Explore every episode of the podcast Rock Mysteries
| Title | Pub. Date | Duration | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Kurt Cobain: The Case That Never Added Up | 30 Oct 2026 | 01:02:20 | |
In April 1994, Seattle police found Kurt Cobain dead of a shotgun wound and called it a suicide before the autopsy was finished. More than 30 years later, the questions haven’t gone away. Rock Mysteries host Scott Gulbransen talks with journalist Max Wallace, co-author of the New York Times bestseller Love & Death: The Murder of Kurt Cobain. Wallace started as a skeptic who figured the murder theory was a crackpot idea. Then he looked at the people making it. In this episode:
Wallace is clear that there’s no smoking gun, and he doesn’t accuse Courtney Love of murder. He wants the case reopened. The official ruling is still suicide. You decide. Rock Mysteries is commercial-free. Support the show on Patreon, link below. https://www.patreon.com/cw/rockmysteries Max Wallace: https://www.amazon.com/stores/author/B001IXNTZ6 https://www.amazon.com/Love-Death-Murder-Kurt-Cobain-ebook/dp/B000FC1LNS?ref_=ast_author_mpb Chapters: 00:00 Cold open: the news of Cobain’s death | |||
| The Last Night of Bon Scott: What Really Killed AC/DC's Singer? | 23 Oct 2026 | 01:12:57 | |
The official story says Bon Scott drank too much, passed out in a friend’s car in London on February 18, 1980, and choked on his own vomit. Author Jesse Fink spent two years digging into that story for Bon: The Last Highway, and he came away convinced it doesn’t hold up. Fink walks through what he found. A woman who was at the flat that night had never spoken about it in 40 years. Two members of UFO told a very different version of the evening in 2005. The investigation and autopsy were wrapped up in a matter of days, with no toxicology report he could locate. He lays out why he believes Bon died of heroin mixed with alcohol, and why he thinks Bon may have been dead before he was left in the car. We also get into the Back in Black question. Fink points to his time in Miami with a woman Bon knew in 1979, the royalties Bon’s family reportedly receives, and a missing lyric notebook, and makes the case that Bon’s words ended up on the biggest album in the band’s history without credit. We finish with the Young brothers, why Bon was an outsider in his own band, and why Brian Johnson ended up, in Fink’s words, with the golden Wonka ticket. Fink’s updated edition of Bon: The Last Highway is out now. More at jessefinkbooks.com. Chapters
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| Who Really Killed Sam Cooke? The Mob, the Manager, and the Biggest Lie in Music History - Part 2 | 10 Dec 2025 | 00:55:19 | |
On December 11, 1964, the voice of the Civil Rights movement — the man who wrote “A Change Is Gonna Come” — was gunned down in a $3 Los Angeles motel. The police called it “justifiable homicide.” The newspapers painted Sam Cooke as a drunken, womanizing kidnapper who got what was coming to him. His family never bought it for a second. In this explosive Part 2 Rock Mysteries finale, author B.G. Rule (One More River to Cross: The Redemption of Sam Cooke) rips the lid off one of music’s darkest cover-ups:
Sixty-one years later, Sam’s children, grandchildren, and famously tight-knit family still refuse to accept the official lie. They don’t want myths — they want the truth spoken out loud. This isn’t conspiracy theory. This is the story the industry prayed you’d never hear. If you love Sam Cooke, you need to hear this episode. “A Change Is Gonna Come”… but first, justice has to come for the man who sang it. Subscribe now and join the fight to finally clear Sam Cooke’s name. #SamCooke #MusicConspiracy #CivilRights #RockMysteries | |||
| Sam Cooke Murder Exposed: Mob Hit, Stolen Legacy & the Shocking Cover-Up That Fooled the World - Part 1 | 04 Dec 2025 | 01:10:00 | |
61 years after soul legend Sam Cooke was found shot dead in a seedy LA motel wearing only a sport coat and one shoe, the official story of “self-defense” and “kidnapping” has never passed the smell test. In this explosive Part 1 of a two-episode edition of the show, bestselling author B.G. Rule (One More River to Cross: The Redemption of Sam Cooke) reveals never-before-heard evidence that points to a cold-blooded Mafia assassination orchestrated over money, power, and control of Black music.
From corrupt LAPD chief William H. Parker to mobbed-up nightclubs and payola scandals, discover why even as teenage girls in 1964 knew something didn’t add up — and why the truth has been buried for six decades. If you love unsolved music mysteries like the deaths of Tupac, Biggie, Jimi Hendrix, Otis Redding, or Bobby Fuller, this is the definitive deep dive into one of the biggest cover-ups in rock & soul history. Subscribe now and don’t miss Part 2 — the conclusion will leave you speechless. #SamCooke #SamCookeMurder #RockMysteries #UnsolvedMysteries #MobHits #MusicConspiracy #TrueCrimePodcast #SoulMusic #1960sMusic #AllenKlein #BlackMusicHistory | |||
| The Murder of Elf & Rainbow Drummer Gary Driscoll | 30 Nov 2025 | 00:35:30 | |
Our latest episode revolves around one of the strangest and most troubling rock mysteries: the murder of former Elf and Rainbow drummer Gary Driscoll. Driscoll first connected with Ronnie James Dio (Rainbow, Black Sabbath, Dio) in 1965 and his career peaked with the first Rainbow album before Ritchie Blackmore fired him after that record's release. He then left the music business and became a working-class tile layer in his hometown of Ithaca, New York. In 1987, he was brutally murdered and the case is unsolved today. We welcome rock-n-roll historian and author Staci Layne Wilson to discuss this mystery and why it remains a cold case today. Staci Layne Willson Websites: StaciLayneWilson.com Rock-N-Roll Nightmares Podcast Ventures Documentar | |||
| The Life and Demise of Johnny Thunders | 23 Nov 2025 | 00:49:00 | |
Perhaps one of the most influential musicians of the 1970s and 80s, former New York Doll Johnny Thunders was a textbook rock star. With a biting guitar style and strong songwriting skills, Thunders was everything you could want in a rock star. After the demise of the Dolls, Thunders, and his band, the Heartbreakers, wowed critics and built a cult following. Later, Thunders found fleeting success as a solo artist, seemingly a step behind larger fame. Then, in 1991, it all came to a tragic and troubling end as Thunders died in a hotel room in New Orleans. We explore the life and death of rock legend Johnny Thunders. | |||