Uncharted: Crime and Mayhem in the Music Industry

The number “27” occupies an odd place in rock history…it’s the age when rock stars die—or so the story goes…and, if i’m honest, it does come up quite a bit…there are books on the subject, documentaries, and more.

The age of “27” has an eerie hold over popular culture…even casual music fans think that this is when so many rock stars have died…given the ubiquity of the concept of “the 27 club” has, someone might guess that we’re talking dozens and dozens of deaths…just look how deeply “the 27 club” is embedded into rock lore…it’s morbid stuff, but who doesn’t like stories that flirt with death?.

Here’s the question: is this mythology justified? ...what evidence exists for it?... And if so, what’s so special and common about rock starts dying at the age of 27?... We should look into this.

 I’m Alan Cross and this is episode 28 of “Uncharted: Crime and Mayhem in the Music Industry…it’s time to investigate the truth of “The 27 Club”.

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When Nadine Bailey was 7 years old she woke up terrified of dark figures looming at the end of her bed and an eerie presence all around her. From then on every night was the same, she was visited by phantom-like shadows and no matter where she went, the ghostly encounters followed her. Ever since that moment, hauntings, spirits and the unexplained have consumed her entire life and for the past 20 years she's been an award-winning guide with Edmonton Ghost Tours  Along the way she has taken people into the shadows, uncovering the macabre tales that linger in the darkness and inside some of the most haunted houses, hospitals, prisons, and more. On Haunted Canada, Nadine journeys through terrifying and bone chilling stories of the unexplained. Join her if you dare.

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When you go to a big, loud rock show, you want a spectacle…lights, lasers, special effects, and, if all goes well, lots of pyro…flames, explosions, smoke bombs—they all add to the theatricality of it all.

But if you’re going to blow stuff up and have open flames onstage, you gotta be careful…not only do you have to abide by health and safety regulations, local laws, and local building codes, you have to be very aware of the venue itself.

Can it handle your pyro?... If it can’t—or if you don’t police people who insist of lighting up their own munitions—the results can be deadly…and so far in the 21st century, there have been too many of these incidents.

This is the story of one particular night in west Warwick, Rhode Island…it should have been a typical night of metal at a nondescript 500-person venue…instead, it was one of the worst building fires in American history.

I’m Alan Cross and this is “Uncharted: Crime and Mayhem in the Music History”…and this is the scary story of the station nightclub fire…

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What do Buddy Holly, the Big Bopper, Ritchie Valens, patsy cline, Jim Croce, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Ricky Nelson, and Stevie Ray Vaughn have in common? ...they all died when the private aircraft in which they were flying crashed.

 Holly, the Big Bopper, and Valens were on a single-engine six-seater Beechcraft bonanza when it went down in bad weather in an Iowa cornfield in February 1959…Cline and two other musicians died in March 1963 when their six-seater piper Comanche…bad weather was to blame there, too.

Jim Croce was onboard an 11-seater Beechcraft twin-engine when it hit a tree on takeoff from and airport in Louisiana…fog and pilot error.

In October 1977, a chartered Convair CV-240 carrying members of Lynyrd Skynyrd and their crew somehow ran out of gas and crashed into a Mississippi swamp…i tell that story in episode 1 of this podcast.

On December 3, 1985, Ricky Nelson was on an old DC-3 when an heater on the plane caught fire and crash-landed in a Texas cow pasture.

And Stevie Ray Vaughn was in a helicopter leaving a Wisconsin music festival on August 27, 1990…it ended up all over the side of a ski hill…it was foggy and while the pilot was certified to fly a fixed-wing aircraft under such conditions, he wasn’t licensed to fly a helicopter. 

There are many more examples, but I think I’ve made my point. 

On this episode, I want take a close look at two more private plane crashes that are still widely discussed…there’s the accident that nearly killed blink-182 drummer Travis Barker and killed several other people…and the other crazy story of the aircraft accident that killed Ozzy Osbourne guitarist Randy Rhoads.

I’m Alan Cross and this is episode 26 of “Uncharted: Crime and Mayhem in the Music Industry”.

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The 1920s were a time when people were after easy money…people flocked to the stock market, buying up shares in small companies with borrowed money…and for a while, returns were good.

But this go-go atmosphere also attracted swindlers and con artists…Carlo was one of them…he arrived in the U.S. From Italy in 1903 with $2.50 in his pocket…he’d boarded the ship with more, but Carlo had lost most of it gambling.

He eventually made his way to Montreal where, as a bank teller, he made connections with many new Italian immigrants…the bank had been paying very high interest…these interest payments were covered by the profits from real estate investments…except that they weren’t.

All payments were funded through new deposits from new customers…when the flow of new customers stopped, the interest payments dried up, clients demanded their money, and the bank failed…the owner ran off to Mexico with whatever money was left.

But Carlo was intrigued…by 1920, he was in New York running a company that promised to double investors’ money in 90 days…and if you were a ground-floor investor, that’s exactly what happened…and you were paid promptly.

By mid-1920, Carlo’s company made millions…investors clamored give him money, handing over their life savings and mortgaging their houses…but then several people got suspicious…how could Carlo keep offering such amazing returns?

He couldn’t…the profits could only keep coming if there were new investors…by July 1920, it all started to collapse…the debts were huge…six banks involved in Carlo’s plot failed…at least $20 million—more than $300 million in today’s money—just disappeared.

When he went to prison, Carlo was booked under his assumed name: Charles Ponzi…this kind of fraud is now known as a “Ponzi scheme”.

The world is full of scam artists, many of whom think that they can avoid the mistakes of Charles Ponzi…but the math and the finances never work…Ponzi schemes always fail.

They’ve been tried with stocks, currency trading, beauty products from south Africa, the planting of teak trees in India, church donations, fake loans—even (believe it or not), ant farming in China…and of course, there was Bernie Madoff’s investment club that fleeced people of at least $65 billion.

There’s also one Ponzi scheme that involved a couple of groups that legitimately sold tens of millions of CDs…but behind it all was a financial scam.

This is “Uncharted: Crime and Mayhem in the Music Industry” …and this is the wild story of the Lou Pearlman and the great boy band Ponzi scheme.

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You would think that going to a concert would be a safe thing for everyone…first, you have thousands of like-minded people looking to have a good time…no one sets out to ruin the evening for everyone else…you paid good money for your tickets and you’ve waited a long time for this night to come. 

Second, there’s security everywhere…the last thing an artist, a promoter, or a venue wants is there to be some kind of trouble where someone gets hurt—or worse.

 For 99.999% of all concerts, things run smoothly…yeah, someone might get a little drunk or stoned and cause trouble…maybe a fight breaks out because someone got pushed…but generally, these common issues are dealt with quickly and without any serious repercussions.

 In other words, concerts (for the most part) are safe spaces…except when they’re not…concerts easy pickings for anyone who wants to cause carnage…they are mass gatherings—and such concentrations of unsuspecting people are easy soft targets for people determined to cause injury and death.

 If you look at things on a global scale, concerts are more often the target of terrorism than you may realize… the global terrorism database did a study of attacks on concerts and festivals going back to 1970…they found 146 examples. 

Most targets were religious festivals with 54…but in second place were concerts with 29…the most common type of attack was bombing followed by assaults, which included firearms…most victims were on-site when it happened.

 Between 1970 and 2019, 244 people were killed at concerts and festivals and 1,656 were injured…those numbers have gone up substantially since that study concluded…they do not, for example, include the deaths and casualties in the Hamas attack on the Supernova Festival in Israel on October 7, 2023…at least 346 people died that day.

And if it seems that there have been more terrorist attacks on concerts and festivals, you’re not imagining things…there was a spike starting in 2015 that continued until the COVID lockdown in 2020.

I have details on two terrorist attacks that happened during that period…the first was on a seemingly normal Friday night in Paris…the other was late on a Monday evening when everyone was going home.

I’m speaking of the Bataclan massacre and the Manchester Arena bombing…this is episode 24 of “Uncharted: Crime and Mayhem in the Music Industry”…and boy,  have I got some stories for you.

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When you’re a rock star, life can be very busy…there are songs to write, rehearsals to attend, albums to record, promotional appearances to make, interviews to be conducted, and tours to organize and execute…there’s often not a lot of free time.

Maybe you live in a large house or an estate… you might have multiple pied-de-terres around the planet: a home base, a vacation spot or two, and some condos in New York, or London, or Paris.

As a rock star, you’re often away your home (or homes) for long stretches of time…someone has to look after those properties, whether you’re there or not.

Maybe you’ve been a musician, an artist for such a long time you’ve never had to worry about the things that take up a civilian’s day…do your laundry, walk your dogs, go grocery shopping, take care of the lawn, and all that regular daily stuff.

And, of course, you need someone to make sure all the bills get paid…someone has to chase down all outstanding invoices…and because there’s so much money involved in your career coming from multiple streams, you need someone to manage your cash, your bank accounts, and your investments…that means lawyers and accountants and financial advisors.

Just so you can be you, a rock star needs an army of employees and contractors so that everything that needs to be done, gets done…you’re far too busy and the business is far too complex for you to handle that part of life on your own.

And finding the right people is essential…you need to trust these people to deal with the most important aspects of your career, your family, your life, your possessions, and you’re financial security.

But as with all things human, there are those who can’t be trusted…they see all these nice things, maybe have access to cash and assets—and they just can’t help themselves…fingers get sticky…and you don’t know that until it’s way too late. 

I’m Alan Cross and this is episode 23 of “Crime and Mayhem in the Music Industry”…this time, it’s a warning to beware the help…these are people trusted by rock stars but instead ended up ripping them off…and boy, do I have some cautionary tales for you.

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On August 6, 1989, a chartered 757 nicknamed “The Magic Bus” took off bound for the USSR…on board were Motley Crue, Bon Jovi, The Scorpions, Skid Row, Ozzy Osbourne, Cinderella, and a few others…

It was the dying days of the soviet union…but other than the communist hardliners, few people were sad about that…Mikhail Gorbachev, the last leader of the USSR, had ushered in the era of glasnost and perestroika…reforms were being enacted and few freedoms were creeping into soviet society…

This trip was part of that…a plane full of western rockers was headed to play a two-day festival in Moscow with attendance expected to top 200,000 people…it was the “Moscow Music Peace Festival”… it was hoped that the event would promote greater understanding between the west and the east during this time of great change at the end of the cold war…

It was also set to raise money in conjunction with the “Make a Difference Foundation,” an organization dedicated to helping local Russian people who were addicted to drugs and alcohol…a lot of the money would go to messaging and rehab treatments…

Wait—what?... Motley Crue, Ozzy Osbourne, and all these other acts were part of a highly sensitive, properly diplomatic, international anti-drugs-and-alcohol project inside the soviet union?...

Oh, yes…and on the plane, Ozzy was drunk the whole time…his guitarist, Zakk Wylde, was tripping on LSD…you had to be careful where you stepped because there were syringes on the floor…at the back of the cabin, people rotated in and out of informal jam sessions fueled by booze and drugs…

Now you’re probably wondering who came up with this idea and how it ever actually happened?...well, that’s a bit complicated…it involved the CIA, Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega, and 640 tons of marijuana smuggled into North Carolina—and the teenage mutant ninja turtles…and at the centre of all of it was a man named Doc McGhee—who just happened to be the manager of most of the bands on the plane…

This is episode 22 of “Uncharted: Crime and Mayhem in the Music Industry”…it’s how a drug-smuggling band manager helped end the Cold War…have I got a story for you.

Show contact info:

X (formerly Twitter): @AlanCross

Website: curiouscast.ca

Email: [email protected]

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In 1960, after months of testimony and investigation, it was made illegal for anyone to bribe a radio station or any of its employees to play a record…payola was forbidden under punishment of jail time and a fine of up to $10,000…

This, it was hoped, would keep the marketplace even and fair and no one—not a label, an artist, or anyone promoting that artist—would be able to jump the queue to get a record played on the radio…only songs with true merit would make it to the public…no more pay-for-play!...

Yeah, nice try…

If one thing was learned from the great American payola scandal, it was that radio airplay was essential to making money from a record…and if promoters could no longer walk into a radio station with a bag of cash, a case of booze, some drugs, a couple of hookers, or the promise of gifts (such as expensive watches), then they needed to get creative…

There had to be less obvious ways of tipping the scales in their favour…and there were…

After those initial hearings and the laws passed in their wake, payola never went away…instead, it went underground, toughened up, and became even more sleazy…

As the music industry got bigger and became more corporatized through the 1960s and 70s, the competition got more intense…the amount of money to be made from music involved got exponentially larger…and it got a lot rougher.

Show contact info:

X (formerly Twitter): @AlanCross

Website: curiouscast.ca

Email: [email protected]

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In a fair and just universe, we would live in a meritocracy…the best and most talented would naturally rise to the top and be properly recognized and compensated for their contributions to humanity…yeah, nice idea, but…

We’d like to think that music operates this way…the best and the brightest naturally have their songs heard and become popular because, well, they’re good…these artists have hit records and are deservedly rewarded by the world with the fruits of their God-given natural abilities…again, lovely idea, but hopelessly naïve…

The music business can be an ugly place…as Hunter S. Thompson allegedly once said, “The music business is a cruel and shallow money trench, a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free, and good men die like dogs”…(I should also add that the quote ends with “there’s also a negative side”—but I think he made his point)…

It’s a viciously competitive game…and the truth is that sheer talent is not enough to make it big…every potential hit song needs a powerful distribution and marketing system behind it, someone who will work the song by elbowing other artists out of the way…

The goal is to get the song heard by any means necessary…once that is achieved, it’s push, push, push to make the song ubiquitous…the more people that are exposed to it, the greater the likelihood of a record being bought or a song being streamed…that’s when the money starts rolling in…

But it doesn’t end there…once a song is an actual hit, there are ancillary opportunities for revenue…soundtracks…placement in TV shows…licensing for commercials…covers by other artists…the amount of money that can be made is staggering—and everyone along the way gets a taste…

But none of that is possible unless the song is a hit...how can that happen with a perishable commodity in an environment where the end consumer—the music fan—is so fickle and unpredictable...how do you get millions of strangers to buy into a new piece of art?...

The answer: you gotta grease the wheels, create some incentives, and make offers that people just can't refuse…this is where we enter the murky and illegal world of payola…

I’m Alan Cross and this is “Uncharted: Crime and Mayhem in the Music Industry”… when it comes to payola, boy, do I have some stories for you.

Show contact info:

X (formerly Twitter): @AlanCross

Website: curiouscast.ca

Email: [email protected]

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