March 28, 2024

This Day in History: 2024-06-29

JUNE 29th

Skid Row’s “Slave To The Grind” is the top album on the Billboard 200.  1991

“Dancing In The Dark” peaks at #2 on the pop charts as Bruce Springsteen launches his “Born In The USA” tour in St. Paul. 1984

Black Sabbath score their first U.S. #1 album with “13.” The set sells over 120,000 copies in its debut week. Sabbath had previously only reached the Billboard Top 10 once, when their ’71 album “Master Of Reality” peaked at #8. 2013

Shinedown’s “Monsters” is their 14th #1 single on Billboard’s Mainstream Rock Songs chart.  The track, off the “Attention Attention” album, nearly reaches 15 million streams.  2019

MORE TODAY IN ROCK…

Dokken’s vocalist and namesake, Donald Maynard Dokken, has a birthday. 1953

Drummer Ian Paice (Deep Purple/Whitesnake) is born in Nottingham, England. 1948

For the first time, a John Lennon/Paul McCartney composition is on the U.S. pop charts. It’s Del Shannon’s cover of “From Me To You,” a song that had already been a U.K. hit for The Beatles. Earlier, Shannon toured England with The Beatles. 1963

Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards is found guilty of allowing his home to be used for smoking marijuana and is sentenced to a year in prison.  Eventually his sentence is dismissed.  1967

The original Jimi Hendrix Experience (with bassist Noel Redding and drummer Mitch Mitchell) perform their last concert together. The show at the Denver Pop Festival is marred by police firing tear gas into the audience as the Experience plays “Voodoo Chile (Slight Return).” The band escapes in the back of a rental truck. 1969

Singer Ian Gillian quits Deep Purple after less than four years with the group. However, he sings on the group’s most memorable songs including “Smoke On The Water.” Gillian bails at the end of a tour of Japan (in Osaka) citing exhaustion. 1973

Drummer Neil Peart replaces John Rustey in Rush. 1974

Singer Brian Johnson plays his first show with AC/DC. It takes place at the Palais Des Expositions in Namur, Belgium.  1980

Mick Jagger and David Bowie record their rendition of “Dancing In The Streets” (originally recorded by Martha & The Vandellas) for the upcoming Live Aid show. 1985

John Lennon’s psychedelic painted Rolls-Royce is auctioned by Sotheby’s for $2,299,000 (to a fellow named Jim Pattison from South Carolina). 1985

George Harrison announces he has undergone treatment for cancer caused by smoking. The ex-Beatle says he’s been given a clean bill of health and wryly adds “I’m not going to die on you folks just yet.” Cancer eventually does claim the ex-Beatle but not for a few years. 1998

On a down note, vandals damage the graves of Lynyrd Skynyrd’s Ronnie Van Zant and Steve Gaines, even spilling some of Gaines’ ashes. 2000

“Neil Young Journeys,” a collaboration between Young and director Jonathan Demme hits theaters. The documentary was filmed toward the end of Young’s ’11 solo tour. 2012

Carol Hawkins, a former assistant to U2’s Adam Clayton, is found guilty of stealing $3.5 million dollars from the bassist’s bank accounts. 2012

Shinedown tie the Foo Fighters for the most Top 10 songs on Billboard’s Mainstream Rock Airplay Chart when “Daylight” becomes Shinedown’s 29th Top 10 single.  2022

Ex-Three Days Grace singer Adam Gontier and current members, bassist Brad Walst and his younger brother vocalist Matt Walst, are inducted into the Norwood District High School Hall Of Honor in Norwood, Ontario.  All three attended school there.  2022

COVID is still around… Metallica cancel its headlining appearance at the Frauenfeld Rocks festival in Switzerland after a member of the band’s “family” tests positive for COVID-19.  2022

Falling In Reverse postpones their 6/30 show in Syracuse, NY over poor air quality due to the smoke from Canadian wildfires. City officials deem the air quality unsafe for an outdoor concert to take place. The performance is rescheduled.  2023