DISGRACELAND
DISGRACELAND is an award-winning music and true crime podcast about musicians getting away with murder and behaving very badly. Jerry Lee Lewis's 5th wife? Dead. Sid and Nancy? Both dead. Why? Because musicians are insane, and insane things happen to them. Why did we lose Amy Winehouse at 27? Was Debbie Harry really abducted by Ted Bundy as she claims? Is Patti Smith not just the "Godmother of Punk", but also the "Original True Crime Girl"? What really happened the night of the Jay Z nightclub stabbing? What do the Diddy indictments truly reveal? All these stories and more, on artists from every genre and their true crimes, in our massive 260-plus story archive. The Dead, the Stones, Johnny, Willie, Frank, Kurt, Courtney, Gaga, Lana, Taylor, and too many to name. DISGRACELAND is music history come to life through audio storytelling as you've never heard it before, with revealing facts: yes, assassins are the real reason the Beatles quit touring—reclaimed myths: no, Mama Cass didn't die from choking on a ham sandwich––and constant reckoning between art and artist––all told through the lens of true crime. This is the podcast for the self-proclaimed "Disgos", the musically obsessed and the true crime heads; the outsiders, the independent thinkers who know that the best history is the history that gets buried. DISGRACELAND is where host Jake Brennan tells the stories they didn't want told. The kind you'll end up telling someone else. Get ready to uncover hidden truths and buckle up for truly edge-of-your-seat storytelling. New, fully scripted, sound-designed episodes are released every Tuesday. Bonus chat-style episodes where Jake responds to voicemails, texts, and emails from Disgos hit on Thursdays, and "Rewind" episodes from our archive drop on Sundays. DISGRACELAND is not a journalistic podcast. It's an entertainment podcast inspired by true events. Certain dialogue and scenes are dramatized, as is common in scripted entertainment based on real stories. Sources and credits for each episode are available at www.disgracelandpod.com. To unlock ad-free listening, exclusive content, and connect with your fellow Disgos, go to www.disgracelandpod.com to become an All Access member. Rocka Rolla.
Episodes
On a single Saturday in 2000, Marshall Mathers assaulted two separate men with a pistol and fought with his wife outside a nightclub, resulting in lawsuits and charges that hung over the completion of his original trilogy of albums. For that one day, the rap persona Slim Shady had escaped into the real world. How had Slim Shady come to be, and why had he gotten out?
For a full list of contributors, visit disgracelandpod.com
This ep...
In this week’s After Party, Jake discusses the spirited online response to our Nirvana episodes and wonders why Courtney Love continues to be the the target of vitriol and suspicion. We look at the wild and mysterious life of Screamin’ Jay Hawkins who allegedly had over 57 children. Plus, Disgraceland is hitting the high seas. And as always, your voicemails, texts, dms, and emails and more.
Disgraceland has been nominat...
He was an operatic vocalist made famous by his song “I Put A Spell on You,” a song he performed throughout the conservative 1950s while jumping out of a coffin on stage. Screamin’ Jay Hawkins will live on in infamy after it was discovered he fathered 57+ children over the course of his life as not only a singer, but a soldier, a boxer, and an actor. Screamin’ Jay Hawkins was a lot of things before he died in...
Grunge, grief, the Grateful Dead and a “teenage whore.” Part 2 of the Kurt Cobain and Courtney Love story picks up with Courtney’s ascent and the couple’s heroin-hazed pregnancy. An escape from rehab and a punk as f*ck group hug for Gen X.
This episode contains themes that may be disturbing to some listeners, including suicide. If you’re thinking about suicide or are worried about a friend or loved one...
Kurt Cobain is a celebrated and defiant icon of Generation X. His wife, Courtney Love, was once the most hated woman in America. Courtney, like Kurt, was unapologetic, fierce, determined, ambitious, authentic, and a total hypocrite. They were both totally in love and for a minute shined brighter than most. They challenged gender norms and the music industry patriarchy and reluctantly played the roles of their generation’s Joh...
We go deeper into the claims Quincy Jones made later in his life, but we also discuss one of the most important music and entertainment figures of the 20th century. And as always, your voicemails, texts, DMs, and emails and more.
Disgraceland has been nominated for a Signal Award! Vote for us here:
For more great stories from the intersection of music and true crime, check out our archive, featuring ...
Quincy Jones brought truth through music. We heard what America really felt like in the albums he produced, and in the films he scored. At the end of his life he made wild claims; that Michael Jackson was a thief (“he stole a lot of songs”), that the Beatles were frauds (“no-playing motherfu*ckers”), and that he knows “who killed Kennedy” in part because of his relationship with Frank Sinatra. In...
Lil’ Peep was a once-in-a-generation talent. Poised to become a new Cobain, Bowie or Dylan, but whose life was cut short by an overdose that’s still mysterious. Depression, anxiety and a unique fusion of hip-hop, emo, grime and raw, empathetic lyrics resulted in a deep connection to fans that in the end, may have done him in at the tender age of 21.
To see the full list of contributors, see the show notes at www.disgrac...
Notes on the emotional impact from Jake’s trip to the Punk Rock Museum, Bobby Fuller and DIY recording recs, plus your voicemails, texts, dms, and emails on how Bobby died and more.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
How did Bobby Fuller die? Ask four different people and you’ll get four different answers. Wikipedia will tell you that Bobby’s death was an “accident”. The LAPD will tell you Bobby committed suicide. YouTube will tell you a lot of things with big, dumb sensationalized thumbnails, but in the end, won’t really tell you anything at all. The rock ‘n’ roll history books––all but one...
Travis Scott’s 2021 Astroworld music festival turned out to be a deadly disaster. Was it greed? Satanism? Or was something even more mysterious and evil behind the events that took the lives of ten concertgoers and injured and traumatized many others?
This episode was originally published on October 1, 2024.
To see the full list of contributors, see the show notes at www.disgracelandpod.com.
To listen to Disgraceland ad...
Surprise! David Crosby isn’t who we thought he was. Same goes for Robin Thicke apparently as well. Lil’ Wayne though? What about Wayne Coyne? All of this and more plus your voicemails, texts, DMs, emails, and more in this week’s bonus After Party episode of Disgraceland.
For more great stories at the intersection of music and true crime, check out these stories from our archive:
John Denver
The man who made sweet, soft, harmonious music with Stephen Stills and Neil Young was actually a crazy rock ‘n’ roll animal. Listen to hear how David Crosby wound up addicted, escaped authorities, and went on the lam.
To see the full list of contributors, see the show notes at www.disgracelandpod.com.
This previously exclusive episode was originally published on May 22, 2025.
Everyone thought Blink-182’s Tom DeLonge was a joke, until he proved them all wrong. This is the story of government control, aliens, an arrest, a plane crash, a cancer diagnosis, redemption, and (of course) anti-authority punk rock.
Do you believe in Non-Human Intelligence? Have you had an experience with UFOs? Let Jake know and tell your story at 617-906-6638, disgracelandpod@gmail.com, or on socials @disgracelandpod.
This ...
What good is a Queen biopic if it reveals nothing real about Freddie Mercury? Are biopics just Marvel movies for music lovers? This and more, plus your voicemails, text, dms, and emails in this week’s After Party bonus episode.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Queen is one of the biggest-selling bands in music history, and Bohemian Rhapsody is one of the highest-grossing biopics of all time. But did the movie give us a true portrait of Freddie Mercury – or is the real story so debauched, so insane, that it borders on unbelievable?
To listen to Disgraceland ad freeand get access to a weekly bonus content and more, become a Disgraceland All Access member at disgracelandpod.com/m...
In part two of the Tupac Shakur story, we see the young star trying to deal with life behind bars and giving in to the patronage of the notorious Suge Knight of Death Row Records while getting into the mud with the Notorious B.I.G. in a deadly game of East Coast West Coast beef. We also get a glimpse of what Tupac Shakur might have achieved had he not gone to Las Vegas on that fateful night back in 1996.
Tupac Shakur was many things. He was a supremely talented MC and was wildly charismatic in front of the camera. He was also violent, angry and completely unable to keep himself out of trouble. Part one of his story traces his rise through the radical influence of his Black Panther lineage, the deadly violence that seemed to follow him wherever he went, and the inevitability of both prison and superstardom.
Finally! The mystery is over! We know who killed Tupac and why. Or do we? This and more, plus your voicemails, text, DMs, and emails in this week’s After Party bonus episode.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
A special look at the new artists we’re covering in the second half of 2026, along with a peek into the breaking Reggie Watts story, and how you can be directly involved in the choosing of Disgraceland episode subjects.
To listen to Disgraceland ad freeand get access to a monthly exclusive episode, weekly bonus content and more, become a Disgraceland All Access member at disgracelandpod.com/membership.
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