Sep 18, 1979

Tammy Wynette's hotel room is robbed in Princeton, Indiana. She loses $20,000 cash and $6,000 worth of jewelry

Sep 19, 1979

Joe "Fingers" Carr dies in a car accident near his home in Camarillo, California. The former husband of Margaret Whiting, he shared billing with Tennessee Ernie Ford on the 1951 country hit "Tailor Made Woman"

Sep 19, 1979

Jerry Lee Lewis is arrested at his home in Nesbit, Mississippi, for possession of cocaine and marijuana

Jan 16, 1980

"I Feel Fine" co-writer Paul McCartney is arrested for possession of marijuana at Narita International Airport in Tokyo, Japan. He serves 10 days in jail for the offense

Jan 29, 1980

Charlie Daniels breaks an arm and fractures two fingers when his sleeve is caught in a hydraulic post-hole digger on his Middle Tennessee farm

Mar 20, 1980

Joseph Riviera holds the Asylum Records employees in New York hostage, demanding an audience with The Eagles or Jackson Browne. He surrenders when he discovers neither California-based act is in the office

Apr 28, 1980

Bass player Tommy Caldwell dies in a car crash in Spartanburg, South Carolina. He was a member of the Southern rock group The Marshall Tucker Band, playing on "Can't You See," covered for the country charts by Waylon Jennings in 1976

Jul 23, 1980

Former Grateful Dead keyboard player Keith Godchaux dies in an automobile accident in Marin County, California. The Dead will be referenced in Lonestar's 1996 country hit "No News"

Aug 6, 1980

Six hours before a scheduled concert for 660 nuns, Charley Pride's airplane is involved in a mid-air collision in Texas. Two passengers in the other plane are killed; Pride and 15 others miraculously escape without major injury

Aug 14, 1980

A Martin guitar that George Jones has used for 20 years is stolen in Terrell, North Carolina. A man who was offered the guitar recognizes it from local newscasts, obtains it and returns it to Jones five days later