Are you ready to learn some stuff? It’s April 19th and here’s what happened Today in Rock History!
Starting off with releases, we have L.A. Woman by The Doors, Buzz Factory from the Screaming Trees, The Fall by Gorillaz, and R.E.M.’s Unplugged: The Complete 1991 and 2001 Sessions, which features music from both of their MTV Unplugged appearances
It’s a big day for R.E.M., as today in 1980, the band would play their first show as R.E.M. at the 11:11 Koffee Club in Athens, Georgia in front of 150 people. The show was closed down at 2am by police, due to the venue being unlicensed.
Moving onto birthdays we have one. And that belongs to Tony Martin, former lead singer Black Sabbath who worked for the band from 1987-1991 and once more from 1993-1997. Martin is the band’s second-longest-serving vocalist, only being beaten out by Ozzy.
We lost Jim Steinman in 2021. Steinman, a songwriter and producer, helped write many greats in the pop genre, but his acclaim to rock was his work on Meatloaf’s Bat Out Of Hell. The album would become one of the greatest selling records of all time.
In 2002, Alice in Chains lead singer Layne Staley was discovered dead in his apartment in Seattle. Police broke down the door after Staley was reported missing. Staley had died a week prior on April 5th from an overdose.
In the tech world side of music, in 2002, the T. Rex song Jeepster was the first song to be successfully identified by a pre-launch version of Shazam! Users would call a number and they would receive a text message with the name of the song.
And finally in 1980, Brian Johnson officially joins AC/DC as their new lead singer, replacing the band’s original lead singer Bon Scott. Scott died just a few month earlier from alcohol poisoning. Their next album would be a sort of tribute to the former lead singer, with Brian bringing the power the band needed for such an album
This has been Today in Rock History! Keep on Rocking, keep on Rolling! Check back tomorrow for your next rock history lesson!
