What Happened in 2022: September

3^rd – Foo Fighters play the first of a pair of tribute concerts honoring their late drummer Taylor Hawkins (pictured) at London’s Wembley Stadium. Special guests include Lars Ulrich (Metallica), Brian Johnson (AC/DC), Liam Gallagher (Oasis), Josh Homme (QOTSA), Brian May (Queen) and Wolfgang Van Halen, among others.

6^th – “Cheap Trick: This Band Has No Past” is available.  The title is a bit of a joke since the book chronicles the band’s history. 

7^th – MoneyBag soda sells over 1-million bottles. Launched in ’18 by KISS bassist/vocalist Gene Simmons the sodas are produced in cooperation with Rock Steady Sodas Inc. 

8^th – “Will Of The People” (pictured) is the third album from Muse to reach #1 on Billboard’s Top Rock & Alternative Albums chart. The set is also #1 on the Top Rock Albums and Top Alternative Albums surveys.

8^th – Ozzy Osbourne is the halftime entertainment at SoFi stadium in L.A. as the Rams play the Buffalo Bills in the NFL season opener. There to promote his album “Patient Number 9″ Ozzy opens with the title track before delivering “Crazy Train.”  Buffalo wins. 

10^th – Megadeth’s “The Sick, The Dying… And The Dead!” debuts at #3 on the Billboard 200 album chart moving 48,000 units (45,000 are pure albums sales) in the first week of release. It’s Megadeth’s third Top 5 album. ‘92’s “Countdown To Extinction” and ‘16’s “Dystopia” are the other two. 

11^th – Steve Perry, former Journey singer, submits a petition to cancel the trademark registrations filed by two of the band’s members – guitarist Neil Schon and keyboardist Jonathan Cain – claiming their attempt to register 20 Journey tracks through Freedom JN LLC for usage on marketing hats, T-shirts, athletic jackets and other paraphernalia, was not agreed to by Perry. He contends that the Schon/Cain filing violated an earlier agreement that requires consent of all partners in each instance.

13^th – Ghost fans waiting for a Q&A session to begin crash Spotify Live servers. Spotify Live chalk the crash up to “overwhelming demand,” which triggered “technical difficulties.” 

16^th – Following the London tribute concert for the late Foo Fighters drummer Taylor Hawkins two Foo songs return to the upper reaches of the Billboard Rock charts. “Everlong” is #1 on the Hot Hard Rock Songs chart while “My Hero” sits at #3.

17^th – The Van Halen Stage is dedicated during a ribbon-cutting ceremony in Pasadena — the city where Van Halen formed. The Stage is located in Playhouse Village Park.

19^th – Hollywood Undead are awarded 11 platinum or gold certifications from the Record Industry Association of America (RIAA). The songs “City,” “Young,” “Black Dahlia,” and “No. 5” from their ‘08 album “Swan Songs”; “Comin’ In Hot,” “Hear Me Now” and “Bullet” off ‘11’s “American Tragedy”; “We Are” from ‘12’s “Notes From The Underground” and “Day Of The Dead” from the ‘15 album of the same name receive gold awards (500,000 copies moved), while ‘08’s “Undead” and “Everywhere I Go” go platinum (one-million units).

20^th – Ghost score its first entry on the Billboard Hot 100 chart with “Mary On A Cross.”  The song debuts at #90 on the chart with 6-million U.S. streams and 1,000 downloads. 

27^th – The second Taylor Hawkins Tribute Concert is at the Kia Forum in L.A. with Foo Fighters, Joan Jett, Travis Barker (Blink 182), Wolfgang Van Halen and Rush (among others). Hawkins, the Foo Fighters drummer, passed away the previous March while on tour.

28^th – Concord Records tells the Wall Street Journal that it has purchased the Genesis catalog, the band’s vocalist/drummer Phil Collins’ solo releases (including the song “In The Air Tonight”) and Genesis guitarist Mike Rutherford’s Mike & The Mechanics tracks.  The sale is reportedly in the neighborhood of $300 million. 

30^th – Long COVID sidelines Dave Navarro. Jane’s Addiction guitarist announces he will not be on the band’s “Spirits On Fire” tour with Smashing Pumpkins due to his lingering COVID-19 symptoms.  He is temporarily replaced by Queen Of The Stone Age guitarist Troy Van Leeuwen.