Rock ‘n’ Roll Urban Legends

The Elephant Man skeleton does still exist, owned by a teaching hospital in London. It was shown in a documentary of Channel 4 a few years ago.
So neither the myth about it being owned my Mikey Jackson or the Observer article are correct.

hmmmmm funny how i remember it being stated that he DID own the statue on several documentaries about him

I've never heard of most of those myths anyway. Maybe I'm not old enough.

Since they refused to include the "Paul is dead" story that proves they know that it's true. Ringo really is the last Beatle.

Seriously 'tho, I can see how most people don't believe it anymore, unlike the other myths, but I still think it should have been included. Even from my late start in life (post-Beatles, barely) I remember this being very popular.

I've only heard of 40% of these as well as the Marianne Faithfull one that didn't make it. But then, I was never really into any music that came after the mid 70's and even then I was never the Led Zeppelin type.

You're right, Charybdis. How in the world could they not include the 'Paul is Dead' legend? That should be #1. I can think of a few legends about Elvis also, but those are probably all true.

I remember the Paul is dead thing from when I was a wee little chap. I never heard the Zeppelin one. Richards had his blood transfused every time he came into the US. For a while, the FBI was adamant about blood testing him each time before they would let him, after it was common knowledge he was junkie.

There was one story that he had to rush and have the transfusion just hours before they flew into New York. After about 36 hours he was getting withdrawls so bad that he was very sick, so sick that the handlers were afraid he was gonna die. They couldn't go out and buy him some heroin because the FBI was all over them. They were discussing admitting him to a hospital when there was a knock on the Hotel door. Two FBI agents came in and told them they 'knew' Richards was having bad withdrawls and Hoover didn't want any disturbances while the Stones where in the country. So they provided a large amount of heroin for his use during the Stones tour.

The story I remember reading was that Michael Jackson *tried* to buy the Elephant Man's skeleton, but the London hospital that has it declined to sell it. You've got to admit, it would be a pretty cool thing to have in your living room. And Mr. Merrick isn't using it any more ...

I have a turtle skeleton. It's not in my living room though, it's on my back porch.