Music's Craziest Conspiracy Theories

After Paul McCartney was injured in a 1967 car accident, conspiracy theorists surmised the Beatle was actually dead and replaced by an impostor. They pointed to sketchy clues left in the band’s work, like playing “Revolution 9” backwards and hearing, “Turn me on, dead man.” All we can say is, if this was true, Paul’s replacement did a great job on “Hey Jude.”

Like most world-stopping assassinations, John Lennon’s death in 1980 at the hands of Mark David Chapman came with its share of conspiracy theories. Skeptics felt the C.I.A. could have orchestrated his death, due to his political activism.

For musical conspiracy theories, “Elvis is still alive” might be the most famous. If Elvis didn’t really die in Memphis in 1977, he’d be 80 years old today.

After Lorde quickly ascended to stardom, some surmised there was absolutely no way a teenager could be such a wise, old soul. In South Park, Colo., rumors spread that she was actually a 45-year old geologist named Randy Marsh. In reality, Lorde was most definitely born in 1996.

Back in 1999, a song called “Aliens Exist” appeared on Blink-182’s album Enema of the State. In 2015, Tom DeLonge, since leaving the band, gave an interview to Paper in which he talked about extensively researching government alien cover-ups, to the point of experiencing “lost time” near Area 51 and his phone being tapped. 

Since Kurt Cobain’s death in 1994, conspiracy theorists have been saying the suicide was actually orchestrated by Courtney Love. Enough people believe the very-suspect rumors for a skeptic documentary like Soaked In Bleach to come out in 2015, though Love responded with a cease and desist letter to all theaters planning on showing the film.

Like Elvis, there are some that maintain Tupac Shakur is still alive, having faked his own death and found refuge abroad. While the details of Tupac’s death and assailants may never be known, the still-alive argument seems quite unlikely. In 2014, even the CIA’s official Twitter account even confirmed that it had no idea where Tupac was.

Beyoncé announced her pregnancy at the 2011 VMAs and gave birth to Blue Ivy on Jan. 7 the next year. But some suggested Bey was wearing a prosthetic baby bump while a surrogate mother carried the baby (even pointing out that her pregnant belly looked like it was deflated in one photo). And while dancing in heels at New York’s Roseland Ballroom while five months pregnant might not be for every pregnant woman, any sane person should just chalk this up to Bey doing Bey.

In 2003, Elliott Smith died of a stab wound to the heart and the tragic incident was ruled a suicide. Some felt he could have been killed by his girlfriend Jennifer Chiba, given the especially grizzly suicide method, the lack of “hesitation wounds,” and Smith’s alleged rebound from drugs. Still, his death remains listed as a suicide.

Jim Morrison hated fame, had legal troubles, and admired the poet Arthur Rimbaud, who faked his own death and fled to Africa. So when The Doors frontman was pronounced dead in 1971, some surmised it was all a big hoax. Very few people saw his corpse, and in the decades that followed, people claimed to spot him all the way from San Francisco to Paris.

How could being a ‘70s rock band and getting compared to The Beatles ever be a bad thing? When you sound so much like them, people suspect you’re just the Fab Four recording under a pseudonym. That’s just what happened when the Canadian band Klaatu dropped its 1976 debut 3:47 EST (pictured here), but in reality, there was absolutely no connection.

Legendary guitarist Jimi Hendrix died at the age of 27 in 1970 after aspirating on his own vomit and dying of asphyxia while intoxicated with barbiturates. But James "Tappy" Wright, a former road manager who worked for Hendrix's manager Mike Jeffrey claimed in a 2009 book that Jeffrey had taken out a $2 million life-insurance policy on the star and ultimately had him killed by a gang who forced wine and painkillers down his throat.

Ever see Andrew W.K. and Dave Grohl in the same room together? Years back, some surmised the party-rocking persona of Andrew Wilkes-Krier was just Dave’s alter ego. But this one doesn’t hold much weight outside of the fact both dudes kinda look alike.