July 5th

July 5th

1988 Slayer’s “South Of Heaven” is released. 

It goes gold but many fans are unhappy with the toned-down performances.

1994 Hootie & The Blowfish make their debut with “Cracked Rear View.” 

It sells over 16-million copies.

1993 U2’s “Zooropa” arrives. 

Though it sells 7-million copies none of the singles from the effort do much on the charts.

2016 Queen’s “Greatest Hits” is the biggest-selling album of all time in Britain.

The ’81 compilation is the first record to pass the six-million sales mark in the U.K., as compiled by the Official Charts Company. 

2025 Ozzy Osbourne/Black Sabbath Take The Stage For The Last Time

Ozzy delivers a solo set before he is joined by the other founding Black Sabbath members (Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler and Bill Ward) for the first and last time in two decades.

Earlier, Metallica, Guns N’ Roses, Slayer, Anthrax, Alice In Chains and Halestorm are among the bands who play during the Ozzy/Sabbath “Back To The Beginning’’ farewell concert.

MORE TODAY IN ROCK…

1943 The Band’s Jaime Robert “Robbie” Robertson has a birthday. His last name at birth is Klegerman.

1950 Michael Monarch, Steppenwolf’s original guitarist, has a birthday. The L.A. native is heard on “Born To Be Wild.”

1950 Hip to be square. Huey Lewis is born. He lends his name to the ’80s group Huey Lewis & The News and serves as their singer and main attraction.

1954 Elvis Presley auditions for Sun Records in Memphis. The session looks like a bust until Elvis cuts loose on “That’s All Right,” a Blues number. The song becomes his first single and the rest is history.

1966 Animal’s bassist Chas Chandler sees Jimi Hendrix perform in NYC and decides to take Jimi to London to become a Rock star.

1968 Concert promoter Bill Graham opens the Fillmore West Auditorium in San Francisco. It quickly becomes a preeminent Rock venue.

1969 The Who issue “I’m Free.” “We’re Not Gonna Take It” is on the b-side. Both songs are from the Rock opera “Tommy.”

1969 The Rolling Stones play a free concert in London’s Hyde Park to introduce their new guitarist, Mick Taylor. But the death of former Stones guitarist Brian Jones just two days earlier turns the concert into a tribute. Jagger even reads a passage from Shelley and butterflies are released. 250,000 attend.

1980 Lifehouse frontman, Jason Wade is born in Camarillo, CA.

1995 The Pearl Jam/Ticketmaster controversy ends (more or less) when the U.S. Justice Department decides not to pursue anti-trust actions against Ticketmaster. The company is free to add those surcharges to ticket prices. Which they do.

2007 KoЯn touring guitarist Clint Lowery (who replaced Brian “Head” Welch) is arrested in Piestany, Slovakia, after getting drunk and trashing his hotel room. “I pulled some Rock 101 stuff,” says Lowery, who’s also a member of Dark New Day and a former member of Sevendust. Lowery pays for damages and is released.

2015 Salon magazine publishes an article titled “Leave U2 Alone: Why Did One of Our Best Rock Bands Become So Loathed? “From their iTunes debacle to Bono’s ego, the Irish rockers catch their share of grief, but enough is enough.” That about sums it up.

2015 A guitar played onstage and signed by the Grateful Dead’s Bob Weir, Phil Lesh, Mickey Hart and Bill Kreutzmann is auctioned for $526,000. Part of the proceeds go to HeadCount, a non-profit that “works with musicians to promote participation in democracy.”

2022 Manuel “Manny” Charlton, Nazareth guitarist (from ‘68 to ‘90), passes away at age 80.  The band is best remembered for the song “Love Hurts.” 

2023 Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensk tells CNN that listening to AC/DC, Guns N’ Roses and Eric Clapton helps him get through Ukraine’s war with Russia.  “AC/DC, I don’t understand all the words, but I like the energy,” states the president.

2024 AC/DC receive the Legend Award at the annual O2 Silver Clef Awards in London. AC/DC are acknowledged for their five decades as an influential and iconic band.

2025 Evanescence achieves its first-ever #1 on Billboard’s Mainstream Rock Airplay chart with “Afterlife,” which is featured in the Netflix series “Devil May Cry.”