DISGRACELAND
Musicians. Movie stars. Mayhem. Murder. DISGRACELAND is the award-winning podcast that tells the unbelievable but true stories from the dark side of entertainment history. Rockstars getting away with murder and behaving very badly. Actors engulfed in scandal. Pop stars plotted against and terrorized. Taylor Swift escaping her stalkers. Jerry Lee Lewis allegedly murdering his wife. Brittany Murphy’s suspicious death. Big Lurch, the hip hop star who ate his roommate. The assassination of John Lennon. The Grateful Dead, the CIA, the LSD that turned on the USA, and the real reason Neil Young gave Charles Manson his motorcycle. Robert Downey Jr.’s redemptive rise from addiction. Anthony Bourdain’s destructive lust for life. The true crime stories that inspired Bruce Springsteen’s Nebraska and the serial killer inspired by AC/DC’s Highway To Hell. Welcome to DISGRACELAND, where these stories and more will grip you to the edge of your seat and cause you to binge episode after episode.
DISGRACELAND publishes new, fully scripted, and sound-designed episodes every Tuesday and bonus episodes featuring listener voicemails, texts, and emails on Thursdays.
DISGRACELAND is not a journalistic podcast. It is an entertainment podcast inspired by true events. Certain dialogue and scenes are sometimes fictionalized for dramatic purposes, as they are in most scripted entertainment based on true events. Sources and credits for each episode are available at www.disgracelandpod.com .
To listen to DISGRACELAND ad-free and get access to an exclusive monthly episode, weekly bonus content, and more, become a Disgraceland All Access member at www.disgracelandpod.com/membership.
226
Britney Spears (Pt. 1): Trauma Pop
35 min
227
George Harrison: Surviving the Beatles, the Lon...
George Harrison famously survived the dissolution of the Beatles, a bust by London’s drug squad, a potentially bloody visit from the Hell’s Angels, and a few rounds with cancer. But on the final day of the 20th century, his strength and faith were put to the ultimate test. A crazed fan, convinced that the Beatles were evil and George was a sorcerer who had possessed him, broke into George’s Friar Park estate in the dead of night with one goal: to murder George Harrison.To hear all episodes of Disgraceland for free, visit amazon.com/disgraceland. Show notes are available at disgracelandpod.com. Follow us @disgracelandpod on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook for music news, bonus episodes, and more.
37 min
228
The Temptations: Fame, Drugs, and Paranoia
The Temptations were one of Motown’s signature vocal groups, and they remain one of the most successful R&B acts of all time. But fame and drugs corrupted them from the beginning. Lineup changes were as frequent as their chart-topping hits. Eventually their rocky road led to drug addiction, crippling paranoia, routine backstabbing, and one of the most tragic deaths in the history of the Motor City.This episode contains themes that may be disturbing to some listeners, including discussions about suicide. If you’re thinking about suicide or are worried about a friend or loved one, call the Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 800-273-8255.To hear all episodes of Disgraceland for free, visit amazon.com/disgraceland. Show notes are available at disgracelandpod.com. Follow us @disgracelandpod on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook for music news, bonus episodes, and more.
40 min
229
Miles Davis Pt. 2: Mountains of Pills, Bitches ...
32 min
230
Miles Davis Pt. 1: Blasting Bebop, Blasting Rac...
34 min
231
Juice WRLD: Percocets, Lucid Dreams and a Whole...
The loss of emo-rap trailblazer Juice WRLD is one of the most sudden, tragic, and graphic celebrity deaths in recent memory. His adolescence experimenting with bold beats, prescription pills, and lean set him up to become Gen Z’s new spokesperson. His music helped hit the reset button on popular music, transforming a once-bubbly genre into an all-consuming wormhole of depression, tension, and heartache. But his music earned more than just a global audience — it also drew the attention of the FBI, a force that was very present during Juice WRLD’s final days.To hear all episodes of Disgraceland for free, visit amazon.com/disgraceland. Show notes are available at disgracelandpod.com. Follow us @disgracelandpod on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook for music news, bonus episodes, and more.
38 min
232
Billie Holiday: Heroin Hounds, ‘Whorehouse Musi...
36 min
233
The Eagles Pt. 2: Death, a Plane Crash, and Inn...
In the 1970s, The Eagles made taking off into the upper stratosphere of the charts look easy. Their near decade-long reign of rock afforded them hobbies like dismantling hotel rooms with chainsaws, playing chicken with private jets, and joining delirious drug dealers on high-speed Corvette rides. But after nearly a solid decade of stadium sell-outs, No. 1 singles, top-selling albums and enough cocaine, sex and tension to make even the hardest, wildest, ’70s rock ‘n’ rollers cry uncle, the Eagles had burned out. They were at the top of their game in a decade that they owned, yet somehow, the greatness they sought had destroyed them.To hear all episodes of Disgraceland for free, visit amazon.com/disgraceland. Show notes are available at disgracelandpod.com. Follow us @disgracelandpod on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook for music news, bonus episodes, and more.
33 min
234
The Eagles Pt. 1: International Drug Smuggling,...
From games of chicken on private planes to one member surviving a private plane crash, the Eagles as a group very narrowly survived themselves. During their early days, they dosed out on Peyote and reimagined and reconfigured a new FM sound for the ages that would result in unimaginable success and excess. When their debut record was released on Geffen Records in 1972, America couldn’t have been more ready for their breezy, countrified Southern California sound. Yet something else came with their that heady, golden age of California in the 1970s, that era of endless cocaine, groupies, money, and excess beyond anyone’s wildest dreams. As the Eagles would soon learn, that “peaceful easy feeling” they were peddling wasn’t built to last.To hear all episodes of Disgraceland for free, visit amazon.com/disgraceland. Show notes are available at disgracelandpod.com. Follow us @disgracelandpod on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook for music news, bonus episodes, and more.
32 min
235
Bonus Episode: Just A Cook, Napkin Hats, and Bi...
30 min
236
Hank Williams: Sanatoriums, Poison Pills, and F...
42 min
237
Sublime: Hoodlums, Police Helicopters, and Gett...
With their newfangled ska-punk, Sublime preached the gospel of Long Beach’s seedy shores unlike any band before them. They also incited a riot at the first show, vandalized their record label’s headquarters, and did unspeakable deeds to a Dennys kitchen with their mobile home’s septic tank. The group’s musical legacy is inseparable from their reputation as hoodlums and hedonists, in part because those are precisely the people Sublime wrote about. Sublime was born in California, raised in California, but before they could get much farther, Sublime died in California, too.To hear all episodes of Disgraceland for free, visit amazon.com/disgraceland. Show notes are available at disgracelandpod.com. Follow us @disgracelandpod on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook for music news, bonus episodes, and more.
37 min
238
Tom Petty: House Fires, Hiding a Heroin Habit, ...
Tom Petty: House Fires, Hiding a Heroin Habit, and Run-Down Dreams
41 min
239
Taylor Swift: Horrifying Stalkers
Taylor Swift has a list of stalkers longer than her stadium tour setlists. One drove over 900 miles to hand-deliver his “love” letters to her then-record-label, Big Machine Records. Others have showed up to her homes bearing rope, lock picks, and tools to break her windows. The threats on her life have become so persistent that her security team once installed facial recognition software at the venues she performed in, specifically to distinguish her stalkers from her fans. While making some of the most recognizable pop songs in music history, Taylor Swift also became one of the most recognizable women in the celebrity sphere – a title that on many occasions has nearly cost her life.
39 min
240
Derek and the Dominos: Clapton, Cocaine, Motorc...
35 min
241
Woodstock Pt. 2: A Disaster Movie
The original Woodstock was a literal disaster, declared so on its first day by the state of New York. There were fights, onstage, armed black-shirted hippie gestapo on patrol, and most notably, two dead kids on record. The festival was born of violence, sparked into existence out of organizer Michael Lang’s standoff with hillbilly armed guards and cops from down in Florida. The lasting image of Woodstock as a time of idyllic harmony is a nostalgic gimmick, as is the 1970 documentary about the events that took place up in Bethel, New York that fateful weekend. If any director were to make a truly realistic movie about Woodstock, their film would be an unhinged disaster movie.To hear all episodes of Disgraceland for free, visit amazon.com/disgraceland. Show notes are available at disgracelandpod.com. Follow us @disgracelandpod on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook for music news, bonus episodes, and more.
40 min
242
Woodstock Pt. 1: A Disaster Movie
Woodstock is remembered as the generation-defining moment when the baby boomers demonstrated to the world the power of peace, love and communalism. In reality, what went down at Old Man Yasgur’s farm in August 1969 involved extortion, deaths, countless overdoses, near-mass electrocution, and a state of emergency. Not to mention a restless crowd that doubled in size seemingly every time festival producer Micheal Lang lifted his head to survey the drug-addled chaos. All he wanted was a new kind of festival—a celebration of utopian hippie idealism. Instead, for three long, lawless days, Lang got much more than he bargained for during one of the messiest moments in American music history.To hear all episodes of Disgraceland for free, visit amazon.com/disgraceland. Show notes are available at disgracelandpod.com. Follow us @disgracelandpod on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook for music news, bonus episodes, and more.
45 min
243
Black Sabbath: Satanists, Severed Limbs, Dismem...
42 min
244
Fleetwood Mac Pt. 2: Going to #1, and Going You...
Fleetwood Mac’s mid-’70s merger with the musical duo of Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks changed the course of the band forever, propelling them to Top 40 mega-fame and cocaine-fueled excess. At the core of it all were rampant Rumours — both the album and the literal gossip. Breakups, divorce, drama: the same intra-band personal dynamics that stressed the group simultaneously led to the creation of one of the top-selling albums of all time. For Fleetwood Mac, Rumours was how the truth came out. And over 40 years later, there’s still a lot that needs clearing up.To hear all episodes of Disgraceland for free, visit amazon.com/disgraceland. Show notes are available at disgracelandpod.com. Follow us @disgracelandpod on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook for music news, bonus episodes, and more.
31 min
245
Fleetwood Mac Pt. 1: Guns, God, Cocaine and Rum...
Few bands can boast a rock ’n’ roll lore at the level of Fleetwood Mac. The band lost not one but two guitarists to cult-like religious freaks. Two band members were arrested on gun charges. They encountered doom brought on by drugs, money, and Jesus Christ. Most famously, the band involved themselves with each other romantically in ways that brought on jealousy, distrust, anger, divorce and resulted in one of the most successful albums of all time. From their earliest days as an English blues band to the pop superstars they would become in the mid to late ’70s, one thing about Fleetwood Mac never faltered: They always had talent — and drama — to spare.To hear all episodes of Disgraceland for free, visit amazon.com/disgraceland. Show notes are available at disgracelandpod.com. Follow us @disgracelandpod on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook for music news, bonus episodes, and more.
33 min
246
Tommy James and the Shondells: Mony Mony and Ma...
Tommy James came up during a time when the music industry was in part controlled by New York’s Italian mafia. And for a period in the 1960s, that power was centralized at Roulette Records. The record label was run by convicted extortionist Morris Levy and operated in partnership with the Genovese crime family. Tommy James’ hits were sanctioned by the mob, the same mob that would threaten not only his career, but his life.To hear all episodes of Disgraceland for free, visit amazon.com/disgraceland. Show notes are available at disgracelandpod.com. Follow us @disgracelandpod on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook for music news, bonus episodes, and more.
39 min
247
Pantera’s Dimebag Darrell: A Murderous Fan, Bro...
42 min
248
Ray Charles: Busted for Heroin and Busting Genr...
Ray Charles was hooked on heroin, arrested by federal agents, and once survived a near-death plane ride by helping the pilot - as a blind man. He invented R&B. He was powerful enough to bring black and white culture into one. He was a genre-melding musical genius. Despite being born into a literal dirt poor existence in the Jim Crow era Deep South, despite going completely blind by the age of seven, and despite his addiction, Ray Charles influenced everyone from the Beatles to Belushi. And he made some of the greatest music of all time.To hear all episodes of Disgraceland for free, visit amazon.com/disgraceland. Show notes are available at disgracelandpod.com. Follow us @disgracelandpod on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook for music news, bonus episodes, and more.
38 min
249
John Lennon: Violence, Protests, Provoking the ...
37 min
250
Paul McCartney: Paul Is Dead
Despite his reputation as “the safe Beatle,” Paul McCartney was a badass. He took wild artistic risks, rubbed elbows with truly dangerous characters and because of his crimes, did hard time in one of the world’s most notorious prisons. His public spats with Beatles bandmate John Lennon are the stuff of legend, as is the “Paul is dead” conspiracy at the end of their time together as a band, but the truth may be even stranger.To hear all episodes of Disgraceland for free, visit amazon.com/disgraceland. Show notes are available at disgracelandpod.com. Follow us @disgracelandpod on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook for music news, bonus episodes, and more.
42 min