Are you ready to learn some stuff? It’s October 3rd and here’s what happened Today in Rock History!
Starting off with birthdays today and BOY do we have a list today! First up, we have Tommy Lee of Motley Crue!
Other birthdays include Gwen Stefani of No Doubt, Josh Klinghoffer of Red Hot Chili Peppers, and Herman Li of Dragonforce!
As well as Stevie Ray Vaughan, Lajon Witherspoon of Sevendust, John Curulewski of Styx and Lindsey Buckingham of Fleetwood Mac!
With releases, we got The Who by Numbers from, well, The Who in 1975!
We also got Zenyatta Mondatta from The Police in 1980, Genesis’ 1983 self-titled album, JET’s Shine On in 2006, Green Day’s Warning in 2000 and Out of the Blue from Electric Light Orchestra in 1977!
The classic 2003 film School of Rock premiered in theaters. Featuring an amazing soundtrack and teachable moments, the film inspired a Broadway musical and a TV show. And speaking of that killer soundtrack, which featured the likes of AC/DC and the Ramones, it got the proverbial icing on the cake with the classic Zeppelin tune Immigrant Song. The song became an important part of the film that Jack Black and director Richard Linklater made this:
Also, in 2003 in the rock film world, the concert film of The Concert for George benefit show opened in the theaters. The all-star tribute show paid tribute to the late Beatle George Harrison featured performances from George’s son Dhani, surviving Beatles bandmates Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr, two of Harrison’s Traveling Wilbury’s bandmates Jeff Lynne of ELO and Tom Petty, and Eric Clapton.
In 2000, Mark David Chapman, the man who killed Beatle John Lennon 20 years earlier, faced the parole board and was denied his freedom. The board stated that letting Chapman go free would “deprecate the seriousness of the crime.” Chapman remains in prison to this day.
We lost Benjamin Orr of The Cars to pancreatic cancer in 2000
A little local flair now as in 1978, Aerosmith bailed multiple fans out of jail after they were all arrested for smoking weed at an Aerosmith show held at Fort Wayne Coliseum aka the Allen County War Memorial Coliseum. The number of fans arrested differs from various reports and ranged anywhere from 28-58.
In 1973, after being forced to record a new version of their song 5:15 for their appearance on the UK music show Top of the Pops, The Who decide to do what only The Who could do: Destroy the set. Guitarist Townshend would smash his gear and even gave the producers a two finger salute (similar to the middle finger salute in the States), while drummer Keith Moon ransacked the props department for a variety of items and threw them into the crowd.
And finally in 1992, this happened:
While performing on Saturday Night Live, Sinead O’Connor tore up a photo of Pope John Paul II to protest against the sexual abusee happening within the Roman Catholic Church. The incident caused NBC to be fined $2.5 million by the FCC, O’Connor joining a long list of banned stars on SNL and essentially helped destroy her career.
This has been Today in Rock History! Keep on Rocking, keep on Rolling! Check back tomorrow for your next rock history lesson!
