The Bobby Bones Show - BOBBYCAST EP #666 - Devil in the Music: Rock’s Darkest Myths, Wildest Conspiracies & the 27 Club

Episode Date: August 29, 2026

For episode 666, Bobby dives into some of the darkest myths and wildest conspiracy theories in music history. He breaks down the legend of Robert Johnson supposedly selling his soul to the devil at the crossroads, why virtuoso musicians were once accused of being possessed, and how Jimmy Page and Led Zeppelin became tied to satanic rumors. Bobby also gets into the strange theories surrounding “Hotel California,” the infamous “Paul is dead” Beatles conspiracy, backward masking hysteria, and whether there’s really anything sinister behind the 27 Club. Along the way, he separates the stories from what actually happened and looks at why people have always been so quick to connect great music with something darker. Follow on Instagram: @TheBobbyCast Follow on TikTok: @TheBobbyCastSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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Get Bell Pure Fiber Internet with Craved Netflix and Disney Plus from $94 a month. Price guaranteed for two years on Internet with a two-year term and auto pay credit. Visit bell.za for details and to check availability. Bell, connection is everything. I survived nine months in captivity, and I've spent my life exploring how other people survive what should have destroyed them. I'm Elizabeth Smart, and these are the survivor files. Every week, I'm with survivors who live through the unthinkable, abducted, stalked, controlled, and nearly silenced. These are stories about what it takes to make it out alive. Listen to The Survivor Files with Elizabeth Smart on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Our hometown is not a test tube. 90 miles northeast of Nashville, a battle for the future of America, plays out in one small town. Developers with right-wing ties have purchased hundreds of acres of land. We need cities on a shining hill. This is our town, a podcast about what happens when a small town becomes the site of a social experiment. and fights back. Guess you didn't move in on a bunch of dumb hillbillies now, did you? Listen to Our Town on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

I'm Munga Chitigula and I'm back with a new season of my podcast, Skyline Drive. This time I talked to scientists, biopunks, kermudgens, blues owners, super seniors, and Goa's top cryotherapy lab to try to understand this obsession with living forever and what it means for all of us. And I get into a bit of trouble along the way. I'd say probably start bone smashing. That doesn't work. To make it look more defined.

They say it works. I don't know. Listen to Skyline Drive, How to Live Forever on the IHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. Hey, everybody. Welcome to episode 666 of the Bobbycast. And we really didn't have a guest in mind. And we also felt like it would be disingenuous for us to do an interview and then post the 666 up in the corner like we do every episode.

So we are not having a guest on this. this. Instead, we are doing something a bit special and you're going to hear me talk about it. It's basically the history of the devil and the devil in music, where we talk about everything from backward masking to people claiming they met the devil, et cetera. You're going to hear me explain all of that, but we didn't want to put anyone on this. So, here you go, episode 666. Enjoy. Welcome to this episode, The Devil and the Music, stories, rumors, and falsehoods. why does the devil keep showing up in music? So the file number for this, if you're listening to the audio version, is 666. So instead of avoiding it, we're going to go right to it. And obviously,

no artist would have wanted to be episode 666. So I thought we'd take this time to talk about the devil in music. For hundreds of years, there's been this weird connection between great musicians, and the devil. That's what I'm supposed to be. If you guys are listening and you're not watching, I'm rocking a devil outfit right now. I got on a little red bow tie.

I got on a cape. I got on that thing that goes over your head that pulls your hair back except with devil ears. I kind of look like problem child from back in the late 80s, early 90s, but it's supposed to be the devil.

So let's talk about it in music. And I'm not saying that the people we're going to talk about were Satanists in any way. A lot of times it was just Mark. heck most if not all weren't and some of these stories were completely invented not even by the artist that I'm going to talk about but by either their record company or just rumors that started to spread about them that's what's crazy we have these connections to some of these artists

and the devil and they had nothing to do with it actually some of them couldn't shake it and also they wanted to, but then just realized, I guess we'll just go with this as we're making money anyway. Some of these were rumors that got repeated so many times that people started treating them as real-life history. But occasionally, there was an artist that became fascinated with the occult, which made the rumors explode. So what I find interesting mostly is this is way before even rock and roll, before Ozzie, before Led Zeppelin, before the Beatles, before Robert Johnson, before any of the music that we know as having a relationship with the devil, classical musicians were rumored to be getting abilities from the devil.

And so when I dove in, I was surprised at what I learned about this. There was almost a formula. Someone becomes unbelievably talented. People pretty much can't explain how they're doing it. The artist is mysterious or behaves differently, which a lot of times they only do. that because they're an artist. And you know what? Artists are just weird. And then something tragic happens. And eventually somebody says, they must have made a deal with the devil. So these are the

stories behind those stories. And for me, when I thought about who I would start with, it was easy. It was Robert Johnson and the Crossroads legend. Now, this is probably the most famous of the sold his soul to the devil stories, at least in American music. Robert Johnson, to give you a little background, was a Mississippi Delta Blues musician born in 1911. The legend basically goes. He wanted to be a great blues guitarist. But early on, supposedly, he wasn't very good. And supposedly, and I'm not going to say that over and over again, but just remember, there's pretty much a supposedly in most of this. But other musicians remembered this young guy trying to sit in, with him and he was not impressive. Actually, he was quite annoying. Then Robert Johnson disappeared for a

period of time. There was no record of where he went, just that he was gone. And eventually, he comes back. And suddenly, man, can he play? And not just slightly better. According to the legend, he transformed into an incredible guitarist. And people couldn't understand how someone could improved so dramatically. So the story developed that Robert Johnson went to a crossroads in Mississippi at midnight. And while he was there, he was supposedly met there by a mysterious man, eventually identified in the folklore as the devil. And according to people that heard the story, Robert Johnson handed him his guitar. And the devil tuned it. Sounds like a guitar tech to me. but the devil tuned his guitar at the crossroads and then gives it back.

And in exchange for Robert Johnson's soul, he was given supernatural ability to play the blues. And people believe that. You can look at the song titles of Robert Johnson records like Crossroad Blues, Me and the Devil Blues, Hellhound on My Tale. and if you're already looking for a Satan story, there's one right there. In Crossroad Blues, Robert Johnson sings about being at a crossroads and fall into his knees. And me and the devil blues, he's literally singing about the devil walking beside him. So after he dies, people start taking the songs as confessions more than just a guy that was making art or analogies. Where the devil could have been, well, really anyone or anything that was.

treating them poorly. So here's what was actually true about this. I feel so stupid saying this. There was no reliable, credible evidence that Robert Johnson hung out with the devil on the railroad track. That's a stupid thing to have to say. People claimed he went to the crossroads. They don't even know if he was at a crossroads. They claimed he met Satan. There were no footprints from Satan. They claimed he sold a soul. Nope. The Smithsonian has specific describe the devil bargain as myth. I got seven clicks deep on this and this is what I think happened. I think that Robert Johnson just got really good. That time away, he just got really good. He worked really hard to become a great musician. And because he was so good, people started to go,

there's no way that blues player without much of an education could be that good. And so that's what I think happened. People who weren't as good as him needed an excuse because he was now better than them. And they were freaking losers. And they created this story because they were losers and now Robert Johnson was better than they were. Now during the period where Robert Johnson supposedly disappeared, he spent time around a guitarist named Isaiah Zimmerman. Zimmerman was a very accomplished player.

and Robert Johnson's style started to be a little derivative of him. Now, I'm not saying it was only Zimmerman that he knew how to play, but there were definitely some techniques that the two shared. And so another part of it was that they would practice at night, and they would practice in a field that was near a cemetery at times because that was the land where they were able to practice. And there were no satanic rituals. They just wanted to be out there so they didn't buy.

bother anybody. But imagine if you're just a loser and this guy shows up and is not better than you and you're not the best player in town anymore and you have to have an excuse. You go, I think he's sold a soul to the devil. But imagine hearing that story. A guy disappears. Practices, guitar, and graveyards is unbelievably good. Sings about the devil, dies young. Of course, someone would create a supernatural explanation. So Robert Johnson, the guy that people associate with, the devil actually, and I'll say this, never met the devil. He died in 1938. He was only 27 years old. So even his death isn't completely settled historically. The most famous account there was he was involved with a married woman and was poisoned by a jealous husband, possibly through poisoned

whiskey. And even that story gets debated. But now you got mysterious man, devil songs, crossroads, sudden talent, mysterious death, all gone at age 27. And he later becomes a member of the 27 club, which I'll bring up later. The craziest part, Robert Johnson may have gotten somebody else's devil's story attached to him because there's another blues musician. Let's go back. Tommy Johnson. I think this is the original crossroads story that they just penned on Robert Johnson.

Tommy Johnson, too. No relation, by the way. Tommy Johnson was older. He was born in the 1890s. He was already an established musician before Robert Johnson became famous. to Tommy Johnson's brother, Tommy told people the exact story that became attached to Robert. And so Tommy's version was this. If you want to learn to play guitar, take a guitar, go to the crossroads, go there around

midnight, sit there and learn to play. Eventually, a mysterious man comes up and takes your guitar, tunes it, play something, hands it back, and then after that, you can play anything you want. That's what he would say. In the implication there is by giving your guitar over, you gave your soul to the devil. Now, this story does have a more direct connection to the Crossroads bargain because in his story, he was like, just literally go to the Crossroads. So Tommy Johnson has this story.

Robert Johnson becomes more famous than Tommy Johnson. Robert also records a song called Crossroads Blues. So then it's Robert Johnson's story. So even the movie, Oh Brother, We're out there, uses this mythology. So there's a character in that who said he sold a soul to the devil in exchange. and that was based on Tommy Johnson's story. But that's not even the first story. And as I kept digging, there was a guy,

Niccolo Paginini, a hundred years earlier. He was born in Italy in 1782. Think of him as the Eddie Van Halen, Jimmy Hendrix, but of the violin. He was doing things with the violin that people really weren't doing then, that people didn't think were possible. His technique was so far beyond,

He had a style, you could hear him. People could not replicate what he was doing. Audiences were even, I don't want to say scared, but it was so new to them what he was doing that they thought there was something possessing him because there was no explanation for it. So, as I mentioned earlier, the explanation was there's got to be something supernatural going on. Also, he looked apart. He wasn't dressed like me exactly. But he was extremely thin and pale. He had like sunken cheeks, long dark hair. He had really long fingers, and they would often talk about his fingers and how they were long, and they resembled the devil.

But he also was able to use them to play violin really well. Like, he had perfect violin fingers. The Library of Congress has historical characters of this Paginini guy surrounded by demons and witches, because so many people thought of him as a demon, as a sorcerer, as a wizard. He was described by all this and these ancient, I guess not ancient, but these late 1800, like journals that people would keep. eventually the rumor was because he looked like that and he was that good he couldn't be that good except for the devil giving him the abilities which is crazy he also learned of this and was really

one of the first people to i don't want to say embrace it because he didn't create it but he realized that people were showing up to see the guy that was possessed so he understood not only playing violin but he understood theater. At performances in Paris, he would darken the stage, and then he would come out to just a single light. And back then, the light wasn't a big, you know, light coming, like a strobe light or it was basically candles. And he would come out in 1831, no electricity,

no giant LED wall, no pyro, no streaming services, just him talking creepily like a vampire. and then just play the crap out of the violin. So people thought something was wrong with him, and he played into it. He was not satanically gifted. He was just an extraordinary musician. He developed and taught a technique

that changed violin performances, even for people today. He has something called 24 caprices, and I think that's how you say it, but it is still a very demanding and extraordinary piece. But when music ability becomes difficult, to comprehend, people go, there must be something extra there. Not hard work, not the foresight to see a new path to make it really cool, the devil. And so that's really, I think, where the Robert Johnson story goes back to. Robert Johnson gets all the credit because he was kind of the most famous.

Tommy Johnson is the original with the story. And you got the guy here who plays the crap out of the fiddle, Niccolo Pagini, who was kind of that guy. Now, I'm going to give you one more old school one. This is just the knowledge part of the show. So there's a guy named Guseppe Tartini. And this one's even better because this guy really created the whole story where the other ones didn't. So he was another Italian violinist, but he was born in 1692. So we're going back 300 years here.

Now this is his story that he would tell people. He described having this incredible, vivid, at times dark, at times, he didn't use the word satanic. He would use words like scary and demonic, but it would be a dream. And in the dream, he made a pack with the devil. And the devil then becomes his servant. And eventually he hands the devil as violin.

The devil starts playing. Now, this is all in his dream. The music he hears the devil play is astonishing. It was technically more beautiful than anything he's heard before. And so he wakes up, boom, from the dream. He's like, who grabs his violin, and he tries to recreate what the devil played for him in his dream.

And what he had recreated, it was called the devil's trill sonata. He supposedly felt what he actually wrote, wasn't even close to what he'd heard in the dream. But imagine that, that the most famous piece that you write, that people still know about 300 years later, 400 years later,

is something that you dreamed about with the devil. Now, did he really dream about the devil? I don't know. The guy just could have been playing it up. But he would always say, yeah, if you think that was good, you should have heard the devil play it. So Robert Johnson folklore. Paginini, he built off the rumors around him.

And then Tartini was a dream that he would tell himself. And so there you have it. It also sounds like the devil went down to Georgia in that guy's dream. Because the devil challenges Johnny to a fiddle competition. I mean, even that song is kind of this. But in that one, Johnny wins. All right, so there we have it. That's about 14 minutes of the early history of the devil in music.

Now I'm going to get to some more contemporary stuff, but I feel like without knowing about the early stuff, this stuff doesn't make as much sense. And also when someone says, Robert Johnson, sold a soul to the devil at the crossroads, be like, actually, that was Tommy Johnson. Actually, it was an Italian violinist because it all roots back.

Also, to people not understanding that some people just work hard or have a really great gift. Hang tight. The Bobbycast will be right back. Behind every night spent making the kids' lunches, there's a lot of suspense. Will they finally eat the veggies? Will the pesto survive the first bite? Will the lunchbox come home empty, half full, or come home at all? And will you finish episode 8 before you're done slicing the cucumbers? Get Bell Pure Fiber Internet with Crave, Netflix, and Disney Plus from $94 a month.

Price guaranteed for two years on internet with a two-year term and auto pay credit. Visit bell.ca for details and to check availability. Bell, connection is everything. When I was 14 years old, I was kidnapped and held captive for nine months. I survived, and I've spent my life exploring how other people survive what should have destroyed them. I'm Elizabeth Smart, and these are the survivor files. I just remember this low, taunting voice next to my ears. saying shut up, don't say anything. Every week, I'm with survivors who live through the unthinkable.

I knew if he woke up. Without a doubt, he was going to hurt me. I started feeling that there was someone at the end of my bed, and I just started screaming. They are abducted, stalked, controlled, and nearly silenced. But these aren't stories about what's taken from them. There's stories about what it takes to make it out a lot. Listen to The Survivor Files with Elizabeth Smart on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. If your bookshelf and your For You page are equally important to your personality, welcome home.

This is Prose Society, the weekly podcast that's part book club, part group chat for thought daughters, pop culture obsesives, and anyone who thinks Pride and Prejudice and Love Island deserve the same level of discourse. I'm Eli Rallo, and every week we're connecting the digital. dots between books, the internet, and the conversations everyone can't stop having. I'm going to have to look up this story. I'm obsessed. I'm obsessed. From bestselling authors and your favorite book talk creators to the latest pop culture moments, nothing is off the table.

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Hey, this is Hayes Davenport. And Sean Clements. We host the podcast Hollywood Handbook on the Big Money Players Network. Our show is extremely accessible to first-time listeners. Each week, we talk to someone in show business, aka the biz, and try to help them with their careers and see what they have to offer us. Everyone has a good time, and no one gets mad at their publicists for letting them do our show. We've had a lot of great guests like Sarah Sherman, not that great.

Actually, can you help me shape this? How about we flip it on his head, right? How about we flip the script? What if the surprise woman, who actually you think is the straight man is actually the one who's acting weird? Adam Scott. This entire time, you've been expecting Adam Sandler to come to visit the show. I would never expect. I have. I would never set expectations for something like that to happen.

If the universe allows for something like that to happen, I'm open to it. I'm always going to accept. You know, Danny McBride, fine. Yeah, it's all this fragile masculinity exuding. I could smell it walking down the hallway, to be honest with you. I was like, is that weed? Nope, it's fragile masculinity. Man Stiller, no. Because a lot of times out of context, people don't get it or even know what to circle it. is. You know what I mean? They're like, oh, it's so stupid. Everyone's so dumb except for you.

And fake. Right. Fake and also not interested or just like, oh, I've got my life. I don't care about your life. And a lot of other big shots that wouldn't be where they are without us. Oh, and by the way, Will Ferrell told us personally he loves the show and he wants to be a guest on every episode, but he's just so busy. Listen to Hollywood Handbook on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

And we're back on the Bobby Cat. Let's go to Led Zeppelin. And let's go to Jimmy Page. This is kind of where fact and rumor collide. So there is a bit of a documented occult connection here. Now, that does not mean that Jimmy Page worship Satan. It does mean that Jimmy Page had a serious fascination with the occult. So Jimmy Page became fascinated with Alistra Crowley.

Crowley was an English occultist born in the late 1800s. deliberately provocative. He wrote about magic and mysticism. And yeah, of the figures in the 20th centuries of the 1900s, and they were famous by the 1900s. Like he was probably the LeBron of it. And so the British newspapers would talk about him back in the day, say it was wicked. It was very much part of counterculture. And I'm still talking about Alistair Crowley at this point. Jimmy Page of Led Zeppelin was super interested. He collected books and artifacts. He studied his writings, he eventually bought this place called Bola Schinehouse in Scotland. So Alistaira Crowley had owned this Bola Schine House. And Crowley had used the property while

attempting to do things like channel the devil. So imagine you're a rock fan in the 70s. And Led Zeppelin is enormous, mysterious. I mean, very sexual. And they were making really heavy music. And then you find out their guitarist bought Alistair L'Olley's old house. That all kind of plays into it, right? You would think these guys play this crazy hard music. The lead singer kind of sounds like the devil with this, what I mean, the rumors practically write themselves, and the rumor was a packed rumor. One of the legends that developed was the members of Led Zeppelin had entered some sort of package with the occult in exchange for success. Very familiar. familiar if you listened to the Robert Johnson story earlier. There is no solid evidence that happened.

I'd always grown up hearing that Led Zeppelin had sold their soul to the devil for their fame, and that's where this comes from. And with that, when you sell your soul to the devil, there's always bad things that happen afterward. It's not just the devil get your soul, but things around you, tragic, must happen, just to remind you that you sold your soul to the devil. So, 1975, Robert Plant suffers a devastating car crash. Robert Plant's five-year-old son, died in 1977. John Bonn on the drummer died in 1980. Now to somebody that was already convinced that Led Zeppelin had made a bargain, a deal with the devil, these tragedies became, ah, looks like prices come and do. But there's no evidence. It's mythology. And that's how these stories start to

grow. Now, Jimmy Page is different than Robert Johnson. The difference is Robert Johnson really never claimed of the devil bargain. Jimmy Page was interested in learning about the occult, not even being an occultist himself. With that, there was a little factual seed. And around that, the story of Led Zeppelin selling their soul to the devil. Also, stairway to heaven, one of the greatest songs ever. One of the largest examples of backward masking hysteria. Now, back masking is you could just play a song backward and it would say something if you played it backward. So the thought was, was artists could record a song, but strategically make whatever you're saying forward,

say really bad things if you played it backward. If you listen to it normally and you were just listening consciously, you wouldn't hear it. But your subconscious supposedly would receive the message of the devil. And in the 70s and the 80s, people were convinced rock bands were doing this, that they were putting in sexual messages, satanic messages, drug messages, all into the records backwards. So you put on a record player and you just pull it backward. And it would say something. if you've ever heard any of this?

And this is not a real example. But let's say, you thought it said, the dog won't stop barking. And you played it backward and it went, no, it's not going to mind. You would hear it like that and go, yep, it said it, the dog won't stop barking.

It was never super clear. But stairway to heaven became one of the biggest targets. Now, people started playing it backward because they knew of the relationship they had with supposedly the devil. And they were now claiming that this record had first, praises praising Satan if you played it backward. Religious groups played these. Churches played these.

Radio shows talked about these. It becomes part of a larger satanic panic in the mid to late 70s. The problem is humans are really good at finding patterns. So once somebody tells us what we're supposed to hear, we go and find it, even if it's not really there. If I play a garbled sound for you, you'll probably hear nothing. but if I put a sentence on a screen, I say, listen for this, suddenly you're going to be, oh, wait, I think I heard it. So our brains find meaningful patterns and ambiguous sound, and that's really what was happening here, at least until later, because some people did start to do it. I won't say it as a joke, but they realized that it would get them some attention and some press. But Led Zeppelin denied it.

They said we did not put any satanic messages backward in our stuff. songs. Robert Plant was irritated because Stairway meant something to him. That song was a message from him that meant something completely different as something that was satanic. So if I played it backward for you and you didn't know what you were supposed to hear, you wouldn't hear it. If I played it backward and then just gave you three or four things you were supposed to hear, I think you'd hear all of them. You ever hear a green needle? You ever hear that thing where some people hear green needle, porcupine or whatever. That's basically what was happening. That's basically what was here. So if you're asking me, Led Zeppelin, just a band who like to rock real hard,

and Jimmy Page was just really interested in another artist's work. It just happened to be a little weird. Let's go to the Eagles, Hotel California. Here's another song, because it was so ambiguous. It created an enormous conspiracy theory about the devil. Hotel California, amazing song. comes out in 1976. The song is kind of creepy if you're just listening and inserting what you think it means because there is a mysterious hotel.

There are voices in the night. There are people who can't escape the hotel because you can never leave. There is strange imagery. There's the beast. And again, that idea where you can check out, but you can never leave. I mean, that right there is perfect conspiracy theory material.

So let's go to the satanic theory. A rumor developed. that the Hotel California actually was connected to Anton LeVay and the Church of Satan. So LeVay founded this church in San Francisco in 1966. So this is what the people were claiming back then. Hotel California, that specific hotel, was a satanic church. The lyrics, according to them, described satanic rituals. The beast obviously was, you say it, Satan.

And even Anton LeVay appeared in the album artwork. none of that is actually true. There is no evidence behind that. And so the Eagles have talked about it individually. Don Henley has repeatedly described the song in different ways. His version, which I watched three interviews, it's about the dark side of the American dream, excess basically, decadence, and how they were going through this.

Like all of a sudden here they are now with money and women and drugs and you think this is what you want, then you get it. And it turns out it's also kind of tragic what you were wanting and how the people are on the good side. And it's not even the good side. It's the bad side. It's a scary side. How the music business is awful. The transition from innocence where you know nothing and you're moving out to L.A. to make music to experience. But that experience was sad or scary or tragic. And so California becomes the symbol. Like you arrive as they did, chasing fame and money and beauty, success and pleasure and those things maybe aren't as good as you thought they were

once you get them. Or you get them once and you want to chase that high again and they never actually make you feel as good as they did the first time. So the line you can check out anytime you like, but you can never leave. Man, it's way more interesting if it's Satan's Hotel, isn't it? I just makes you a day. The actual meaning of the song is dark though. That's the irony of Hotel California. Like it didn't need to be about Satan for it to be dark. It is dark.

You don't need Satan. The song is that you finally got everything you thought you wanted. It's not near as good as you thought it was. And now you're trapped by it. You can add addiction to a part of that. So Hotel California is not about Satan. It is not a satanic hotel. and the guy that started the church of the devil is not in the album or work.

Let's go to the Beatles. Paul is dead. And then imagery from the occult. Now this isn't exactly a Satan story, but it may be the greatest example of people turning music into a giant conspiracy theory. Now, the theory is, and we can start with 1969, because the rumor explodes in 69, that Paul McCartney is dead. And there are such good YouTube videos on this.

I fully believe the earth is round. But if you watch enough flat earth videos, you'll go, huh, these guys might be on to something. They're not. The same thing with these Paul as Dead videos. If you watch enough of them, because they're only giving you parts of the story, you'll start to go,

huh, maybe Paul is dead. So according to the theory, Paul died in a car crash in 1966. Yes, Paul McCartney. The Beatles, because they were so famous, secretly replaced him with a look like. Then because they felt guilty, or because they wanted fans to know their diehard fans,

they hid clues that Paul was still alive because that's what you would do. You know as well as I do. If you were trying to hide that somebody was dead so you could keep making millions of dollars, there would be no clues or no hints in anything. But they had clues supposedly in songs, in album covers, in lyrics, in backward recordings.

And there were so many clues. The fans began studying everything. Abby Road becomes a supposed funeral possession. And if you've seen the picture of them walking, John's in white, which would mean he would be the preacher. Ringo's in black, and so he's mourning.

George's in denim. You really got a stretch for this one. But he was a grave digger. And Paul's barefoot. He's not wearing shoes. And so since he's barefoot in the picture, he is obviously dead. He's a corpse.

Paul is also out of step with the others. He's holding a cigarette in his right hand even though he's left-handed. I'm just walking you through some of these crazy things. There's a Volkswagen Beetle in the background with a license plate that appears to say 28-I-F. Now, if you were thinking to yourself, 28-I-F, and I'm going to stall this out for a second, what would you think 28-I-F meant? You see a license plate and you had to actually actually.

create some sort of conspiracy theory. 28 if he lived. The math itself also has problems. Paul wasn't actually 28 when Abbey Road came out, but that's not how conspiracy theories work. They just weren't because you can say anything and some people will believe them and then they'll spread it and the next thing you know, a lot more people believe them.

Every coincidence then becomes evidence. And there was a lot of playing records backward as well. and Paul is dead. You would hear that, but I, and again, I've heard it, and it sounds very similar to the words Paul is dead. I just believe if you dug through enough albums, you would probably find something that sounded like, Paul is dead with the Beatles.

They put out so much music. Averillivine supposedly is dead too. I don't know if you guys have heard that story. But Ava Levine supposedly died, and her record label replaced her with this new girl that's been Avril Levine for the past, I guess it'd be 20 years or so now. And so I'd heard this.

And Avril Levine was at Dancing with the Stars for one of the shows that I was doing. She was performing that night. And I had known that Avril Levine was supposedly dead and replaced with someone else, just like Paul McCartney. And I yelled out Averill's fake name, and she didn't turn.

And that's how I knew it was the real Avril Avril Avivine. So there you go. Look, in the end of the first of, all the research that I've done. And trust me, I spent a lot of time doing this so much that I started to believe, hey, maybe there is some devil there. There is no devil. Now, at least not giving anybody any sort of skill. You did have weirdos like Judas Priest, which there was, Judas Priest was weird. And some of the time people were just weird

and the weirdness that they were in their real life also translated through their music and people would connect with that. But Judas Priest was sued after two young men shot themselves with allegations that the band's music contained subliminal or backward messages. This case became a massive story into what could program people. Now, I do think, and I'm not saying this about Judas Priest,

I do think once these stories started to hit, as I mentioned earlier, people started doing it on purpose. They would find weird ways to say words that you could play it backward because they wanted the attention of, oh, they're also backward masking, even though all they were doing was putting it on a record so people would find it and then talk about them. So in the end, that's all I think it is. Random occurrences, trying to understand how somebody was so good at something. So you said the devil must have given them abilities. And then later on, I do believe that people started just to use it to market themselves.

I did mention earlier Robert Johnson and the 27 Club. Robert Johnson, Jimmy Hendricks, Janice Joplin, Jim Morrison, Kurt Cobain, Amy Winehouse. It's 27 somehow cursed. It's 27 the price to pay for extraordinary talent. Statistically, there is no supernatural demonstrated 27 phenomenon, but people know of the 27 club. So, did these people actually sell their souls? No. I don't think so.

You can kind of trace a very similar story through all of them. Paginini, Tartini, Tommy Johnson, Robert Johnson, the Beatles, Led Zeppelin, even Black Sabbath and Judas Priest and Averillivine, even Averill Levine. So the devil is not in music, but the devil is going to get you. if you're not good. So eat your vitamins, say your prayers, and be thankful I didn't put an artist on episode 666 of the Bobbycast.

Because if so, probably would have ended tragic. That's it. Thank you all. Don't believe everything you see or hear or read on the internet. Goodbye, everybody. Hang tight. The Bobbycast will be right back. Behind every night spent making the kids lunches,

there's a lot of suspense. Will they finally eat the veggies? Will the pesto survive the first bite? Will the lunchbox come home empty, half full, or come home at all? And will you finish episode 8 before you're done slicing the cucumbers? Get Bell Pure Fiber Internet with craved Netflix and Disney Plus from $94 a month. Price guaranteed for two years on internet with a two-year term and auto pay credit. Visit bell.ca for details and to check availability.

Bell, connection is everything. When I was 14 years old, I was kidnapped and held captive for nine months. I survived and I've spent my life exploring how other people survive what should have destroyed them. I'm Elizabeth Smart and these are the Survivor Files. I just remember this low, taunting voice next to my ear saying, shut up, don't say anything. Every week, I'm with survivors who live through the unthinkable. I knew if he woke up, without a doubt, he was going to hurt me. I started feeling that there.

someone at the end of my bed and I just started screaming. They are abducted, stalked, controlled, and nearly silenced. But these aren't stories about what's taken from them. They're stories about what it takes to make it out alive. Listen to the Survivor Files with Elizabeth Smart on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. On the new podcast Solita, we share the messy reality of traveling alone as a woman. I can wait four hours for the next bus or this random dude is offering me a ride on his

motorcycle. I chose option B. I'm Julie Pinero and I travel by myself because it's a rare space where I can say yes without asking anyone else first. I'm on a mission to reclaim the word solita, trading the pity for possibility. Every time I tried to be alone, I kept meeting people and they were like, you smiled at us. Not a lot of people smile around here. It's when you're alone that you're most receptive to the world as it is and not the lies you're sold about it. It can be a time where you push your limits, change your mind, or wake up to a new version of yourself. So whether you're a solo travel veteran or you're too nervous to book your first trip, I hope you listen to Solita on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. If your bookshelf and your for-you page are equally important to your personality, welcome home.

This is Prose Society, the weekly podcast that's part book club, part group chat for thought daughters, pop culture obsesives, and anyone who thinks pride and prejudice and love island deserve the same level of discourse. I'm Eli Rallo, and every week we're connecting the dots between books, the internet, and the conversations everyone can't stop having. I'm going to have to look up this story. I'm obsessed. I'm obsessed. From bestselling authors and your favorite book talk creators to the latest pop culture moments,

nothing is off the table. It's like if you can hide some real messages inside compelling characters, then that is a Trojan horse. Whether you're looking for literary deep dives, smart pop culture conversations, or a community of readers who love to think a little too much,

you're in the right place. Listen to pro society on the Iheart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your book. podcasts. See you between the pages. And we're back on the Bobbycast. Okay, thanks for listening to that. I do want to share a clip from Get Real with Caroline Hobby with Jesse James Decker and Eric Decker. So Caroline Hobby has a really great podcast and I hope you hear this and you go over and subscribe. And so Jesse and Eric talk about their family life, their shared core values and why work life balance always comes first.

So here you go from Get Real with Caroline Hobby. I have encountered now several women like you who just have this enormous bandwidth. You have such a huge bandwidth, like let alone four kids. That's enough in itself. One kid. I have one kid. And I'm like, my bandwidth is stretched. You've got four.

Then you have a huge career. I mean, you started off in singing. and then that led to reality TV. And then it led to cookbooks, which by the way, I have to show you this because this is not planned at all. But we use this cookbook all the time.

You do? Because first time we do bananas foster nonstop and Puppy Chow. Sunny and I make it all the time. It is literally... It's the best. I crave it mostly during like the holidays. It's, oh my God, I just love it.

I'm so glad you like it too. it's it's addicting we make it once a week sunny's like can we make cubby child and we use your cookbook and then we make that makes me so happy that's why i made those books though like it's you know it's not i'm not a chef i'm a i'm a home cook i'm a i just want recipes and food that people can like make as a family and together and like have their own traditions and stuff and hearing those stories like make me so happy because that's honestly like the whole that's what makes me feel happy you know hearing the most of and also and also Also, like, who is a chef? You know, like most people, most moms are not chefs. I'm not a chef. I can't cook at all. I have to follow a cookbook. And I don't want 27 steps in like four hours of baking something. I want it to be good. I want it to be a crowd pleaser. I want to be able to cook with Sunny, you know? I don't want to be so complicated. But it still tastes so good.

And yeah, I didn't want my books to feel intimidating. I didn't want them to feel like this is chefy fancy food because it's just not me. I just. I don't know. I wanted it to be as simple as possible. And if you notice, every single recipe is a picture because I want you to know what it looks like. Like, you know those books where you get it and it's like, hate it. It's da confit and it's all this stuff and there's no picture. And I'm just like, I don't know what it's going to look like, you know. I have another cookbook that I use all the time in about half of the recipes don't have pictures. And I have never even attempted to make those recipes because I don't, I don't want you. I know. I know. You don't know what it looks like. I don't know. That's a big thing for me. So. Well, you're very practical. You know, as hot as you are and as talented as you are, you're very practical, which I appreciate it. Well, thank you for that. Hey. Come say hello. No, I got an Eric.

Oh, what's up, Eric? I'm talking to Caroline. We're doing a podcast right now. We can say, hot. Yes, we're reporting. You can come say hello. Well, hi, Eric. What's you doing?

How are you doing? Are you guys live right now? Yes, we're like. Come join. No, Jesse and I just Zoom call sometimes to catch up for, fun. Yeah. Honestly, that's about an easier way to do it these days.

Do you ever get time to hang out with friends, like, unless you're doing something with them? You're pretty good about that. Y'all are good about hanging out with people. You know what it is, though? We always tell everyone to come to the house. I think that makes it easiest. If you try to invite us out to do things, more than likely, we're not really going to do

them. But my response, when people are like, do you want to come do this or should we go do this? I'm always like, no, but you can come to the house. I'll make something. Just come over. And it always works out that way. More fun anyway. Kids can run wild.

And you all have like a pool and all the things. That's why you got to build your backyard. Like I feel like y'all have done a great job building a great backyard. That was important to him. He wants to have a situation where no one ever leaves and no one wants to go anywhere. And that when the kids continue to get older, where the house that they want to come to. Because, you know, you want to have eyes on all your chickens at all time.

So for us, it's like, you know, as long as they're out here, they're running wild and I'm bringing out snacks. He's, he's made it amazing. Got the pickleball cord and we've got all the giddets and the gadgets and the gadgets and the, you know, all the things. It just,

it's great. You guys are really, now this is to have both of you here. We'll just dive into y'all as a couple. You guys are such a great couple. Y'all really are. Like, I feel like,

and I told Jesse to be as hot as she is and to be as hot as you guys are as a power couple. Y'all are also just like so real and y'all do so. many things. I was like, Jesse, how do you have this bandwidth? I do not have a bandwidth like you guys. But like, y'all just literally do it all as a family too, which I love because I feel like, and Jesse, I feel like you probably have had to fight for this in you too, Eric, the industry and entertainment can, it can really try to tear you apart from your family. And I feel like you have put a strong no to that. And you're like, everything we do is going to be a family. Yeah, I think for us, it's not even

to try. I think luckily it's come so natural to us just to like we just, it feels, it just feels good to be a family and, and, and continue to stay grounded in that because I think we just both grew up like that. So it would feel really strange to not continue on that. I think we have blessings and we're grateful for all the things that we've worked for in our life and that we have. But I think that when it comes down to it, the foundation has stayed the same since we've met each other. And I think that's why we were a great match because I think we just, we view the world the same way. Our values are the same. And what always comes first is our family and our relationship. And I just think when you put those things first, everything else falls into place the way it should. Because it's,

it's putting what's most important into focus. When you, when you put things that are superficial, first or money or fame or whatever it may be like look at how those things turn out it doesn't turn out well or right because it's it's unnatural or take all this stuff away and look back hundreds and hundreds of years what is always and always will be most important as your family and your and your unit that you've created together you know i'll break on just for a moment because she has a great job i'm i mean she's the busy one she's she's doing millions things and it's fun watching her have success in all these different industries in a sense are just categories but you know she like obviously makes family first in a sense that we went on

a trip last week and she tried to fit in like four different shoots like the day that we got in so she could be done with work to spend time and also you know the work life balance is pretty amazing but when she goes on trips too she's last slide out first of flight in, you know, so there's no sacrifice when it comes to being there for her kiddos and for her family and, you know, really will say no to things to make sure that families first and that, you know, we are keen into what our kids are doing, their activities and schools to function. So it's, it's been amazing seeing her be able to do that and, you know, it comes with maturity and just experience. And so, yeah, I think.

It's really nice. Look at you guys. The success is just like you said about being grounded and what's truly important. I think we've, you know, as we've gotten older, you know what's more valuable. You know, time is more valuable than money. Thanks for listening to the Bobbycast. Share this episode with a friend because they don't pay to advertise us. I survived nine months in captivity and I've spent my life exploring how other people survive what should have destroyed them.

I'm Elizabeth Smart and these are the Survivor Files. Every week, I'm with survivors who live through the unthinkable, abducted, stalked, controlled, and nearly silenced. These are stories about what it takes to make it out alive. Listen to The Survivor Files with Elizabeth Smart on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Our hometown is not a test tube. 90 miles northeast of Nashville, a battle for the future of a future of a podcast. America plays out in one small town. Developers with right-wing ties have purchased hundreds of acres of land. We need cities on a shining hill. This is Our Town, a podcast about what happens when a small

town becomes the site of a social experiment and fights back. Guess you didn't move in on a bunch of dumb hillbillies now, did you? Listen to Our Town on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Mangishategular, and I'm back with a new season of my podcast, Skyline This time I talked to scientists, biopunks, curmudgins, blues owners, super seniors, and Goa's top cryotherapy lab to try to understand this obsession with living forever and what it means for all of us. And I get into a bit of trouble along the way. I'd say probably start bone smashing. That doesn't work. To make it look more defined.

They say it works. I don't know. Listen to Skyline Drive, How to Live Forever on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. If your bookshelf and your for you page are equally important to your personality, welcome home. Pro Society is a weekly podcast that's part book club, part group chat for anyone who thinks pride and prejudice and love island to serve the same level of discourse. Each week, we're connecting the dots between books, the internet, and pop culture with your favorite writers, book talk creators, and plenty of overthought opinions. Yeah, I'm obsessed. I'm obsessed.

Listen to Pro Society on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. This is an IHeart podcast. Guaranteed Human.