The article examines notorious arrests involving rock musicians and argues that several changed both their careers and rock music’s direction. It opens with Jerry Lee Lewis’s 1976 armed confrontation at Elvis Presley’s Graceland, while noting that the incident’s musical consequences are uncertain because both men’s careers were already declining.

– Chuck Berry was convicted under the Mann Act after transporting a 14-year-old girl across state lines; he served around 18 months in prison, returning as British artists he had influenced dominated the charts.
– The article presents Berry’s case as shaped by racial prejudice and possible entrapment, while acknowledging the complexity of the allegations.
– It then introduces Frank Zappa’s 1965 arrest, describing it as an alleged entrapment incident that helped inspire his later anti-establishment career.