I was asked to speak to a communications class at the Salt Lake Community College earlier this week. The topic was music.
During the discussion, a student asked me if Marilyn Manson was the boy on the TV sitcom "Mr. Belvedere."The answer is no.
Hate to burst a bubble for all you rumor mongers, but no, Manson - formerly known as (human) Brian Warner - is not Brice Beckham, the young lad who played Wesley T. Owens.
Such rumors can be classified as urban legends of music.
There are as many musical urban legends as there are pop music songs, artists and producers.
One of my favorites has always been that Charles Manson once auditioned to be one of the Monkees.
Man, where did that come from?
Manson, just to set the record straight, did play music in Southern California in the 1960s, but he was serving time for a parole violation at Terminal Island Prison in San Pedro, Calif., between 1961-1967.
Since the auditions were held in 1965, there wasn't any way the con-victed cult killer could have been there.
Still, musical urban legends are fun to talk about and think about. And what if there was a paper-thin thread of truth in those rumors - whoa, wouldn't that be creepily intriguing?
But - just like a good novel or science fiction movie - stories of Led Zeppelin's drummer John Bon-ham dying because he walked across a Satanic symbol in guitarist Jimmy Page's home or Phil Collins writing "In the Air Tonight" after witnessing a murder/drowning are full of fiction.
Bonham died of asphyxiation after a heavy drinking binge. Collins wrote "In the Air Tonight" about his first failing marriage.
At any rate, here are some other music rumors and their explanations:
- ALICE COOPER is the son of a Mormon bishop.
False.
Cooper, also known as Vincent Furnier (without the makeup and leathers), is actually - according to the "DK Encyclopedia of Rock Stars" and "The New Rolling Stone Encyclopedia of Rock & Roll" - a preacher's son. And the Mormon faith does not have preachers.
- THE LATE JOHN DENVER was a sniper in the U.S. Army during the Vietnam War.
False.
Denver, born John Henry Deut-schendorf, did have military connections. His father, Henry John, was a colonel in the U.S. Air Force after World War I. Although Denver did receive an Army induction waiver in the '60s, as noted in his autobiography, "Take Me Home," he was not accepted because he had lost two toes in a lawnmower accident while a youth.
- THE LATE MAMA CASS ELLIOT, of the Mamas & the Papas, choked to death on a ham sandwich.
False.
She died of a heart attack. Dr. Keith Simpson, who performed the autopsy, found no traces of ham, bread or food lodged in her trachea. The real story was reported by group member Papa John Phillips in his book "Papa John."
- THIS MONKEE STORY IS TRUE: Monkee Mike Nesmith's mother, Bette Nesmith Graham, invented Liquid Paper.
She thought of the idea of using tempra water-based paint to correct her typing errors in 1951. She was a secretary. She originally called it Mistake Out and then changed its name to Liquid Paper in 1956 and began distributing it independently. She sold the formula to Gillette in 1979.