These Rockstar Rumors Have Finally Been Confirmed

There are tons of rumors circulating about the biggest rockstars of all time. Did Ozzy Osbourne really bite the head off of a bat? And which musician actually married their cousin? In the world of rock and roll, no story is too outlandish, but some rumors really are based on reality...

Rihanna

A social media app once had a "Would You Rather?"  game where users were given a very offensive question regarding Rihanna and Chris Brown. Rihanna told her followers to delete the app entirely. The day that she posted that, the app lost over $754 million in value.

Elvis

During one live show in 1975, Elvis was not having a good night. He complained to the audience that it felt like 12,000 people were breathing on him. He also yelled at four of his backup singers for eating catfish (Elvis hated seafood). Of those four singers, only one chose to continue with Elvis on stage.

Kanye

Kanye’s fame was actually the result of a car crash. Before recording his first single, he was a music producer, not a rapper. "Through the Wire" got its name because when he recorded it, his jaw was literally wired shut, the result of a 2002 car crash. The accident inspired Kanye to finally "pursue his dream of becoming an artist in his own right."

Billy Joel

It’s rumored that Joel prefers to give his show's front row tickets to normal folks. He says the younger, enthusiastic fans "make the most noise" and usually end up in the back. So now, front row seats are held until the audience starts coming in. Then, the road crew goes to the worst seats and brings people forward. 

Ariana Grande

There are tons of reports that Ariana will only ever allow people to see the left side of her face. This is apparently because she has a dimple on the left side. Everyone knows that dimples are inherently adorable, so she wants to make sure that that's the side of her face people remember. 

Hendrix and Little Richard

Hendrix was apparently not a good team player for Little Richard as his backup musician. The legendary guitarist was already trying out some of his famous tricks which caused "multiple clashes with Richard." Hendrix wanted to be the only conspicuous entertainer during his performances. He "felt nothing should distract attention away from his star power." Hendrix was obviously fired. 

The Beach Boys

Charles Manson was a songwriter before he was a cult leader. He tried to make it in the music industry after his second stint behind bars. Dennis Wilson of The Beach Boys heard one of his tracks and liked it enough to record it himself. Never Learn Not to Love is the name of the song. 

Keith Moon

You'll never find drummer Keith Moon at a Holiday Inn. The star got himself and the rest of The Who banned from every single Holiday Inn around the globe. He was so destructive, rude, and violent that the entire corporation said he could never return.

The Ramones

Phil Spector once locked the Ramones in a room for several hours. The music producer locked them in their studio to perform "Baby, I Love You" over and over until 4:30 in the morning. Once he was satisfied with the sound, he allowed the group to leave unharmed (except psychologically.)

Michael Jackson

Who would have thought that the late Michael Jackson would be remembered for his contributions to the Sonic the Hedgehog franchise? One super-fan noticed that the background music for the video game Sonic 3 was a little too similar to MJ's sound. In 2016 it was confirmed that the singer did do some work for the series. 

Ozzy Osbourne

Ozzy Osbourne used to get pretty wild back in the day. It's long been rumored that the Black Sabbath frontman bit the head off of a bat, but that actually happened another time with a dove! When he first met with his record label, he thought it would be hardcore to bite a dove's head off. 

Van Halen

The band Van Halen might seem like a bunch of edgy rockstars, but they had a very weird rider. They asked for M&Ms in their dressing room, but all the brown M&Ms had to be removed. It was an easy way to tell how seriously the venue took their requests, and whether they'd play there again. 

Van Morrison

Van Morrison was a true songwriting legend, as proven by his 30 song streak.  On one day in 1967, he recorded 30 purposefully terrible songs. He loathed his recording contract that required at least 36 songs. He called his 30 bad tracks his "revenge songs" that legally fulfilled his contract.

Ozzy Osbourne

Ozzy Osbourne made a name for himself in the insane. The wild rockstar was playing truth or dare with members of the glam-rock band Motley Crue. He and Nikki Sixx took it a bit too far when Ozzy succeeded in the dare of snorting a line of ants. Yeah, that was even too gross for Sixx to compete.

David Bowie

David Bowie says he has no memory of the ten days it took to record Station to Station. Back in 1975, the singer was so out of his mind that he erased all memory of making the album. The album was nonetheless hailed as a great work and became one of the biggest hits of his entire career.

Gram Parsons

Gram Parsons of The Byrds released a few widely praised solo albums but sadly died when he was 26. While his family was making arrangements, his friend stole his corpse! The two had a pact that Parsons' ashes would be spread in Joshua Tree. The plan failed when Parsons' friend was chased by police due to the theft.

Prince

A lot of people know that Prince was raised as a Jehovah's Witness. What most don't realize is that even after all the fame, Prince continued to practice the faith, going as far as to knock on doors to convert people. He said once in an interview that "Sometimes people act surprised, but mostly they're really cool about it."

Axl Rose

Axl Rose might be known for his music, but the singer also had an astonishingly high IQ. As a child, he was diagnosed with a manic depressive disorder that required him to take a 500 question test. The results showed that not only was he a great musician, but he was extremely intelligent.

Iggy Pop and Bowie

In 1974, Iggy Pop was admitted into the UCLA neuropsychiatric institute. There, he was visited by friend David Bowie. Bowie later revealed that he had brought drugs into the hospital. Thankfully, Iggy fully recovered from his addiction. 

Family Love

For some reason, Jack and Meg White of the White Stripes claimed to be brother and sister when their career first started.  They said they were the youngest two of 10 children to be exact. Despite this self-started rumor, the pair were actually a married couple, though they divorced in 2000. They worked together until 2011. 

Sum 41

Baby Prince

Prince never had any children, or so the public thought. He and his wife Mayte Garcian had a son named Amiir Gregory Nelson, who was born with Pfeiffer syndrome type 2. Due to complications with this condition, his son passed away only 6 days after being born. The couple divorced in light of the loss. 

Beatles After Dark

The Beatles weren't always the perfect performers. They found their footing by playing night clubs. Specifically, 250 nights in the city of Hamburg, where their audience was a gang of misfits. They played for four to five hours every single night.

Christine McVie of Fleetwood Mac

Christine McVie of Fleetwood Mac fame wrote and performed the song "You Make Loving Fun." The song was clearly about McVie's affair with Curry Grant. However, McVie told John, her husband, that the lyrics were really about her dog. John didn't take long to find out that the lyrics weren't about their beloved pet at all...

Keith Moon

Keith Richards of The Rolling Stones has a history of staying awake for long hours, and sometimes even days. In 1978, he was awake for five days straight while recording an album. He also claims that his longest streak was nine days without sleeping, but it ended when he injured himself so badly that he woke up in a pool of his own blood. 

Bon Jovi

Jon Bon Jovi was sued by another songwriter, small-town singer Samuel Bartley Steele. Steele claimed that Bon Jovi stole his song and used it for his own track "I Love This Town." He sued Bon Jovi for $400 billion, more than the industry is even worth, but luckily the claim never went through.

Keith Moon

Keith Moon of The Who died in the same apartment that Mama Cass Elliot of Mamas and Papas had died in almost four years prior. Mama Cass had died due to heart failure. Keith Moon's last words were "Lightning wouldn't strike the same place twice."

Nikki Sixx

Bassist and co-founder of the band Motley Crue, Nikki Sixx, was once pronounced dead. Sixx's face turned blue and was declared dead while inside an ambulance. He somehow woke up in a hospital, escaped, and hitchhiked home. That's rock and roll!

Iggy Pop 

Whatever you heard about Iggy Pop, it's probably true. During one of his famously strange sets, the singer began puking all over the stage and the audience. When asked about the event almost a year later at an Electric Circus show, Iggy vomited all over the person who asked him. Yeah, that's gross!

Anti-Drug Elvis

Elvis once met with former president Richard Nixon. During their conversation, Elvis proclaimed that he was staunchly against drugs and drug culture, which was a huge lie. Nixon gifted him a Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs badge for his conviction, which was Elvis' plan all along. 

David Bowie

Many people thought that David Bowie's double-colored eyes were due to heterochromia, but there was another reason for the disparity. His pupils were different sizes. He had previously been in a fight with George Underwood and got socked in his left eye. The result was a permanently damaged iris, giving off the illusion. 

Marilyn Manson

Marilyn Manson was born Brian Hugh Warner. He came up with his stage name by combining Marilyn Monroe and Charles Manson. He had a fascination with how ready society was to make serial killers into celebrities, bringing them to the public eye like something aspirational. He had huge issues with the media.

KISS

In the first Super Special KISS comic book, some of the red ink was actually infused with blood. Before the book was published by Marvel in 1977, the stars flew out to NYC to add vials of their blood to a big vat of red ink used in the series. There were many witnesses who can back up the wild rumor. 

Willie Nelson

Willie Nelson would die for his music. In the 70s, his house caught on fire and Willie rushed home to save all the important things. Of course, the important things was his guitar.  He lost a lot of his demo tapes in the fire, but he managed to make it work!

Iggy Pop

Iggy Pop will stop at nothing to have the most insane show possible. At one show, Andy Warhol's companion, Geri Miller, got involved. The star grabbed her by the face and pulled her across the floor while she was still in her chair. Insane!

Led Zepplin

Led Zepplin went fishing...from their hotel room! In the summer of 1969, the band was settling down for the night at Seattle's Edgewater Inn. They were close to the water and from their balcony, they fished in the ocean. They even caught something!

Keith Moon

Here's one rumor that was never true: Keith Moon did not drive a car into a full pool. The car rolled into an empty pool that was under construction and was largely uneventful. However, he absolutely did drive a car into a muddy pond once. Either way, the Rolls Royce in the hotel pool was totally made up.

Bob Dylan

Bob Dylan once got himself into a bad motorcycle accident and didn't tell a soul. In hindsight, it might have been due to his mental state. He once said "Truth was that I wanted to get out of the rat race [...] Outside of my family, nothing held any real interest for me and I was seeing everything through different glasses."

Keith Richards

Keith Richards didn't smoke his father's ashes, but he did plant them. "The truth of the matter is that I planted a sturdy English Oak," said the rockstar dismissing the smoking rumors "I took the ... ashes [and sprinkled them beneath the tree], and he is now growing oak trees and he would love me for it!"

Marilyn Manson

Contrary to popular belief, Marilyn Manson never had any of his ribs removed. The star contributed to rumors for years, never commenting on whether or not they were true, but he finally revealed that it was all a hoax to spur on fans. It worked pretty well and is still widely believed. 

Nikki Sixx

Tommy Lee and Nikki Six once went several months without showering as a part of a bet they had together. When his stench made a fam vomit, he knew then that it was time to bathe. 

Marilyn Manson

Marilyn Manson was one of the most obnoxious acts to work with in the music industry. Once, the star rubbed himself on the head of a Michigan security guard. This improper contact with the celebrity was not brushed off. Manson was charged with disorderly behavior, assault, and battery.

Nikki Sixx

"Kickstart My Heart" was one of Motley Crue's best songs, but it has a wild origin. After Nikki Sixx was declared dead and then lived, he knew it would be great material for a song. Though he somehow recovered from the incident, it was still pretty influential to the artist's performances going forward. 

John Bonham

When John Bonham died, there were 40 shots of vodka inside of him. The drummer passed away on September 25th, 1980. The coroner checked the body and found that there was a ton of vodka in there, consumed the day before, during rehearsal. However, it was apparently choking on vomit that killed him. 

Frank Zappa

Frank Zappa was once physically attacked while he was performing live on stage. It was pretty brutal, and he ended up being hospitalized. He was even thrown from the stage! There's never been any word on what set that audience member that night. Rest in Peace, Frank Zappa. 

Led Zepplin

The name for Led Zepplin actually came from Keith Moon of The Who. Jimmy Page, Jeff Beck, and John Paul Jones were considering becoming a band, which prompted Keith Moon to comment that their music would go over like a lead balloon. When the band officially formed, they used this quip to settle on Led Zepplin. 

Bob Dylan & The Beatles

The Beatles and Bob Dylan were actually very good friends, despite being from opposite sides of the world. In fact, when the Englishmen crossed the pond, it was Bob Dylan who offered the innocent teens some advice for life on the road. Talk about a warm welcome!

Iggy Pop

Another Iggy story? A biker was in the crowd of an Iggy Pop concert and began heckling him. Obviously, Iggy was not a fan of this treatment and quickly sprang into a fight. Iggy did not come out the winner of the entanglement, but the whole ordeal was eventually caught on tape. 

Jim Morrison

Jim Morrison once told a cop to "eat it."  It all happened when an officer was wandering around backstage. He found his way to Morrison and a female fan getting close and personal in a hallway. He told the couple to knock it off but Morrison replied with this remark and continued with his public debauchery. 

Bowie and Jagger

David Bowie and Mick Jagger weren't just loved, they were lovers. The two were once discovered naked in bed together. Though they were allegedly not in any compromising position and totally asleep, the rumors have been swirling ever since. It doesn't seem too unfathomable, does it?

Keith Moon

A little known fact about Keith Moon of The Who was that the drummer really loved to blow stuff up. Specifically, he loved lighting explosives in hotel rooms. Whether it was a chair in his room or a firework out of his window, Keith Moon was a nightmare for anyone in the hospitality industry. 

Sinead O'Conner

Prince and Sinead O'Conner once got into a very violent fistfight. During the 1990s, Sinead O'Connor publicly disapproved of Prince's language following a conversation on which of them could use the lyrics to the hit song, 'Nothing Compares to You'. Neither party ever apologized for the spat.

Billy Idol

In 1989, Billy Idol hosted parties for 3 weeks in his hotel penthouse. He was charged $149,000 by the establishment for fees and damages. Idol refused to vacate the room until he had to be forcibly removed by the military and was even shot with a tranquilizer dart. He was taken out on a stretcher. 

Ace Frehley

KISS guitarist Ace Frehley once chugged an entire bottle of perfume. Paul Stanley, also a band member, said that Frehley was already drunk when he picked up a limousine bottle of perfume. He chugged the whole thing after someone casually mentioned it contained alcohol. 

Keith Moon

Keith Moon once passed out while onstage in the middle of a concert. The band rushed to his side to get him up, but there was no use. Eventually, the band invited a 19-year-old audience member up on stage to finish the set in place of Moon, who had to be hospitalized. Scott Halpin had a good night though!

High on Bandstand

Rick James appeared on American Bandstand, but for years, viewers speculated he must have been out of his mind. Rick himself never confirmed whether his wild behavior was intentional or not...until his autobiography came out. In the novel, he admitted, "It had to be obvious to Dick and a million viewers what was really going on."

David Lee Roth

David Lee Roth, frontman for Van Halen, loved pretty girls. The star paid his roadies extra cash for bringing him the hottest fans waiting to meet him. Any woman that Roth deemed especially breathtaking would mean that the roadie who found her would get an extra $100. 

Slash

Slash of Guns N' Roses guitar fame was once so out of his mind that he thought the Predator was trying to get him. He even punched through a glass door at a golf course completely in the nude. He was convinced he was going to die at the hotel, and even begged a hotel maid to save him. 

Iggy Pop

After The Stooges broke up, Iggy Pop performed alone for the first time. Iggy encouraged Ron Asheton, his guitarist, to whip him onstage for the fans. Following that, the singer verbally assaulted an audience member, hoping his remarks would make the man attack him. The guy didn't do anything, so Iggy just carved an X into his chest...

Ozzy Osbourne

Ozzy was once arrested for peeing on the Alamo Cenotaph, a 60-foot-high statue, in 1989. The statue was a landmark meant to honor the 189 Texans who died at the Alamo during the 1836 Texas Revolution. Ozzy was obviously in a drunken mindstate at the time, but he was taken to the lockup nontheless.