This Day in History: 2025-01-14

JANUARY 14^th

Less than two months after its release, Ozzy Osbourne’s career retrospective, “The Ozzman Cometh,” is certified platinum (sales over 1-million). 1998

Dire Straits’ ’85 hit “Money For Nothing” is banned by the Canadian Broadcast Standards Council because a homophobic epithet in the song is no longer acceptable. “The panel concludes that, like other racially driven words in the English language, ‘faggot’ is one that, even if entirely or marginally accepted in earlier days, is no longer so,” says CBSC chair Ron Cohen in an official statement. Some Canadian stations ignore the ban. 2011

Nielson SoundScan reports that The Beatles’ “Abbey Road” album is 2010’s best-selling vinyl album in the U.S. Arcade Fire’s “The Suburbs” and Black Keys “Brothers,” are #2 and #3, respectively. “Abbey Road” was also #1 in ’09. 2011

MORE TODAY IN ROCK…

Drummer Charlie Watts joins the Rolling Stones. The band’s original line-up is now complete. 1963

The ’60s man. Jefferson Airplane, Grateful Dead, Big Brother & The Holding Company and Quicksilver Messenger Service headline the Human Be-In – A Gathering Of Tribes at Golden Gate Park in San Francisco. It’s one of the key events leading up to the Summer of Love. Groovy. 1967

Zakk Wylde (Jeffery Phillip Wiedlandt) of the Black Label Society is born in Bayonne, NJ. His first shot of notoriety comes as Ozzy Osbourne’s guitarist. 1967

Nirvana drummer and Foo Fighters founder, David Grohl, is born. 1969

Geoff Tate (Jeffrey Wayne Tate), former frontman for Queenryche, is born in Stuttgart, West Germany.  1969

Elvis Presley nails the record for the largest worldwide audience (estimated at over one billion) for his “Elvis: Aloha From Hawaii” concert telecast. It is his last major shot, but what a shot! 1973

The Sex Pistols play the last stop of their brief (less than ten days) U.S. tour at San Francisco’s Winterland Ballroom. Johnny Rotten (John Lydon) famously leaves the audience with a parting shot. “Ever get the feeling you’ve been cheated?” Rotten bails shortly thereafter. 1978

Drummer Jack Irons makes his debut with Pearl Jam when the group plays the first of two Voters For Choice concerts in Washington, D.C. 1995

Late Ramones guitarist Johnny Ramone (a.k.a. John Cummings) is honored with a bronze statue at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery in L.A. Ramone’s likeness stands near the gravesite of his former bandmate Dee Dee Ramone, who died of a drug overdose in ’02. Cummings died the previous September of prostate cancer at the age of 55. 2005

Incubus DJ Chris Kilmore is granted another restraining order against former band DJ Gavin Koppell, who Kilmore replaced in ’98. Kilmore was granted an initial restraining order in ’03 and that appeared to be at the root of a 12/28/09 incident where Koppell confronted Kilmore and his girlfriend allegedly threatening “you will get killed if you don’t lift that (restraining) order, people get killed in the street for that.” 2010

Black Sabbath’s ’70s catalog is added to the iTunes store for the first time. “It’s about f*cking time,” says Sabbath’s Ozzy Osbourne. 2014

BuzzAngle Music‘s report on American music consumption trends, states that Metallica has sold more albums in the U.S. over the past five years than any other Rock group. Queen (thanks in a large part to the “Bohemian Rhapsody” soundtrack) is listed as the top-selling Rock act of ‘19 in the U.S. 2020

Guitarist Steve Vai is reunited with his “Swiss cheese” guitar which was stolen from a California rehearsal space in ’86. The guitar, the first to receive a “monkey grip” handle and had holes in the body (hence the name), was used during Vai’s time with David Lee Roth (Van Halen).  It was found in an attic in Tijuana.  2023

“Paradise City” becomes the third Guns N’ Roses song to join Spotify’s “Billions Club.”  The first two were “Sweet Child O’ Mine” and “Welcome To The Jungle.” Spotify recognizes all songs that have garnered over a billion streams on the platform.  2024