'90s Rock Stars Accused Of Serious Crimes

The 1990s were a fruitful time for rock music, one of the most varied and artistically significant periods in the ever-evolving art form's long and sometimes notorious history. The decade began with the last gasp of hair metal and hard rock bands dominating the scene before giving way to the Seattle-born, punk-oriented grunge movement. By the end of the 1990s, rap-metal was thrilling listeners and filling up the airwaves of radio and MTV, with rock continuing to splinter and spread further into the areas of hard rock, heavy metal, ska, jam bands, arena rock, college rock, funk rock, pop punk, and so on, into the new millennium.

With the arrival of newly minted rock stars and the rise and fall of pre-existing ones, the 1990s also bore witness to plenty of rock star behavior — which historically hasn't covered the most polite, legal, or broadly socially acceptable of acts. Here are times that rockers from the 1990s were accused of, charged with, or were punished for some seriously messed-up criminal actions that fall outside the bounds of typical wild celebrity behavior.

The following article includes allegations of domestic abuse, substance abuse, and sexual assault.

Starting off in the '80s as a wild and noisy funk-punk party band, the Red Hot Chili Peppers almost inexplicably became one of the most popular and mainstream bands in the world in the '90s. Largely eschewing old practices — like taking the stage in nothing but strategically placed gym socks — and jam-metal musical odysseys in favor of shiftlessness and mid-tempo ballads, the Chili Peppers sold millions of copies of tunes like the heroin addict lament "Under the Bridge" and California condemnation "Californication."

In his 2004 memoir "Scar Tissue," Red Hot Chili Peppers lead singer Anthony Kiedis reminisced about the inspiration behind the band's 1985 song "Catholic School Girls Rule" — a series of sexual encounters with a 14-year-old high school student. After meeting the girl backstage at a concert in New Orleans and having relations with her at least once, Kiedis brought the young woman to the next tour stop, in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. After the show, she told Kiedis, "My father's the chief of police and the entire state of Louisiana is looking for me because I've gone missing. Oh, and besides that, I'm only 14." After committing one more act of statutory rape, Kiedis "put her on a bus and sent her back to New Orleans," he wrote.

If you or anyone you know has been a victim of sexual assault, help is available. Visit the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network website or contact RAINN's National Helpline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673).

Taking on a persona of a consciously offensive, off-putting glam-rock ghoul, Marilyn Manson challenged the mainstream in the '90s with his deviance-suggesting singles and videos like "The Beautiful People" and "The Dope Show." According to several former partners of the rock star born Brian Warner (his stage name, and that of his band, invokes murderer Charles Manson), he committed many shocking and alarming acts of violence and assault in real life.

Actor Evan Rachel Wood, to whom Manson was engaged in 2010, identified the rocker as her abuser, according to Billboard. "He started grooming me when I was a teenager and horrifically abused me for years," Wood wrote on Instagram in 2021. The actor previously detailed many acts of domestic, physical, and sexual violence perpetrated on her, without naming her assailant while testifying to Congress on the need to bolster assault survival laws (USA Today). Wood alleged that Manson bound her, tortured her, and assaulted her when he believed she was unconscious.

After Wood went public with her story, other women linked with Manson, including musician Ellie Rowsell and actor Esme Bianco, alleged other crimes. Roswell accused Manson of intimately filming women at concerts without their consent, while Bianco said that the musician kept her prisoner in her home and attacked her with a knife.

If you or someone you know is dealing with domestic abuse, you can call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1−800−799−7233. You can also find more information, resources, and support at their website. If you or anyone you know has been a victim of sexual assault, help is available. Visit the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network website or contact RAINN's National Helpline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673).

On the night of Thanksgiving 2005, according to Rolling Stone, Scott Stapp, former lead singer of the mega-popular '90s hard rock band Creed, wandered into the bar of the Harbor Court Hotel in Baltimore and provoked a fight with the members of the rap-rock band 311, best known for '90s hits "Down" and "All Mixed Up." S.A. Martinez reported that he and his bandmates were watching a basketball game on TV when Stapp entered and declared he "loved to fight" and started taking shots, throwing shot glasses, and tossing a napkin at the band. After making a "pretty disrespectful comment to" Martinez's wife, drummer Chad Sexton, friendly with the Creed singer, tried to diffuse the situation. "I kindly asked him not to disrespect anybody," Sexton recalled. "That's when he sucker-punched me — hit me right in the face." Stapp then struck Martinez's wife, and a full-on brawl developed. Hotel security broke up the fight and removed Stapp from the premises.

Less than three months later, per Rolling Stone, Stapp married pageant queen and Scott Stapp Foundation executive Jaclyn Newsheiwat in Miami. On a layover at LAX airport in Los Angeles en route to a Hawaiian honeymoon, Stapp was arrested for public intoxication. About a year later, Stapp was arrested at his home in Boca Raton, Florida, per the New York Daily News, on a charge of domestic assault with intent to commit a felony.

If you or someone you know is dealing with domestic abuse, you can call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1−800−799−7233. You can also find more information, resources, and support at their website.

Concurrent to the rise and sustained popularity of hit-making grunge-metal San Diego band Stone Temple Pilots, gravelly-voiced frontman Scott Weiland dealt with a number of intertwined legal and addiction issues. In 1995, according to Blabbermouth, he was arrested on drug charges, and upon his release, spent a month in a Los Angeles hotel room injecting heroin with Courtney Love of the band Hole. Per MTV News, Weiland found sobriety for a few months before a relapse and a five-month stay in rehab. In 1998, Weiland was arrested in New York for criminal possession of heroin, and according to Esquire, he was charged with heroin and cocaine possession in 2003. Four years later, police busted Weiland for driving under the influence of drugs, according to TMZ. 

In between his narcotics arrests, per Billboard, Weiland got arrested in Las Vegas in 2001 on a domestic violence charge. Per a police report, Weiland's wife, angry over his use of a drug, tried to prevent him from leaving their hotel room, leading him to shove her against a wall multiple times. The singer posted the $3,000 bail and was released.

According to Rolling Stone, Weiland was discovered dead in Minnesota in December 2015, the cause of death attributed to a combined overdose of cocaine, alcohol, and MDMA. He was 48.

If you or someone you know is dealing with domestic abuse, you can call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1−800−799−7233. You can also find more information, resources, and support at their website. If you or anyone you know is struggling with addiction issues, help is available. Visit the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration website or contact SAMHSA's National Helpline at 1-800-662-HELP (4357).

In the midst of a 1996 concert trek in support of its blockbuster double-album "Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness," the body of 34-year-old Smashing Pumpkins touring keyboardist Jonathan Melvoin was found in a New York City hotel room, his death attributed to a fatal overdose of heroin, according to MTV News.

Most of the musicians in the group stayed at one hotel while Melvoin and Pumpkins drummer Jimmy Chamberlin boarded separately, at the Regency Hotel. Per police reports, Chamberlin and Melvoin went to the latter's room on the evening of July 11, and injected themselves with heroin. Chamberlin went unconscious, and upon waking hours later, found Melvoin unresponsive and called 911, then their tour manager, who summoned band leader Billy Corgan. All parties were taken to a police station for questioning, with Chamberlin, in the presence of Melvoin at the time of death, the only one charged with a crime — criminal possession of a controlled substance. According to the New York Times, Chamberlin was immediately kicked out of the Smashing Pumpkins and later reached a plea deal, admitting guilt to a lesser charge of disorderly conduct.

If you or anyone you know is struggling with addiction issues, help is available. Visit the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration website or contact SAMHSA's National Helpline at 1-800-662-HELP (4357).

As the singer, main songwriter, and rhythm guitarist in Hole, Courtney Love released two huge '90s rock albums, the acclaimed "Live Through This" and "Celebrity Skin." Her personal and legal troubles often overshadowed her musical and professional accomplishments. Around the same time that her husband, iconic Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain completed suicide at the couple's home in Seattle (per Rolling Stone) in April 1994, Love was arrested in Beverly Hills. After being taken to a hospital when it was suspected she'd suffered a heroin overdose, Love was instead booked by police and charged with possession of drug paraphernalia and suspicion of possession of a controlled substance, according to the Los Angeles Times. 

Love had long struggled with addiction issues, and in a 1992 Vanity Fair profile of the musician and her husband, a friend of Love alleged that she'd used heroin while pregnant with her daughter, Frances Bean Cobain. After she gave birth, reports like the one in Vanity Fair led to a child services protection agency temporarily removing the newborn baby from Love's custody. Love later admitted to The Fix that she had, in fact, used heroin while pregnant. "But so f***ing what?" she said. "I didn't even know I was pregnant at the time!"

If you or anyone you know is struggling with addiction issues, help is available. Visit the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration website or contact SAMHSA's National Helpline at 1-800-662-HELP (4357).

Tremendously popular in their native U.K. — they played to 80,000 fans at Glastonbury, sold millions of albums, and scored eight #1 hits there — Oasis was the face of the Britpop subgenre. Compared favorably to their idols, the Beatles, by the British music press, Oasis enjoyed considerable success in the U.S. with soaring rock anthems like "Don't Look Back in Anger," "Live Forever," and "Wonderwall." As much of a hook as it was controversial: the mercurial relationship between the band's chief creative forces, songwriter and guitarist Noel Gallagher and his brother, lead singer Liam Gallagher.

According to Pitchfork, the latter saved most of his simmering anger and vitriol for the former, but in March 1998, Liam Gallagher acted out on an Oasis supporter. Per MTV News, Oasis's Australian tour hit Brisbane, with the band staying overnight at the high-end Quay West apartments. While outside the building, a 19-year-old British Oasis fan named Benjamin Jones walked up to Gallagher and asked to take a photo with the singer. Gallagher emphatically denied the request, as cited in a police report, by punching and head-butting Jones, breaking his nose in the process. Brisbane police subsequently arrested Gallagher and charged him with assault, but then released him after he posted the $6,600 bail. The singer faced a maximum of 10 years in prison for the assault; according to the AP, the charges were eventually dropped with Jones deciding to pursue a civil suit against Gallagher.

The goateed, backward-cap-wearing poster boy of rap-rock, Fred Durst took Limp Bizkit's tunes to the top of the Billboard charts and routinely placed high on MTV's boy band-dominated "TRL," too. According to The Ringer, Durst was labeled as a major instigator of the violent riots that marred the Woodstock '99 festival, and the man who sang how he just wanted to angrily "Break Stuff" was linked to destructive crimes outside of the stage and recording booth.

In July 1999, Limp Bizkit played the Roy Wilkins Auditorium in St. Paul, Minnesota. According to MTV News, Durst's personal security guard, Richard Allen Surrency, attempted to remove a fan from the stage. Venue guard Pat Estes reportedly mistook Surrency for another rowdy fan and tried to expel him, too. That, in turn, prompted an attack from Durst. "I kicked that punk a** security guard in the head," Durst said on stage, before continuing the show and then taunting Estes later, quipping, "Where's that f***ing security guard? Where is that f***ing p**** b****?" Estes didn't sustain serious injuries, while Durst was arrested upon completion of the concert, then released after posting $50,000 bail.

In October 2006, according to the AP (via the Washington Post), Durst allegedly struck two people in Los Angeles with his vehicle. Charged with two counts of assault, three counts of battery, and one each of reckless driving and making a criminal threat, Durst pleaded no contest and was sentenced to community service and a $1,500 fine.

Active for years and amassing a huge cult fanbase, Blues Traveler experienced a huge commercial breakthrough in 1995 with back-to-back smash hits "Run-Around" and "Hook," both fueled by the sweetly sung vocals and virtuoso-level harmonica playing of frontman John Popper, who struck a singular figure on stage, dressed in a wide-brimmed hat and a militaristic vest whose many pockets he kept stuffed not with weapons, but with harmonicas.

In 2007, according to Reuters, Popper was pulled over by police in eastern Washington state, and that time he actually was holding on to implements of potential harm. Police stopped a Mercedes SUV traveling 111 miles per hour, well over the speed limit. The car was registered to Popper but a man named Brian Gourgeois was driving, with Popper riding as a passenger. In addition to charging Gourgeois with reckless driving, the noticeable odor of marijuana led to a search of the vehicle, uncovering drugs along with four rifles, nine handguns, and a single switchblade-style knife hidden in various specially and seemingly custom-built secret compartments. "All of the weapons he owns are registered and are transported safely in a legally approved, locked cabinet in his vehicle," Blues Traveler manager George Couri said in a statement, and Popper was nevertheless arrested for possession of drug paraphernalia and drugs, with police turning the case over to federal authorities to decide if they wanted to press charges for possession of a vehicle with hidden compartments.

In the post-grunge vacuum of alternative rock left after the tragic end of Nirvana, Everclear was among the bands to step up and fill the void, churning out a slew of radio-friendly, three-chord, pop-grunge hits in the late 1990s, including "Santa Monica," "Father of Mine," and "Everything to Everyone."

In July 1999, Everclear played a Coca-Cola promotional event in Austin, Texas. During the show, according to a statement delivered to MTV News, Everclear was reportedly hit by items thrown by the assembled crowd at the Austin Music Hall. After a cup of unidentified liquid struck Art Alexakis in the face, the lead singer made good on his promise to stop playing if the onslaught didn't end. The group left the stage, whereupon a 17-year-old fan (unnamed in news reports, on account of how the party was a minor) headed toward the stage to be removed from the building, reportedly the person who threw the liquid. "As she neared the stage, she started screaming, cursing, and spitting at Art and the band," Everclear's statement attested. Then, according to Entertainment Weekly, Alexis poured water on the teenager's head and threw a bottle in her direction. According to the victim, she never threw the liquid. Alexis was charged with simple assault, not long after Everclear had to cancel a show in its hometown of Portland after Alexakis had been briefly imprisoned on suspicion of domestic abuse against his girlfriend, according to The Stranger.

If you or someone you know is dealing with domestic abuse, you can call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1−800−799−7233. You can also find more information, resources, and support at their website.

Part of what made the Dave Matthews Band so successful was its singular instrumentation — not too many bands in the grunge-oriented '90s had a violinist in its ranks. Boyd Tinsley officially joined the group in that capacity in 1992, according to Consequence of Sound.

According to CoS, Tinsley formed a side project called Crystal Garden with trumpet player James Frost-Winn. The two met in 2007, when Tinsley befriended the then-18-year-old musician, buying him dinner, gifts, and trips, per NPR. The band imploded in the wake of what Frost-Winn characterized as harassment and assault. In 2015, Frost-Winn fell asleep in Tinsley's home and awoke to the violinist touching his buttocks with his feet and also performing a sexual act on himself. Attributing the act to being "messed up" on prescription medication, the working relationship continued, as did Tinsley's gifts, but by mid-2016, Tinsley had resumed an old habit of sending flirtatious texts to Frost-Winn, asking for the younger musician to send him "pics and vids" of himself wearing "dirty socks." He claimed to have reiterated with Tinsley that he didn't want that kind of relationship, which the latter respected for two months until bringing up the touching incident from the previous year, claiming that he "couldn't control" himself.

In May 2018, Frost-Winn sued Tinsley for $9 million, for creating a "hostile work environment." A few months earlier, Tinsley announced a sabbatical from the Dave Matthews Band, which, in the wake of the allegations and suit, dismissed the violinist.

If you or anyone you know has been a victim of sexual assault, help is available. Visit the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network website or contact RAINN's National Helpline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673).