Pick a Day

Music History Events: Incidents

July 4, 1955 Gene Vincent's leg is crushed when his motorcycle is struck by a car in Franklin, Virginia.

December 25, 1954 Up-and-coming R&B star Johnny Ace, age 25, is killed when he shoots himself backstage at a concert in Houston, possibly while playing Russian Roulette. His song "Pledging My Love" becomes a hit after his death.

November 19, 1954 While driving from Vegas to Los Angeles, Sammy Davis, Jr. crashes into another car on Route 66 in San Bernardino, California, and three days later, permanently loses use of his left eye. While in the hospital, friend Eddie Cantor tells Davis about the twin struggles of the Jewish and African-Americans, leading Davis to convert to Judaism. (The accident, paradoxically, increased his popularity.)

August 2, 1953 Skeeter Davis, still a member of the Davis Sisters, breaks both her arms and legs in a car crash near Cincinnati, Ohio, a crash which also kills fellow Davis "sister" Betty Jack Davis.

April 20, 1949 Phil Spector's father commits suicide when Phil is just 9 years old. The title of the song "To Know Him Is To Love Him," which Phil Spector wrote for the Teddy Bears, comes from the inscription on his father's headstone.

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."

October 12, 1944 At Frank Sinatra's show at the Paramount Theater in New York City, police are called in to control the crowd, which is mostly teenage girls. Performances go on one after another, and many audience members refuse to leave, which leads to the tensions in what was dubbed the "Columbus Day Riot."

August 13, 1938 Robert Johnson, famous for his song "Crossroads," where he sings about making a deal with the Devil to attain his musical prowess, is poisoned during a gig in Greenwood, Mississippi. Most accounts claim the guy who owned the club put the poison in Johnson's whiskey bottle because Johnson was having an affair with his wife. He dies three days later at age 27.

April 26, 1913 13-year-old Mary Phagan is found murdered in the basement of a pencil factory in Atlanta, Georgia. Her death inspires the song "Little Mary Phagan."

December 20, 2016 On a flight from Vietnam to South Korea, Richard Marx helps subdue a mentally unhinged passenger who starts attacking flight attendants and fellow passengers. Marx and wife Daisy Fuentes had been vacationing in Hanoi all week before boarding the chaotic four-hour flight.

August 14, 2016 Former Nine Inch Nails keyboardist James Woolley, who played with the band from 1991-1994, falls from a ladder at his Illinois studio and dies from resulting neck injuries at age 49.

August 3, 2016 Days after performing at Portland's Moda Center, Modest Mouse singer Isaac Brock causes a 5-vehicle accident when he falls asleep at the wheel and crashes into a pickup truck. No serious injuries are reported.

November 2, 2015 80-year-old Johnny Mathis returns home from an Ohio concert to find his iconic Hollywood Hills mansion, built by billionaire Howard Hughes in 1946, engulfed in flames. The fire consumes nearly all of the singer's possessions, save for a few mementos.

February 25, 2015 Madonna falls down a set of stage stairs during her performance of "Living For Love" at the Brit Awards when the cape she is wearing doesn't release properly when pulled by a dancer. She gamely gets up and finishes the performance, later reassuring fans that she is fine, and that "love really lifted me up."

January 29, 2015 Suge Knight, former bodyguard-turned-record producer, is the alleged perpetrator in a hit-and-run which leaves his friend Terry Carter dead and actor Cle Denyale Sloan injured. Knight was filming the upcoming N.W.A. biopic Straight Outta Compton when he reportedly fled the scene after an argument and plowed into the victims. Knight's lawyer confirms the incident, but refuses to say more as he's "waiting for a preliminary investigation for more information."

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.

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.

October 2, 2014 Rita Coolidge's sister Priscilla Coolidge is found dead in her Thousand Oaks, California, home. She is the victim of a murder-suicide perpetrated by her husband, Michael Seibert. Priscilla, who was once married to Booker T. of Booker T. & the MG's, performed with her daughter - Laura Satterfield - and Rita in the Native American music trio Walela.

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.

May 15, 2014 Rapper Evan Plunkett, who performed as Hollywood Will, is shot dead at a Las Vegas casino.

January 7, 2013 Justin Bieber fans are the target of an online trolling campaign. Members of the image board 4chan claim to be implementing an awareness campaign to encourage the pop star to say "no" to drugs. The campaign's premise is "Cut for Bieber," and fans are encouraged to cut themselves and post photos of the damage online accompanied by the #CutForBieber tag on Twitter. Several hoax accounts post results in "response," but it appears no actual Bieber fans fall for the ploy. Earlier in October, a similar troll campaign called "Bald for Bieber" fizzled out, too. That one encouraged fans to shave their heads for the pop star based on the false rumor that he had cancer.

December 19, 2012 Madonna gets angry at fans at a concert in Santiago, Chile, for smoking cigarettes near her against her wishes. The singer lectures the audience: "If you're going to smoke cigarettes, I'm not doing a show. You don't care about me, I don't care about you. All right? Are we going to play that game? I'm not kidding. I can't sing if you smoke." Did we mention this is out in the open air in the rain and she is about 10 feet above everybody onstage?

December 13, 2012 Police bust a bizarre murder plot targeting pop singer Justin Bieber. A team of three hit men in Albuquerque, New Mexico, had been making plans to stalk and kill the singer and even castrate him. One of the three men had reportedly been obsessed with Bieber to the point of having a tattoo of him on his leg. All three men were apprehended along with confiscated weapons - and a set of pruning shears.

November 8, 2012 Tragedy strikes at a Linkin Park concert in Cape Town, South Africa, when high winds cause scaffolding to collapse. This sends an advertisement tower plummeting into the crowd of fans in the parking lot after the show, killing one and injuring 19 more.

October 14, 2012 B. B. Cunningham Jr., aged 70, finishes one of the most unusual lives in music history when he dies of a gunshot wound inflicted while working as a security guard at an apartment complex in Memphis, Tennessee. We mainly know Cunningham through his work with the band Hombres, who had a #12 Billboard-charting hit in 1967 with "Let It Out (Let It All Hang Out)." Cunningham was lead singer of Hombres and not to be confused with his brother Bill Cunningham, who was a member of The Box Tops. Cunningham rounded off his music career with work as a studio engineer, even returning to Memphis to launch his own studio. How he ended up as a 70-year-old security guard is anybody's guess.

October 8, 2012 Green Day is forced to cancel their appearance at the New Orleans' Voodoo Music Festival, citing Billie Joe Armstrong's problems with substance abuse. Armstrong had an onstage outburst mid-show in Las Vegas a few weeks earlier that prompted him to get treatment.

September 26, 2012 Staten Island Borough President James Molinaro gets into hot water for his slurs against Lady Gaga. The extensive rant consists, in part, of "There's Gaga. Here's this, this, I would call her a slut. This slut is influencing many, many children."

August 15, 2012 Members of the metal band Baroness are injured when their tour bus falls off the road while traveling in England. Lead singer John Baizley's left arm is shattered and his left leg broken; drummer Allen Blickle and bass player Matt Maggioni each suffer spinal fractures. Baizley manages to keep his arm and resume his duties as frontman/guitarist, but Blickle and Maggioni leave the band.

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.

June 27, 2012 Rihanna is very lucky to escape with her life after being among 300 people evacuated from a motel during a fire in an elevator shaft. It takes ten firefighters to put out the resulting blaze at the Corinthia Hotel in London, where Rihanna was performing at the Hackney Weekend concert.