This Day in History: 2023-06-12

JUNE 12th

Megadeth’s “Killing Is My Business… And Business Is Good!” is released. While the album doesn’t chart on Billboard, it sells well enough for Capitol Records to sign the band.  1985

Blink 182 release “Take Off Your Pants and Jacket” featuring the single, “Rock Show.” It debuts at #1 on the Billboard 200.  2001

Coldplay deliver “Viva La Vida Or Death And All His Friends.” 2008

The album goes double platinum in the U.S. and becomes the best-selling album for the year – worldwide.

MORE TODAY IN ROCK…

The Trogg’s singer, Reg Presley, becomes his parent’s new “wild thing.” 1943

King Crimson, Roxy Music, Uriah Heep and, Asia have one thing in common.  It’s bassist/vocalist John Wetton who is born on this day.  1949

Cheap Trick drummer Bun E. Carlos (born Brad M. Carlson) has a birthday.  1951

More than a feeling.  The late Boston singer Brad Delp enters the world. 1951

The Beatles receive MBEs (Members of the British Empire). Some conservative MBE holders grumble that the honor shouldn’t go to a Rock band and turn in their awards. The Beatles get their MBEs just the same. After all, they about single-handedly saved the British economy. Later, John Lennon returns his MBE to protest the British government’s support of the war in Vietnam. 1965

Candlebox bassist Bardi Martin has a birthday. He was with the group from ’91 to ’99, then rejoined in ’06. 1969

“I am a man and so’s Lola.” The Kinks release their gender-bending hit “Lola.” 1970

Guitarist Kenny Wayne Shepherd is born. 1977

Bruce Springsteen, Linda Ronstadt and others perform at a New York rally for nuclear disarmament. 1982

Linkin Park guitarist Brad Delson is the keynote speaker at the UCLA College of Letters and Science commencement ceremony in L.A. Delson, a UCLA grad (class of ’99), has a bachelor’s degree in Communication Studies.  2009

Linkin Park headlines the Download Festival at England’s Donington Park. “Being American we never had many good Rock festivals to go to as kids,” says frontman Chester Bennington. “Donington is a place we all dreamed of playing when we were growing up. “It’s awesome.” 2011

Joe Walsh comes out against Joe Walsh. The Eagles guitarist endorses Tammy Duckworth in her bid to defeat Representative Joe Walsh (R-Ill.) in November’s Congressional election. 2012

Foo Fighters’ Dave Grohl fractures his leg when he miscalculates a jump and falls into the security pit during a concert in Gothenburg, Sweden. After a trip to the hospital, Grohl returns and finishes the show. Now that’s commitment! 2015

Five Finger Death Punch vocalist Ivan Moody has an onstage meltdown. During a performance in Tilburg, Netherlands, he claims he’s out of the band and this is his last show with FFDP. The concert is marred by issues (personal and technical). Later, Moody, whose struggles with substance abuse are widely known, says “I am embarrassed and ashamed to admit that I have fallen off the wagon.”   2017

Crossing the blue line. Ozzy Osbourne was famously arrested in Memphis for public intoxication in ‘84. He had on a St. Louis Blues hockey jersey when police took his mug shot.  Thirty-five years later, after repeatedly posting his mug shot in support of the Blues during the seven game the NHL Stanley Cup, Ozzy tweets “Congrats St. Louis Blues on your Stanley Cup win.” 2019

While on a solo tour promoting his Country career Staind’s Aaron Lewis tells an audience in Redmond, OR, that the way to end school shootings is to arm teachers.  He makes this statement in the wake of a school shooting in Uvalde, TX where 19 students and two teachers were murdered.  2022