Many famous musicians have spent a day or three in jail for driving
drunk, holding drugs, or something really stupid. But only the select
few have spent a serious stretch of time in prison, which brings us to
David Allan Coe. The original country outlaw performs Friday at the Culture Room in Fort Lauderdale.
It's
confirmed Coe did time at Ohio State Penitentiary and he has famously
claimed to have been on death row for killing a man who attempted to
procure a blow job from him -- this has not been confirmed or proven
false. Although Coe is a redneck renegade who penned "Take This Job and
Shove It," recorded the 1970s smash "You Never Even called Me By My
Name" and recorded an album with the members of Pantera, he's by no
means the greatest recording artist to do hard time. Here's a highly
subjective list of the greatest musicians who worried about being some
bulky dude's bitch.
1. Chuck Berry
One of the great pioneers of rock 'n' roll -- if not the greatest --
spent 1959-63 in prison for violating the Mann Act, which prohibits
pimping and "white slavery." Basically, it appears Berry got busted
because he was a black man with a ton of white teenage fans. No saint,
though, Berry had already done about three years behind bars from age
18 to 21 for carjacking, a crime he admits to committing in his
autobiography. In 1979, Berrry returned to the Big House -- via tax
evasion -- for four months.
Chuck Berry performing a sizzling "Johnny B. Goode" in 1958. Clip
includes great quotes from Keith Richards, Gregg Allman and Dickey
Betts.
2. Fela Kuti
Afrobeat inventor and political radical Fela Kuti served 20 months in a
Nigerian prison for pretty much being a wildly popular figure who
opposed the military government.
Kuti on keyboards/vocals leading his killer band through "Teacher Don't Teach Me No Nonsense."
