Are you ready to learn some stuff? It’s January 16th and here’s what happened Today in Rock History!
Starting the day in 1992 as Eric Clapton recorded his Unplugged session for MTV. The album for the episode earned Clapton six Grammys, including Record of the Year.
Speaking of records, let’s talk releases! We got ZZ Top’s First Album from ZZ Top in 1971, Paradise Theatre from Styx in 1981, Blue Oyster Cult’s debut record in 1972, and American Beauty/American Psycho from Fall Out Boy in 2015!
Moving into birthdays now, we have Atticus Ross of Nine Inch Nails!
Other birthdays include Brent Hinds of Mastodon and Nick Valensi of The Strokes!
In 2008, Radiohead planned to perform a free gig at a small record store in London, but due to nearly 1,500 fans showing up, they were forced to move to a nearby club instead.
We lost Dave Holland of Judas Priest in 2018.
In 2019, the surviving members of Soundgarden reunited for the first time since the death of singer Chris Cornell to perform as part of a star-studded tribute concert for Cornell at the LA Forum. Other participants include Metallica and the Foo Fighters with proceeds from the show going to both the Chris and Vicky Cornell Foundation and the Epidermolysis Bullosa Medical Research Foundation.
The Cavern Club opened its doors in 1957 in Liverpool. The venue would become the home to many local bands and would become synonymous with The Beatles, who played the club almost 300 times in the early 60s.
In 2015, Wes Scantlin of Puddle of Mudd gets arrested at the Denver International Airport after taking a ride on the baggage carousel into a restricted area. After getting bailed out by a fan, the band arrives hours late to their scheduled show that night.
In 1980, Paul McCartney landed himself in jail in Tokyo for 10 days after bringing about a half pound of weed into the country. Located in his luggage, McCartney planned to smoke the grass while on tour. He later said about the incident: “This stuff was too good to flush down the toilet, so I thought I’d take it with me.”
And finally in 1996, speaking of drugs, suspecting a seaplane that just landed in the water off the coast to be a drug smuggling plane, Jamaican police shoot at the plane called the Hemisphere Dancer. The only issue was that it was owned by singer Jimmy Buffett. The plane suffered damage to the windshield and the fuselage but no one was injured. Also on the plane was Island Records head Chris Blackwell as well as Bono of U2 and his family. The police apologized and tried to convince Buffett to return to the island nation soon, and the event would inspire Buffett to write the song Jamaica Mistaica.
This has been Today in Rock History! Check back tomorrow for your next rock history lesson!
