Are you ready to learn some stuff? It’s September 9th and here’s what happened Today in Rock History!
Starting our day off as always with releases and what a way to start it. In 1971, we got John Lennon’s Imagine.
Other albums include Iggy Pop’s Lust for Life in 1977, Schmilco from Wilco in 2016, It Still Moves by My Morning Jacket in 2003, the final album from Dire Straits, On Every Street in 1991 and Rush’s Signals in 1982!
We lost Ernie Ball in 2004 at the age of 74. Ball, a guitar maker, opened what he claimed to be the first guitar store in the USA in California. He also helped develop “Slinky” guitar strings specifically made for electric guitars. The strings became so popular among guitarists that it began the Ernie Ball brand and Ernie Ball Inc. The Slinky strings have become a mainstay for so many of rock’s greatest guitar players, from Jimmy Page and Eric Clapton to Kirk Hammett and Matt Bellamy
While performing their song Lithium at the 1992 MTV Video Music Awards, Nirvana bassist Krist Novoselic knocked himself unconscious onstage after being hit in the head with his guitar after throwing it into the air. This is also the same show that members of Guns N Roses and Nirvana almost came to blows backstage.
And speaking of the MTV Video Music Awards, at the 2007 ceremony, Kid Rock and Tommy Lee got into an actual fist fight, with Lee coming out worse than Rock. The altercation never made it to air, but was commented on by presenter Jamie Foxx stated to end “white on white violence,” which I’m sure Kid Rock knows a lot about.
It’s Marcos Curiel of P.O.D.’s birthday today!
And finally in 1994, a young and up-and-coming Green Day played a free show at the Hatch Bell in Boston in support of their new album Dookie. With a mix of casual and hardcore fans in the crowd, the show went from harmless moshing to a full on riot. Police ended the show early.
This has been Today in Rock History! Keep on Rocking, keep on Rolling! Check back tomorrow for your next rock history lesson!
