some of the worst violence against musicians outside hits involving drug cartels in Mexico and South America…and people are still looking for answers.

I’m Alan Cross, and this is episode 50 of “Uncharted: Crime and Mayhem in the Music Industry”.

This is the story of what became known as “The Miami Showband Massacre”.

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Imagine being David, a 15-year-old kid growing up in Southern California. You’re already typically confused because, well, you’re 15. You’re an only child, and your mom and dad have divorced, resulting in a joint custody situation that adds to your confusion. Your mom is dating again. Her current boyfriend doesn’t seem to be a good dude…your only solace is music…

Then, one morning in late February 1983, you’re sick in bed and home from school. Mom is out for a morning jog. That’s when you hear someone breaking into the house.

 When you get up to look, you’re confronted by someone pointing a gun at you by someone you know…you’re handcuffed and locked in the bathroom…when his mom got home, she argued with the gunman.

Before he took off, the guy let Dave out of the bathroom and told him, “Don’t say anything…keep your mouth shut—or else”—and then he left. Young Dave was terrified, so he kept his mouth shut.

But that wasn’t the end of it, though…a week later, this same guy returned to the house and shot David’s mom and her best friend dead…he then went on the lam for nearly a decade…

 The trauma that David experienced was unimaginable…even though he grew up to be the guitarist for Jane’s Addiction, one of the iconic alt-rock bands of the late 80s and 90s, processing what happened on that day in February 1983 sticks with him to this day…

I’m Alan Cross, and this time, it’s all about Dave Navarro and his witness to murder.

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The influence of organized crime extends everywhere…drugs, loan-sharking, protection rackets, shakedowns, gambling, prostitution, money laundering, waste disposal—and the music industry. 

It’s not something we hear about so much anymore…but in the 50s, 60s, 70s, and 80s, it was very much a thing…and if you were operating in the music business during those decades, you would have come across Morris Levy. 

He liked to project the image of the savvy businessman, an entrepreneur running a successful record label who was also a philanthropist, raising money for charities like opera companies and children’s hospitals. 

But sitting atop his pyramid of companies, Levy stole money from artists, shook down record retailers, laundered money, cheated record pressing plants, and threatened people who got in his way…his influence was far, far greater than the size of Roulette would indicate.

If you wanted to stand up to Morris, you had to be careful…there was a .38 in his desk drawer and he had several associates on the payroll that carried baseball bats in case a meeting turned difficult…and if that didn’t scare you, there were his silent backers in the mafia.

With this backroom help, Morris was able to get his way with everyone from young emerging singers to—believe it or not—John Lennon.

Levy ran his corner of the music business his way for decades—until he couldn’t.  This is part two of “Morris Levy: music’s most mobbed-up man”.

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There are all kinds of shady and dangerous creatures lurking in the music industry. Since about the mid-20th century, the mob has found ways to extract money by getting involved in record labels, radio stations, artist management, and live music venues.

Although things aren’t what they used to be, the mob’s involvement played a key part in the development of the music industry for decades.

One of the key figures in all this ran a New York-based label called “Roulette Records,” which started business in 1957. One of the co-founders was Morris Levy, who got his start in jazz clubs.

At his peak, Levy headed 90 companies employing over 900 people, including music publishing, the independent record label game, running record stores, operating record-pressing plants, tape-duplicating facilities, artist management, and a music distribution company.

Some called him an “entrepreneur”…but the truth was Morris—“Mo” or “Moishe” to his friends (and a few enemies)—was a crook who controlled far more of the industry than people realized…and much of his business was connected to organized crime.

Morris was probably the most mobbed-up music man in history…a lot of people were ripped off for tens of millions of dollars…and more than one person got hurt.

I’m Alan Cross, and this is episode 47 of Uncharted...Crime and Mayhem in the Music Industry

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You don’t get much more Rock Star than Ozzy Osbourne. Through more than 50 years, his wild persona and crazy behaviour not only made him an icon of rock 'n' roll, but also a larger-than-life cultural figure popular with three or four generations. Given the abuse that he inflicted upon himself, it’s a miracle that he made it to age 76.

 On this edition of Uncharted, we’re going to trace the insanity that was Ozzy from birth to death. And you can’t do that without honouring his music. He will be rightly remembered as the Godfather of Heavy Metal.

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Theft is rampant in the music world, and it takes many forms. Musicians regularly deal with stolen gear…guitars disappearing from stages, rehearsal spaces being robbed, or entire vans being emptied. These losses hurt, but they’re tangible…physical items taken by

Then there’s the more invisible kind of theft…the kind that bleeds artists

But the rarest and most cinematic form of music theft? Stealing the recordings themselves right from the source, at the recording studio.

Such a theft like this should be entirely impossible, yet this is what Green Day says happened to an album they were working on called “Cigarettes and Valentines”. They went into work on the record one day, and the tapes were just…gone!

Green Day has always insisted that these tapes were stolen. However, there was never any police investigation, no suspects were named, and no trace of the tapes or the music contained has ever been found anywhere outside official channels.

 This is episode 45 of “Uncharted: Crime and Mayhem in the Music Industry”… the real story behind Green Day’s stolen “Cigarettes

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Just after midnight on March 9, 1997, one of the greatest rappers of all time, Notorious B.I.G  left for a party in the Hollywood Hills.

Tensions were high, he felt he was in enemy territory because six months earlier Tupac Shakur had died in a drive-by shooting on a Las Vegas street and many blamed him.

The two had been embroiled in a bicoastal feud that cost many their lives.

That night a man lowered the window of his vehicle drew a 9 mm pistol and fired six shots killing the world-renowned rapper

This week we look at what became known as the East Coast West Coast hip hop war and how Notorious BIG's death became the linchpin that helped broker peace.

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Before the internet, it was reasonably easy to just disappear. Get a fake ID, leave the country with some cash, and you were gone.

These kinds of mysteries can also be found in the world of music; artists who disappear without a trace…and I’m not talking about musicians who retired and then become recluses…there are plenty of those.

We haven’t seen much of Steve Perry since he left Journey…he’s very much alive but isn’t interested in being famous anymore…Syd Barrett tripped out on too much LSD, got fired from Pink Floyd, and was rarely seen by anyone until he died of cancer in 2006…John Deacon of Queen gave up his music career after Freddie Mercury died…we haven’t seen anything of him.

Then there are the musicians who disappeared involuntarily…one day they were here and the next day, they were just gone…and this has happened a lot more than you may realize.

This is episode 43 of “Uncharted: Crime and Mayhem in the Music Industry”…and the next of this program is “Missing and Presumed Dead”.

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