IT’S A POP STAR
CONSPIRACY

Here’s a rundown of what’s going on in the world of music—what the singers, rappers, bands, and their managers don’t want you to know! Okay, not really. These are just some silly, far-fetched conspiracy theories that recently floated around about some of the biggest names in rock and pop.

Justin Bieber is a shapeshifting monster. At a concert in 2017, hundreds of Australian fans claimed to have witnessed the teen idol transform into a lizard before their very eyes. Amazingly, in this age of camera-enabled smartphones, there’s no footage of this shocking moment, but there is video of Bieber in which some conspiracy buffs insist they can see his eyes turn a lizardlike black. (Other celebs who’ve been tagged by conspiracists as reptilian include Mark Zuckerberg, Bob Hope, and Queen Elizabeth.)

Kanye West promised to get young African Americans to vote Republican if President Donald Trump advanced the political agenda of West’s wife, TV personality Kim Kardashian. West upset a lot of his liberal-leaning fans by publicly supporting Republican president Donald Trump. By wearing a “Make America Great Again” hat, West was able to get his wife, Kim Kardashian, an audience with the president. As a result of that meeting, President Trump granted clemency to Alice Marie Johnson, a convicted drug trafficker who Kardashian (and others) felt had been unfairly sentenced to life imprisonment for a first-time offense. That’s all true. The conspiracy theory: Trump freed Johnson in return for West becoming a mouthpiece for the GOP. What was in it for West? He wanted people to take his wife seriously.

Kris Kristofferson is a secret, high-level government agent. Kristofferson has lived a varied and fascinating life. He’s a country music singer, a successful songwriter (he wrote “Help Me Make It Through the Night,” “Me and Bobby McGee,” and “Sunday Morning Coming Down”), and a movie star. He also attended Oxford University as a Rhodes Scholar, and served in the military in the 1960s as a fighter pilot and helicopter pilot. But according to some conspiracy theorists, the military experience was just a cover: He was actually working as a brainwasher for MK-ULTRA, the U.S. government’s secret mind-control experiment.

Child beauty queen and murder victim JonBenét Ramsey didn’t die in 1996…she grew up to be pop superstar Katy Perry. According to theorists, the proof is obvious: they look alike.

Courtney Love and a teen idol stole one of Kurt Cobain’s guitars from her own daughter. Cobain, the lead singer of Nirvana, committed suicide in 1994, and ever since then, there’s been wild speculation that he was actually murdered by his wife, Courtney Love. In 2018 a musician named Isaiah Silva claimed that Love had conspired to steal a guitar from him. Silva was previously married to Cobain and Love’s daughter, Frances Bean Cobain, and he claims that Love and actor Ross Butler (star of the hit teen shows Riverdale and 13 Reasons Why) got together to break into Silva’s house and swipe a guitar his ex-wife had left there, the one that Kurt Cobain had used on Nirvana’s famous 1993 appearance on MTV Unplugged. Silva says it was all orchestrated by talent manager Sam Lufti, whose clients include…Love and Butler.

Tupac Shakur faked his death. Shakur died in a Las Vegas drive-by shooting in 1996. Or did he? At the time of his death, the rapper was signed to Death Row Records, a label founded by Marion “Suge” Knight, who as of 2019 is serving a 28-year prison sentence for vehicular manslaughter. He has a long rap sheet of other violent crimes, and Shakur so feared being murdered by Knight that he faked his death and fled to Malaysia. (All of this is according to Suge Knight Jr.)

Taylor Swift died and was replaced with a body double. In 2017 Swift released the hit single “Look What You Made Me Do.” In the video for the song, there’s a part where the singer says, “Sorry, the old Taylor can’t come to the phone right now. Why? ’Cause she’s dead.” The song is supposed to be about personal rebirth and leaving the past behind, but some fans believe this line is a tacit admission that Swift is literally dead, and the woman walking around performing as Taylor Swift is an impostor, hired to keep raking in millions for Swift’s record company.

Britney Spears and Justin Timberlake are clones. The story goes that back when they first got famous in 1999, the teen sensations and boyfriend/girlfriend couple got into a serious car accident in which Spears was instantly decapitated. Not wanting to let go of its cash cow, Jive Records replaced her with a clone (and they trot out a new one every few years). As for Timberlake, the current incarnation is also a clone, while the real one is still in a coma after that fateful car accident.

The Beatles aren’t real. They weren’t four guys from Liverpool named John, Paul, George, and Ringo who got together to form a band, write songs, and rock the world. It would be physically impossible, say proponents of this conspiracy theory, for four individuals to have produced so many hit albums in such a short period of time, while maintaining a vigorous touring schedule. So how was the deception pulled off? By the use of “multiples”—a revolving door of lookalike actors who played the roles of the “Fab Four,” singing and performing songs written by teams of record label employees. (So they were like the Monkees?)

Lactobacillus delbrueckii bulgaricus, used to make yogurt, is the national microbe of India.

At least 4 people have been killed by thrown or swung golf clubs that broke and bounced back.