ODB Gets Four Years

Ol' Dirty Bastard (a.k.a. Russell Jones) was sentenced today to two to four years in prison buy a New York state Supreme Court Judge Joseph Grosso.

The troubled Wu-Tang Clan rapper pleaded guilty to criminal possession of a controlled substance on April 19th, stemming from 1999 arrest when police found cocaine and marijuana in his car after pulling him over for running a red light. Because ODB pleaded guilty, he received the shortest possible sentence for the crime, and, as part of the agreement, prosecutors agreed to dismiss charges filed after he fled a drug-treatment facility in Los Angeles last October.

ODB remained on the lam for a week, making a surprise appearance at a November Wu-Tang performance in New York City, before he was apprehended in Philadelphia. He was extradited to New York last December to face the drug possession charges.

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Song Stories

“Oh Sherrie”

Steve Perry | 1984

Steve Perry's girlfriend Sherrie Swafford was actually in the studio when Perry began writing this song--his lone Top Ten hit as a solo act--with two co-writers. The trio began at midnight one night with just "Oh, Sherrie!" and "hold on, hold on." Three hours later, they had a complete song. Swafford, however, had to wait until the next day to hear it. "Sherrie actually got tired and went to bed," Perry said. She also appeared in the video, but their relationship did not hold on for long.

More Song Stories entries »

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