While plenty of musicians have time for their fans and are extremely easy to work with, these artists developed reputations as the kind of people you wouldn't want to meet, no matter how innovative they were in their genre. Jerry Lee Lewis has had a decades-long rock 'n' roll career, but the man has been scandalous since the '50s, while Miles Davis was almost as famous for being a terrible person as he was for being a great jazz musician. From the composer who wanted to end the world to the always-running mouth of Morrissey, let's take a look at some admired musicians who were awful people.
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00:00As the old saying goes, music has charms to soothe the savage breast.
00:04Ironically, though, some of the most savage people around are the very musicians that
00:08give us such wonderful music.
00:10Sure, most singers are perfectly nice people, but some of the biggest stars in music are
00:13also some of the biggest jerks around.
00:15Here's a look at some respected musicians who are awful people.
00:19Morrissey spews hate
00:20After rising to fame as the lead singer of 80s sad sax The Smiths, the man known as Morrissey
00:26became even more famous for spouting a nonstop stream of garbage in the press.
00:30Some of his biggest hits include telling The Guardian,
00:32"'You can't help but feel that the Chinese are a subspecies,' shrugging off a massacre
00:37that left 77 people dead as, "'Nothing' compared to what happens in McDonald's every day,"
00:42blaming Kate Middleton for the suicide of a nurse, and calling for Elton John's head
00:46so he could serve it on a plate.
00:48Morrissey was also dismissive of the sexual assault victims in the Harvey Weinstein scandal,
00:52telling The Independent,
00:53"'I hate sexual situations that are forced on someone.
00:56But in many cases, one looks at the circumstances and thinks that the person who is considered
01:01a victim is merely disappointed.'"
01:03The Killer
01:04Rock and roll legend Jerry Lee Lewis is famous for three things, his music, his violent temper,
01:10and marrying his 13-year-old cousin, who is just the third of his seven wives.
01:15Just how he got the nickname The Killer is unclear, though Lewis claims it has nothing
01:19to do with the time he tried to strangle one of his teachers with a necktie.
01:22It also predates the incident where he shot his own bass player in the chest, or the time
01:26he showed up at Graceland drunk and waving a gun.
01:29He swore he had no intention of harming anyone, but Elvis disagreed and called the police.
01:34Can you really blame him?
01:36The many sins of Miles Davis
01:38Jazz legend Miles Davis redefined music itself, but he also redefined what it means to be
01:42a misanthrope.
01:43Some of his lesser offenses include his massive vanity, as the star would condemn critics
01:47for praising other artists claiming they were just out to take away his spotlight.
01:51Much more serious were the heroin and cocaine addictions.
01:54In order to support his costly habits, Davis became a pimp.
01:57You did a lot of bad things.
01:59Like what?
02:00Well, you said you were pimping for a while.
02:03Is that bad?
02:05And his addictions may have contributed to a lifetime of domestic violence and spousal
02:10abuse.
02:11Ex-wife Frances Davis has claimed she wasn't just terrified of him, she ran away a few
02:15times convinced he was going to kill her.
02:17He admitted to the whole sordid trend of beating his wives in his autobiography Miles,
02:21and even admitted he approved of other men hitting their wives and girlfriends to keep
02:25them in line.
02:27Leadbelly's hard heart
02:28Though he died in 1949, the influence of blues pioneer Leadbelly lives on.
02:33George Harrison once said,
02:34No Leadbelly, no Beatles.
02:36And without him, rock and roll as we know it may never have existed.
02:39Still, Leadbelly was a bad man.
02:41Born Huddy Leadbetter in 1888, he did several stretches in jail, starting with 30 days on
02:47a chain gang in 1915 for getting in a particularly violent fight.
02:51Two years later, he was arrested again, this time for killing his cousin's husband and
02:55nearly killing another.
02:56He was pardoned in 1925, but went back in jail in 1930, this time for a stabbing in
03:01what Black History Now says was assault with intent to murder.
03:05It was during this stint that he was discovered by a pair of musicologists who were recording
03:08songs for the Smithsonian, and Leadbelly recorded hundreds for them.
03:12The rest of his life was a combination of performing at venues of all sizes across the
03:16country, and more time in jail.
03:19There was another stabbing incident in 1939, assault in 1940, you get the picture.
03:25He was diagnosed with Lou Gehrig's disease only months before he died from it, leaving
03:28behind a very dark and complicated legacy.
03:31Alexander Skryabin dances with the devil
03:34Alexander Skryabin was a Russian composer who was touched by both genius and madness.
03:39After becoming interested in religious philosophy and the occult, he became more and more convinced
03:44he was destined to change the world.
03:46And by change, he meant bring about the end times.
03:49He started writing a massive composition called the Mysterium, which Gramophone says he envisioned
03:53as a week-long multimedia event including music, dance, lights, poetry, perfumes, and
03:59incenses that would be performed once in the Himalayan mountains.
04:03He hoped the performance would trigger the apocalypse and that humanity would be replaced
04:06by nobler beings.
04:09After fiddling with the work for over a decade, though, his plans were thwarted in the most
04:12anticlimactic way possible in 1915.
04:15He cut himself shaving, got infected, and died.