Courtney Love Dodges Jail

Courtney Love's ongoing criminal troubles finally ended Thursday, when the singer reached plea agreements in two cases she was facing in Los Angeles.

Love faced jail time for a felony assault charge filed by the District Attorney for allegedly hitting local musician Kristin King with a bottle and large table candle at the home of Love's former producer and ex-boyfriend James Barber in April 2004. Thursday morning at the Clara Shortridge Foltz Criminal Justice Center downtown, that count was reduced to a misdemeanor, and Love was given summary probation under a plea agreement her lawyers reached with prosecutor Gina Satriano. The conditions of the deal require the singer to attend anger management, pay a $1000 fine and complete 100 hours of community service.

Speculating as to why the assault charge was reduced, Love's lawyer Michael Rosenstein told Rolling Stone, "Kristin King was not a credible witness." He added that he believes that King is preparing to file a civil suit. King declined to comment.

Hours later, at the Beverly Hills Courthouse, Love's legal team appeared before Judge Elden S. Fox, who approved a second deal which reduced the singer's two 2003 felony charges of illegally possessing painkillers to one misdemeanor health-and-safety violation. According to Rosenstein, the conditions of that plea require that Love attend a drug rehabilitation program and stay away from drugs and alcohol.

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Song Stories

“Helen Wheels”

Paul McCartney | 1973

A rollicking good-time hard rocker, "Helen Wheels" was not about a woman but about Paul McCartney's Land Rover, the anthemic chorus voicing the vehicle's reckless joy as "she" took to the road. The song was added to the U.S. version of Band on the Run but was issued only as a single in McCartney's native U.K. "I like that because it's a British road song and there's not many of those around," said McCartney. "It's always Route 66. But Carlisle? How many songs have got Carlisle in them?"

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