Uncharted: Crime and Mayhem in the Music Industry

Uncharted: Crime and Mayhem in the Music Industry

Have I got a story for you! Award winning Music Historian and host of the chart topping Ongoing History of New Music Podcast Alan Cross unleashes his next amazing podcast. In every episode Alan Cross takes you inside unbelievable true stories of crime, murder, scandal, strange deaths, unexplainable events, and the general mayhem from the music industry through the decades.There is a lot of bad behavior that needs to be talked about. It’s a one-of-a-kind podcast featuring true crime stories from the world of music.

  1. 15 OCT

    The Randy Rhoads-Travis Barker Plane Crashes | 26

    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”. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

    41 min
  2. 1 OCT

    Lou Pearlman and the Boy Band Ponzi Scam | 25

    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. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

    39 min
  3. 17 SEPT

    Concert Terrorism: The Bataclan massacre and the Manchester Arena bombing | 24

    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. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

    41 min
  4. 3 SEPT

    Beware the Help: People Who Betrayed Rock Stars | 23

    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. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

    40 min

About

Have I got a story for you! Award winning Music Historian and host of the chart topping Ongoing History of New Music Podcast Alan Cross unleashes his next amazing podcast. In every episode Alan Cross takes you inside unbelievable true stories of crime, murder, scandal, strange deaths, unexplainable events, and the general mayhem from the music industry through the decades.There is a lot of bad behavior that needs to be talked about. It’s a one-of-a-kind podcast featuring true crime stories from the world of music.

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