Happy Birthday to Robin Zander!!!!!
1973 The War is Over! During a NY concert, Neil Young stops the show to announce that the Vietnam War has ended (“peace has come”). Of course, like most things in the world, it doesn’t last. North Vietnamese troops overrun South Vietnam in two years later.
1977 While opening for Bob Seger in Tampa, Patti Smith falls from the stage breaking a neck bone. She also suffers cuts to her head and is rushed to the hospital for 22 stitches. The accident takes Smith off the tour.
1986 The first Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony is held in New York City.
Elvis Presley, James Brown, Jerry Lee Lewis, Ray Charles, Fats Domino, the Everly Brothers, and Chuck Berry are selected from a nominee list of forty-one performers. “It’s hard for me to induct Chuck Berry,” says Keith Richards, the Rolling Stones’ guitarist. “Because I lifted every lick he ever played!”
1990 Lynyrd Skynyrd guitarist Allen Collins dies from pneumonia-related compilations at the ripe old age of 37.
1991 Non-stop “Stairway To Heaven” Causes Trouble
A week into the Gulf War, tensions are high when radio station KLSK in Albuquerque, NM, launches its Classic Rock format by playing Led Zeppelin’s “Stairway To Heaven” for twenty-four hours straight. Some listeners suspect the station has been taken over by terrorists and contact the police who show up with guns drawn. To be a rock and not to roll.
1998 Poison vocalist Bret Michaels’ steamy home video sex tape with Pamela Anderson goes public. As a result, Michaels’ attorney files a temporary restraining order to halt the video’s distribution by the Internet Entertainment Group.
2010 A man in search of a stage. While Aerosmith is actively looking for a lead singer, Steven Tyler, the man who held the job for over three decades, performs “Dude Looks Like A Lady” and “I Don’t Want To Miss A Thing” over the loudspeaker of a Home Depot in Rancho Mirage, CA. This bizarre moment follows a karaoke performance in a bar a few days earlier. Mercifully, Aerosmith decides to keep Tyler.
2012 Van Halen’s single, “Tattoo,” is #1 on Billboard’s Hard Rock Singles chart.
2016 “31,” written and directed by Rob Zombie, makes its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival. The film tells the story of five carnies kidnapped and held hostage in a remote industrial Hell. Oh, a family film.
2017 Maynard James Keenan, a noted gun enthusiast, is on the cover of Ballistic magazine. He holds a memorial rifle of Sergeant Robert Miller who was killed in combat in Afghanistan at age 24. Miller was awarded a Medal of Honor for his service. The lyrics to Tool’s “Vicarious” are inscribed on the rifle.
2019 Shinedown perform “Get Up” for the first time on national television when they appear on the morning talk show “Live With Kelly And Ryan.” Having already gone to #1 on Active Rock, the song amassed over 25 million total streams. It was inspired by frontman Brent Smith’s battle with “his own personal demons.”
2017 Mötley Crüe Vince Neil is fired from NBC’s The New Celebrity Apprentice.
He is seen blamed for his team’s loss. Neil later claims he wanted off the show. While there, Neil raised $769,280 for Keep Memory Alive, the charity arm of the Cleveland Clinic Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health.
2022 Just three days after his passing Meat Loaf’s “I’d Do Anything for Love (But I Won’t Do That)” has 3.2 million streaming plays – up from the 186,000 over the prior three-day tracking period. “Paradise By Dashboard Light” also logs just over 3 million streams.
2023 Pantera is dropped from the Rock am Ring and Rock im Park festivals in Germany. The decision comes after “intensive conversations” likely due to singer Philip Anselmo’s infamous “white power” incident at a 2016 concert in Hollywood, CA. Foo Fighters are later slated to replace Pantera.
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