The world of rock and metal is full of stories passed by word of mouth, from generation to generation — some true, others completely fake, and all of them entertaining. We gathered 18 of the most famous ones and split them into true and fake. Here is the list, with the answers.
How many did you know?
1. Charles Manson wrote a song for the Beach Boys — TRUE
The convicted cult leader did indeed have a hand in 1968’s «Never Learn Not to Love». In the late 60s he moved around the Los Angeles music scene and met Dennis Wilson, who put him up at his house. He presented a song titled «Cease to Exist», which the Beach Boys recorded in a new version with a different title and lyrics, without giving him credit. Manson did not take it well at all.
2. Keith Richards replaced all his blood — FALSE
One of rock’s most famous myths says the Rolling Stones guitarist went to Switzerland in the 70s to get clean from drugs, with a complete replacement of his blood. He himself admitted it: he had made it all up so they would stop asking. «I was sick of answering that question, so I gave them a story». Maybe there was some blood-filtering treatment in 1973, but a blood change never happened.
3. The White Stripes are siblings — FALSE
They were married and had divorced. Jack and Meg White sold reporters the sibling version when they started out in the late 90s, but in 2001 their city paper, the Detroit Free Press, revealed the truth through Oakland County court records: they were former spouses, divorced since March 2000.
4. Alice Cooper bit the head off a chicken — FALSE
What really happened in 1969 was stranger: a live chicken flew onto the stage from an audience member, Cooper threw it back into the crowd and the animal didn’t make it. The next day, the papers wrote «Alice bit off a chicken’s head and drank the blood». The myth stuck forever.
5. KISS is a satanic acronym — FALSE
«Knights in Satan’s Service» was heard mostly during the 80s «Satanic Panic», but Paul Stanley set it straight in a 2023 interview: «We’re smart, but not that smart». The band started out as Wicked Lester before landing on the name KISS.
6. Axl Rose can be heard having sex on «Rocket Queen» — TRUE
During the mixing of «Appetite for Destruction», Axl Rose wanted real sex sounds in the bridge of the last track. The dancer Adriana Smith was the one who took part — she was involved with drummer Steven Adler and wanted to hurt him. «He suggested I do something that even his girlfriend wouldn’t do», she has said. They recorded about three hours of material on the floor of the vocal room, with the engineers outside and the lights off. She herself has no regrets either.
7. Jimi Hendrix brought parakeets to Britain — FALSE
The story goes that Hendrix released two parakeets on Carnaby Street in 1968 as a symbol of peace, and that’s how the country got filled with them. A 2019 study showed that parakeets had appeared in Britain since 1855, while experts believe their population grew when birds escaped from damaged cages in the great storm of 1987.
8. «Smoke on the Water» is based on a true story — TRUE
On December 4, 1971, at the Montreux casino, a flare from the audience set the roof on fire during a Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention concert. The casino burned to the ground and Deep Purple, who were there to record, wrote the song about it. The line «Smoke on the water / A fire in the sky» is literal.
9. Aerosmith played a set made only of the encore — FALSE
The story goes that they tried to play their whole set backwards, started with the encore and then left the stage. Guitarist Joe Perry has denied it: «It’s a nice story and it never goes away. Unfortunately it’s not true. We did dumb things on stage, but not that dumb». The only thing he admits is that they played the same song twice because they forgot they had already played it.
10. «In the Air Tonight» is about a drowning — FALSE
The myth has Phil Collins having watched someone ignore a drowning and writing the song about him. He himself has explained that he wrote the song while going through a divorce: «It’s the angry side or the bitter side of a separation». He always found it funny when people asked him if he saw someone drowning.
11. Ozzy Osbourne bit the head off a bat — TRUE
The mother of all rock stories and it really happened: January 20, 1982, on the «Diary of a Madman» tour, in Des Moines, Iowa. Ozzy thought the bat that flew onto the stage was a rubber toy, bit it, and realised it was real when he felt it moving. Three weeks of rabies shots followed.
12. Two famous musicians died in the same apartment — TRUE
Cass Elliot of The Mamas and the Papas died on July 29, 1974 and The Who’s drummer Keith Moon on September 7, 1978 — both in songwriter Harry Nilsson’s apartment. Nilsson was so shaken that he never set foot there again, and Pete Townshend bought the apartment so it wouldn’t become a tourist attraction.
13. Aerosmith almost chartered Lynyrd Skynyrd’s plane — TRUE
Lynyrd Skynyrd’s plane, a Convair CV-240, crashed on October 20, 1977, killing Ronnie Van Zant, Steve Gaines and others. Aerosmith had used a similar aircraft, their tour manager had asked about chartering the same type, but in the end they refused — partly out of concerns about its safety and maintenance. A chilling coincidence.
14. Michael Jackson owned the bones of the «Elephant Man» — FALSE
Jackson was indeed interested in Joseph Merrick, but the bones weren’t even available: a World War II bombing destroyed the remains at the Royal London Hospital. Some pieces survived, but they were never put up for sale.
15. Rod Stewart needed a stomach pump after an orgy — FALSE
A pure invention by a journalist who had been fired from his team. He himself writes in his autobiography that the man in question «fed» the press the story, and makes it clear: «I have not given oral service to a single sailor, let alone a whole crew in one night».
16. Keith Richards inhaled his father’s ashes — TRUE (according to him)
In a 2007 interview he admitted it himself: «The strangest thing I’ve ever tried to snort? My father. He was cremated and I couldn’t resist, I crushed him up with a bit of coke». He added that his father wouldn’t have minded and that it «went down quite well». He has never taken that story back.
17. Marilyn Manson removed a rib — FALSE
One of the most widespread 90s myths, along with the one that he played Paul Pfeiffer on «The Wonder Years» (that was the actor Josh Saviano). Manson closed the subject in his 1998 autobiography: «If I had actually removed my rib, I’d be dealing with that instead of chasing Winnie Cooper».
More on the same side of metal: Napalm Death in Sofia – Campaign for Musical Destruction 2026.
18. Debbie Harry was almost abducted by Ted Bundy — UNPROVEN
The Blondie singer has said that in the early 70s, on New York’s Lower East Side, a man in a white car insisted on giving her a ride. As soon as she got in, she realised there were no door handles or window mechanism — the interior was stripped bare. She managed to open the door from the outside, fell into the street and escaped. There’s no way to confirm it was Bundy, so the story remains unproven.
As it turns out, the craziest stories are often the truest ones. If this world interests you, see also Alice Cooper: Dee Snider, Lzzy Hale and the new generation, Deep Purple – SPLAT!, Dee Snider: Farewell tours and bands without original members or the complete guide to Metal’s subgenres.
See also: Manowar and Hellfest 2019: The cancellation that became a legend
Source: loudwire.com/rock-metal-legends-stories-myths-tales-true-false-debunked/
