Pick a Day

Music History Events: Legal Issues

March 28, 1982 On his way to a "no-nukes" rally, David Crosby crashes his car into a divider on the San Diego Freeway. Police find quaaludes, cocaine paraphernalia, and a concealed pistol in the vehicle, but charges against him are plea bargained down to reckless driving and he is sentenced to probation and a $751 fine. A few weeks later he is arrested again, this time for freebasing cocaine.

August 24, 1981 Mark David Chapman, who murdered John Lennon, is sentenced to 20 years to life in prison. He is repeatedly denied parole.

June 22, 1981 Mark David Chapman pleads guilty to the murder of John Lennon six months earlier and is sentenced to 20 years-to-life in prison.

May 23, 1979 Responding to a wave of lawsuits after refusing to transfer his contract to MCA Records, Tom Petty files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, a bold move that halts the legal proceedings and forces MCA to negotiate.More

January 13, 1979 The YMCA files a lawsuit against Village People for their hit single "Y.M.C.A.," claiming the song is defaming to the organization. The suit is not only dropped, but the Y.M.C.A. adopts the song as their nonofficial commercial jingle after seeing the huge popularity boost the group brings them. Later, the US Navy recruits Village People to try to work similar magic for Navy recruitment.

November 23, 1976 Jerry Lee Lewis is arrested outside of Elvis Presley's Graceland mansion after waving a pistol and demanding to see "The King."

August 31, 1976 George Harrison is found guilty of "subconscious plagiarism" in a bizarre lawsuit that leaves songwriters baffled.More

August 10, 1972 Paul and Linda McCartney are arrested backstage in Gothenburg, Sweden, for possession of six ounces of marijuana, which was mailed to them by someone in McCartney's office who thought they would like some weed on the road. The couple are released after paying a combined fine of $1,200.

March 15, 1969 John Lennon and Yoko Ono get caught "standing in the dock at Southampton, trying to get to Holland or France" as passport problems stall their wedding. They get married five days later in Gibraltar, and use their adventure in the lyrics to "The Ballad Of John And Yoko."

March 1, 1969 Jim Morrison of The Doors is arrested after a Miami concert after allegedly exposing himself to the audience.More

January 2, 1969 Police confiscate a shipment of John Lennon and Yoko Ono's album Two Virgins at Newark airport, deeming the cover, which shows the couple naked, to be pornographic.

November 18, 1968 A group called Pogo, which includes Randy Meisner, Jim Messina and Richie Furay, debuts at the Troubadour in Los Angeles. They change their name to Poco to avoid legal action over the comic strip Pogo.

February 12, 1967 Police raid Keith Richards' Redlands estate, where they discover "various substances of a suspicious nature" and arrest him along with Mick Jagger and Marianne Faithfull. The whole thing is a setup.More

June 12, 1966 After buying pot from an undercover cop posing as a student at his high school, Steven Tallarico is arrested and charged with drug possession. He is given a year's probation and labelled a "Youthful Offender," which later keeps him from getting drafted. Tallarico later becomes Steven Tyler and forms Aerosmith.

January 23, 1966 Police arrest Jim Morrison for kissing a young woman, but the charges are really just a way for them to get to the bottom of a suspected murder that supposedly occurred weeks before.More

May 17, 1965 The FBI ends its two-year investigation into the Kingsmen song "Louie Louie," determining that the largely indecipherable lyrics are not obscene.

February 1, 1964 Indiana Governor Matthew Walsh bans the Kingsmen's version of "Louie Louie," calling it "pornographic" and making (literally) a federal case out of it.More

October 7, 1963 Pete Seeger copyrights "We Shall Overcome." The song dates to the early 1900s, but Seeger adapted it into the well-known version that became a civil rights anthem. He lists three others as songwriters, including two representatives of the Highlander Folk School in Tennessee, where he developed the song. Royalties from the song go to the We Shall Overcome Fund, which supports the school and its outreach efforts.

April 21, 1960 For about 20 years, it was common practice for record companies to pay DJs to play songs, but now the US government is cracking down on what they call "Payola." Dick Clark testifies before congress and admits that he took money and gifts to play records - estimating 27% of his playlist to be paid. Clark emerges more powerful than ever, selling off conflicting interests and expanding his music empire. On the other hand, another prominent DJ and TV host, Alan Freed, refuses to admit that he took payola, insisting that he was a consultant to the industry. His career never recovers despite his massive influence and success.

December 1, 1959 Chuck Berry meets a young lady named Janice Escalanti in Juarez, Mexico (his band has a show in El Paso that night). After learning she is a runaway, Berry invites her on the tour and takes her back to St. Louis to work at his restaurant. Bad move: she's just 14, which puts Berry in violation of a law against transporting minors across state lines. When their arrangement doesn't work out, she goes to the police, who arrest Berry. He ends up serving 20 months in jail.

April 26, 2023 Pras Michel of Fugees is found guilty of acting as a go-between for a Malaysian businessman trying to gain access to the United States government on behalf of China. Details are Byzantine, but it's clear a lot of money flowed through Pras.

April 4, 2023 The first truly believable AI-generated song appears online, posted to TikTok by an anonymous user. It's called "Heart On My Sleeve," and mimics the voices of Drake and The Weeknd. It quickly spreads to streaming services and is continually taken down and reposted, raising the issue of copyright with AI music.

February 3, 2019 In Atlanta, 21 Savage is arrested in an immigration crackdown and detained for nine days. It's revealed that he was born in England and has been living as an undocumented immigrant since his visa expired in 2006. During his detention he watches the Grammy Awards, where he's nominated for Record Of The Year for his Post Malone collaboration "Rockstar." He finally gets his green card in 2023.

December 1, 2014 Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts quotes lyrics from Eminem's song "'97 Bonnie & Clyde" in making the case that a man threatening his estranged wife by writing violent rap lyrics and posting them on Facebook was protected by free speech. Roberts, who mentions lines like "Dada make a nice bed for mommy at the bottom of the lake," points out that Eminem made these kind of threats very often, and he and others should be allowed to do so if it is presented as art.

July 2, 2014 In Grand Rapids, Michigan, a new group called The Raskins play their first show on the Mötley Crüe Final Tour, which also includes Alice Cooper. They later süe the Crüe, claiming they paid $1 million for the privilege, but received heaps of abuse in return.More

May 11, 2012 William Balfour, the former brother-in-law of Jennifer Hudson, is convicted of murdering Hudson's mother, brother, and nephew "as an act of vengeance by a jilted husband," according to the jury. Balfour's trial, at which Hudson herself had to take to the witness stand, began in October of 2008.

January 8, 2012 Rapper Ol' Dirty Bastard's FBI file is released. The report details nine arrests for the rapper, and says his group Wu-Tang Clan is "heavily involved in the sale of drugs, illegal guns, weapons possession, murder, carjacking and other types of violent crime."

July 14, 2010 Ann Kirsten Kennis, whose Polaroid photo is on the cover of Vampire Weekend's #1 album Contra, files a $2 million lawsuit against the band, their label, and the photographer, claiming she never granted permission to use it. She later settles with the band.More

October 12, 2009 Michael Jackson's from-the-vaults track "This Is It" is released as a promotional single to accompany the concert documentary of the same name. It's the first release since his death in June.More

August 25, 2009 Chris Brown is sentenced to five years probation and six months hard labor for assaulting Rihanna in February 2009 the night of the Grammy awards. Brown is also ordered to stay away from her for the next five years and undergo a full year of domestic violence counseling.