April 25, 2024

This Day in History: 2024-10-01

ROCKTOBER 1st

“The Unforgettable Fire” is the fourth studio album by U2. The set features “Pride (In the Name Of Love).” 1984

Tool unleash one of their career-defining albums, Ænima.”  The set sells over 3-million copies in the U.S. 1996

Matchbox Twenty unfurl “Yourself Or Someone Like You.” The album contains the group’s first hit “Real World.” 1996

Nirvana’s collection of live recordings “From The Muddy Banks of Wishkah” is released. 1996

MORE TODAY IN ROCK…

The late-great Cub Koda (Michael Koda), frontman for Brownsville Station (’69 – ’79), is born in Detroit, 1948

The Byrds cover of Pete Seeger’s “Turn! Turn! Turn!” is released. 1965

Bob Dylan plays New York’s Carnegie Hall. He does a solo set before being joined by The Band. 1965

The Grateful Dead get busted. The law raids the group’s communal home in San Francisco. They find marijuana – big surprise. After a mere six hours in jail the group makes bail – a bigger surprise – and are released. 1967

Kevin Griffin has a birthday. Griffin forms Better Than Ezra in ’87 and the group finds success with hits “Good,” “In The Blood,” “A Lifetime” and “Desperately Wanting.” 1968

Jimi Hendrix is buried in Renton – just south of his Seattle hometown. The guitarist passed away in London, from a sleeping pill overdose, 13 days earlier. 1970

David Bowie and Iggy Pop hole up in Berlin to kick their drug addiction – which they do. 1976

Fleetwood Mac’s “Don’t Stop” peaks at #3. Years later an Arkansas fan, Bill Clinton, revives the track using it as his presidential campaign theme song in ’92. 1977

Joe Lynn Turner signs on as Rainbow’s vocalist. He replaces Graham Bonnet, who took over when Ronnie James Dio got bounced. 1980

Sony unveils the first compact disc player. The CD proves to be a boon to the record industry as Rock fans rush to stores to replace worn-out vinyl records with the more durable CDs. 1982

“No Prayer For The Dying” drops.  Though hardly top-drawer Iron Maiden, the album reaches #17 on the Billboard 200 and eventually goes gold.  1990

Eric Clapton’s twelfth solo studio album, “From The Cradle” a Blues covers set, is #1 on the Billboard 200.  1994

The 10th anniversary Farm Aid concert takes place in Louisville, KY.  Willie Nelson, John Mellencamp, Neil Young, Hootie & The Blowfish and The Dave Matthews Band raise over $1 million to support American farmers.  1995

John Fogerty (Creedence Clearwater Revival) is honored with the 2,122nd star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. The star is located at 7000 Hollywood Blvd. 1998

After much debate and a postponement, the Melbourne City Council names a street after AC/DC. The street, more like an alley, was known as ‘Corporation Lane’. It is now the charming ‘AC/DC Lane’. 2004

Bruce Palmer dies of a heart attack in Belleville, Ontario, Canada.  He co-founded Buffalo Springfield with Young, Stephen Stills, Richie Furay and Dewey Martin.   2004

Rush’s Alex Lifeson is countersued by two police officers who allege that the guitarist assaulted them at an ’03 New Year’s Eve celebration in Naples, FL. The altercation resulted in the arrest of Lifeson and his son. Lifeson’s suit claims the deputies used excessive force during the incident. Both sides seek unspecified financial reparations. 2005

Disturbed appear at a National Hot Rod Association race in Joliet, IL, where they are co-sponsoring one of the drivers. 2005

Alice Cooper and The Doors guitarist Robby Krieger land on Golf Digest‘s list of the Top 100 Musician Golfers. Both Cooper and Krieger credit the game with helping them overcome substance-abuse problems. 2006

Suicide Solution. Ozzy Osbourne and his wife, Sharon, announce they have a suicide agreement which will come into effect should either of them suffer from a neurodegenerative disease such as Alzheimer’s, which took the life of Sharon’s father. “We believe 100 percent in euthanasia, so (we) have drawn up plans to go to the assisted suicide flat in Switzerland if we ever have an illness that affects our brains,” reveals Sharon. 2007

The Police are honored by the French minister of culture for their contribution to music. Sting, Andy Summers and Stewart Copeland are each named chevaliers of the Order of the Arts and Letters. The group is in Paris as part of their European tour. 2007

“The Social Network,” chronicling the founding of Facebook, is in theaters. The score for the David Fincher film is the work of Trent Reznor (Nine Inch Nails) and collaborator Atticus Ross. “Atticus Ross and I have been on a creative roll so I asked him if he wanted to work on this with me and we signed on,” says Reznor. 2010

Soundgarden’s ‘best of’ compilation “Telephantasm,” out for less than a week, goes platinum (selling one million copies). 2010

KISS bassist Gene Simmons marries his longtime (key word “longtime”) girlfriend Shannon Tweed. Their children Sophie, 19, and Nick, 22, are in attendance. 2011

Floor Jansen performs live with Nightwish for the first time at the Showbox Sodo in Seattle. This comes after the abrupt departure of the band’s lead singer of five years, Anette Olzon.  2012

No Doubt settle an ’09 lawsuit against Activision over the use of band members’ likenesses in the video game Band Hero. A game feature allows players to perform other artists’ songs using the likenesses of No Doubt frontwoman Gwen Stefani and other band members. Terms of the settlement are not disclosed. 2012

As their frontman Ian Watkins faces serious criminal charges (conspiring to commit rape) the Lostprophets announce they are breaking up but leave the door open to future ventures under a different name. 2013

Mötörhead unveil their own branded whisky (even though lead vocalist and bassist Lemmy Kilmister has dropped whiskey in favor of vodka for ‘health reasons’). Mötörhead Drinks (which already includes beer, wine and vodka) is a collaborative effort between the band and Mackmyra, a Swedish distillery. Initially, the whiskey is only available in Sweden. 2015

Tool’s Maynard James Keenan publishes his official biography “A Perfect Union Of Contrary Things.” Co-written by lifelong associate Sarah Jensen, the book “traces Keenan’s journey from his Midwest childhood to his years in the army to his time in art school, from his stint at a Boston pet shop to his place in the international spotlight, and his influence on contemporary music.” 2016

Bad Wolves’ Tommy Vext is hospitalized at Queens Medical Center in Nottingham, U.K. with a “severe viral bronchial infection.” The symptoms are similar to pneumonia with high fever and heart arrhythmia.  2018

The Australian government celebrates AC/DC’s 45th anniversary by releasing a collection of coins. The Royal Australian Mint (the Mint) and Questacon – The National Science and Technology Centre partner to strike AC/DC “Thunderstruck” coins with a bolt of man-made lightning.  2018

An extinct marine species is named after the North Carolina band Between The Buried And Me. It bears the name “Amphilimna intersepultosetme,” which is the Latin for “between the buried and me,” and lived 67 million years ago. 2018

Halestorm’s Lzzy Hale and the guitar string jewelry company Strung announce an exclusive line of necklaces and bracelets made out of Hale’s own personal guitar strings. A portion of the proceeds go toward the non-profit organization MusiCares.  2021

Five Finger Death Punch top Billboard’s Mainstream Rock chart with “Times Like These.” The song is from the band’s nineth album, “AfterLife.”  2022