Miles Davis, Red Ferrari, New York City, 1969

TSY: Davis had an affinity for flashy cars and trouble seemed to follow him whenever he was in one. While it’s been rumored that he cruised around in his Lamborghini Miura with a .357 magnum under the seat and enjoyed outrunning the fuzz with people sitting shotgun (he once scared Jimi Hendrix half to death), Davis was arrested in 1970 on weapons charges when he was sitting in his red Ferrari and an officer noticed he had accented his ensemble of a turban, white sheepskin coat and snakeskin pants with a pair brass knuckles. One might have thought brass knuckles might not be enough protection, considering he had been shot in the hip while sitting in another Ferrari less than a year earlier in an alleged extortion plot. In 1972 he crashed his Lamborghini Miura and broke both of his ankles. He promptly ordered another.

Read a couple more wild MD stories here