New Year’s Eve is supposed to be champagne, countdowns, and pretending your life is about to change. But in Jackalope Tales fashion, Charles and Lisa ring in the new year by dragging out the ghosts, glitches, and catastrophic vibes that show up when musicians tempt fate at midnight.

Charles revisits the tragic and eerie final moments of Ricky Nelson, whose New Year’s Eve plans ended not with confetti, but with a plane crash that froze time and sealed a legend in the worst way possible. It’s dark, it’s sobering, and it’s the ultimate reminder that not everyone makes it to “Auld Lang Syne.”

Meanwhile, Lisa takes us to a very different kind of disaster: Mariah Carey melting down live on Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve when technical difficulties turned pop perfection into televised chaos. Lip-syncs died, dignity followed, and America watched in stunned, sparkling horror.

From flaming wreckage to hot-mic humiliation, Balls-a-Droopin’ is our annual reminder that New Year’s Eve doesn’t care about your legacy, your vocal cords, or your survival instincts. So pour a drink, lower your expectations, and join us as we toast another year with stories that prove the ball isn’t the only thing that drops at midnight. [Ep 119]

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Produced by: Charles Mooney
Executive Producers: Charles Mooney and Lisa Umbarger

Original Music by: Charles Mooney and Lisa Umbarger

Kazoo Solo by: Courtney Mooney

Gather ’round the fire, spike your cocoa (or don’t—we won’t judge), and tuck in your little anarchists. This Christmas Eve, Charles and Lisa invite you into the warm, flickering glow of Jackalope Tales for a holiday tradition that definitely would’ve gotten you grounded as a kid.

In ‘Twas the Night Before Punkmas, we read a beloved Christmas story… then drag it behind the venue, give it a leather jacket, and let it smoke behind the dumpster. Expect punk spirit, twisted nostalgia, and enough festive chaos to make Santa rethink his life choices.

It’s cozy. It’s cruel. It’s Christmas—Jackalope Tales style. [Ep 118]

Become a J-Lope and follow us on social media. You can find us on Facebook, Instagram, X.com, TikTok, and check out our YouTube page for more exclusive content!

Produced by: Charles Mooney
Executive Producers: Charles Mooney and Lisa Umbarger

Original Music by: Charles Mooney and Lisa Umbarger

Kazoo Solo by: Courtney Mooney

Part 2 of our descent into the beautiful chaos that is Marky Ray—and this time, the guitars don’t survive.

In this episode, Marky pulls back the curtain on life on the road with Nine Inch Nails, where industrial rage wasn’t just a vibe, it was a line item in the budget. Hear how touring with Trent Reznor meant nightly onstage meltdowns, flying instruments, and Marky becoming less of a guitarist and more of a full-time guitar ER surgeon—repairing, replacing, and emergency-buying axes just to keep the show moving.

Broken necks. Snapped strings. Shattered bodies (of guitars… mostly). And the unspoken rule: If Trent is in a mood, hide the vintage gear.

Dark, hilarious, and louder than your tinnitus, this episode is a love letter to road warriors, techs, and anyone who’s ever watched a perfectly good instrument die for the art.

Plug in, brace yourself, and remember:
In industrial rock, the guitars are expendable.

Be sure to click the link below to purchase Rock And Roll Mercenary by Marky Ray, a no-BS collection of insane road stories from deep inside the music world, told by someone who actually survived it. From legendary tours and volatile artists to shattered guitars, blown budgets, and backstage chaos, nothing is cleaned up or romanticized. It’s the brutal, hilarious truth about what really happens when rock ’n’ roll goes to work. [Ep 116]

Link to Marky’s amazing book:
https://ebay.us/m/ihHqRd

Become a J-Lope and follow us on social media. You can find us on Facebook, Instagram, X.com, TikTok, and check out our YouTube page for more exclusive content!

Produced by: Charles Mooney
Executive Producers: Charles Mooney and Lisa Umbarger

Original Music by: Charles Mooney and Lisa Umbarger

Kazoo Solo by: Courtney Mooney

This week, Charles and Lisa crack open the tour-stained, whiskey-splashed saga of a true road warrior: Professor Marky Ray, Cleveland’s own Master of Music and the man lovingly (and fearfully) known as The Rock and Roll Mercenary.

For five decades, Marky Ray has been everywhere—onstage, backstage, under the stage, lost behind the stage—and playing with more bands than most of us can name without passing out. A former member of Jim Rose Circus, The Lyres, the terrible parade, Death of Samantha, and New Salem Witch Hunters, Marky has performed, toured, and occasionally survived gigs alongside Nine Inch Nails, Ministry, Butthole Surfers, The Cramps, The Pagans, Human Switchboard, Toadies, Die Warzau, and half the Lollapalooza lineup of ’91-’92.

He’s a musician, artist, entertainer, emcee, voiceover chameleon, and the only man brave enough to front Akron’s own Walking Clampetts. These days he also wrangles 25+ bands as the Outdoor Stages Production Manager of the Tri-C JazzFest—because apparently he didn’t rack up enough chaos backstage in the first forty years.

In Part 1, Marky joins Jackalope Tales to share his wildest stories, strangest encounters, and a few things we’re pretty sure should have stayed sealed in a road case.

Dark, funny, and full of rock-and-roll shrapnel—don’t miss it. [Ep 116]

Link to Marky’s amazing book:
https://ebay.us/m/ihHqRd

Become a J-Lope and follow us on social media. You can find us on Facebook, Instagram, X.com, TikTok, and check out our YouTube page for more exclusive content!

Produced by: Charles Mooney
Executive Producers: Charles Mooney and Lisa Umbarger

Original Music by: Charles Mooney and Lisa Umbarger

Kazoo Solo by: Courtney Mooney

This week, Charles and Lisa kick off the holiday season the only way they know how—by dragging a Salvation Army bucket straight into the shadows and shaking it like it owes them money.

In Ring My Bell, your two favorite festive disasters dive into the strangely inspiring, mildly cursed world of musicians who got “discovered” while ringing that famous red kettle bell. Lisa takes on Jewel, whose icy Alaska backstory somehow gets even darker when you picture her serenading shoppers outside a Walmart while calculating which toes she might lose to frostbite and industry contracts.
Then Charles rings in the holiday cheer with Cardi B, who made the Salvation Army bell sound less like charity and more like a warning alarm for everyone within a five-block radius. By the time she was done, the kettle wasn’t the only thing shaking, and let’s just say the “right people” noticing her were probably wondering if she came with a cyclone warning label.

Together, Charles and Lisa unpack the mythology, the mayhem, and the absolute madness of musicians whose big break started with a bell, a bucket, and the sort of holiday chaos only Jackalope Tales can wrap in a bow and hand to you like the world’s most questionable gift.

Get ready for jingles, scandals, and the kind of holiday spirit that definitely voids the warranty. [Ep 115]

Become a J-Lope and follow us on social media. You can find us on Facebook, Instagram, X.com, TikTok, and check out our YouTube page for more exclusive content!

Produced by: Charles Mooney
Executive Producers: Charles Mooney and Lisa Umbarger

Original Music by: Charles Mooney and Lisa Umbarger

Kazoo Solo by: Courtney Mooney

Strap on your floaties and clutch your all-you-can-eat shrimp cocktails—because this week’s Jackalope Tales sets sail straight into the choppy waters of cruise-ship musical disasters.

Charles dives head-first into the murky mystery of Taime Downe and the fiancée who “accidentally” went overboard. Was it a tragic fall? A drunken mishap? Or one of those classic music-industry cover-ups where everyone suddenly forgets how gravity works? The Jackalope is sniffing around, and the ocean starts looking real guilty.

Then Lisa wades into the unbelievable but beautifully stupid tale of Trace Adkins, who ended up in a full-blown fistfight with… Trace Adkins. Yup. Turns out his cruise-ship doppelganger was a little too good at being Trace—better hair, better voice, better tips from the drunk moms at the pool bar. One thing led to another, and the real Trace handled it the only way a country star on a boat knows how: by trying to throw the clone off the Lido Deck.

From missing lovers to identity theft brawls at sea, this episode proves one thing:

If musicians are on a boat, it’s only a matter of time before someone goes overboard—literally or mentally.

Hop aboard, Jackalope crew.

This one’s a shipwreck you’ll want front-row seats for. [Ep 114]

Become a J-Lope and follow us on social media. You can find us on Facebook, Instagram, X.com, TikTok, and check out our YouTube page for more exclusive content!

Produced by: Charles Mooney
Executive Producers: Charles Mooney and Lisa Umbarger

Original Music by: Charles Mooney and Lisa Umbarger

Kazoo Solo by: Courtney Mooney

In this week’s darkly educational episode, Charles and Lisa unzip the fur suit and expose one of the music industry’s most ridiculous, poorly-kept secrets: when a label says a musician was “attacked by a bear,” it usually means the only wildlife involved was cocaine, bad decisions, and a manager who’s very tired.

Lisa dives deep into the surprisingly furry folklore around Ian Astbury of The Cult — a man who absolutely looks like he could punch an actual bear, but whose “bear encounter” might’ve involved less forest and more backstage fridge contents.

Meanwhile, Charles gives a grim, shadow-soaked look at the recently departed Sam Rivers, whose own “bear attack” story was so suspicious the bears themselves released a statement denying involvement. Charles explores how far labels will go to keep the truth hidden — including inventing new species of bears just to pin the blame.

It’s dark, it’s funny, it’s the only podcast brave enough to ask:

If all these musicians are getting mauled… why aren’t there more bears on the charts? [Ep 113]

Become a J-Lope and follow us on social media. You can find us on Facebook, Instagram, X.com, TikTok, and check out our YouTube page for more exclusive content!

Produced by: Charles Mooney
Executive Producers: Charles Mooney and Lisa Umbarger

Original Music by: Charles Mooney and Lisa Umbarger

Kazoo Solo by: Courtney Mooney

Things get bloody backstage this week on Jackalope Tales, where peace, love, and understanding take a beer bottle to the face.

Charles swings first with the story of Finch vs. Disturbed, a chaotic tour that went from eyeliner to ER visit faster than you can say “Down with the Sickness.” He unpacks the night the emo kids and the muscle bros turned a rock show into a WWE tryout gone wrong.

Meanwhile, Lisa dives knuckle-deep into Faith No More’s early years, when frontman Chuck Mosley’s fist met his bandmates more often than the microphone. From flying punches to failed interventions, she shows how the band’s signature sound might’ve been forged in black eyes and broken amps.
It’s a darkly funny trip through the underbelly of band “chemistry” — where every hug might be a headlock, and every encore ends with a concussion.

Jackalope Tales: Because sometimes the real battle of the bands happens after the show. [Ep 112]

Become a J-Lope and follow us on social media. You can find us on Facebook, Instagram, X.com, TikTok, and check out our YouTube page for more exclusive content!

Produced by: Charles Mooney
Executive Producers: Charles Mooney and Lisa Umbarger

Original Music by: Charles Mooney and Lisa Umbarger

Kazoo Solo by: Courtney Mooney