This Day in History: 2024-05-15

MAY 15th

Asia’s self-titled debut is the #1 album in the U.S. The supergroup has guitarist Steve Howe (Yes), keyboardist Geoff Downes (Yes), bassist John Watton (King Crimson) and drummer Carl Palmer (Emerson, Lake & Palmer). 1982

Mötley Crüe release their fourth album “Girls, Girls, Girls,” which becomes their third straight album to go quadruple platinum. But it wasn’t easy.  Vocalist Vince Neil’s attempts at sobriety fail, bassist Nikki Sixx and drummer Tommy Lee are addicted to heroin and guitarist Mick Mars is suffering from ankylosing spondylitis, a chronic and painful type of arthritis.  1987

Megadeth release their 11th studio album, “United Abominations.” “When you break it down, Megadeth is guitar, bass, drums and guitar solos,” explains frontman Dave Mustaine. “When it starts going in directions where there’s a little bit too much stuff going on that can’t be done onstage, it loses heaviness because that stuff probably shouldn’t be there anyway.” 2007

Green Day release their eighth studio album, “21st Century Breakdown.” The set goes to #1 in fourteen countries and is certified gold or platinum in each becoming Green Day’s best chart performance to date. 2009

MORE TODAY IN ROCK…

Eclectic musician and producer (U2), Brian Eno, is born in Woodbridge, England. 1948

“4 Way Street,” a live album recorded in New York, L.A. and Chicago by Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, is #1 on the Billboard 200.  1971

The Rolling Stones are atop the Billboard 200 with “Black And Blue,” the group’s first album since the departure of guitarist Mick Taylor.  1976

Five Finger Death Punch rhythm guitarist, Zoltan Bathory, is born in Hungary. 1978

Brad Shultz, rhythm guitar/keyboards for Cage The Elephant, is born in Kentucky.  1982

Never buy drugs in a Pasadena motel parking lot. Scott Weiland of the Stone Temple Pilots is busted for doing just that. 1995

The Eagles’ Don Henley leads a dedication ceremony for a trail called Thoreau’s Path at Massachusetts’ historic Walden Pond. “Walden has come to represent a powerful way of thinking,” says the drummer. In ’90, Henley founded the Walden Woods Project to help conserve the area where 19th century author Henry David Thoreau wrote his classic treatise. 2006

Elton John receives the Distinguished Achievement in Musical Theatre Award at the 75th annual Drama League Awards Ceremony and Luncheon at New York’s Marriott Marquis Hotel. The honor recognizes John’s contribution to the Broadway musical “Billy Elliot”. 2009

John Lennon’s original handwritten lyric sheet for The Beatles “Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds” is auctioned for $384,148 at the Saban Theater in Beverly Hills. The lyrics were sketched out on a single sheet of paper and have crossed-out words and phrases. The song first appeared on the ’67 album “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.” 2011

Bob Dylan officially becomes an honorary member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters. His citation reads, “For more than 50 years, defying categorization in a culture beguiled by categories, Bob Dylan has probed and prodded our psyches, recording and then changing our world and our lives through poetry made manifest in song-creating relationships that we never imagined could exist between words, emotions and ideas.” Dylan is unable to attend the event. 2013

KoЯn begin their first U.S. headlining tour with their original guitarist, Brian ‘Head’ Welch, since ’04. It starts in Belle Vernon, PA. 2013

Over $155,000 is raised to benefit the Ronnie James Dio Stand Up and Shout Cancer Fund. A celebrity bowling tournament and concert in the L.A. area marks the fifth anniversary of the singer’s passing due to stomach cancer. 2015

Sammy Hagar and Bob Weir (Grateful Dead) co-host the fifth annual “Acoustic-4-A-Cure” concert in San Francisco to benefit The Pediatric Cancer Program at UCSF’s Benioff Children’s Hospital.  2018