I want to take a look back at some of my favourite rock and roll-themed ghost stories. I hope you guys enjoy the next several stories.
Johnny Cash Ghost Story
Johnny Cash and June Carter-Cash spent a large amount of time living outside of the United States. They purchased a large home in Jamaica in the 70s called Cinnamon Hill. It was an old plantation property near Montego Bay with a house that was originally built in 1747. Cash purchased it from one of his friends and their plantation was one of the few things that survived the brutal 1831 slave revolt.
Back in the 1700s, the property contained a large sugar plantation that would eventually be converted to a golf course. The property housed thousands of slaves while disobedient slaves were sent to the basement of the house in a makeshift dungeon.
“I doubt that the vacationers playing those beautiful links have any idea, any concept of the kind of life that once teamed where they walk.” – Johnny Cash
It’s thought, the spirits of those slaves still haunt the property to this very day. Cash would comment on the reminders of the house’s rich history in his book saying, “All that remains of those people now, the metal hinges from their doors and nails from their walls lies hidden in the undergrowth on the hillsides or in the soil just below the manicured sod of the golf course that loops around my house. I doubt that the vacationers playing those beautiful links have any idea, any concept of the kind of life that once teamed where they walk.”
In the same book, Cash revealed how he and several visiting guests came in contact with a ghostly figure of a woman, who was thought to be in her early 30s, wearing a full-body white dress. The figure moved from the dining room and headed to the kitchen without even opening the double doors.
“We’ve never had any trouble with these souls. They mean us no harm, I believe and we’re certainly not scared of them.” – Johnny Cash
Cash and his guests watched in shock and could hear noise from the kitchen. Cash would recall in his biography, “We’ve never had any trouble with these souls. They mean us no harm, I believe and we’re certainly not scared of them. They just don’t produce that kind of emotion.”
While Cash’s encounters with the ghosts hadn’t scared him or his family, it was an encounter with the locals that truly frightened them.
“They held the gun to everyone’s head. They took each person that was there, one at a time and went room to room looking for valuables.” – Chuck Hussey
In 1981, during a Christmas dinner, three young males invaded their home with a pistol, a knife and even a hatchet and forced everyone to the ground. Cash’s brother-in-law, Chuck Hussey recalled, “They held the gun to everyone’s head. They took each person that was there, one at a time and went room to room looking for valuables.”
If the opportunity presented itself, Cash and his brother-in-law came up with a plan to rush the robber who was wielding a hatchet, but they decided not to carry through with their plans.
The robbers spent a total of four hours on Cash’s property, searching for valuables to steal and would make off with about $35,000-$50,000 in both cash and jewelry, in addition to 175 pairs of shoes, which were going to be donated by Cash to a local orphanage for Christmas.
Assailants are Arrested in Montego Bay
So what happened to the assailants? They were arrested at the Montego Bay airport trying to leave the country for Florida with Cash’s stolen goods. It turned out that the 3 men were part of a terrorist group whose leader was killed one week before they stormed Cash’s property. It would come out that the assailants would end up dying in police custody.
The Jamaican government and the police did their best to keep the whole robbery incident under wraps as they worried about the negative press and how it would influence tourism to the island.
How did Cash feel about the robbers? He didn’t harbour any resentment. Instead, he sympathized with them as he would write in his book.
“What’s my emotional response to the fact or at least the distinct possibility that desperate junkie boys who threaten and traumatize my family, might easily have killed us all? I’m out of answers.” – Johnny Cash
“How do I feel about it? What’s my emotional response to the fact or at least the distinct possibility that desperate junkie boys who threaten and traumatize my family, might easily have killed us all? I’m out of answers. My only certainties are that I grieve for desperate young men and the societies that produced and suffered so many of them and I felt that I knew those boys. We had a kinship. They and I, I knew how they thought. I knew how they needed. They were like me.”
Johnny Cash would still frequent the property until his death in 2003. When the singer passed away, Jamaica sent a representative to his funeral because he bonded so well with the locals.
The house was later featured on the tv show, Ghost Adventures, which recorded paranormal activity on the property. The home is now open to the public for tours, if you ever make your way to the Caribbean island.
Sid Vicious’ Ghost
The front desk of the Chelsea Hotel would receive a call around 11 a.m on October 12, 1978. The unknown man claimed over the phone, there’s trouble in room 100. The front desk clerk sent the bellman to room 100 to investigate.
A few minutes later, another phone call came into the front desk, this time around, it was Sid Vicious who was in room 100. He would state on the phone, someone is sick, need help. When the bellman arrived at room 100, he came across the dead body of a 20-year-old blonde woman, lying on the bathroom floor with a stab wound.
Built in 1884, the Chelsea Hotel in New York became a famous landmark that was a hot spot for people in the entertainment industry including musicians, actors, and writers. It’s now considered one of the most haunted places in the United States. Residents and visitors report regular encounters with a variety of ghosts, including Sid Vicious.
Sid Vicious Joins The Sex Pistols
A member of the iconic British punk band, The Sex Pistols, Sid Vicious joined the group following the departure of bassist Glenn Matlock. More attitude than musician, Vicious didn’t know how to play the bass and only apparently played on one song on the band’s iconic album, Nevermind The Bollocks. Vicious’ time in The Sex Pistols was volatile and tumultuous as the band broke up almost a year after he joined, following an ill-fated tour across America.
Following the breakup of The Sex Pistols, Vicious embarked on a solo career which saw him collaborate with the who’s who of the punk scene. He was managed by his then-girlfriend, Nancy Spungen.
Nancy Spungen Meets Sid Vicious
Prior to meeting Sid Vicious, Spongin followed different bands around the globe including Aerosmith, Bad Company, The New York Dolls, and The Ramones. In 1977, she even moved to London to pursue drummer Jerry Nolan of The New York Dolls and The Heartbreakers but instead, she met Sid Vicious.
By late 1978, following the breakup of The Pistols, the pair moved to the Chelsea Hotel in New York. The first floor was known as the junkie’s floor and during the earlier part of their stay, Vicious collapsed in the lobby from a drug overdose. Instead of kicking the couple out, the hotel manager moved them to the first floor.
Nancy Spungen is Found Dead in Hotel Room
On October, 12 1978, the bellman arrived at room 100 to find Nancy lying face up with her head under the sink. There was a knife wound in her abdomen and Spongin and Vicious were spending their wasted days awash in drugs and alleged domestic abuse.
Vicious was charged with second-degree murder and later released on bail but prior to going to court, he would die from a drug overdose. The murder of Nancy did little to scare away visitors from the hotel as it still remained a hot spot for the elite.
Artist Andy Warhol shed some light on how dangerous the hotel always was and the couple’s dynamic, saying in 1978, “The police just arrested Sid Vicious for stabbing his 20-year-old manager girlfriend to death in the Chelsea Hotel and then I saw on the news that Mr. Bard was saying, ‘Oh yeah, they drank a lot and they would always come in late. They just let anybody in over there. That hotel is dangerous. It seems like somebody is killed there once a week.”
Sid Vicious Pleads Not Guilty to Nancy Spungen’s Murder
Vicious pled not guilty to the murder and claimed to have awoken from a drugged stupor to see Nancy dead on the bathroom floor of their hotel room. Vicious claimed they’d fought the night before but gave conflicting accounts of what actually happened. He would first state, “I stabbed her but I never meant to kill her,” then claiming that he did not remember, and at one point during the argument, Spungen had apparently fallen onto the knife.
There have been other theories of drug dealers in the room the night before the murder, who were responsible for killing Spongin. No other suspects were arrested and the police were criticized by some for not looking beyond Sid Vicious as a suspect.
Since their stay at the hotel, residents and visitors have reported paranormal activity. Some people have reported seeing the ghost of Sid Vicious around the first-floor elevator. While the ghost doesn’t appear to interact with guests and visitors, some believe he is wandering around the elevator looking for Nancy’s killer.
Other guests have reported paranormal activity around room 100, including floating orbs, feeling large temperature fluctuations and reports of hearing loud music coming from room 100 or what appears to be a couple arguing but after they check the room, no one appears to be staying there.
The hotel now known as Hotel Chelsea, isn’t accepting new residents and has undergone substantial renovations causing some to think it’s lost its charm.
Jim Morrison’s Ghost
The Doors frontman, Jim Morrison died in Paris, France in 1971 under mysterious circumstances.
Jim Morrison’s gravesite in Paris is a popular tourist hub and also contains the remains of other famous celebrities including Oscar Wilde. During normal times, it’s estimated that almost a thousand people visit the gravesite each day.
Brett Meisner Takes Photo at Jim Morrison’s Grave
In 2009, self-proclaimed rock critic and photographer, Brett Meisner released a photo of what appeared to be the possible ghost of the late Jim Morrison. There’s been two versions of events I’ve heard about this story.
One story claims that in 1997, Meisner and his assistant were in Paris and visited the site of Morrison’s grave. During the visit, they snapped some photos in front of the grave. The other story claims that it was musician, Tom Petty who took the famous photograph, however, Meisner claimed he didn’t start working in Hollywood until 2002 so it’s odd that he would know Tom Petty in 1997 since he didn’t appear to have any famous connections before his time in LA.
Meisner had forgotten about those photos he took at Morrison’s grave until almost half a decade later when in 2002, one of his assistants showed him a photo from the grave visit. Upon inspecting the photo closer, Meisner noticed something wasn’t normal. If you look at the image, you can see a hazy or ghostly image in the background. Some believe it was the ghost of Jim Morrison.
“I figured he was playing a joke on me but once we found the negative and made larger prints, it was quite clear to all of us that we had something odd and unique on our hands.” – Brett Meisner
According to onstagemagazine.com, Meisner said, “I’ve collected a lot of rock and roll memorabilia over the past few decades so I figured he was playing a joke on me but once we found the negative and made larger prints, it was quite clear to all of us that we had something odd and unique on our hands.”
While the incident brought Meisner a lot of publicity and notoriety, he would come to regret his visit to the grave. He told the Daily Express that his marriage soon fell apart, a close friend of his died of a drug overdose, and he claims people would come to his house at all hours of the night to pass on messages to Jim Morrison, while others would also let him know that Morrison’s ghost was also haunting them.
“At first it was sort of interesting to see how many people felt a spiritual bond with Jim in the photo, but now the whole vibe seems negative.” – Brett Meisner
Meisner would state, “At first it was sort of interesting to see how many people felt a spiritual bond with Jim in the photo, but now the whole vibe seems negative.”
Morrison believed in ghosts. He believed he had an encounter with the ghost of a Native American, after being witness to a car accident when he was a youth. It would be that accident that would stay with the singer for years and even showed up in The Door’s music. The lyrics to The Door’s song, “Peace Frog” features the lines, “Indians scattered on the dawn’s highway bleeding. Ghosts crowd the young child’s fragile eggshell mind.”
Meisner claimed he had the photo analyzed by dozens of paranormal and photographic experts who deemed the photo to be authentic but none of them could explain what was really going on.
There have been some people who have been skeptical of what they saw in the photo, claiming it had something to do with the ray of sunlight playing a trick on the human eye. The photo would also show up in the book titled Ghosts Caught on Film 2: Photographs of the Unexplained.
Meisner would employ a spiritual advisor after a close friend told him that the photograph likely came with a curse. Meisner was even trying to find a private organization to donate the photo too but would claim no one would take him up on the offer. In 2010, Meisner passed away in his sleep peacefully.
Like this story? Check out The Butthole Surfers’ Weird History?
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