Pick a Day

Music History Events: Legal Issues

January 23, 1991 The Albuquerque, New Mexico, radio station KLSK FM plays the Led Zeppelin song "Stairway To Heaven" over and over for 24 hours to inaugurate a format change to classic rock. It plays more than 200 times, eliciting hundreds of angry calls and letters. Police show up with guns drawn after a listener reports that the DJ had apparently suffered a heart attack, later because of suspicion that - this being eight days into the Gulf War - the radio station had been taken hostage by terrorists dispatched by Zeppelin freak Saddam Hussein. Weirdest of all, lots of listeners don't move the dial: "Turns out a lot of people listened to see when we would finally stop playing it."

November 9, 1990 The IRS comes after Willie Nelson, who owes $16 million in back taxes. His assets, including master tapes, clothing and gold records, are seized. Nelson saves his favorite guitar, Trigger, by having it sent to Maui before the feds arrive.

October 3, 1990 Charles Freeman, who owns the E-C Records store in Fort Lauderdale, is convicted of selling obscene material after selling a copy of the 2 Live Crew album As Nasty As They Wanna Be two days after it was ruled obscene in a federal court. His punishment: a $1000 fine.

May 8, 1990 A jury orders Frito-Lay to pay the famously anti-advertising Tom Waits $2.6 million for imitating his voice in a Doritos radio commercial that transforms his song "Step Right Up" into an ad for their SalsaRio flavor chips. In 1992, the verdict is upheld on appeal.

April 12, 1990 James Brown is put on work release after spending months in jail on charges of drug possession and resisting arrest. He makes $3.80/hour counseling youths about drug abuse.

February 22, 1990 A jury rules that Stevie Wonder didn't not infringe on a song written in 1976 called "I Just Called To Say" on his hit "I Just Called To Say I Love You." The lawsuit was filed in 1985 by "I Just Called To Say" writers Lee Garrett and Lloyd Chiate, but in 1986, Garrett, a childhood friend of Wonder's, pulls out of the case.

February 16, 1990 Ike Turner is sentenced to four years in prison on eleven separate charges, including possession and transport of cocaine. In prison when he and ex-wife Tina are inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, he is released after serving eighteen months.

December 27, 1989 Chuck Berry is sued by the former cook of his restaurant - The Southern Air, in Wentzville, Missouri - who claims Berry installed hidden cameras in the ladies restrooms and collected the videos. Over 200 former customers take part in a class action suit against Berry, which is eventually settled out of court.

December 1, 1989 Sly Stone (of Sly & the Family Stone) is sentenced to 55 days in jail for driving while under the influence of cocaine.

July 19, 1989 After finding over $40,000 in cash and checks in his cell at the Stevenson Correctional Institute in South Carolina, officials move James Brown to a cell with tighter security.

December 15, 1988 For his interstate car chase and numerous drug, firearms, and assault offenses, James Brown is sentenced to six and one-half years in a South Carolina prison. He serves a little more than two.

November 16, 1988 Stan Love, brother and manager of Beach Boy Mike Love, is sentenced to five years' suspended sentence after being found guilty of embezzling over $300,000 from the group.

November 8, 1988 Jerry Lee Lewis declares bankruptcy.

October 25, 1988 Chico and Bobby DeBarge (of DeBarge) are convicted in Michigan of trafficking cocaine.

July 21, 1988 In Aiken circuit court in South Carolina, James Brown pleads guilty to charges of gun possession and resisting arrest. Brown was arrested in May after leading police on a car chase.

July 18, 1988 Ike Turner is sentenced to one year in a Santa Monica, California, jail for six grams of crack found in his car during a traffic stop in August 1987.

June 29, 1988 Lionel Richie's wife Brenda is arrested for assaulting her husband after finding him at the apartment of another woman, Diane Alexander. The couple divorce in 1993, and in 1995, Richie marries Alexander.

June 3, 1988 A judge rejects the defense of James Brown's wife Adrienne, who claims diplomatic immunity in an effort to get out of traffic tickets. Her reasoning is that two years earlier, Congressman Douglas Bernard, Jr. called her husband the "#1 Ambassador" as part of James Brown Appreciation Day. The judge doesn't go for it.

April 18, 1988 The accused murderer of reggae legend Peter Tosh, Dennis "Leppo" Lobban, goes on trial in Jamaica.

November 12, 1987 Sly Stone arrives one hour late for a major comeback concert in Santa Monica, California, only to be arrested at the gig for failure to pay child support.

September 28, 1987 The British newspaper The Sun reports that Elton John has had the larynxes removed from his guard dogs so they can't bark, which is untrue. Elton sues the paper and reaches a settlement for about a million pounds and a front page apology.

August 10, 1987 Wilson Pickett is found guilty of threatening patrons at a New Jersey bar with a loaded shotgun after a brawl inside the club. He is given two years' probation and fined $1000.

July 28, 1987 The Beatles, along with Yoko Ono, sue Nike for using "Revolution" in TV commercials. Nike authorized the song through the group's US label, Capitol, and Michael Jackson, who owns the publishing. Nike doesn't back down and continues running the ads, which anger many Beatles fans but sell a lot of sneakers. The suit is later settled out of court for an undisclosed amount.

July 22, 1987 Morris Albert is found guilty of plagiarizing the 1956 French composition "Pour Toi" on his hit "Feelings." Louis Gasté, the composer of "Pour Toi," is added to the writers credit.

June 5, 1987 Sly Stone (of Sly and the Family Stone) surrenders to authorities in Fort Meyers, Florida, for violating his probation (for cocaine possession).

April 23, 1987 Carole King sues her former label head and mentor, Lou Adler, for $400,000 in royalties and the publishing rights to some of her older recordings from the late-'60s.

February 21, 1987 Sly Stone is jailed for possession of cocaine in Los Angeles, an arrest which sends the singer into retirement and virtual seclusion upon his release.

December 17, 1986 Wayne Newton wins a $19.2 million suit against NBC News, which had erroneously linked the singer to organized crime.

August 8, 1986 After serving eight months of a five-year sentence in the Huntsville unit of the Texas State Prison, David Crosby gets out on parole. Crosby entered the facility after a series of arrests and failed attempts at drug rehab. He later says that going to prison saved his life, as it forced him to get sober.

June 4, 1986 After a years-long court battle, the producers of The Beatles' tribute Beatlemania! are forced to pay Apple $10 million in royalties.