Pick a Day

Music History Events: Legal Issues

October 17, 1997 Rapper Warren G has a beef with Garth Brooks and files a lawsuit against the country star, claiming he infringed on his "G" logo.

October 15, 1997 Virginia concert promoter Patricia Ann Richardson files suit against Snoop Doggy Dogg, his former manager Sharitha Knight, and Death Row Records for allegedly tricking her into transporting packages containing seven pounds of marijuana to a venue where Snoop Doggy Dogg was performing. Richardson claims she was stopped, searched and arrested by local, state and federal law enforcement officers at the entrance to the club.

October 2, 1997 Juanita L. Evans files suit against Wu-Tang Clan members RZA and Method Man, rapper Redman, and a Pennsylvania university and its student government. Evans claims that she was distracted by Redman and therefore did not see Method Man when he leaped off stage and landed on her. Evans was knocked unconscious.

September 29, 1997 Blues Traveler bassist Bobby Sheehan is arrested for cocaine possession in Winnipeg. He is later released on $5,000 bond.

October 8, 1996 Jimmy Chamberlin, charged with drug possession, pleads guilty to a lesser charge of disorderly conduct. The Smashing Pumpkins drummer was shooting heroin with touring keyboard player Jonathan Melvoin in July when Melvoin overdosed and died. Chamberlin was fired from the band, but returns in 1999.

August 21, 1996 Rick James gets out of jail after serving two years of a five-year sentence for holding a woman hostage during a drug binge.

August 7, 1996 A federal appeals court overturns the ruling that original Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers members Jimmy Merchant and Herman Santiago co-wrote the group's biggest hit, 1955's "Why Do Fools Fall In Love?," ruling that copyright claims must be filed within three years of the song's publication.

April 4, 1996 More trouble for Wilson Pickett, who after serving a one-year jail sentence in 1994 is arrested at his New Jersey home and charged with possession of two grams of cocaine. Still on probation, he enters a rehab center in August.

March 29, 1996 Phil Spector's former bandmates in The Teddy Bears, Carol Connors and Marshall Lieb, sue the producer to collect royalties they claim are still owed from the group's 1958 smash "To Know Him Is To Love Him."

December 14, 1995 The FBI, acting on a judge's order, releases most (but not all) of its documents revealing the organization's attempts to deport John Lennon.

October 31, 1995 James Brown is charged with assault at his home in Aiken, South Carolina, after allegedly striking his wife Adrienne with a mirror.

October 23, 1995 Former Selena fan club president Yolanda Saldivar is convicted of murdering the Tejano star outside a Texas motel on March 31, 1995. The jury deliberates only 2 1/2 hours before handing down their guilty verdict.

October 17, 1995 Sting's former financial adviser, convicted of bilking the singer to the tune of $9.4 million, is sentenced in a London court to six years in jail.

October 12, 1995 Tupac Shakur is released from jail after Death Row Records boss Suge Knight posts a $1.4 million bond to release him. Knight puts the rapper to work, flying Tupac to LA, to record his fourth album, All Eyez on Me. Tupac had been serving time on sexual abuse charges stemming from a 1993 incident.

August 29, 1995 The US Internal Revenue Service places a lien on Aretha Franklin's home for $600,000 in back taxes.

July 28, 1995 After decades of legal wrangling, James Al Hendrix, surviving father of Jimi, is once again granted legal use of his son's name and likeness for merchandising.

July 25, 1995 Nina Simone is arrested for firing a pellet gun at noisy teenagers playing near her home in the south of France, for which she is placed on an 18-month probation and ordered to seek counseling.

July 21, 1995 A Los Angeles judge throws out a lawsuit filed against Michael Jackson by five of the pop star's security guards, who alleged that they were fired after learning the "truth" about Jackson's nighttime visits with young boys.

May 15, 1995 Stone Temple Pilots lead singer Scott Weiland is arrested for heroin and cocaine possession outside a motel in Pasadena. It's the first of his high-profile drug arrests.

March 3, 1995 A stalker is arrested trying to break into Roberta Flack's New York apartment.

December 12, 1994 Beach Boys lead singer Mike Love is awarded songwriting credits on 35 Beach Boys songs, including "California Girls," "Good Vibrations," and "Wouldn't It Be Nice." Love claimed that Murry Wilson, the father of Beach Boys Brian, Carl and Dennis Wilson, administered the publishing rights and left him uncredited for many songs for which he contributed lyrics.

November 23, 1994 DNA testing clears Michael Jackson in a California paternity suit.

November 2, 1994 Ruth Tyrangiel, former girlfriend of Bob Dylan, sues for $5 million palimony, claiming the singer reneged on his promise to marry her after she helped with his business affairs and also with his songwriting.

October 1, 1994 Wilson Pickett begins serving a one-year jail sentence for a 1992 incident where he hit a pedestrian with his car.

August 21, 1994 John Denver crashes his 1963 Porsche into a tree near his home in Aspen, Colorado, exactly one year after a previous arrest for driving while impaired.

June 7, 1994 Grace Slick of Jefferson Airplane/Starship is sentenced to 200 hours of community service on charges of pointing a loaded gun at police who responded to reports of a disturbance at her home on March 5th.

March 18, 1994 Courtney Love calls the police fearing that her husband, Kurt Cobain, is suicidal. Police confiscate four guns and 25 boxes of ammo from his home.

March 5, 1994 Grace Slick of Jefferson Airplane is arrested at her home in Tiburon, California for pointing a loaded gun at police officers responding to reports of a domestic dispute. She will be sentenced to community service and forced to attend Alcoholics Anonymous meetings.

November 1, 1993 Rapper Flavor Flav of the group Public Enemy is arrested for allegedly trying to shoot another man in a dispute over a woman. Police charge the rapper, whose real name is William Drayton, with attempted murder, possession of a weapon and reckless endangerment.

October 31, 1993 Tupac Shakur shoots two white off-duty police officers in Atlanta, who are treated and released from the hospital. Accounts of the incident are sketchy, but it appears that at least one of the cops instigated the incident and was possibly inebriated. Charges against Tupac are later dropped.