5 incredibly bizarre stories about the resting place of famous musicians
The life of a musician is often dramatic and strange, but one would expect things to settle down once they pass. Not for these musicians, who even after their death, unusual events have haunted them. Here are five of the strangest occurrences to happen to a musician after their death:
Ian Curtis’s memorial stone was stolen in 2008
When Joy Division singer Ian Curtis passed away in 1980 at the mere age of 23, his body was cremated, and his ashes were buried at Macclesfield Cemetery. Where his ashes laid, a stone engraved with Curtis’s death date and also the title of Joy Division song “Love Will Tear Us Apart” was placed at the memorial.
But 28 years later, in July 2008, it was stolen. Speaking to the BBC, a police spokesman said: “There is no CCTV in the area and there are no apparent leads as to who is responsible for the theft. This is a very unusual theft and I am confident that someone locally will have knowledge about who is responsible or where the memorial stone is at present.”
While a new stone was later made and placed at the site, the old one has not returned, with Joy Division and New Order drummer, Stephen Morris saying “people go around nicking road signs, but a person’s gravestone is very personal and the person who took it needs help.”
Frank Sinatra is buried with a roll of dimes
While it is a common occurrence for musicians to be buried with objects after their death, Frank Sinatra has been given several things in his grave. A pack of cigarettes, a lighter, a bottle of bourbon whiskey and the most unusual, a roll of 10 dimes.
The roll of dimes was included by his daughter Tina, and the running joke behind it was that if he ever managed to escape his resting place, he would be able to call his friends from a payphone. But the real story is a lot more sentimental. Speaking with Larry King Live after the passing of her father, Tina said “it came from Frankie’s kidnapping [the 1963 abduction of Frank Sinatra Jr] … He never wanted to get caught not able to make a phone call, so he always carried 10 dimes.”
Frank Zappa and Roy Orbison are buried in unmarked graves in the same cemetery
Pierce Bros Westwood Village Memorial Park in Los Angeles is the final resting place of many famous people. Some of the stars buried there are Marilyn Monroe, Dean Martin, Truman Capote, Burt Lancaster, Hugh Hefner, Zsa Zsa Gabor, Gene Kelly, Jack Lemmon and Carl Wilson.
But also buried at the famous grave site is Frank Zappa (1940 – 1993) and Roy Orbison (1936 – 1988), who happen to both be resting very close to each other, and both in unmarked graves. And while people constantly raise the question as to why that is, Orbison’s son Alex told Reuters in 2010, “It’s definitely not intentional. It’s not like we don’t want people going by there or whatever. It’s been put to the backburner for so long.”
He then said that the original plan was to relocate the grave which they still may end up moving forward with. “In the very beginning, it was just too painful to deal with anything. As my Mom would say, it’s always just something that’s in the works.” Barbara Orbison – Roy’s second wife – passed away and was buried next to her husband in a marked grave.
When it comes to Zappa, no one knows why his grave is unmarked with people speculating that being remembered was never in Zappa’s list of priorities, or that his family didn’t want the tombstone to be the victim of vandalism.
Fans leave cabbages at Serge Gainsbourg’s grave
It was the year 1991 when French singer and songwriter Serge Gainsbourg died. Then-president Francois Mitterrand said, “He was our Baudelaire, our Apollinaire … He elevated the song to the level of art.” Gainsbourg’s resting place is the Montparnasse Cemetery in Paris, the same as Baudelaire. Fans who regularly visited his grave would bring gifts as a token of appreciation, such as cigarettes, metro tickets – a tribute to his song Les Poinconneur des Lilas (The Ticket Puncher of Lilas) and strangely, cabbages. It is said that cabbages are frequently left at Gainsbourg’s grave to honour his 1976 album L’Homme a tete de chou (The Man with a Cabbage Head).
There are two heads in Joseph Haydn’s tomb
Finally, the strangest story of all is what happened to classical composer Joseph Haydn’s head after he passed away in 1809. Haydn’s head also has its own dedicated Wikipedia page. Haydn’s body was located in the Hundsturm cemetery in Vienna until his employer Nikolaus I, Prince Esterhazy asked for him to be moved to the city of Eisenstadt in 1820. When they opened Haydn’s grave, they discovered that someone had removed his head and stolen it. It wasn’t until 1954 when they finally found Haydn’s head, but while they added the skull to his grave, no one removed the substitute skull that was added in 1820, meaning Haydn is currently resting with two heads.