SPRAY COUNTDOWN: Real Bad Boys Of Music

Forget Liam Gallagher or Pete Doherty, meet the real bad boys of music.

Murderers, rapists and gun-toting maniacs, they make a night throwing TVs out of hotel windows look like a party at the Women's Institute. These are the people you really would not want to meet down a dark alley, just in case you got a Stratocaster wrapped around your head.

6. Jim Gordon

The former drummer of Derek and the Dominoes co-wrote Layla with Eric Clapton. He also murdered his mother in 1983 believing she was Satan (the one with horns, not Clapton). Thankfully, he is still locked up.

5. Spade Cooley

The self-dubbed 'King of Western Swing' killed his wife in 1961 after kicking her to death in front of his teenage daughter. Her crime? She wanted a divorce. He died of a heart attack soon after.

4. Hugh Whitaker

It's always the quiet ones. Looking at him, the former drummer of the Housemartins looks like he wouldn't say boo to a goose. He even took being sacked from the Hull-based group in good spirits. But something snapped in 1993, when he firebombed the house of former business associate James Hewitt and hit him in the head with an axe. Whitaker has since been released from prison and now lives in Leeds, where he occasionally drums with a local band called Percy.

3. Varg Vikernes

Norwegian Vikernes is described as 'the most notorious metal musician of all time'. And with good reason, the man behind black metal band Burzum was caged in 1993 for murdering Mayhem's Oystein Aarseth – a former associate. The reason behind the murder is still not clear. Before his spell in jail, he regularly enjoyed church burning. He is due for parole in April.

2. Jah Cure

The baddest of all reggae stars, Cure was jailed in 1999 for 15 years after raping a woman at gunpoint. He has since been released but was refused entry into the UK last year due to his criminal conviction.

1. Leadbelly

The original bad boy, controversial Blues star Leadbelly spent most of life in and out of prison. He was first jailed as an unruly teenager in 1918 for assaulting 'a truculent Dallas prostitute'. It wasn't long before he was back in the clink, this time for gunning down one of his own relatives. He was given a 35 years, but was let out after just two – allegedly because the governor liked his music so much. But he was jailed again in 1930 – this time for assault with intent to murder – and then again in 1939 for assault.

Original here