June 17th
1972 “Exile On Main Street” is #1 on the Billboard 200.
The Rolling Stones twelfth album has “Tumbling Dice,” “Rip This Joint” and “Happy.”
1983 “Synchronicity,” by The Police, is released.
The band’s fifth and final studio album containing the mega-hit “Every Breath You Take,” goes to #1 on the Billboard 200 selling over eight million copies.
1991 Van Halen issue their ninth album “For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge.”
It debuts at #1 on the Billboard 200 album chart.
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1947 An original member of Santana and a founding member of Journey, keyboardist Gregg Rolie, is born.
1958 Jello Biafra (Eric Reed Boucher) vocalist for the Dead Kennedys enters the world.
1962 Hanoi Rocks vocalist Michael Monroe is born with the name Matti Antero Kristian Fagerholm.
1969 Featuring “In the Ghetto” (a #3 pop hit) and “Any Day Now,” Elvis Presley’s “From Elvis In Memphis” is released. Recorded at American Sound studios in Memphis, the album only reaches #13 on the Billboard 200 but tops the U.K. chart.
1972 Ron “Pigpen” McKernan, founding member of the Grateful Dead, plays his last show with the band at the Hollywood Bowl. He dies of complications from Crohn’s disease within a year.
1980 Led Zeppelin launch a short three-week European tour that turns out to be their last.
1985 Sting (Police) issues his debut solo album, “The Dream Of The Blue Turtles.” Over 3 million copies are sold in the U.S.
1997 Fans riot at an Ozzfest concert in Columbus, OH, after Ozzy Osbourne cancels due to throat issues.
2005 Throat cancer claims the life of Soul Asylum bassist Karl Mueller at age 41. One of the group’s founding members, Mueller passes away in his hometown, Minneapolis.
2010 Guitarist Slash (Guns N’ Roses/Velvet Revolver is selected to receive a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
2011 Slipknot perform their first concert since the death of Paul Gray (from a drug overdose). With original bassist Donnie Steele (who left in ’95 and was replaced by Gray), Slipknot play the Sonisphere Festival in Athens, Greece. “As you know, tonight is very emotional show for us but it is not, not, a negative day. It is a positive day. A day for celebration. This is our first show – with you,” frontman Corey Taylor tells the audience.
2013 Pink Floyd’s entire catalog is available on Spotify. The band said their catalog would be unlocked if fans were successful in pushing the ’75 track “Wish You Were Here” past a million spins. The effort took less than four days.
2014 The Piano Man, Billy Joel, speaks out against the slaughter of elephants for ivory. He supports a proposed New York State law which would ban illegal ivory sales. “I realize that ivory piano keys are preferred by some pianists,” writes Joel in a statement. “But a preference for ivory keys does not justify the slaughter of 96 elephants every day.”
2015 One day after Neil Young criticizes Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump for using “Rockin’ In The Free World” at a campaign event, Trump’s campaign manager states the candidate will refrain from any future use of Young’s music.
2015 An Australian study finds that listening to Heavy Metal and “extreme music” such as Punk and Death Core has a calming influence and does not make people more aggressive. “Listening to extreme music may represent a healthy way of processing anger for these listeners,” the study claims.
2016 A group of radical Islamists storm the Velvet IndieGround, a record store in Istanbul, and use pipes to beat Radiohead fans attending a listening party for drinking alcohol during the holy month of Ramadan. “We hope that someday we will be able to look back on such acts of violent intolerance as things of the ancient past,” Radiohead says in a statement.
2021 Metallica’s Lars Ulrich takes part in a virtual meeting with a Canadian fan, Milan Rossignol, who is living with a rare type of cancer. The meeting takes place after doctors at the Montreal Children’s Hospital launch a Twitter campaign requesting a meeting with the band.
2024 Lacuna Coil part ways with guitarist Diego Cavallotti, who joined the band in ’16, initially as a fill-in guitarist following the departure of Marco “Maus” Biazzi.
