Top 10: Rock Myths

You just blew $100 on a Paul McCartney concert only to find out that the real Beatle died in a car accident back in 1966.

Sound like you fell into the Twilight Zone?

Like a killer chorus or a persistent groupie, myths have a way of following rock bands around and ultimately lingering their way into legend. Some, like the McCartney body double bit, have been proven false. Others remain a mystery.

From slight exaggerations and strange coincidences to tales of the occult and full-blown conspiracy theories, here are the top 10 rock myths around today.

Number 10

Marilyn Manson was on The Wonder Years

From missing ribs and breast implants to the eye-for-testicle swap, Marilyn Manson has generated his fair share of creepy myths.

Perhaps the strangest and most persistent, however, is that the shock-rock frontman -- born Brian Warner -- played the bespectacled Paul Pfeiffer on the hit show The Wonder Years in the early '90s before morphing into his twisted onstage persona.

Status: False

Quote: "It doesn't upset me, nor does it offend me. I just take it as a joke."
-Josh Saviano, the real actor who played Kevin Arnold's bespectacled sidekick

Number 9

Ozzy Osbourne bit a bat's head off

When you earn your living pelting audiences with calf livers and pig intestines, you are quite literally feeding the rumor mills.

On one fateful January night in Des Moines, Iowa, Ozzy Osbourne's own eating habits became table talk after a fan threw a live bat onstage to return the frontman's hospitality. Taking the stunned creature for a rubber toy, Black Sabbath's frontman bit into its neck and -- realizing he had bitten off more than he could chew -- found himself in dire need of a rabies shot.

Status: True

Quote: "I bit the head off a live bat the other night. It was like eating a Crunchie wrapped in chamois leather."
-Ozzy Osbourne

Number 8

Jim Morrison faked his own death

The conspiracy theorists who insist Doors frontman Jim Morrison is still alive and kickin' it up somewhere in Mexico have plenty to fuel their suspicions.

For starters, only Morrison's wife Pamela and French physician Dr. Vasille saw the corpse after the rock star was found dead in his bathtub on July 3, 1971. And if the ensuing media blackout, the lack of an autopsy (customary for all suspect deaths in France) and Morrison's many occult connections weren't enough, the singer apparently visited his grave sight only three days before his untimely death.

Status: Mystery

Quote: "I was very tempted to believe the rumors that Jim had faked his own death."
-Jim's best friend, Tom Baker

Number 7

Keith Richards received new blood

Cheat death often enough and fans will start drawing their own conclusions.

Notorious heroin addict Keith Richards learned this lesson back in 1973 when he checked into a Swiss hospital for a blood-filtering treatment known as a hemodialysis. Rumors quickly spread that the Rolling Stone had actually undergone an experimental treatment that amounted to a complete blood transfusion in order to detoxify himself for an upcoming European tour.

Status: False

Quote: "I was just fooling around. I opened my jacket and said, 'How do you like my blood change?' I was f***ing sick of answering that question. So I gave them a story."
-Keith Richards

Number 6

David Bowie and Mick Jagger were caught in bed together

Having your wife catch you in bed with another woman is simply one of the occupational hazards of being a rock star.

But David Bowie was really put on the spot after his ex-wife told national television audiences that she once found her admittedly bisexual "Thin White Duke" spooning naked in bed with the Rolling Stones' frontman Mick Jagger. Both men and their lawyers denied any gay implications.

Status: True, as far as the discovery goes.

Quote: "I certainly didn't catch anyone in the act. All I found were two people sleeping in my bed. They happened to be naked and they happened to be Mick Jagger and David Bowie and it's not a big deal. It doesn't mean necessarily that it's some sort of affair."
-David Bowie's ex-wife, Angela

Number 5

Mama Cass choked on a sandwich

Almost 240 pounds when she died, it's not a stretch to believe food had something to do with "Mama" Cass Elliott's passing.

But the ham sandwich found next to her bed on that fateful night in 1974 fired up a number of half-baked rumors, including suggestions that the 32-year-old belter for the Mamas and the Papas had choked on her last meal. An autopsy, however, revealed a clean trachea.

Status: False

Quote: "Cass died of heart failure due to fatty myocardial degeneration due to obesity."
-Keith Simpson, the pathologist who performed the autopsy

Number 4

The Beatles toked up in Buckingham Palace

Most bands don't go out of their way to feed the rumor mills. Then again, most bands aren't the Beatles.

Singer John Lennon once claimed the Fab Four shared a joint in the washroom of Buckingham Palace back in October 1965, the day they were set to receive their honorary Members of the British Empire awards from the Queen herself. George and Paul later denied the story, while Ringo (perhaps only fueling the tall tale) claimed he could not remember.

Status: False

Quote: "We'd have been far too scared to do it."
-John Lennon, who later admitted up he had made up the story

Number 3

Jimi Hendrix wore an acid-laced bandana

The colors may not have matched, but many fans still believe the secret behind Purple Haze could be found behind Jimi's red bandanas.

Rumors abound to this very day that Hendrix brought his stage performances to dizzying psychedelic heights by placing LSD litmus papers (blotter acids) underneath his trademark bandana, which would ultimately be absorbed into cuts he had made in his skin and roll down as sweat into his eyes.

Status: Mystery

Quote: "Purple Haze all in my brain, lately things don't seem the same. Actin' funny but I don't know why. 'Scuse me while I kiss the sky."
- Jimi Hendrix, "Purple Haze."

Number 2

Robert Johnson signed a pact with the devil

Bluesman Robert Johnson apparently came across more than two highways when he reached the crossroads of US 61 and US 49.

Legend has it that the most famous guitar player of the 1930s actually sold his soul to the devil one hot day in Clarksdale, Mississippi, apparently forking over his eternal existence for a style of guitar playing that, for all intents and purposes, has remained unmatched to this very day.

Status: Mystery

Quote: "When people ask me about if I believe all that stuff about [Robert Johnson selling his soul to the] devil, I say 'Hell no!' It is stupid. How can an adult sell his soul to the devil? If it does happen, it happens when you are born."
-Robert Jr. Lockwood, Johnson's stepson and protege.

Number 1

Courtney Love killed Kurt Cobain

When Kurt Cobain was found dead on April 8, 1994, the ensuing public reaction over the tortured musician's suicide was anything but peaceful.

Many fans suspected wife Courtney Love had conspired to have her husband killed, hinging on several irreconcilable facts: Cobain's stolen credit card, a weapon without prints, a questionable suicide note, and the simple fact that nobody injected with three times the lethal dose of heroin would have been able to pick up a shotgun and take their own life.

Status: Mystery

Quote: "I might lie a lot, but never in my lyrics."
-Courtney Love