As everyone knows, music has the power to evoke strong emotions, but this is normally reserved for private listeners rather than government security agencies. However, there are numerous instances of musicians upsetting the lads in the bureau. These ten musicians were the subject of an FBI investigation.
John Lennon
Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, John Lennon was outspoken in his criticism of the Vietnam War, participating in multiple interviews with anti-war activists and even criticizing the British occupation of Northern Ireland. The FBI was enraged by all of this anti-establishment talk.
Elvis Presley
Elvis Presley is a great American icon, so you may assume he would be the last person the FBI would want to speak with. What, then, was Presley’s major infraction? Stepping out. Elvis Presley’s “actions and motions were such as to rouse the sexual passions of teenaged youth,” according to an FBI memo discussing Presley’s performances. Some people even saw it as “sexual self-gratification on stage.”
The Monkees
The FBI was looking into The Monkees in the late 1960s, despite their seeming harmless image, since they were supposedly showing “subliminal,” “left-wing,” and “anti-US” visuals concerning the Vietnam War during one of their concerts. Only in 2011 did this knowledge become widely known.
NWA
The Bureau was alerted to NWA’s anti-authority message in its now-iconic catalog because they believed that their hit song “F*** Tha Police” was indoctrinating American kids with hate speech against law enforcement. Rappers were even accused by the FBI in a letter of “violence against and disrespect” for police officers.
Nine-inch nails
Trent Reznor, the lead singer of Nine Inch Nails, was shown in the music video for the song “Down In It,” which was released in 1989, falling off a building and dying. But as they were filming, a balloon camera meant for aerial images drifted off into a nearby field, where it was later discovered by a farmer who thought the footage looked authentic. Once it was established that Reznor was still alive, the FBI decided to end its investigation into the once-disregarded “snuff film.”
Jimi Hendrix
After Jimi Hendrix was charged with drugs in Toronto, Canada, in 1969, the FBI launched an investigation into the psychedelic rock musician that ultimately produced a 34-page file. According to the FBI’s archives, Hendrix would place LSD pills under his bandana before shows, which he would progressively absorb through perspiration.
Woody Guthrie
After anti-fascist folk singer Woody Guthrie started penning a weekly column for People’s World, the FBI started looking into his activities in 1941. It was later discovered that tips from informants who had served with Guthrie in the Navy had flooded the FBI file.
ODB
Eight years after ODB, a former member of the Wu-Tang Clan, passed away, the FBI made public the contents of its dossier on the rapper in 2012. The native of New York was being investigated for three killings and a gunfight with the police. In the records, the Wu-Tang Clan was mentioned in relation to charges of drug use, unlawful gun ownership, weapon possession, and carjacking.
The Grateful Dead
The FBI put The Grateful Dead under surveillance because of their involvement in 1960s LSD culture. The FBI kept a close eye on the hippie movement as a whole during that time, but The Grateful Dead stood out because of their tours, which were effectively drug communes on wheels that disseminated peace and love via little paper tabs.
