We’re talking ghost stories! Specifically, stories about rock star ghosts and celebrity hauntings.
Ghosts aren’t often reported of people who died peacefully. Many rock stars’ lives have ended tragically and suddenly, in the type of untimely ending often resulting in restless souls with unfinished business. Many witnesses purport to have seen those souls in the form of ghosts, and when those ghosts are famous people, it makes for interesting ghost stories.
The first celebrity ghost we discuss is the infamous Elvis Presley. Although many people believe that Elvis faked his own death, many also claim to have seen his ghost and/or communicated with his spirit in places as obvious as Graceland and as odd as Burger King.
Next, we talk about a dead celebrity, Mama Cass, who visits a living celebrity, Dan Aykroyd! He lives in her former dwelling, which he believes her spirit continues to inhabit. Did Cass’s ghostly visits to Aykroyd’s boudoir inspire a scene in Ghostbusters?
Many recording studios host ghosts: Jim Morrison haunts the Sunset Sound studios and his band mates’ dreams. The Cave, another recording studio and former speakeasy, is haunted by the ghost of Warren Zevon, singer of the song Werewolves of London. Axis Studios, a Wisconsin recording studio where Sunspot recorded parts of their “Cynical” album, has ghosts who get bored and leave if you don’t show fear. A mysterious heartbeat was once discovered on a recording made there.
Given the untimely/tragic nature of their deaths, it’s not surprising that many members of the 27 Club haunt us. Vibes of Kurt Cobain have been uncovered by a psychic in the wood of a park bench in Viretta Park in Seattle, Washington. Others have reported seeing/feeling his spirit there. A woman also claimed that Cobain haunted her laptop until she kissed it on his ghostly request, upon which it stopped working.
Whitney Houston is another, more recently departed, celebrity whose spirit visits her mother, Sissy Houston, by ringing her doorbell.
Pete Doherty (co-frontman of The Libertines), the close friend of Amy Winehouse (who passed away in 2011), is convinced that she haunts his flat. He has gone so far as to flee from the UK escape her ghost, which appears in the form of images and reflects in the night.
Musician Gram Parsons liked Joshua Tree National Park in California, where he and his friends would spend time UFO-sighting, so much that he wished to be cremated there after he died. He ended his own life with a drug overdose at the Joshua Tree Inn, where to this day his apparition appears in haunted Room 8. In a bold move of loyalty, against Parsons’ family’s wishes, his best friend Phil Kaufman stole his ashes from the airport and scattered them in the park he so adored.
Legendary John Lennon’s spirit has been witnessed near the Dakota Hotel where he was killed. When his surviving band mates released a new song for the Anthology, a white peacock wandered into one of the photos, which the bandmates believed was a sign from Lennon. They also claim that their deceased band member’s name can be clearly heard in a backwards section of the recording they made.
Finally, one of our favorite concert venues, First Avenue in Minneapolis, hosts several specters. One is a blond woman in a green jacket, who legend has it hanged herself in the bathroom, and who on occasion reportedly reveals herself hanging in the bathroom. The other one, named Slippy, makes a balloon appear that rises and falls in the staircase. In addition to these apparitions, staff claim that the sound and lighting equipment is susceptible to eery signals from beyond.
Bubba Ho-Tep – Movie in which Bruce Campbell portrays Elvis at an old folks’ home plagued by a mummy
Joe R. Lansdale – Author of Bubba Ho-Tep and other horror/supernatural stories
James “The Amazing” Randi – Writer for The Skeptical Inquirer and creator of the One Million Dollar Challenge
Grand Theft Parsons – Movie about the theft of Gram Parsons’ corpse
Haunted Rock & Roll: Ghostly Tales of Musical Legends by Matthew L. Swayne – Book about rock star ghosts and venue hauntings
Welcome to see you on the other Mike, where the world
Speaker:of the mysterious collides with the world of entertainment.
Speaker:A discussion of art, music, movies, spirituality, no
Speaker:weird, and self discovery. And now,
Speaker:your hosts, musicians and entertainers who have their
Speaker:own weakness for the weird, Mike and Wendy from the
Speaker:band Sunspot. Well, hey, Wendy.
Speaker:Hey, Mike. Today, I think we're gonna talk about one of my
Speaker:personal favorite things. Oh, what's that? That's ghost
Speaker:stories. Ghost stories. I am a big fan of ghost
Speaker:stories, especially, when ghost stories involve
Speaker:famous people. Oh. Yeah. Well, famous people are usually entertainers. I mean, for
Speaker:a lot, they're entertainers. And, entertainers work in theaters,
Speaker:and theaters happen to be the most haunted places of all.
Speaker:At least the places with the most haunted stories. And they're also the scariest
Speaker:places when it's after hours. Yeah. I know.
Speaker:It is it is scary when it's after hours because Big cavernous
Speaker:spaces and And it's supposed to because theaters are supposed to
Speaker:have, people in them. You know? That's that's what they're
Speaker:designed to do. And so when it when they're empty when a
Speaker:venue is empty, it feels wrong because there's
Speaker:Right. Yeah. Somewhere there should be someone in there performing.
Speaker:And I think that's why, that's why theaters are
Speaker:spooky places. And because so many people like,
Speaker:you know, nobody lives in a theater. Well, I guess the Phantom of the Opera
Speaker:lived in a theater. Right. But nobody actually
Speaker:lives in the theater. So, they just
Speaker:have, you know, 100 of thousands of people or millions of people, if it's
Speaker:an old enough theater, over the years, will come through it.
Speaker:And because so many people come through it, because so many people are are passionate,
Speaker:about their work and their art and performance and things like that.
Speaker:It that's the place where, well, that's that's the
Speaker:place where ghosts tend to stay, or at least stories get to be told.
Speaker:Cool. So, and and, you know,
Speaker:some of the, some of the famous rock star ghosts we'll be
Speaker:talking about today, they they share the
Speaker:classic examples of a, of a ghost
Speaker:story. So a ghost story usually it's it's not
Speaker:always, you know, what ghost stories don't usually come from, like, oh, the guy
Speaker:died peacefully in his sleep. Yeah. Right. And now he just comes
Speaker:by every once in a while to say hi. Mike, there are stories like that.
Speaker:But ghost stories usually involve some kind of drama, an
Speaker:unrequited love. Yeah. Tragedy or or
Speaker:an untimely end. Mhmm. And
Speaker:so, a lot of I mean, a lot of rock
Speaker:stars, that's how they Wendy, you know, untimely ends. That's right.
Speaker:Yes. People that went before their time, that went before they they were
Speaker:finished with the kind of stuff that they, they wanted to
Speaker:do in this life. And, so
Speaker:that's that's kind of what we wanna talk about a little bit today about,
Speaker:famous rock star ghosts and, the ones that
Speaker:are coming back. So you mean, like, all the
Speaker:Elvises that are spotted everywhere? Yes. I mean, we,
Speaker:Elvis is definitely, one of the guys who I
Speaker:mean, they he That was the first one that came to my mind because I'm
Speaker:I'm thinking, like, how many people have you heard report they've seen Elvis or they've,
Speaker:you know, seen a likeness to Elvis Yeah. That
Speaker:wasn't an impersonator necessarily. Right. And and people really thought that he
Speaker:faked his death. You know, people thought that Elvis Presley They
Speaker:still do. Yeah. They that that he faked his death. They even made
Speaker:there's a great movie called Bubba Ho Tep. You seen Bubba
Speaker:Ho Tep? I have not seen that. Well,
Speaker:in Bubba Ho Tep, Bruce Campbell plays Elvis
Speaker:That Man. That switched,
Speaker:so he switched his life with an impersonator sometime in the early
Speaker:seventies. And then he went off to go live a normal
Speaker:Mike, and the impersonator took over That's awesome. Took over his life. And
Speaker:then That's a fun concept. Yeah. And so then in the movie, it's
Speaker:Elvis at an old folks' home.
Speaker:Gosh. And then and then he he pals around with
Speaker:an older guy that says that he's John f Kennedy.
Speaker:But it's funny because it's an older it's a black actor. It's Ozzie Davis,
Speaker:an old guy, playing a guy who says, oh, I'm John f Kennedy. So it's
Speaker:John f Kennedy and Elvis in an old folks' home
Speaker:when they're dealing with a mummy that's coming around and and killing the old people.
Speaker:So it's a it's a great movie on the idea that
Speaker:Elvis faked his death. Okay. And so that's highly
Speaker:highly recommended. Written Another one for my Netflix queue. Yes. I think it's on
Speaker:it's written by a Texas author named Joe, Lansdale. And
Speaker:Joe Lansdale's books and his stories are all full of
Speaker:interesting characters, and there's horror, and there's sometimes supernatural stuff. It's just a
Speaker:lot of fun. So, I mean, the
Speaker:different places that people say they've seen Elvis' ghosts
Speaker:are, number 1 in Graceland. Graceland's the big, you know
Speaker:Naturally. The big place, where people,
Speaker:say they they see his ghost. And, you know,
Speaker:people have said that, they've witnessed him
Speaker:boarding an airplane, and they saw him in
Speaker:airports and things like that. School. And there's an interesting
Speaker:article, that we can link to in the show notes, in a in
Speaker:a magazine called the Skeptical Inquirer. Now the
Speaker:Skeptical Inquirer is a magazine from the Committee for the
Speaker:Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal.
Speaker:Woah. And, it was started by James the amazing
Speaker:Randy, who, was
Speaker:a magician and a mesmerist and and did a whole bunch of kinda,
Speaker:he's a very famous skeptic. So he
Speaker:put together a $1,000,000 challenge for anyone that can
Speaker:actually show him evidence of paranormal activity.
Speaker:Is James Kinda like Houdini. Yeah. Kinda
Speaker:in that he's a total debunker. And, an interesting guy and
Speaker:stuff and, famous, very famous, debunker
Speaker:of paranormal claims back in this back in the seventies. He used to
Speaker:have a challenges on, like, The Tonight Show with a a
Speaker:Israeli psychic named Uri Geller who had Wendy spoons with his mind.
Speaker:Remember him. Yeah. Right? He Wendy spoons with his mind. And James the amazing
Speaker:Randy would try to find ways to, you know, prove his claims. And
Speaker:because if he could prove the fact that he could move the spoon
Speaker:with his mind, then he'd get a $1,000,000,
Speaker:which hey. That seems like seem to be easy given that, you know, he does
Speaker:it all the Mike. And Right. But, like, he had very,
Speaker:very public shaming. You know? He couldn't
Speaker:bend the spoon inside the conditions
Speaker:of the the challenge. Okay. So he could do it when it was when he
Speaker:was performing for the audience. Anyway, that's
Speaker:just a little little background on on some places where they've been talking about
Speaker:debunking Elvis ghost stories and and Elvis sightings, from
Speaker:the the Skeptical Inquirer magazine. So here's part of the one
Speaker:of the good debunkings and one very interesting there's a
Speaker:woman named Dorothy Sherry, who was a housewife
Speaker:who said she was a psychic go between for
Speaker:Elvis. Woah. And she told she told her story
Speaker:to a, ghost, story author by the name of
Speaker:Hans Holzer. And in the in the story, he says, well, she never
Speaker:met Elvis Presley. She never went to his concerts, didn't collect his records or even
Speaker:consider herself a fan. But he said in the book
Speaker:that she had evidence that she still communicated with him
Speaker:through astral projection and and and on a different plane of existence.
Speaker:Okay. He she said that Elvis told
Speaker:her that he had known her in a previous life and that she'd been married
Speaker:to them. And then she went astral
Speaker:traveling with the king practically night after night.
Speaker:Wow. Yeah. Right? So you you love the fact
Speaker:that she made it into a book. Like, she's like, yeah. I
Speaker:I travel with the king or whatever. But
Speaker:they kinda debunk it. And when they got more into it,
Speaker:you know, some of the evidence that they use that, she she told
Speaker:people that, well, Elvis, you know, told her that his mother
Speaker:had a drinking problem, a fact that was never publicized.
Speaker:Mhmm. Even though that wasn't really a big secret or anything
Speaker:like that. And, and then the guy who wrote it, you
Speaker:know, eventually came, and he was kinda like, well, I was kinda
Speaker:wrong that she wasn't really a fan of Elvis. She ended up being kind
Speaker:of obsessed with him. So it's like, wow. Really? No no
Speaker:way. I can't believe it. Yeah. How shocking.
Speaker:Yeah. And and there was several reports of Elvis being seen at the Las
Speaker:Vegas Hilton, like Oh, right. Ghost at the Hilton.
Speaker:And, so that the the the guy who wrote the story, the
Speaker:Skeptical Inquirer story, he went to Las Vegas Hilton, and Wendy he talked to
Speaker:one of the managers there, somebody who worked there for over 30 years.
Speaker:And, her father, she'd never met him, but
Speaker:her father had had worked there. And, Elvis gave his her father a
Speaker:Cadillac. So some I mean, first of all, that's a nice
Speaker:gift to get. Like, I'll take a Cadillac, you know, from the king.
Speaker:Yeah. Really. She said that, you know, she'd never seen the the
Speaker:spirit of or had, you know, any any kind of Okay. Nonsensationalized
Speaker:reports. You know? It wasn't like people would just be like, hey. I I I
Speaker:saw Elvis in room 237 today, and she'd be you know, she wasn't Right.
Speaker:She didn't have anything like that. So Las Vegas. I mean, you
Speaker:gotta think there's gotta be tons of especially, like, with Sinatra and the Rat Pack
Speaker:and Oh, yeah. And the gangsters and stuff and all the kind of things that
Speaker:they did. So, I mean, Las Vegas, we'll have to get a Las
Speaker:Vegas ghost story episode. That would be really fun because I've heard well, there's tons
Speaker:of things. They have that whole haunted tour there where they talk about all different
Speaker:ghosts. But, I haven't done it yet, and I hope to. Yeah. I'd
Speaker:love to do that. I'd love to do that. So this is one of my
Speaker:favorite ghost stories, and it it actually relates to,
Speaker:one of our favorite movies, Ghostbusters. Who you gonna call?
Speaker:You're you're gonna call Ghostbusters. Now so Dan Aykroyd,
Speaker:bought the Los Angeles home of Mike Cass
Speaker:from the mamas and the papas. Oh, wow.
Speaker:And he said that, he was
Speaker:convinced that her spirit still is around the place, That she moved
Speaker:jewelry around the house. She turns his stair master on and
Speaker:off. So he claimed, yeah, mama Mike is messing with the stair
Speaker:master. Oh, man. And he said that she even climbed into bed with him one
Speaker:time. Okay. That's just that's the
Speaker:kind of thing that would that would make me sell the house. Right. Immediately. So
Speaker:and he said that Mike, he said it had to be her because he knew
Speaker:it was a big ghost. You know, the
Speaker:moving the belongings around and that, it's okay. That would freak me out, I admit.
Speaker:Mhmm. Like, that would be really scary. But,
Speaker:I mean, feeling somebody get into bed with you, like, that would be a little
Speaker:bit much for me. I'd be out of that bed. I would not sleep in
Speaker:it again. I would probably sleep on the couch until I could sell a
Speaker:place. I don't know. Well, I wonder if that's his inspiration. So, there's a
Speaker:deleted scene in Ghostbusters that you only see parts
Speaker:of in a montage sequence. And it's
Speaker:where, Dan Aykroyd jumps in and stuff.
Speaker:Mama Cass comes in. Just busting ghosts? Well, a ghost
Speaker:does get into bed with Dan Aykroyd in in the montage scene, and you
Speaker:see, you see her unzip his pants. What?
Speaker:K? Yeah. And so the
Speaker:deleted scene is that,
Speaker:they were, at some fort that had old,
Speaker:that had old costumes and and all the old uniforms. And Dan Acheray's character
Speaker:puts on one of the uniforms, walks around, looks at himself in the mirror, and
Speaker:stuff like that. And then so Dan
Speaker:Acheray tries on the uniform and everything, falls asleep in the bed.
Speaker:And, then the ghost comes to him,
Speaker:unzips his pants. He gets kinda scared or whatever. And
Speaker:then Winston comes by the door and is like, hey. Is everything alright
Speaker:in there? You know? And Dan Acker once he sees it, the ghost is gonna
Speaker:he's gonna get freaky with the ghost.
Speaker:Then he's like, oh, yeah. And then Winston walks away, and that's the joke. So
Speaker:I wonder if that was inspired by
Speaker:By the Mike Cass ghost visit. Mama Cass sneaking into his
Speaker:bed. That's pretty awesome. I mean, if if if one creative
Speaker:artist can can cause inspiration in another and
Speaker:that results in something that tons of people laugh at. I mean
Speaker:That's great. Or enjoy. But I think it's funny. He said he knew it was
Speaker:a big ghost. That's come on. Right. That's a little cruel.
Speaker:But but then turned the stair master on and off. So,
Speaker:like, mama casted when I'm exercising or something. I don't, you know, I don't know.
Speaker:I've been prosthetty has a stair master. Yeah. You you can't tell.
Speaker:But, no, I I I thought that was a great joke as a as that,
Speaker:you know. And Dan Aykroyd is a he's a he's into the paranormal.
Speaker:His dad was into the paranormal. I heard Really? Yeah. I heard an interview with
Speaker:him on coast his brother, Peter Aykroyd, is like a parapsychologist too. Oh,
Speaker:okay. Cool. So their family is very Yeah. They're very
Speaker:Mike your family? A little bit. Yeah. A little bit.
Speaker:Except his dad's probably less Mike my dad. When I tell my dad a story,
Speaker:he's like, oh, yeah. That's BS.
Speaker:You know, his dad might be a little more into the, you know, might believe
Speaker:it a little more. But my my father's a science teacher, so he requires extraordinary
Speaker:proof. Yes. Evidence. Right. That's fair. You know,
Speaker:you gotta question things. It's what we do. Yep. That is exactly what we
Speaker:do. And and so going back to more you know, we're going back to
Speaker:more sixties ghosts and stuff. We've got,
Speaker:you know, Jim Morrison, who we talked about in the Wendy Club.
Speaker:Yeah. Remember when we saw his pants at the, Hard Rock Cafe
Speaker:in Hollywood? Yeah. It was pretty sweet. They're, like, framed. I wonder if he he
Speaker:ever goes back there as a ghost and tries them on? He should.
Speaker:Runs around the place at night. Well But where so where
Speaker:where has his has his ghost been seen? Well,
Speaker:the the halls of the Sunset Sound Studios in Hollywood, so it wouldn't
Speaker:be that far from the Hard Rock to to grab the pants before he comes
Speaker:by. Yeah. And, the studios are still
Speaker:active today. And one of the bands that recorded there in
Speaker:2007 talked about strange occurrences of lights flipping on and
Speaker:off, instruments going out of tune, and knobs being turned by an unseen
Speaker:hand, Which I think if Jim Morrison wanted to help me produce a
Speaker:record, I'd be Mike, I'll take your like, if he turns like, he if he's
Speaker:like, the bass is too loud, it'd be like, well, the lizard king said the
Speaker:bass is too loud. So I think we're good.
Speaker:Well, I think as it goes, that would be a really fun prank. Like, when
Speaker:people are, you know, recording in the middle of the night, Mike Wendy. That'd be
Speaker:great. That'd be hilarious. You could Mike
Speaker:oh, man. That'd be great. That'd be hilarious. You could try people saying flying
Speaker:faders on, mix you know, on mixing boards and
Speaker:stuff? The theaters that that,
Speaker:like Yeah. What if the computer moves up? Yeah. What if they hired
Speaker:ghosts to actually do that? That would be amazing. You know,
Speaker:be more fun than a computer do it. But so Ray Manzarek, the keyboardist
Speaker:Definitely. He said that Jim Morrison came to visit him
Speaker:and Robbie Krieger, who was a guitar player, in their dreams.
Speaker:And, they weren't surprised on it because Jim always had a fascination with the
Speaker:spirit world. But he said that
Speaker:Jim came back from France, and he accomplished what he went there to
Speaker:do, which was to not be a rock star anymore. He wanted to get out
Speaker:of that lifestyle. Yeah. And, they just, you
Speaker:know, they were talking about working on new material in the
Speaker:dream. Aw. It's so boring, but it's nice. But then
Speaker:Ray woke up and, he told Robbie Manzarek.
Speaker:I'm sorry. He told Robbie Krieger, the guitar player, about the dream. And,
Speaker:Robbie said he had the exact same one. That is
Speaker:awesome. Yeah. That is awesome. So, dreams Jim
Speaker:Morrison can come to you in your dreams.
Speaker:So, you ever heard the song Werewolves
Speaker:of London? Of course. Right. Oh.
Speaker:So Billy Bob Thornton, he's a he's a musician as
Speaker:well. He's got a band called the Boxmasters. Uh-huh. And,
Speaker:he has a recording studio in his basement that was
Speaker:used as recording for Warren Zevon, The Ventures, and even
Speaker:Slash has used his recording studio. But
Speaker:they they call it the cave and it used to be a speakeasy during the
Speaker:19 twenties. And Oh. Says that the the spirit that
Speaker:haunts the cave is Warren Zevon, who died of
Speaker:cancer a few years back.
Speaker:But, Warren Zevon, haunts the
Speaker:cave in the recordings. What okay. So what does this have to do with werewolves
Speaker:of London? Just Nothing.
Speaker:Oh, okay. What It just it's Warren
Speaker:Warren Zevon is the guy that sang Werewolves of London.
Speaker:Oh, okay. Gotcha. So the guy that sang that was just his most yeah.
Speaker:Other songs, Lawyers, Guns, and Money is another big one. He was always used to
Speaker:be in David Letterman all the time. But, Warren Zevon is the ghost that
Speaker:appears in the cave. Ah, so that that makes
Speaker:sense then. Yes. The cave, that sounds so cool and scary already.
Speaker:Well, in in doing some of the research for this story, they're talking
Speaker:about haunted recording studios. Okay? And this is on a
Speaker:a a blog for, something called Tribute Apparel, where they
Speaker:go into some of these that I was looking in, and I've got, like, 10
Speaker:windows open right now. But the great thing is that there's be cold in there.
Speaker:And we'll put a link to it, but the story under the story about the
Speaker:cave is about Access Recording Studio.
Speaker:Really? Access Recording Studio. That's right. We're familiar with that. Yeah. That's where
Speaker:we recorded Scott Bakula and,
Speaker:Heidegger Paradox, in Axis recordings video with Yeah.
Speaker:Benny Mulivolte. That's I know. We might even
Speaker:have some footage from I think we do. I think we do.
Speaker:Have to check and see. But, I think the studio's
Speaker:moved now from because they said it's in Heartland, Wisconsin. Oh, okay. And we recorded
Speaker:it was in West Dallas. Right. And I that building was pretty
Speaker:Yeah. It was old and Weird. I could see. Yeah. It was weird and
Speaker:and definitely, like, strange, but had a
Speaker:strange feeling to it. They go on they they talked to Vinnie
Speaker:Mola Voce, and it says the studio owner, mister Mola Voce,
Speaker:has gone on the record saying that late at night, you can hear doors creaking,
Speaker:someone walking upstairs, and sounds moving around in the kitchen.
Speaker:These are not any ghosts, though. If you do not show fear, they get bored
Speaker:with their haunting and leave. He says that Oh, gosh. There's
Speaker:even Vinny. A heartbeat caught on a recording done in the studio.
Speaker:So Vinny's recorded a ghostly heartbeat at the studio.
Speaker:That's awesome, first of all. 2nd of all, so if they don't
Speaker:if you do show fear, do they stick around
Speaker:and try to, like, scare you away? Or what's the I don't know. I mean,
Speaker:maybe they move the knobs or something like that. But I think we should talk
Speaker:we should talk to Vinny about it sometime. Yeah. Definitely. We've talked to him a
Speaker:long Mike, so that'd be fun. Time. But nice guy. And, anyway but I was
Speaker:just excited that Access Recording Studios was on the haunted That's very exciting.
Speaker:The haunted studio, list. And I I thought that was really
Speaker:fun. For all we know, there could be ghosts in the background somewhere on our,
Speaker:recordings. Yeah. Oh, that yeah. I I
Speaker:I I definitely think, I can blame most of my,
Speaker:most of my mistakes on the ghosts that were, Mike in the
Speaker:recordings. Great.
Speaker:So as as far as some other famous ones, let's we can go a little
Speaker:more modern here to talk about
Speaker:Kurt Cobain, who we also talked about in Wendy That's right.
Speaker:Yes. So
Speaker:so, just outside the home where Kurt died, there's a park
Speaker:bench. It's a place called Varetta Park. And,
Speaker:Kurt Cobain admirers and followers and stuff, you know, they leave behind
Speaker:messages and go to the bench there. It's kinda like a it's kinda like a
Speaker:place. You know? Like, think about Jim Morrison's grave and stuff like that. You
Speaker:know? Yeah. You go there and you reflect upon the life and you it's kinda
Speaker:Mike paying your respects or Mhmm. It's like that guy that,
Speaker:leaves a rose on, Edgar Allan Poe's
Speaker:grave. That's right. He's a mystery person that leaves a rose in Edgar Allan
Speaker:Poe's grave every, every anniversary of his birthday
Speaker:in Baltimore. And I always thought that was a fun story. But,
Speaker:many of the people who who go there, who go to this park bench, they
Speaker:say they can see the ghost of Kurt Cobain lingering near the bench and and
Speaker:hanging around the park. So that he Interesting. He
Speaker:still creeps around the area where people come to respect him. That makes
Speaker:sense. They sent a a they had
Speaker:a ghost hunting team went out there and investigated
Speaker:it. And there's the team's psychic
Speaker:said she uncovered vibes from the wood
Speaker:of the park bench. And I have no idea what that
Speaker:means, but ghostly vibes from Wood. I guess you can
Speaker:tell me. If you're psychic, you can do almost anything. Somebody should make a guitar
Speaker:out of that. I bet it would sound amazing. Oh, that's a great idea.
Speaker:A haunted guitar. Kurt like Kurt Cobain's haunted. With the
Speaker:vibes of Kurt Cobain. I mean, think about what kind of songs could be written
Speaker:using that. Yeah. You could write some sweet music with that one. Mhmm.
Speaker:There was a woman in Essex, England. She claimed that Kurt Cobain
Speaker:haunted her laptop computer for a while.
Speaker:Pleading for pleading for help and demanding she give him a
Speaker:kiss. And then once she kissed the laptop, it stopped working.
Speaker:Oh Mike gosh. So Okay. That sounds at first at first
Speaker:glance, that sounds really stupid and fake. And then when you actually
Speaker:think about it, when you imagine a spirit Mike, hey, I might be able to
Speaker:reach somebody through here. That's pretty cool. Yeah. A little scary.
Speaker:Yeah. No. I mean, that's weird. Like, it just doesn't say, like, oh, yeah. Very
Speaker:weird. Kurt Cobain haunted my laptop. Like, that's, Kurt
Speaker:Cobain haunted my laptop would be a good title for a website. Well, you know,
Speaker:you think about, Mike, a lot of ghosts are really old
Speaker:type ghosts Mike Civil War. You know, there's many places that
Speaker:have that type of people from the
Speaker:older times times of yore. Yeah. It's the
Speaker:old time you land. But, you know, there's there's ghosts
Speaker:now that lived during the time of this modern age and
Speaker:had smartphones and laptops. And so it's not that outrageous to think
Speaker:that they might try to use that medium to contact people or to at
Speaker:least, you know, make them themselves known or something. Well, ghosts
Speaker:using the telephone is something that, you know, people have said they have
Speaker:happened. Right. And, so
Speaker:anyway, I just that's that's something I hadn't really thought too much about before.
Speaker:So right if if you were I mean, I I don't know if Kurt Cobain
Speaker:ever used a laptop. I mean, 1994 is a while ago, but I would
Speaker:say, that would be he's a weird guy. That'd be something he could do.
Speaker:He might be like, I'm just gonna mess with this chick and Give it a
Speaker:shot. Why not? Right. Court Courtney
Speaker:Love herself said, I'm not Kurt. I have
Speaker:to live with his BS and his ghost and
Speaker:his kid every day. So, I mean, she could've
Speaker:I'm sure. I mean, but she could've yeah. Exactly. Or it could be the
Speaker:guilt over having him killed. Right. I see.
Speaker:No. But, you know, people also, you know, people also said that Kurt Cobain faked
Speaker:his death. That was another Right. I mean but if you've seen the,
Speaker:because he hated fame and he wasn't comfortable with it and things like that and
Speaker:he was No. Like, he wanted to escape just like Elvis, supposedly, for those who
Speaker:believe that he faked his. But they've shown his,
Speaker:they they showed the Kirk I mean, you can find Kurt Cobain's,
Speaker:the like, the the suicide scene pictures on the Internet. Oh. It's
Speaker:yeah. I mean, that would Mike in a horror movie. You know? It's Yeah.
Speaker:So I I don't I don't think he faked them. But, I mean, as far
Speaker:as newer artists or people who have died recently Oh, yeah.
Speaker:Yeah. Whitney Houston. Oh, she's people have
Speaker:spotted her ghost? Well, her
Speaker:mother, Cissy Houston,
Speaker:says her doorbell has been ringing mysteriously since Whitney
Speaker:died. Oh, that's so sad. But,
Speaker:she said that she's not scared about it. She's taking comfort because it's her
Speaker:daughter. Kind of, except it's Mike, let me in, let me back
Speaker:in. You know, like, that's what it makes me think of. Not not just like
Speaker:a hello ring. Maybe that's negative. I don't know. That's like the monkey's paw.
Speaker:That's the story of the monkey's paw where the in the end, the dead son
Speaker:comes back to life and it's scary because you hear the knock on the door.
Speaker:But that, you know, Whitney coming back and and trying to get back in.
Speaker:But, so Cissy wrote a letter about it.
Speaker:And the letter reads, on Saturday, before I
Speaker:found out about your transition, my doorbell rang.
Speaker:I called the concierge to tell him someone was ringing my doorbell. He checked the
Speaker:cameras and told me no one was there. You promised me you were coming to
Speaker:spend time with me after the Grammys. I believe the spirits allowed you to come
Speaker:after all. Wow. So, yeah.
Speaker:It's possible. I mean, she left the world and didn't have an opportunity to say
Speaker:bye to people. It was one of those shocking, you know. Well, and that's the
Speaker:thing. That's what Unexpected. That's the unfinished business. Right.
Speaker:And, Whitney might have felt that she needed to finish some business with her mom
Speaker:and, rang the doorbell, which it
Speaker:looks like she had the correct effect on her mother.
Speaker:And then Amy Winehouse. Oh, yes.
Speaker:Another 27 Club. The Wendy Club, there's plenty of ghost, stories
Speaker:about them. Now, Amy Winehouse, I mean, died in 2,000,
Speaker:2,011. She was having a rough time with alcohol,
Speaker:drugs, a variety of different substances that she had an issue with.
Speaker:But one of her close friends, was a
Speaker:famous UK musician, not really known that much here in the US,
Speaker:but a guy named Pete Doherty, where he's probably most famous here.
Speaker:He's in a bank of the Libertines, and he's in a bank called Baby Shambles.
Speaker:And he also, used to go with supermodel Kate Moss.
Speaker:Okay. And so, you know, another guy lived in the celebrity
Speaker:lifestyle. Right. But, he,
Speaker:was telling his friends that he is convinced that Amy Winehouse is
Speaker:haunting his flat. And that he had to
Speaker:actually, flee to Paris to escape
Speaker:Amy Winehouse haunting his flat. Oh my gosh.
Speaker:Right. And,
Speaker:no. He said he saw her ghostly images in his bedroom,
Speaker:and sometimes he could see her reflection in his windows late at
Speaker:night. Oh, goodness. And so he's just too frightened to return.
Speaker:And, of course, the first, you know, the first thing people said was, this is
Speaker:a guy who's known to indulge in substances. And,
Speaker:yeah, the imagination when enhanced by certain
Speaker:Right. Yeah. Mind alterations. Yeah. So he gets in Come up with
Speaker:things like that. Party's a little bit too hard and sees Amy Winehouse. I think
Speaker:I've done that.
Speaker:But, he he said he was clean and sober and stuff
Speaker:like that. And so he really, he really was
Speaker:convinced that Amy Winehouse was, still
Speaker:stalking him after death. So
Speaker:Wow. Yeah. Wow. I mean, that's a lot of like you were
Speaker:saying, the Wendy club, those those lives all kinda ended suddenly and
Speaker:tragically, and so maybe they're they had unfinished business and
Speaker:or things left here to to do so.
Speaker:Yeah. That's right. Well, more on the Wendy club. This guy
Speaker:didn't quite make the Wendy club. He made the 26 club, which
Speaker:is not as famous as the Wendy. Oh. But his name was Graham
Speaker:Parsons. Okay. And, Graham Parsons was a musician. He's big in the country
Speaker:rock scene in the early seventies in California. Okay. He
Speaker:was in a band called the Flying Burrito Brothers, and he worked with
Speaker:Emmylou Harris often. And, he was
Speaker:a he was a pretty hard partying guy. He hung
Speaker:out with his manager and best friend named Philip Kaufman. And they'd go to a
Speaker:place in California desert called Joshua Tree National Park.
Speaker:Okay. And they would drop acid and other kind of hallucinogens,
Speaker:and they'd look they'd look for UFOs Okay. In the Joshua Tree
Speaker:National Park. Yeah. Sounds like a good place to look for them. Yeah. I
Speaker:think so. And and once they were out there,
Speaker:Grant Parsons told his manager, Phil Kaufman, he said when he died, he
Speaker:wanted his friends to take his body out to the Joshua Tree and and burn
Speaker:him there on a on a funeral pyre. Man. Not that day,
Speaker:but when he died. Yeah. So he wanted to be cremated squishes.
Speaker:At Joshua Tree National Park. And so
Speaker:in 1973, he died at the Joshua
Speaker:Tree Inn, which was a a hotel by the
Speaker:park. And it was a OD who was doing morphine and
Speaker:alcohol. Yeah. Opiates. Not a good
Speaker:idea. That that's that's something we've seem to discuss a lot on this call. I
Speaker:know. It's Mike, I've I've I'm ever more aware
Speaker:of of how dangerous those things are just from talking about all
Speaker:these people. I mean, it's great. It's Mike, you know they're bad, but
Speaker:sheesh. Well, I mean, the the thing is these,
Speaker:morphine, heroin, these things kill people when they're young. And that's the that's the
Speaker:easiest way to OD. And, Grant Parsons did it.
Speaker:And his family requested that the body be shipped
Speaker:back to his home in Louisiana.
Speaker:But Phil Kaufman stole his
Speaker:body from the airport then drove him
Speaker:out drove the body out to the desert and burned him. To make his wish?
Speaker:Yeah. I mean, that's dedication. They made a movie about this too with Jack.
Speaker:That's a good friend. That is a good friend. That's a it's a really, really
Speaker:nice guy. I mean, that's a good question. He's gonna steal
Speaker:your body from LAX and drive it out to the
Speaker:desert. But the thing is, the people at the Joshua Tree Inn
Speaker:said that they've seen apparitions of Parsons still in in
Speaker:room 8 where he died. And, tourists
Speaker:can rent the room for the night. And on the
Speaker:Joshua Trean's reservation, page, it it says,
Speaker:roommate is haunted. Bring your guitar and write songs.
Speaker:So that's a fun thing. So you can stay at the Joshua Tree Inn
Speaker:in the room that Graham Parsons died in. I don't think I'd sleep very
Speaker:well in that room. No. I
Speaker:when you're sleeping in, like, in a room that people say is haunted, it
Speaker:gets, like, I can't Or that you know somebody someone, you know, passed
Speaker:away in that room. It's just Yeah. My mind would perhaps
Speaker:get to me a bit. Yeah. I think so too. I,
Speaker:so I've stayed in the several places that people say are haunted and stuff. And
Speaker:I can't sleep. Like, I'm keeping my eyes out and things like that. I'm looking
Speaker:around. I'm, you know, I'm Yeah. Every little bump. I'm like, oh, what's it? Oh,
Speaker:yeah. It's a ghost. Oh. I'm scared like a cat every
Speaker:time. Ew. So if people saw, you know, grand parses.
Speaker:But I I oh, that's just such a great story that his buddy saw his
Speaker:body and, honored his last wishes. And then it
Speaker:sounds like he's not that scary of a ghost, You know? And people just have
Speaker:seen him haunting the room, seen the apparitions sometime. I mean, I would probably still
Speaker:be freaked out by it. But, that would be a fun place.
Speaker:That'd be a place, we we should write a song sometime, Wendy, and then we
Speaker:can play on the podcast. Yeah. Definitely. I mean and it would be fun to
Speaker:see what kind of I mean, because you you you go there, you know, the
Speaker:the ad about musicians stay overnight and write a song, whatever. Mhmm.
Speaker:When your mind is terrified and in that kind of
Speaker:state, who knows what kind of things might pop out of it. It could be
Speaker:What kind of creativity? Yeah. His ghost might inspire you, but but it also might
Speaker:just be pushing your mind and yourself into a place that's uncomfortable or different from
Speaker:what you're used to. So you might it might be worth it. I don't
Speaker:know. I think it sounds cool. I think it
Speaker:sounds cool. You know, other famous ghosts that people have
Speaker:seen we don't have a, like, very detailed stories on are, people
Speaker:say they've seen John Lennon around the Dakota Dakota Hotel
Speaker:and, where he was killed in New York. You know, people say that, you know,
Speaker:they they've seen him around there. You know, Paul McCartney
Speaker:even said Wendy they were recording, remember the Beatles Anthology when that
Speaker:came out? Yeah. Beatles big deal, 2 days on TV, and then
Speaker:releasing 2 2 unreleased Beatles songs for the first time
Speaker:in 25 years. Yeah. And so they,
Speaker:they did a track called Free as a Bird.
Speaker:And, so after they got done, they the,
Speaker:you know, the surviving members, George Harrison, obviously,
Speaker:is still alive. So George, Ringo, and Paul go outside to take a take a
Speaker:photo. And then Paul says a white peacock
Speaker:wandered its way into the photo. And Paul said
Speaker:that it's spooky. It was like John was hanging around. And,
Speaker:the peacock was John and that he that he felt that all through the recording.
Speaker:And he also said that they they put a backwards recording at the end of
Speaker:the song as a joke for the fans. You know, kinda like the, you know
Speaker:Yeah. The end of, Strawberry Fields. It's kinda all messed up. And so they and
Speaker:they put a little backwards recording at the end. And Paul
Speaker:McCartney said he could hear the words John Lennon
Speaker:clearly in the backwards recording even though that, you know, they didn't They
Speaker:hadn't recorded that. Yeah. So Pretty cool. Yeah.
Speaker:So that's a so Paul still thinks about John, you
Speaker:know. That's a neat way to show up, though, if you're if you're gonna try
Speaker:to, you know, visit the worldly Yeah. Showing up in an
Speaker:album, I think, is a great idea. Mike, hey, guys.
Speaker:You go ahead and try to record without me. I'm still here, and I'm gonna
Speaker:be on the album whether you like it or not.
Speaker:So, one last little ghost story, and I just
Speaker:wanted to say it because it's at a very famous place, that I live right
Speaker:down the street from. Oh. The First Avenue in Minneapolis.
Speaker:Yes. Which is Great venue. Oh, man. It's it the sound in there is just
Speaker:it's it's a it's a really perfect way to see a concert, I
Speaker:think. And it's been around since 1970.
Speaker:And, well, the woman there,
Speaker:that they claim to see is a blonde woman in a green
Speaker:jacket who supposedly hanged herself in the 5th stall
Speaker:of the of the women's bathroom. Oh Mike goodness. Sometimes
Speaker:she'll reveal herself still hanging to people
Speaker:when they go in the bathroom. Oh. The woman in
Speaker:green. Okay. Now, I've been mortified before by venue bathrooms.
Speaker:Believe me. They're some of the worst places I can imagine on on
Speaker:the planet. Music venue bathrooms are scary enough. Yeah. But, I
Speaker:mean, can you just imagine going in there?
Speaker:And seeing a hanging woman? No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No.
Speaker:Let's let's banish that thought from our Mike. Yes. But isn't isn't
Speaker:there a bathroom ghost in Harry Potter? Oh, yeah. I
Speaker:think there is. Yeah. You're right. Looks like girl that still hangs out in the
Speaker:bathroom. Yeah. I forgot about that. And I was kinda Mike, what what was she
Speaker:doing in the men's bathroom? But didn't she use
Speaker:I thought she used the the plumbing to, Mike, get around. Yeah. That's right. I
Speaker:don't know. I just put the hanging on the men's bathroom. I just thought that
Speaker:was weird. Like, alive or dead, you
Speaker:probably shouldn't be in the other gender's bathroom. Just Well Mike in your head around.
Speaker:You can. You can do it. Nobody knows. So why not? That's right. Oh, I
Speaker:can't wait to be dead then. Gosh. So
Speaker:they also they also have a ghost by the name of Slippy.
Speaker:And Slippy makes That's fun. Makes a balloon appear and float up and
Speaker:down one of the staircases. That's awesome.
Speaker:I would love to see that. Slippy makes the ghostly balloon appear at the First
Speaker:Avenue. And he has a cute name. Yeah. Kinda like Slimer. Yeah.
Speaker:Right. Slippy. And then they also, you know, they also claim
Speaker:that some of the equipment malfunctions and,
Speaker:you know, are are ghosts and spirits who are messing with the sound system
Speaker:and things like that. But we we know how things go at rock venues. Oh,
Speaker:yeah. So Dude, I know. I don't know why it sounded so bad, man. It
Speaker:must have been the ghost. Yeah. It was really, it was
Speaker:a ghost that, hates your band, man. Just yeah.
Speaker:The the ghost hates your band. You should quit.
Speaker:So, anyway, well, that's a that that's a pretty
Speaker:good Yeah. Those are interesting stories. Roundup, but just some just some rock star ghost
Speaker:stories. We'll have some more. There's a there's a great book about rock star
Speaker:ghost stories, and we'll link to that. Okay. And I've
Speaker:read parts of it. I haven't read the whole thing yet. And, we'll
Speaker:link to that in the show notes because it's something that people should check out,
Speaker:the book about, like, haunted it's haunted rock and roll. Okay.
Speaker:And so I Well, we can probably do another entire episode because there's so many
Speaker:more ghosts and, like, you know, venue. The venue thing is its own thing,
Speaker:but there's obviously a ton more. I
Speaker:remember in the Mike Susan Messinos episode, she talked about a lot of those. And
Speaker:Yeah. And she talked a little bit about Bon Scott and And the buddy
Speaker:Holly. Oh, yeah. So that was episode
Speaker:4, othersidepodcast.com/4
Speaker:and or episode 5. She's in both of those. So if you wanna hear some
Speaker:some really cool ghost rock star ghost things Susan
Speaker:shared with us, I recommend it. I I do
Speaker:too. So Great.
Speaker:Well, that was fun. Yeah. Alright. And how about we,
Speaker:shall shall we share another song with everybody? I think we should debut another track.
Speaker:Let's do it. Here and see you on their side. Okay. And this one has
Speaker:something to do with it because the subtitle is the secret lies of ghosts.
Speaker:That's right. And they can find the lyrics to the song and the link to
Speaker:the, the m p 3 at othersidepodcast.com/10.
Speaker:That's /onezero. So you wanna tell
Speaker:them a little about it, Mike? Well, the subtitle of
Speaker:this song is the secret lies of ghosts. And it's just that that
Speaker:feeling of in a in a ghost story that that the spirit needs to
Speaker:finish something before he can move on. And in this song,
Speaker:the character is, needs needs to finish something with
Speaker:someone he loves so his story can be complete.
Speaker:Great. Well, here's the song, Skeleton Key.
Speaker:I was a ghost without a story, a specter looking
Speaker:for repairs. Waiting and just watching
Speaker:all these lives pass by so fast. I wrote a tale
Speaker:without a hero. I wrote a song without a tune.
Speaker:But all stories meet and end it, and I hope that
Speaker:ending's you so here,
Speaker:my friend. And let me know that
Speaker:you can see me there.
Speaker:Exercising.
Speaker:My plea. So here,
Speaker:my friend, and let me know
Speaker:that you can see me there.
Speaker:Mike
Speaker:my hand and let's go tone the light
Speaker:for your this skeleton key to set my
Speaker:spirit free tonight.
Speaker:I was a ghost without a story, a specter looking
Speaker:for a pass. Waiting and just watching
Speaker:all these lies pass by so fast. I wrote a tale without a hero, I
Speaker:wrote a song without a tune, but
Speaker:here, my friend,
Speaker:and let me know whether you can see me there.
Speaker:Exercising, take my hand and let's go to
Speaker:the
Speaker:tonight.
Speaker:Thank you for listening to today's episode. You can find us
Speaker:online at othersidepodcast.com. Until next
Speaker:Mike. See you on the other side.