Forty years ago on this date Deep Purple guitarist Ritchie Blackmore crashed a Porsche he had borrowed while in Iowa City. A bit of quick police research discovered that this wasn't the true Blackmore at all but a lookalike who had conned fans in the area into letting him sleep in their homes and eat their food (and apparently borrow their sportscars).
It's tough to imagine this sort of thing happening in the era of the internet when fans can check facts quickly when something strange like this happens (Deep Purple had just arrived in the U.S. earlier that month to start a tour in San Francisco. It should have seemed suspect that Blackmore was hanging around the Great Plains for a few weeks).
It wouldn't be the last case of musician imitation however. Check out another five cases, rated from last to first in terms of the offender's success in fooling others.
Michael Jackson (2005)
Michael Johnson figured his name was similar enough to The King of Pop...why not just go for the whole shebang? He had rather Dickensian plans however. Rather than try to take advantage of fans for their hospitality, he recruited youths to help him carrying out petty crimes such as robbery. So it was almost a pathetic replication of the "Bad" music video. Unfortunately this story gets worse in a variety of angles: It was proven that Johnson had carried out inappropriate relationships with some of the boys, a comparison point that Jackson simply didn't need at that place in his life.
Scott Weiland (2014)
Unfortunately, not many of us were that surprised when we heard former Stone Temple Pilots/Velvet Revolver frontman had been arrested for stealing razor blades with methamphetamine. Within 24 hours however a message from the performer himself hit the internet, informing us that TMZ's story was crap and they'd receive a lawsuit soon. For once it wasn't the tabloid publication's fault however. The man, actually named Jason Michael Hurley, had convinced the LAPD that he was actually Weiland and the department released a criminal report marked "celebrity" as a result. They probably should have checked the fingerprints...so now they might be the ones hearing from the vocalist's legal team.
Psy (2013)
Dennis Carre was visiting a nightclub in Dublin when he was mobbed by fans thinking he was the creator of the previous year's smash it "Gangnam Style." Although a French citizen, Carre decided to take advantage of Westerners' inability to differentiate between Asian faces and pose as the pop star at the Cannes Film Festival (he did seriously look like Psy however). He didn't do anything too criminal, unless you count hanging out with Adrien Brody and signing a deal to have a gala in Monaco in his honor as a criminal act. It was all honky-dory until the real Psy pointed out that he wasn't at Cannes. Carre basically shrugged and stated that "All of this amuses me."
Peter Criss (1991)
Peter Criss, although a member of one of the biggest rock bands of the '70's, had been out of the spotlight for a while. He had left KISS during 1980 and no one actually recognized him without his cat makeup anyhow. Then The Star reported in 1991 that the drummer was homeless, alcoholic and living underneath a pier in Los Angeles. No one had actually heard from him in a while so individuals including comedian Tom Arnold went to visit him and offer him help. The newly popular Criss was invited on Phil Donahue's talk show, where he was surprised by the actual Peter Criss. Criss V2 aka Chris Dickenson was publicly shamed but at least the real drummer (who had left the rock world to raise a family) was friendly about it. Turns out Dickenson had been paid $500 for the stunt...by The Star. We don't know if they consider this a failure or success as a plot...certainly got the tabloid some attention.
Sha-Na-Na
Admittedly, Sha-Na-Na is the least popular act to appear on this list. Probably why Elmer Solly was so successful in pretending to be deceased guitarist Vinnie Taylor. Solly spent four years in prison for manslaughter after beating his girlfriend's two year-old to death, and he worked the facility's psychologist until he earned the right to visit his mother from time to time. During the third visit, he made a break for it. His mother wasn't saying anything and eventually Solly assumed the identity of the dead guitarist, using forged documents to legally change his name to Daniel Catalano. That didn't mean he dropped the persona however: He continued to perform as Danny C, an identity that fans knew was the former Taylor, similar to how we know Yusaf Islam and Cat Stevens are the same people. The remaining members of Sha-Na-Na attempted to sue the impostor but eventually quit in an attempt to avoid giving him attention. Solly's mother died in 2000, nearly 25 years after his escape, and finally other family members were willing to work with the authorities to prove his true identity. He finally got booked during 2001.
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