Pick a Day

Music History Events: Arrests

October 31, 1964 Landing in Boston, Ray Charles is arrested when heroin and marijuana are found when he is searched at customs. He enters rehab to avoid jail.

November 14, 1961 Before a show in Indianapolis, Ray Charles is arrested when marijuana and heroin are found in his hotel room. Charges are dropped on a technicality, but his drug problems were far from over.

December 21, 1959 Chuck Berry is arrested when a 14-year-old girl he brought from Texas to work in his St. Louis club reports him to police. Berry serves 20 months in prison for transporting a minor across state lines.

November 24, 1959 Teen heartthrob Johnnie Ray is arrested in London for soliciting an undercover officer in a gay bar. (He is later found not guilty.)

August 10, 1959 The four male singers in The Platters are arrested in Cincinnati for aiding and abetting prostitution. They are acquitted of the charges, but the incident strains relations with their female singer Zola Taylor and gets them removed from some playlists.

March 23, 1956 Eleven teens are arrested at the "Rock & Roll Stage Show," featuring Frankie Lymon in Hartford, Connecticut.

July 29, 1946 Jazz great Charlie Parker falls asleep while smoking and sets his hotel bed on fire. He is arrested after wandering through the hotel lobby wearing nothing but socks. The incident leads to a stay at the Camarillo State Hospital (a mental institution), which inspires his song "Relaxin' at Camarillo."

July 15, 2017 Aaron Carter is arrested for drunken driving and marijuana possession when he is pulled over in Cornelia, Georgia, outside of Atlanta. He is scheduled to play a show in Kansas City that evening, which he cancels, citing "transportation issues."

August 26, 2016 Ann Wilson's husband is arrested for assault after getting physical with Nancy Wilson's 16-year-old twin sons, causing a rift between the Heart sisters, who finish their tour using separate dressing rooms and avoiding contact.

June 25, 2016 50 Cent is arrested for using the word "motherf-----" during a concert performance in St. Kitts, where it's illegal to use foul language in public. He's granted bail for around $1,800 and is slapped with an unknown fine, though it's probably close to $400, the same price DMX paid for cursing in the Caribbean in 2003. Fiddy's rep blames the DJ, who didn't have a clean version of the offending track.

March 9, 2015 R&B singer Angie Stone is arrested in Georgia on assault charges after allegedly punching her 30-year-old daughter's teeth out.

January 30, 2015 Record producer Suge Knight is arrested in Los Angeles on suspicion of murder the day after he was involved in a hit-and-run that killed his friend Terry Carter and injured actor Cle Denyale Sloan. Knight was on the set of the N.W.A. biopic Straight Outta Compton when he allegedly argued with the two men, then followed them to a burger joint where he ran them down in the parking lot. Witnesses claim he even backed over the victims with his truck before leaving the scene, but Knight's lawyer insists he was fleeing for his own safety.

January 17, 2015 Police are called to the Cromwell Hotel in Las Vegas in the wee hours of the morning, where a fight involving The Weeknd is raging. The R&B singer is arrested after allegedly punching a cop who tries to intervene.

January 16, 2015 Puddle of Mudd frontman Wesley Scantlin is arrested at the Denver International Airport after he takes a baggage carousel for a joyride into a restricted area. A local fan bails him out, but the band is still hours late for their performance, and an angry promoter tells the audience he will never book the act again.

December 12, 2014 R&B singer Jeremih, along with two members of his entourage, is arrested for disorderly conduct at New Jersey's Newark Liberty international airport for forcing his way onto a flight after missing the final call.

May 25, 2014 Two members of the Japanese girl group AKB48, along with a staff member, are attacked by a saw-wielding maniac during a meet-the-fans event. The victims are treated for cuts and fractures while the suspect is arrested for attempted murder.

December 14, 2012 Stalker Jacob Nicholas Kulke is arrested outside a residence belonging to Taylor Swift and is charged with trespassing. Kulke claims that he had been in touch with Swift through social media and had been planning to show up and "surprise her for her birthday." Though the singer had just had her birthday the previous day, she'd been overseas at the time and likely wouldn't be too happy with Kulke scaling her fence.

October 24, 2012 R&B singer Bobby Brown is arrested in Los Angeles, California, for a DUI ticket - after a similar incident in March of the same year in which he'd pleaded no contest and agreed to attend rehab. This time he is released on bail.

September 19, 2012 Fiona Apple is arrested when her tour bus is stopped in the West Texas town of Sierra Blanca, the same place where Willie Nelson and Snoop Dogg were previously busted. Border patrol agents find four grams of hash on the bus, which Apple says is hers. She spends a night in jail before being released on bail.

August 24, 2012 Country singer Randy Travis continues his string of calamitous arrests, this time for a brawl at a church in Texas where he was purportedly fighting over a woman. The incident leads to him being cited for assault, giving him another citation to add to his collection. It's still a cheaper hobby than baseball cards.

August 7, 2012 Grayson County, Texas, police respond to a call and discover country singer Randy Travis lying naked in the road and smelling of alcohol. Travis had crashed his vehicle into a construction zone just previously. In fact, there was an earlier call the same day from a convenience store owner, who said Travis had entered his store - still naked - and tried to buy cigarettes, but left when he realized he had no money. Travis is booked for DWI and resisting arrest, tying on another in a string of run-ins with the law.

September 2, 2011 T.I. is arrested just days after serving an 11-month sentence at the US Penitentiary in Arkansas. Under his probation agreement, the rapper was allowed to provide his own transportation from Arkansas to a halfway house in Atlanta. However, prison officials objected to his vehicle of choice - a luxury SUV motor coach - and took him back into custody for violating his parole.

August 7, 2011 Big Boi of OutKast is arrested in Miami on drug charges when police find ecstasy and Viagra in baggage with his name on it.

August 4, 2011 Rapper Big Sean is arrested in Lewiston, New York, after being accused of sexually assaulting a woman during a Wiz Khalifa concert, where he was performing. He is eventually fined $750 for second degree unlawful imprisonment.

July 17, 2011 Wolfmother frontman Andrew Stockdale gets wasted at the Archive Bar in Brisbane, where a local Beatles tribute band is performing. After crashing the stage and drunkenly screeching along to "Let It Be," he refuses to leave and is arrested when police arrive. He spends a night in jail and is fined $350.

March 28, 2011 Rapper Rick Ross is arrested in Shreveport, Louisiana, after being caught with one gram of marijuana. Ross was smoking the drug at the Hilton Hotel when guests reported smelling a foul odor coming from his room. Ross is booked and released the same night.

November 9, 2010 Rapper Wiz Khalifa is arrested in Greenville, North Carolina, on drug charges after authorities smell marijuana coming from his tour bus. Police find 60 grams of pot after searching the vehicle. Khalifa is booked and released on a $300,000 bond. The rapper's lawyers are able to reduce the charge to personal possession and Khalifa avoids jail time.

September 16, 2010 Country singer Justin Townes Earle is arrested in Indianapolis after storming offstage and trashing a green room. Reports say Earle was also intoxicated and he allegedly punched a woman backstage. Earle is forced to pay $200 in damages to the venue but is released from jail on a $150 bond.

July 4, 2010 After attending a gay pride parade in London, George Michael crashes his Range Rover into a Snappy Snaps photo store in Hampstead, England. Convicted of driving under the influence of cannabis, he goes to prison on September 21 and serves four weeks.

September 19, 2008 Ten years after getting arrested for lewd behavior in a Los Angeles public bathroom, George Michael is arrested on drug charges in a restroom north of London. "I want to apologize to my fans for screwing up again, and to promise them I'll sort myself out," the singer says. "And to say sorry to everybody else, just for boring them."