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May 8th
May 8th
1993 Aerosmith debuts at #1 on the Billboard 200 with “Get A Grip.”
The album goes on to sell over 20-million copies worldwide.
2001 Sum 41’s “All Killer, No Filler” with hit single, “Fat Lip,” is released.
“Fat Lip,” an unconsciously good single with shotgun lyrics, packing a rhythmic punch, scored big time.
2001 “Break The Cycle,” by Staind, drops.
The album features the ballad “It’s Been A While,” the most-played Rock song of the decade.
2010 Bullet For My Valentine’s “Fever” is #1 Billboard’s Hard Rock Albums chart.
It moves 71,000 copies in its first week. to land at #3 on the Billboard 200.
The set goes on to sell over 600,000 copies worldwide.
2020 Lit’s “My Own Worst Enemy” is finally certified double platinum.
Originally released in ’99, the song is certified by the RIAA, the trade organization that keeps tabs on recording certifications. It was the lead single off the “A Place In The Sun” album.
MORE TODAY IN ROCK…
1951 Chris Frantz, Talking Head’s drummer, has a birthday. He’s a native of Fort Campbell, Kentucky.
1955 Drummer Alex Van Halen is born in Holland.
1970 The Beatles issue “Let It Be,” their final studio release, though it was started before “Abbey Road.”
1977 Guitarist Joe Bonamassa is born in New York. He’s known for his solo work and as a member of Black Country Communion.
1996 Penthouse magazine wins the right to publish X-rated photos of Tommy Lee (Mötley Crüe) and Pamela Anderson who had gone to court to stop the publication of the photos that were taken from stolen home movies.
2004 Audioslave frontman Chris Cornell marries publicist Vicky Karayiannis in Paris. It’s the second time they exchange vows. The couple initially wed when Cornell’s divorce became official but decided to re-tie the knot in a more traditional manner.
2006 Doctors in Auckland, New Zealand, perform brain surgery on Keith Richards, who fell from a palm tree (Richards later claims it wasn’t a palm but a ‘small tree’) while vacationing in Fiji. “The operation was a complete success,” says a Rolling Stones representative. The surgery does delay the Stones European tour.
2006 The two Australian miners are rescued after spending nearly two weeks trapped more than a half-mile underground. The miners passed the time listening to the Foo Fighters on their iPods. As a result, lead Foo Fighter David Grohl promises, “there’s two tickets to any Foo’s show, anywhere, and two cold beers waiting for you.”
2006 Apple Corps, the label owned by the Beatles’ members and/or their families, lose a trademark-infringement lawsuit against Apple Computer. A London court rules that the computer company did not breach a ’91 contract involving the “Apple” name and logo, because its iPod and iTunes services are involved in selling music rather than creating it.
2007 The Dead bring in some live ones. A collection of Grateful Dead memorabilia earns more than $1.1 million during an auction in San Francisco. Guitars owned by the late Jerry Garcia draw the most action, including a cream-colored ’75 Travis Bean electric that nets $312,000.
2008 Sweet home Alabama. Neil Young gets a spider named after him. Officially known as a Myrmekiaphila neilyoungi, the trap door spider is named by biologist Jason Bond. According to Bond “Young is worthy of that honor.” The spider in question is found only in Alabama. Perhaps it should have been called Lynyrd Skynyrd.
2009 Red Hot Chili Peppers frontman Anthony Kiedis receives the Stevie Ray Vaughan Award at the fifth annual MusiCares MAP Fund benefit concert in Los Angeles. He’s recognized for his contributions to the charity, which provides support to musicians with substance-abuse problems.
2010 Jack White (White Stripes, Raconteurs, Dead Weather) raises money for Nashville flood relief by donating all sales of his Music City-based Third Man Records store.
2012 Against Me! singer Tom Gabelcomes out as transgender and announces her gender reassignment surgery and her new name, Laura Jane Grace.
2020 Halestorm announce the #ROADIESTRONG campaign aimed at providing essential financial assistance to road crews all over the world. Fans purchase #ROADIESTRONG merchandise and make donations, with all proceeds going to Live Nation’s Crew Nation which was established in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic (and concert cancellations).
2020 Pantera’s limited-edition social distancing t-shirt raises approximately $100,000 for the MusiCares COVID-19 Relief Fund. 40% of the net proceeds generated from the purchase of the “Vulgar Display Of Power” shirt goes to MusiCares.
2021 “Vax Live: The Concert To Reunite The World,” a global broadcast and streaming special to help get COVID-19 vaccines to everyone, everywhere, gets underway from L.A. featuring Foo Fighters(performing with AC/DC’sBrian Johnson and Pearl Jam’s Eddie Vedder). The event calls on philanthropists and corporations to donate enough “dollars-for-doses” to vaccinate more than 27 million health workers who are serving on the global frontlines.
2023 Disturbed’s David Draiman dumps Tinder, the dating app, less than a week after he announced he was using the service to find “the right woman” following his divorce. He deletes his account on Tinder, calling it “an absolute shitshow” where “scammers, grifters, fakes and phonies abound.”
2023 Sum 41 say they will disband following a scheduled worldwide headlining tour and the release of their eighth album “Heaven :x: Hell.”
2025 Linkin Park are in the SoundExchange Hall of Fame. The honor recognizes the innovative band who is one of the most streamed acts in the organization’s 20-plus-year history of administering digital performance royalties.
