Rock History

2004 – Jennifer Chiba, the girlfriend of the late songwriter Elliott Smith (“Miss Misery”) denies involvement in his death after a coroner’s report claims she refused to speak with detectives. Smith was found dead of two stab wounds in October 2003.

2002 – A stewardess testifies at Peter Buck’s air rage trial that she was “scared to death” that the R.E.M. guitarist would stab someone after hiding a knife up his sleeve during his in-air rampage on board a British Airways flight. Buck is later acquitted.

2000 – The man who nearly a year earlier broke into the home of and stabbed former Beatle George Harrison is found not guilty by reason of insanity in the U.K.’s Oxford Crown Court. Michael Abram is ordered confined to a mental hospital indefinitely for his attack on Harrison and his wife, which left the former with a punctured lung.

2000 – The Warped Tour rolls into West Palm Beach, Fla. But during the concert, a NOFX fan is stabbed while in the mosh pit. He later recovers.

1999 – Former Beatle George Harrison is stabbed four times in the chest during an attempted robbery early in the morning at his home at Henley-Upon-Thames, near London. The 56-year-old musician and his wife Olivia struggle with the intruder and are able to subdue him until the authorities arrive. The couple is then transported to a nearby hospital where both soon recover without incident.

1987 – Mick Jagger shoots the video for “Let’s Work” in New York. If you’re scratching your head wondering which Stones album this tune is from, it’s one of Mick’s ill-fated stabs at solo stardom.

1978 – Sid Vicious tries to commit suicide at Rikers Island in New York. No, it wasn’t because he saw how much Never Mind the Bollocks was now selling for. Vicious was waiting to be charged with murder following the stabbing death of his girlfriend Nancy Spungen.

1977 – Johnny Rotten and Paul Cook are stabbed by a gang who, safe to say, are not Sex Pistols fans.

1971 – The great King Curtis (“Soul Twist”) is stabbed to death in New York. As well as playing for the Coasters and blowing on his own hits, Curtis led Aretha Franklin’s band the Kingpins.

1971 – At a Who concert in Forest Hills, N.Y., a security guard is stabbed.

1971 – The Rolling Stones are sued by the Hell’s Angel accused of stabbing Meredith Hunter at Altamont in 1969. Alan David Pasaro alleges that the Stones have invaded his privacy by including footage of the fatal attack in their documentary Gimme Shelter.

1970 – Twiggs Lyndon, road manager with the Allman Brothers, is arrested on charges of murder after stabbing a club manager over alleged breach of contract.