You might figure that a musician born Lars Johan Yngve Lannerback would adopt an easier to remember and pronounce stage name. The guitar great born on this day in 1963 did... sort of. He made one of his middle names his first name and changed the spelling of it to make it even less phonetic to non-Swedish ears and then swapped his easy to pronounce last name for his mother's maiden name and added an 'e' to make it easier to pronounce. Fact is, a guitarist as good as he is was destined to become well known no matter what his name.

Other Noteworthy Classic Rock events on June 30 include...

1949 Sweet's Andy Scott born.

1957 Iron Maiden's Doug Sampson born.

1967 Mick Jagger and Keith Richards released from jail after arrest at Keith's party on drug charges.

1968 Pantera's Phil Anselmo born.

1971 Fillmore West closes in San Francisco.

1975 Gregg Allman and Cher marry (over in 10 days).

1971 Stephen Stills 2 released.

1977 Kiss releases Love Gun.

1980 Queen releases The Game.

1986 Steve Winwood releases Back in the High Life.

1994 Members of Pearl Jam testify against Ticketmaster pricing before Congress.

1996 Neil Young hosts an online preview of his album Broken Arrow.

1997 Aerosmith opens Nine Lives tour in Orchard Beach, Maine.

1999 Eric Clapton joined by Bob Dylan and Sheryl Crow at Madison Square Garden benefit concert for his Crossroads rehab center.

2001 Al Jardine sues Beach Boys over his ouster from the band.

2004 Dave Davies partially paralyzed by a stroke.

2006 Cirque du Soleil Beatles show Love opens in Las Vegas.

2009 Levon Helm releases Electric Dirt.

2009 Joey Kramer publishes his autobiography.

2009 U2 opens 360 tour in Barcelona.

2014 Pete Townshend and Roger Daltrey announce Who 50th Anniversary Tour and play acoustic at Ronnie Scott's Club in London.

2023 Neil Young does his first concert in four years

After a year and a half playing rhythm guitar for Frank Zappa's Mothers of Invention, Lowell George recruited Richie Hayward, the drummer in The Factory, a band George had been in pre-Zappa, fellow Zappa musician Roy Estrada, and pianist Billy Payne to form Little Feat. Kenny Gradney replaced Estrada on bass in 1972 and Lowell got his high school friend and guitarist Paul Barrere to join and added Sam Clayton for percussion. Lowell's insistence of maintaining total control of the band drove Barrere and Payne to quit in 1979, by which time George was concentrating on a solo career. He died on this day in 1979 at just 34, four days after starting a tour in support of his album Thanks, I'll Eat It Here. His death was ruled a heart attack related to cocaine use.

Other Noteworthy Classic Rock events on June 29 include...

1948 Deep Purple’s Ian Paice born. 

1948 Bill Kirchen of Commander Cody and His Lost Planet Airmen born.

1953 Don Dokken born. 

1953 Colin Hay of Men At Work born. 

1967 Mick Jagger and Keith Richards draw jail sentences on drug charges in Tokyo. Both win appeals. 

1968 Pink Floyd does the first  free rock concert in Hyde Park on the day after the group releases A Saucerful  of Secrets. Jethro Tull and T-Rex open.

1969 Denver Pop Festival closes at Mile High Stadium with sets from Joe Cocker, Three Dog Night, and the finals performance by the Jimi Hendrix Experience as Noel Redding announces he is leaving the trio.

1973 Ian Gillan quits Deep Purple following a concert in Japan. 

1973 Scorpions do their first concert with Uli Roth. 

1974 Neil Peart replaces John Rustey as drummer in Rush.

1975 Tim Buckley dies of an overdose in Santa Monica, CA.   

1978 Peter Frampton suffers a broken arm and ribs in a car crash in the Bahamas. 

1978 David Bowie opens his 1978 Low/Heroes tour in London.

1984 Bruce Springsteen's Born in the U.S.A. tour opens in St. Paul, Minnesota.

1985 Mick Jagger and David Bowie record their cover of Dancing in the Streets.

1996 The Who perform Quadrophenia with Eric Clapton and Bob Dylan in Hyde Park. 
1997 Mike McCready of Pearl Jam breaks his collar bone diving for an Eddie Vedder line drive in a softball game.   

1998 George Harrison reveals he is undergoing treatment for throat cancer.

2000 Ron Wood announces he has entered rehab.   

2000 Eight fans killed in a crowd surge during Pearl jam's set at the Roskilde Festival in Denmark.

2005 Bruce Springsteen treats airport employees to an acoustic set at 2am while his tour plane refuels in Iceland. 

2010 Robert Plant joins Los Lobos at Taste of Chicago.

2016 Bass player Rob Wasserman (Neil Young, Ratdog, Van Morrison, Elvis Costello) dies at 64.

On this day in, 1969 Led Zeppelin, Fleetwood Mac, Nice, Ten Years After, John Mayall, Savoy Brown, Bloodwyn Pig and more played the Bath Festival in the UK.

Other  Noteworthy Classic Rock events on June 28 include...

1954 Steve Morse of the Dixie Dregs and Deep Purple born.

1969 Day two (of three) Denver Pop Festival at Mile High Stadium, sets from Poco, Johnny Winter, Tim Buckley, Creedence Clearwater Revival. 

1974 Elton John releases Caribou.   

1984 Bruce Springsteen films video for Dancing In The Dark with Courtney Cox.

1985 AC/DC releases Fly on the Wall.

1988 Steven Tyler marries Aerosmith costume designer Terressa Barri.   

1990 Allman Brothers Band releases Seven Turns. 

1990 Police raid Chuck Berry's home on drugs tip, confiscate drugs, weapons and $130,000 cash.

1994 Rolling Stones premier Voodoo Lounge after Reds Astros game at the Astrodome in Houston.   

1996 KISS open reunion tour in Detroit.
1996 Def Leppard opens US leg of Slang tour.

1997 Bob Seger wrecks his car in Nipigon, Ontario.

2007 Two crew members killed while taking down the stage after the Rolling Stones concert in Madrid, Spain.

2009 Bruce Springsteen’s 2 hour 40 minute set costs Glastonbury festival organizers a curfew penalty.  

2009 Steven Tyler injures leg during Aerosmith's concert in Uncasville, Connecticut. Band cancels 7 shows.

2010 Robert Plant sings in bar of the James Hotel in Chicago.

2014 Butch Trucks of the Allman brothers joins ZZ Top on Tush in Nimes, France.

The Denver Pop Festival opened on this day in 1969 at Mile High Stadium with sets from Big Mama Thorton, The Flock, Three Dog Night, Iron Butterfly and Frank Zappa's Mothers of Invention. Day two featured Zephyr, Poco, Johnny Winter, Tim Buckley and Creedence Clearwater Revival and the final day included sets from Zephyr (filling for a no-show), Joe Cocker, Three Dog Night and the Jimi Hendrix Experience.

The three day event averaged around 50,000 the first two days, but swelled considerable on Sunday, the final day when organizers decided to stop checking tickets, which had been scaled at $6 per day, or $15 for all three days. The festival's closing Sunday performance would turn out to be the final concert set the Jimi Hendrix Experience would do together, as bassist Noel Redding quit the trio soon after the group left the stage after waves of tear gas wafted onto it after police fired canisters of it in an effort to to disperse increasingly rowdy fans.

Other Noteworthy Classic Rockevents on June 27 include...
 

1970 The Trans-Continental Festival with the Grateful Dead, The Band, Janis Joplin, Buddy Guy, the New Riders of the Purple Sage, Ian and Sylvia and the Flying Burrito Brothers begins  by train. The tour is captured in the movie Festival Express.

1942 Bruce Johnston of the Beach Boys born.

1967 Mick Jagger convicted on drug charges stemming from arrest at a Keith Richards party.

1970 Freddie Mercury makes his live debut with Smile, soon to become Queen, in Cornwall, UK.

1971 Allman Brothers, J. Geils Band and Mountain do the last concert at Fillmore East in New York.

1974 Grateful Dead release From The Mars Hotel.

1976 US issues John Lennon a Green Card.

1978 Perter Gabriel II released.

1980 John Bonham collapses during Led Zeppelin's set at a Nuremberg, Germany concert.

1989 Don Henley releases End Of The Innocence.

1989 Who perform the Rock opera Tommy for first time in 17 years in a benefit for the Rock Hall of Fame at Radio City Music Hall in New York.

1991 Carlos Santana busted in Houston airport, charged with holding a small amount of marijuana.

1994 Aerosmith becomes first major band to offer song download through Compuserve.

2002 John Entwhistle dies in a Las Vegas hotel the night before a Who tour opens.

2006 Axl Rose arrested after allegedly biting a security guard on the leg.

2009 Paul McCartney makes surprise appearance at Glastonbury Festival, joining Neil Young on A Day In The Life.

2009 Eddie Van Halen marries Jane Liszewski in LA.

2014 Bobby Womack dies of a heart attack.

2015 Chris Squire of Yes dies of Leukemia.

2019 Guns N' Roses drummer Steven Adler stabs himself in the stomach.

Bad Company is the band name, the album title, and the the first track on side two of one of the most impressive debut albums of the mid '70s that got its release on this day in 1974. It also was the first album released on Led Zeppelin's Swan Song label.

The band formed by powerhouse vocalist Paul Rogers of Free and Mott the Hoople guitarist Mick Ralphs was soon joined by Free drummer Simon Kirke and King Crimson veteran Boz Burrrell. The album was recorded at Headley Grange, the English country estate Zeppelin and many other UK artists would use as a rehearsal and recording site using Ronnie Lane's Mobile Studio.

Other Noteworthy classic rock events on June 26 include...

1942 Canned Heat's Larry Taylor born.

1955 Mick Jones of the Clash born.

1957 Patti Smyth of Scandal born. 

1963 John Lennon and Paul McCartney write She Loves You in a hotel in Newcastle, UK.

1964 The Moody Blues form.

1964 Beatles release A Hard Day’s Night in the US.  

1967 The Rolling Stones release Flowers.
1967 Frank Zappa's Mothers of Invention releases Absolutely Free.

1973 Mick Jagger named in a maternity suit filed by Marsha Hunt.   

1973 Keith Richards arrested on drug an weapon charges in Jamaica.

1975 Bob Dylan's Basement Tapes album gets release.

1976 Grateful Dead release Steal Your Face. 

1976 Roxy Music announces a temporary break-up.

1979 Queen releases Live Killers.

1986 Metallica's James Hetfield breaks a wrist in a skateboarding crash.

1992 Van Halen sued by an Oklahoma family whose home phone number was the same as the one used on the cover of For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge album.   

1996 Van Halen announces David Lee Roth will rejoin the band.   

2012 20 year old that attended party Bob Seger’s 16 year old daughter threw at Bob’s house while her father was on tour turns himself in for stealing several items including his 1978 Les Paul guitar.

2014 Like A Rolling Stone lyrics sell for $2 million in Sotheby’s auction.

2017 U2's Adam Clayton gets MusiCares Award in New York City.

2020 Kansas releases The Absence of Presence.

On this afternoon in 1967 Jimi Hendrix did a concert in Golden Gate Park in San Francisco before doing a pair of concerts that night at Bill Graham's Fillmore West.

Other Noteworthy Classic Rock events on June 25 include...

1945 Carly Simon born.

1946 Blue Oyster Cult’s Allen Lanier born.

1946 Foreigner & King Crimson veteran Ian McDonald born.

1952 Tim Finn of Crowded House and Split Enz born.

1954 David Paich of Toto born.

1967 Eric Clapton guests on All You Need Is Love during a Beatles world-wide live broadcast of the song.

1969 Mick Taylor does his first show as a member of the Rolling Stones.

1971 Supertramp releases Indeilibly Stamped.

1973 Chicago VI released.

1976 Alice Cooper releases Go To Hell.

1976 David Byron does his last concert in Uriah Heep.

1984 Prince releases Purple Rain

1984 Patti Scialfa joins the E Street Band.

1988 Red Hot Chili Pepper Hillel Slovak dies of heroin overdose in LA. 

1993 Bruce Springsteen a surprise guest on the final David Letterman Show on NBC.

1995 Pearl Jam pulls the plug on tour in dispute with Ticketmaster.

2016 Colts owner Jim Irsay pays $155,750 for locks of David Bowie's hair and a custom made Prince guitar.

A slew of Classic Rock birthdays on June 24, foremost among them a guitarist and drummer whose bands bore their names.

1942 Drummer Mick Fleetwood born. 

1944 Jeff Beck born. 

1944 Traffic’s Chris Wood born.   

1945 Zombie’s Colin Blunstone born. 

1948 Yes and Moody Blues member Patrick Moraz born.

1949 John Illsey of Dire Straits born.   

1966 The Rolling Stones open a US tour in Lynn, MA with the McCoys and the Standells as openers.

1967 Jeff Cease of the Black Crowes born.   
1975 Ronnie Van Zant and Billy Powell go at each other during a Lynyrd Skynyrd concert in Louisville. Powell loses two teeth in the brawl.

1980 Jackson Browne releases Hold Out.
1992 Hicksville, Long Island High School gives Billy Joel the diploma he didn't qualify academically to get at the end of his senior year in 1967.

1995 Neil Young fills in for Eddie Vedder after the Pearl Jam front man is unable to continue a San Francisco concert due to the flu.   

1999 Eric Clapton auctions 100 of his guitars to benefit his Crossroads treatment center. His follow-up  auction on the same date in 2004 raises more for the center.

2009 Big Brother & the Holding Company release lost recordings featuring Janis Joplin.

2011 Glastonbury festival security prevents a group from inflating a sign protesting that U2 are Irish tax evaders for moving their business operations to the Netherlands during the band’s set.   

2016 Billy Joel joins tribute band Big Shot on three songs during Huntington, NY show.

Jethro Tull's Living in the Past album got released on this day in 1972. The double album taking its title from a 1969 Tull song culled material from a number of previous releases, b sides of singles and concert recording out-takes.

Other Noteworthy June 23 events over the years include...

1940 Original Beatles bass player Stuart Sutcliffe born.

1941 Jerry Garcia writing partner Robert Hunter born. 

1945 Atlanta Rhythm Section bassist Paul Goddard born.

1948 Lead singer and main songwriter for April Wine Myles Goodwyn born.

1955 Singer and Danzig namesake Glenn Danzig born Glenn Allen Anzalone.  

1975 Alice Cooper breaks 6 ribs when he fall off the stage during a Vancouver concert.

1976 Paul McCartney and WIngs wrap their Wings Over America tour at The Forum in LA.

1976 Greg Allman testifies during drug trial that the Allman Brothers Band's road manager had supplied him with cocaine.  The band breaks-up soon after.

1980 Bob Dylan releases Saved.

1981 King Crimson reunites.

2000 Neil Young honored on the Canadian Walk of Fame.

2000 Experience Music Project opens in Seattle.

2004 Bob Dylan awarded an honorary degree in music by the University of St. Andrews in Scotland.

2006 Robert Plant headlines a benefit concert to raise money to help Love founder Arthur Lee fight leukemia.

2009 Spinal Tap releases Back From The Dead.  

2010 Pete Quaife of the Kinks dies of kidney failure. 

2010 Gregg Allman undergoes liver transplant in Jacksonville, Florida.

2016 Jury sides with Led Zeppelin members in suit claiming Stairway To Heaven melody was lifted from Taurus, a Spirit instrumental released two years earlier.

Jeff Beck was reportedly so amazed the night he saw Jimi Hendrix play in a London club that he thought to himself that he should switch to another instrument or just quit music. Lucky for us, he didn't. The former Yardbirds member did his first U.S. concert with the newly formed Jeff Beck Group on this night in 1968.

Other Noteworthy June 22 events over the years include...

1936 Kris Kristofferson born.

1939 Procol Harum drummer Bobby Harrison born.

1948 Todd Rundgren born.   

1949 April Wine drummer Gary Moffett born.

1969 Blind Faith releases self-titled and only studio album.   

1970 Pete Townshend detained after using the word ‘bomb’ in describing something while on a plane. 

1971 Second Glastonbury Festival opens. David Bowie, Traffic, Family, Fairport Convention, Hawkwind play.
1971 Joni Mitchell releases Blue.

1977 James Taylor releases JT.

1978 Cream reunites at Ginger Baker’s polo club.   

1981 Mark David Chapman pleads guilty in shooting of John Lennon. 
1988 Robert Palmer releases Heavy Nova.

1990 Billy Joel headlines the first concert at Yankee Stadium.

1992 Black Sabbath releases Dehumanizer.  

1993 Ozzy Osbourne announces plans to end retirement and tour with Black Sabbath. 

1995 Dan Rather performs with R.E.M on What's The Frequency, Kenneth?

2009 Styx members visit the White House.

2010 Bruce Springsteen releases previous year's Hyde Park concert on DVD.

2010 Ozzy Osburne releases Let Me Hear You Scream.

Co-founding older brother Ray Davies of the Kinks was born on this day in 1944 in North London.  He and his brother Dave were the youngest of eight children and the only boys born to a slaughterhouse working father and a domineering mother that kept the kids in line.  After meeting UK Rock pioneer Alexis Korner while he was studying to become an artist in 1962 at Hornsley College, Ray's interest shifted to becoming a musician.  That connection led to Davies hooking up with the promoter/manager of the Yardbirds who was impressed enough by Ray's developing talent to get him added to a Dave Hunt Rhythm & Blues gig at the Piccadilly Club. Davies briefly became lead guitarist for the group, but made a jump to another band before forming the Ramrods, the fore-runner to what would become the Kinks.  Ray's dominant role as the chief songwriter, singer and lead guitarist would both propel the popularity of the Kinks but also sow discord with other members, particularly his younger brother.  The two often sparred verbally and occasionally physically on and off stage.  The dissolution of the band was followed by a decades long estrangement between the battling brothers that has only recently seemed to subside.

Other Noteworthy Classic Rock events on June 21 include...

1947 Joey Molland of Badfinger born. 

1950 Joey Kramer of Aerosmith born.

1951 Nils Lofgren of the E Street Band born. 

1966 Rolling Stones sue New York City hotels for banning the group. 

1966 Jimmy Page debuts as Yardbirds guitarist in London.

1969 Deep Purple releases self-titled album.

1970 Jim Morrison marries Patricia Kennealy.

1972 Led Zeppelin opens 8th US tour.

1975 Ritchie Blackmore leaves Deep Purple to form Rainbow.

1975 The Eagles, Elton John, Joe Walsh the Beach Boys and Rufus draw 120,000 to Wembley Stadium.

1977 Sex Pistols' Johnny Rotten is assaulted outside a London nightclub.

1979 Rolling Stones (ex) Mick Taylor releases "Mick Taylor" four years after leaving band.

1980 Sammy Hagar releases Danger Zone.   

1981 Walter Becker and Donald Fagen announce the end for Steely Dan. 

1982 Crosby, Stills & Nash release Daylight Again.

1985 Motley Crue releases Theatre of Pain.

1987 Judas Priest releases Priest... Live!

1988 Pink Floyd performs at Versailles, recording the set for the Delicate Sound of Thunder album.

1988 The Rascals open a reunion tour.   

1990 Bono joins David Bowie on stage in Cleveland on a version of Gloria. 

1993 US Supreme Court announces it will hear John Fogergty's case stemming from a royalties dispute. 

1994 John Mellencamp releases Dance Naked.

1995 Dan Rather of CBS News sings What’s The Frequency Kenneth with R.E.M. during soundcheck for New York concert.

The Sex Pistols open a reunion tour in Finland.

2009 Joey Kramer of Aerosmith invites 20 wounded veterans to his birthday party when Aerosmith plays Washington.   

2011 Bruce Springsteen eulogizes Clarence Clemons and does a solo version of Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out at a memorial service in South Florida.

2020 Tom Petty's estate issues a cease and desist order against the Trump campaign's use future use of any of his music the day after I Won't Back Down was played at his rally in Tulsa, saying they will not allow his songs to be used in "a campaign of hate".

 Van Halen's Michael Anthony born on this day in 1955.  The Van Halen bassist from 1974-2006 was a guitarist in his teens but switched to bass by literally converting a Fender guitar into one by eliminating two of its six strings.  Anthony was in a series of bands from the late 1960's into the 70's.  A Pasadena High School booking paired Michael's band at the time, Snake, and a group Eddie and Laex Van Halen had formed called Mammoth.  When that group's bassist bailed, the brothers recruited Anthony as his replacement.  Soon after Michael came onboard, the group had to changed its name to Van Halen after learning another band had laid earlier claim to Mammoth.

Anthony's role in Van Halen began to become marginalized after the groups first two albums.  Eddie Van Halen recorded bass on the majority of songs on Van Halen III.  Anthony got involved in other projects, most notably with Sammy Hagar. He also participated in a short-lived group under the name Planet Us that included Hagar, Joe Satriani and Journey's Neal Schon and Deen Castronovo.  Anthony and Hagar have hung together musically in the band Chickenfoot and the Circle.

Other Noteworthy Classic Rock events on June 20 include...

1942 Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys born.

1948 Deep Purple's Don Airey born.

1966 Pearl Jam's Stone Gossard born.

1969 Grateful Dead release Aoxomoxoa.

1969 David Bowie signs record contract with Mercury Records.

1974 Bob Dylan and The Band release Before The Flood.

1975 Neil Young releases Tonight’s The Night.

1975 Talking Heads do irts CBGB set.

1977 Grateful Dead drummer Mickey Hart crashes his car into a canyon and sustains multiple injuries. 

1980 Rolling Stones release Emotional Rescue.

1986 Phil Collins, Dire Straits, Elton John and Ike and Tina Turner perform at 4th annual Princes Trust concert
1975 The Talking Heads debut at CBGB.

1977 Steve Winwood releases self-titled solo.
1977 Grateful Dead drummer Mickey Hart suffers several fractures in a California canyon car wreck.

1978 Foreigner releases Double Vision.

1980 The Rolling Stones release Emotional Rescue.

1986 Dire Straits, Phil Collins, Elton Johnand Tina Turner play the 4th Prince's Trust benefit in London.

1987 Aerosmith's Permanent Vacation tour opens in Dallas.

1987 Boston plays Texas Jam - first concert in 8 years.

1988 Steve Winwood releases Roll With It.

1996 Eric Clapton appears with opera legend Pavorotti in Florence Italy benefit for Bosnian refugees.

1996 Grateful Dead members appear together for first time since Jerry Garcia's death.

1998 Green Day's Mike Dirnt suffers skull fracture after being hit by bottle wielded by Third Eye Blind's Arion Salazar in Irvine California concert.   

2006 Heart Of Gold, movie about Neil Young released on DVD.
 

Heart's Ann Wilson born on this day in 1950.  The older of the two sisters in Heart, Ann became the lead singer and wrote most of the songs for the band she formed that eventually included her younger sister, Nancy. Daughters of a career Marine Corps major, the Wilson sisters spent their younger years on military bases in central America and the far east before relocating to the Pacific Northwest when theWilson sisters were teenagers.  Ann joined the group that would eventually become Heart in the early 70's, with Nancy following in 1973.  Dreamboat Annie, the group's debut after changing their name to Heart, was released in 1976.

Other Noteworthy events in Classic Rock on June 19 include...

1963 AC/DC's Simon Wright born.

1967 Paul McCartney admits to having taken LSD on the BBC.

1973 Rocky Horror Picture Show opens in London with Tim Curry and Meat Loaf.

1977 Paul Cook of the Sex Pistols roughed up by six guys near a London subway station.

1978 Trooper releases Thick as Thieves.

1984 Bruce Springsteen sells out 6 Meadowlands Arena shows in 24 hours.

1984 Glenn Frey releases The Allnighter.

1987 Guns N' Roses make UK debut in London.

1987 Sammy Hagar releases (I Never Said Goodbye).

1988 Van Halen headlines Monsters of Rock concert at Rich Stadium in Buffalo, New York.

1988 Jimmy Page releases Outrider.

1990 John Hiatt releases Stolen Moments.

1993 Jeff Beck releases Crazy Legs.

2007 Jon Bon Jovi releases Lost Highway.

2007 Sammy Hagar releases Livin' It Up In St. Louis live DVD.

2009 Stage rigging collapse causes cancellation of Alice Cooper concert at Spartak Stadium in Novosibirsk, Russia.

2020 Bob Dylan releases Rough and Rowdy Ways.

2020 Neil Young releases Homegrown.

2020 Blackberry Smoke release Live From Capricorn Studios...

James Paul McCartney was born on this day in 1942 in Liverpool. His father played trumpet and piano in a jazz band and gave his son a trumpet for his 14th birthday that Paul later traded for an acoustic guitar.

McCartney earned admission to the Liverpool Institute and became friends with George Harrison after meeting him on a bus ride to class. Paul met John Lennon in July of 1957 when John's skiffle group, the Quarrymen, played a church event in Woolton, UK.  Soon after, Paul was invited to join as rhythm guitarist. Harrison joined the following year and Stuart Sutcliff became the group's bass player in 1960. After going under a few short-lived different names including variations Beatals and Silver Beetles, they settled on Beatles. Drummer Pete Best was brought on board in 1960.

Other Noteworthy Classic Rock events on June 18 include...

1942 Bass player in Derek and the Dominos and Delaney & Bonnie and Friends Carl Radle born.

1948 Columbia records starts full production of 33 1/3 vinyl albums.

1967 Jimi Hendrix Experience makes US concert debut at the Monterey Pop Festival.  Jimi ignites his guitar to close the set.

1976 Rod Stewart releases A Night On The Town.

1977 Johnny Rotten stabbed by someone upset over the Sex Pistols song God Save The Queen.

1982 King Crimson releases Beat.

1987 Bruce Springsteen separates from Julianne Phillips.

1991 Cream drummer Ginger Baker and Alex Van Halen honored on Hollywood Walk of Fame.

2004 Willie Nelson, BB King and Stevie Wonder perform at the funeral for Ray Charles in Los Angeles.

2009 Crosby, Stills & Nash inducted into Songwriter’s Hall Of Fame.

2010 John Lennon’s hand written lyrics to A Day In The Life auctioned for $1.2 million.

2011 Clarence Clemons of the E Street Band dies from complications of a stroke at 69.

2018 Bruce Springsteen joins Tangiers Blues Band on 4 songs at reopening of Asbury Lanes in Asbury Park, NJ.

Joe Walsh launched his post James Gang career with a solo album released on this day in 1973 with a wacky title and never stopped. Along the way, he gave us releases titled So What, You Can't Argue with a Sick Mind, But Seriously, Folks, There Goes The Neighborhood, You Bought it - You Name It, Got Any Gum and Ordinary Average Guy.  Thank you, Joe Walsh, for all of the goofy album titles and all of the great songs on them.

Other noteworthy Classic Rock June 17 events include...

1947 Journey and Santana keyboard player Greg Rolie born.
1952 Fabulous Thunderbirds drummer Mike Buck born.

1964 Kinks arrive in U.S. for first tour.

1965 The Moody Blues make their US concert debut in New York City.

1966 Peter Green joins John Mayall's Blues Breakers.   

1972 Ron 'Pigpen' McKernan's last concert with Grateful Dead,  Hollywood Bowl (Dies 3/8/73).

1978 Alcohol renders Jefferson Starship's Grace Slick unable to sing. Fans riot at Hamburg, Germany concert, Slick leaves band - rejoins 3/81.

1985 Sting releases Dream Of The Blue Turtle. 

1988 Bruce Springsteen and wife Julianne Phillips split.

2005 James Gang reunites in Cleveland for a club date.

2009 Buddy Guy joins Eric Clapton & Steve Winwood for Drowning On Dry Land and Sweet Home Chicago during United Center concert in the Windy City.  

2009 Billy Joel and Katie Lee Joel announce they are ending their 5 year marriage.

2012 Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band set  a new reord with a 3 hour, 48 minute set in Madrid.

1967 Monterey Pop Festival opens.    Jimi Hendrix, the Who and Janis Joplin make their primary US live debuts during the three day festival.

1969 Steve Miller Band releases Brave New World.

1970 Woodstock organizers file a loss of $1.2 million on hte August, 1969 festival.

1972 David Bowie releases The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars in the UK.

1972 Roxy Music releases self-titled album.

1975 John Lennon files suit over selective prosecution to prevent him from becoming a US citizen.

1977 Beatlemania opens on Broadway.

1980 Blues Brothers movie debuts in Chicago.

1982 James Honeyman Scott of the Pretenders dies of overdose.

1982 .38 Specials Donnine van Zant arrested at Tulsa, Oklahoma concert for drinking in public.

1995 Pearl Jam opens tour bypassing Ticketmaster.   

1998 Little Feat releases Under The Radar.

1998 Van Morrison releases Philosopher's Stone.

1998 Ringo Starr releases Vertical Man. 

1999 Phil Collins gets a Hollywood Walk of Fame star.

2007 Rod Stewart and Penny Lancaster get married in Italy.

2016 Meat Loaf hospitalized after an on stage collapse during a concert in Edmonton, Canada.

2022 Paul McCartney welcomes Bruce Springsteen to the stage during his MetLife Stadium concert in East Rutherford, NJ and the two do versions of Glory Days and the early Lennon/McCartney song  I Wanna Be Your Man that the Rolling Stones also recorded.  Jon Bon Jovi also leads the crowd in singing Happy Birthday to Paul two days before he turns 80.

The culminating US Amnesty International Concert  at Giants Stadium took place on this day in 1986.  The six series tour included dates in San Francisco (6/4), Los Angeles (6/6), Denver (6/8), Atlanta (6/11) and Chicago (6/13). All but the Denver concert sold out.  The collective tour featured performances by U2, Peter Gabriel, Sting, Bryan Adams, Lou Reed, Steven Van Zandt, the Neville Brothers, Jackson Browne and Joan Baez.

Other noteworthy events on June 15 in Classic Rock include...

1941 Harry Nilsson born.

1943 Spencer Davis Group bassist Muff Winwood, Steve Winwood's older brother, born.

1951 Steve Walsh of Kansas born.

1957 Night Ranger, Rubicon guitarist Brad Gillis born.

1963 Queensryche drummer Scott Rockenfield born.

1967 Future Fleetwood Mac member Peter Green leaves the John Mayall Band.

1976 The Sex Pistols record their first studio demos.

1978 Bob Dylan releases Street Legal.

1979 Dire Straits releases Communique.

1982 Steve Miller releases Abracadabra.

1992 Bruce Springsteen opens first tour without the E Street Band in Stockholm.

1993 Eric Clapton and BB King play Apollo Theater in Harlem.

1993 Neil Young Unplugged released.

1996 KISS does first concert since 1983 1998 REM plays outside the Capitol to protest US China policy.

2010 Tom Petty releases Mojo.

2010 Steve Miller Band releases Bingo.

2010 John Mellencamp releases On The Rural Route 7609 box set.

2016 Jimmy Page testifies in Led Zeppelin copyright infringement case over Stairway To Heaven melody.

On this day in 1970 the Grateful Dead release Workingmans Dead, the group's 4th studio album. It was recorded within a couple of weeks at San Francisco's Pacific High Studio. The hasty production was undertaken because the group was facing issues over charges related to the New Orleans drug bust referenced in the lyrics of Truckin' on American Beauty, the album released months after Workingmans Dead, and was grappling with the realization that Lenny Hart, the father of drummer Micky Hart, had been misappropriating money from the group's earnings.

Other NoteworthyClassic Rock events on June 14 include...

1945 Rod Argent of the Zombies and Argent born.

1947 Country Joe & the Fish lead guitarist Barry Melton born.

1949 Yes drummer Alan White born.

1963 Chris Degarmo of Queensryche born.

1965 Bob Dylan records Like a Rolling Stone.

1966 Capitol Records recalls Beatles Yesterday and Today albums with the controversial cover showing dismembered dolls.

1970 Derek & The Dominos play first concert in London..

1970 A $100,000 block long billboard goes up in Times Square promoting Grand Funk Railroad’s new album.

1971 The original Hard Rock Cafe opens in London.

1971 Emerson, Lake and Plamer release Tarkus.

1972 300 gate crashers tear gassed at Grateful Dead Tucson concert.

1974 David Bowie opens Diamond Dogs tour in Montreal.

1975 Frampton Comes Alive recorded at Winterland in San Francisco.

1976 Chicago X released.

1979 Little Feat break up (reform in 1987).

1982 Pretenders bass player Pete Farndon fired by the band.

1986 Fan stabbed to death at Ozzy Osbourne concert in Long Beach, CA. Two others suffered serious injuries.

1986 Bob Geldof named an honorary knight by Queen Elizabeth

1991 Foreigner releases Unusual Heat.

1995 Rory Gallagher dies of liver transfer complications.

2001 Charlie Daniels Museum opens in Nashville, TN.

2002 Mick Jagger knighted during Queen's Birthday Honors program.

2002 Billy Joel checks into a Connecticut alcohol rehab program.

2012 Songwriters Hall of Fame inducts Bob Seger, Jim Steinman, Gordon Lightfoot.

2013 Paul McCartney headlines Bonnaroo Festival.

2016 Trial opens in copyright suit claiming a key part of the Stairway To Heaven melody was lifted from the Spirit instrumental Taurus.

2016 Deep Purple drummer Ian Paice suffers mild stroke during European tour.

2016 Spooky Tooth, Wings veteran Henry McCullough dies at 72.

2017 Other Lynyrd Skynyrd members file suit to block Artimus Pyle from releasing "Street Survivors: The True Story of the Lynyrd Skynyrd Plane Crash" film.

2018 John Mellencamp added to Songwriters Hall Of Fame.

2021 Styx releases Crash of the Crown...

Jackson Browne and Stevie Ray Vaughan don't have much in common musical style wise, but Jackson had an important role in the Texan guitar great's early career. Browne saw Vaughan perform at the Montreux Jazz festival in 1982 and was so impressed that he invited Stevie and his band to use his LA studio for free. Songs they recorded there got the band signed by John Hammond, the legendary producer credited with landing contracts for Dylan, Aretha Franklin, Bruce Springsteen, Janis Joplin and many others. It took Vaughan and his band Double Trouble just three days to record the tracks on the demos that esrned them a contract and signing bonus from Columbia Records. Texas Flood, Stevie Ray's debut studio album with Double Trouble was recorded in just a couple of days, with no overdubs. It came out on this day in 1983.

Other Noteworthy Classic Rock events on June 13 include...

1951 Heart guitarist and keyboards player (1975-'98) Howard Leese born.

1969 The Rolling Stones stage a press conference in Hyde Park to introduce Mick Taylor as a new member of the band to the media and fans.

1975 Jefferson Starship releases Red Octopus

1977 Neil Young releases American Stars & Bars.

1979 The Cars release Candy -O.

1980 Pat Benatar plays before Phillies game, dances with the team mascot.

1988 Sting, Dire Straits, Bryan Adams, Stevie Wonder featured in anti-apartheid benefit concert at Wembley Stadium.

1988 Jethro Tull releases 20th anniversary box set.

1991 Van Halen releases For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge.

1995 Jimmy Buffett releases Margaritaville Café Late Night Gumbo.

2003 David Gilmour and Sting named CBE recipients during the Queen's Birthday Honors program in London.

2006 Billy Joel releases 12 Gardens, collection recorded during Madison Square Garden concerts.

2013 Steven Tyler, Joe Perry and J.D. Souther inducted by Songwriters Hall of Fame.

2016 Glenn Frey, John Prine, Cat Stevens inducted by Songwriters Hall of Fame.

2019 John Prine, Cat Stevens, Glenn Frey and Tom T. Hall inducted by the Songwriters Hall Of Fame.

2022 Ozzy Osbourne undergoes surgery in Los Angeles that his wife describes as major and one that will be a determining factor in his quality of life.  Although details are not provided, the operation is believed to relate to injuries the Black Sabbath frontman sustained in an ATV accident some years earlier.

Boston's Brad Delp was born on this day in 1951 in Peabody Mass.  Delp not only did all of the lead vocals on the group's monumentally successful 1976 debut album, he did all of the background vocals as well.  Brad, Barry Goudreau and Fran Sheehan were also together in the group RTZ in the early 90's. Sadly, Delp took his own life in his New Hampshire home in March of 2007, leaving behind a note in French that read simply, "I am a lonely soul'.

Other Noteworthy Classic Rock events on June 12 include...

1941 Roy Harper born.

1949 King Crimson and Asia's John Wetton born.

1951 Cheap Trick drummer Bun E. Carlos (Brad Carlson) born.

1952 Pretenders founding bassist Pete Farndon born.   

1953 Rocky Burnette born.

1964 Beatles play to 250,000 in Adelaide, Australia.

1966 Steven Tyler busted in an undercover cop sting at his high school.

1968 Blues Traveler bassist Bobby Sheehan born. 

1969 Mick Taylor introduced as the replacement for Brian Jones by the Rolling Stones.

1970 Mick Fleetwood marries Jenny Boyd

1976 John Lennon releases Somewhere In New York City. 

1977 Kenny Wayne Shepherd born.   

1982 Bruce Springsteen, Jackson Browne, Linda Ronstadt and Gary U.S. Bonds perform at No Nukes Concert in New York's Central Park for a crowd estimated to be from 750,000 - 1 million.

1990 Bad Company releases Holy Water.

2002 Billy Joel crashes his car on Long Island, enters rehab soon after.

2003 Queen, Phil Collins. Van Morrison and Little Richard inducted by the Songwriters Hall Of Fame.

2005 Pink Foyd announces they will reunite for the Live 8 Concert in July.

2007 Bon Jovi releases Lost Highway.

2007 Rolling Stones release A Bigger Bang 4 DVD set. 

2007 Neil Young’s wife Pegi releases her debut album.   

2011 E Street Band sax man Clarence Clemons suffers a stroke at his south Florida home.

2021 Triumph releases Allied Forces 40th anniversary expanded edition...

Happy birthday to the member of ZZ Top member that doesn't need a beard because he IS a Beard... drummer Frank Beard.

Other Noteworthy Classic Rock events on June 11 include...

1947 Supertramp founding guitarist/songwriter Richard Palmer born.

1952 .38 Special lead singer guitarist Donnie Van Zant born.

1962 Pete Best plays drums with the Beatles for the final time on the BBC TV show Here We Go.

1964 The Rolling Stones stage a press conference in the middle of Michigan Avenue in Chicago.

1965 Rolling Stones release Got It Live If You Want It.

1968 Fire breaks out at Olympic Studios while the Rolling Stones are recording Beggar's Banquet.

1969 David Bowie's Space Oddity 45 released.

1971 Dennis Wilson of the Beach Boys badly injures hand when it breaks a window.

1976 AC/DC opens the Lock Up Your Daughters tour in Glasgow, Scotland.

1979 Paul McCartney releases Back To The Egg.   

1979 Chuck Berry draws a four month sentence on tax evasion charges.

1982 Eddie Money releases No Control.

1983 Alex Van Halen marries Valerie Kendall in LA.

1988 Dire Straits plays at Nelson Mandela tribute at Wembley Stadium.

2002 Paul McCartney marries Heather Mills.

2005 Jimmy Page awarded Officer of the British Empire and Brian May Commander status by the Queen.

2007 Genesis opens Turn It On Again tour in Finland.

2010 Ozzy Osbourne makes Longest Scream world record attempt at Dodgers game.

2010 U2 does an invitation only concert at the Apollo Theater in New York City.

2011 Dark Side of the Moon achieves another milestone; 1,000 weeks on the Billboard Albums Chart.

2021 Wolfgang Van Halen releases Mammoth...

On this day in 1975. the Eagles released One Of These Nights. Their 4th album would become the group's first #1 and their last with Bernie Leadon, who Joe Walsh replaced the following year. Glenn Frey considered it the easiest album the Eagles did from a songwriting and recording standpoint.

Other Noteworthy Classic Rock events on June 10 include...

1946 Procol Harum keyboard player Malcolm Fisher born.

1966 Janis Joplin makes her live debut with Big Brother & the Holding Company.
1967 The first Rock Festival is staged in Marin County, California by a San Francisco radio station. The two day event across the Golden Gate Bridge feature Jefferson Airplane, the Doors, the Byrds, Wilson Pickett, the Blues Magoos, the Seeds, Country Joe & the Fish and others.

1966 The Beatles record Rain.

1971 Police launch tear gas to disperse the crowd at a Jethro Tull concert in Denver.

1976 Alice Cooper cancels tour after collapsing.

1977 Clash members Joe Strummer and Nicky Headon fined for painting the group's name on a wall in London.

1978 Bill Wyman falls of the stage during the Rolling Stones tour opening date in lakeland, Florida.

1981 Asia forms.

1981 Bob Dylan opens Shot of Love tour in Chicago.

1983 Stevie Nicks releases The Wild Heart.

1983 Kinks release State Of Confusion.

1985 U2 releases Wide Awake In America.

1985 Talking Heads release Little Creatures.

1986 Grateful Dead cancel tour after Jerry Garcia goes into a diabetic coma.

2006 Jimmy Page, Robert Plant, John Paul Jones play together for the first time as the Led Zeppelin members rehearse for Ahmet Ertegun tribute concert.

2007 Rolling Stones do headline set at Isle of Wight - their first festival appearance in 31 years.

2007 World Hunger Organization gives Jackson Browne award in New York City.

2009 Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section keyboard player Barry Beckett dies.

2016 Rod Stewart knighted in Buckingham Palace ceremony.

2016 Eric Clapton reveals he has peripheral neuropathy that makes it painful for him to play guitar.

2018 Billy Joel gives Bruce Springsteen the Lifetime Achievement award at the Tony Awards in New York. Bruce later performs a My Hometown segment from his Springsteen On Broadway show.

The Rolling Stones released Some Girls, the first album featuring Ron Wood as a full-fledged member, on this day in 1978. Wood had played on the previous two Stones albums, It's Only Rock 'n Roll and Black and Blue. The songs on Some Girls were culled from nearly 50 tracks the newly invigorated band had recorded, some of which later appeared on Emotional Rescue and Tattoo You, the band's 1980 and '82 releases.

Other Noteworthy Classic Rock events on June 9 include...

1941 Deep Purple’s Jon Lord born.

1947 Mitch Mitchell of the Jimi Hendrix Experience born.

1970 Bob Dylan gets honorary degree during Princeton graduation.

1972 Bruce Springsteen signs with Columbia Records.

1977 The J. Geils Band releases Monkey Island.

1978 Moody Blues release Octave.

1986 Genesis releases Invisible Touch.

1989 Jimmy Page and Les Paul play together during Paul’s 72nd birthday at the Hard Rock Café in New York .

1992 Ozzy Osbourne opens his No More Tours tour in Portland, OR .

1998 Allman Brothers Band release Mycology.

1998 John Fogerty releases Premonition.

1999 Bruce Springsteen inducted into the Songwriters Hall Of Fame.

2002 Mick Jagger knighted.

2002 Peter Gabriel marries Meah Flynn.

2005 John Fogerty, Steve Cropper, Dave Porter and Issac Hayes inducted into Songwriters Hall Of Fame.

2017 The Edge receives 2017 Les Paul Spirit Award before U2 take stage at Bonnaroo Festival.

2018 Paul McCartney does unannounced concert at Liverpool's Philharmonic Club.

Boz Scaggs was born William Boyce Scaggs on this day in 1944 in Canton, Ohio. His family relocated to Oklahoma and then to Plano, Texas, where Boz met Steve Miller and joined his group the Marksmen as their lead singer at the age of 15. On graduating high school, the pair enrolled at the University of Wisconsin in Madison where they formed a couple of groups. Boz headed to the UK in 1965. After his 1965 debut album Boz failed to get traction, he returned to the States and hooked-up again with Miller, who had established himself a following in the San Francisco Bay area. Scaggs was on the Steve Miller Band's first two albums and then landed a solo contract with Atlantic Records and headed to Muscle Shoals, Alabama to record his outstanding second self-titled solo album, that featured Duane Allman on Loan Me a Dime. His mid 70's album Silk Degrees featured future members of Toto and became a career highlight.

Other Noteworthy Classic Rock Events on June 8 include...

1942 Three Dog Night's Chuck Negron born

1947 Uriah Heep's Mick Box born.

1979 Derek Trucks born.

1969 Brian Jones announced his decision to quit the Rolling Stones.

1970 Deep Purple's equipment truck impounded after too close an approach to East Germany.

1970 Bob Dylan releases Self Portrait.

1974 Rick Wakeman says no to staying in Yes.

1984 Billy Joel plays Wembley Stadium.

1985 Bob Dylan releases EMpire Burlesque.

1991 Bruce Springsteen and Patti Scialfa marry.

1998 A memorial service for Linda McCartney takes place at St. Martin's Church in London. Paul, George Harrison, Ringo Starr, Elton John, Sting, Pete Townshend attend, with the surviving former Beatles members singing Let It Be in Linda's honor.

2000 Head of New York City Police union calls for a boycott of Bruce Springsteen for his song American Skin.

2013  Fire Marshall shuts down Tom Petty concert at Fonda Theater in Hollywood due to overcrowding.   

2018 Fleetwood Mac guitarist Danny Kirwan dies at 68 of pneumonia.  Kirwan was in the band from 1968-1972 and also played on solo albums released by fellow Fleetwood Mac members Christine McVie and Jeremy Spencer as well as three solo albums of his own.

Ground was broken on the Rock Hall Of Fame on this day in 1993 along the lake shore in Cleveland. Pete Townshend, Chuck Berry and Billy Joel participated in person. The 150,000 square foot building designed by architect I.M. Pei officially opened on September 2, 1995 and a commemoration concert at nearby Municipal Stadium included performances by Bob Dylan and James Brown.

Other Noteworthy Classic Rock events on June 7 include...

1944 Byrds Clarence White born.

1966 Stone Temple Pilots Eric Kretz born.

1967 Red Hot Chili Peppers/Jane's Addiction Dave Navarro born.

1969 Blind Faith does its only London concert in Hyde Park.

1970 The Who perform Tommy at the Metropolitan Opera House in new York City.

1977 Sex Pistols members arrested for attempting to disrupt UK's Silver Jubilee Celebration by playing God Save the Queen on a floating stage in the Thames River.

1982 Graceland opens to the public in Memphis 5 years after Elvis Presley dies.

1993 Prince changes his name to a symbol.

1994 Jefferson Airplane and Starship singer Grace Slick draws a sentence of 200 hours of community service and attendance at AA meetings for pointing a gun at a policeman three months earlier.

1994 Stone Temple Pilots release Purple,

1994 Stevie Nicks releases Street Angel.

1997 Iggy Pop dislocates shoulder in stage dive during Columbus, Ohio concert when no one catches him.

2007 Jackson Browne inducted into Songwriters Hall Of Fame.

2007 Paul McCartney does club concert in London, Jeff Beck and David Gilmour attend.

2008 Bo Diddley funeral takes place in Gainesville, Florida.

2008 John Paul Jones and Jimmy Page perform with the Foo Fighters at Wembley Stadium.

2012 Former Fleetwood Mac member Bob Welch commits suicide.

2019 Phil Collins and Mike Rutherford reunite during Berlin concert on Follow You Follow Me.

Some albums sound so different from anything that came before them that the first time you hear them sticks with you. This is one of them. Released on this day in 1978, the Cars debut album spent nearly the next 6 months on the Billboard album chart, spawning several of the biggest Rock radio tracks of the year and earned the group Best New Artist of the Year from Rolling Stone - back when the magazine still had musical cred.

1942 Canned Heat's Larry Taylor born.

1944 Big Brother & the Holding Company's Peter Albin born.

1951 Dwight Twilly born.

1960 Steve Vai born.   

1962 Beatles audition for EMI Records.   

1966 The Beatles record Eleanor Rigby.

1969 Rod Stewart signs solo contract with Mercury Records while still in the Jeff Beck Group.   

1971 John Lennon & Yoko join Frank Zappa on stage during Mothers of Invention concert at Fillmore East. 

1979 A Def Leppard concert in Sheffield, UK lands them a record contract.

1982 Tom Petty, Bob Dylan, Crosby, Stills and Nash, Jackson Browne, Stevie Nicks and Stevie Wonder play the Peace Sunday; We Have a Dream concert at the Rose Bowl.

1989 Paul McCartney releases Flowers In The Dirt.   

1987 Heart releases Bad Animals.   

1989 Stevie Ray Vaughan In Step released.  1989 Queen releases The Miracle. 

1993 The Velvet Undergound reunites for a live set at Wembley Stadium. 

1998 Chris Robinson of Black Crowes gets in brawl with two men at Sunset Marquis Hotel bar in LA. 

2000 Ron Wood enters rehab.

2004 Eric Clapton stages his Crossroads Festival in Dallas. 

2006 Cheap Trick releases Rockford.   

2006 Billy Preston dies of hypertension and kidney complications.

2016 Kirk Hammett and James Hetfield do the national anthem before game 4 of the Stanley Cup in San Jose.

2017 Original Woodstock Festival site added to National Register of Historic Places....

On this day in 1992,  An Allman Brothers Band live album got its release.

Other classic rock events on June 5 include...

1947 Tom Evans of Badfinger born.

1957 Iron Maiden's Nico McBrain born.

1964 Rolling Stones make US concert debut in San Bernadino. California.

1968 Robert Kennedy gunned down in LA. Rolling Stones write Sympathy For The Devil and Stephen Stills writes Long Time Gone the following day.

1969 Doos documentary Feast of Friends premieres.

1971 Grand Funk Railroad sells-out Shea Stadium in three days.

1975 Syd Barrett sees band mates for the final time at Abbey Road Studios.

1977 Alice Cooper’s boa constrictor dies after being bitten by a rat it was being fed.

1979 Eric Clapton attends B.B. King’s wedding to Marva Jean Brooks.

1982 Heart releases Private Audition.

1983 U2 films Under a Blood Red Sky concert film during set at Red Rocks Amphitheater in Colorado.

1987 Prince's Trust benefit concert features Eric Clapton, George Harrison, Phil Collins, Elton John, Jeff Lynne, Ben E, King and Dave Edmonds.

1988 Patti Boyd applies for divorce from Eric Clapton.

1989 Doobie Brothers open reunion tour with original lineup.

2001 Dee Dee Ramone dies from heroin overdose.

2006 Elliot Easton breaks his collarbone when New Cars tour bus swerves to avoid another vehicle.

2007 Paul McCartney releases Memory Almost Full.

2007 Elton John entertains at Rush Limbaugh's 4th wedding, Palm Beach.

2010 Producer Daniel Lanois seriously injured in motorcycle crash in LA.

2013 Judas Priest announces reunion plans.

2020 Dion releases Blues With Friends, including Jeff Beck, Joe Bonamassa, Billy Gibbons,Bruce Springsteen, Steve Van Zandt, Van Morrison and more.

Bruce Springsteen released his 7th studio album on this day in 1984. In contrast to Nebraska, his sparse 1982 album which was largely recorded in a single session,  Born In The U.S.A. took years to take its final form. Cover Me got recorded near the end of January 1982. The title song and five more of the albums twelve songs came together fairly quickly during three weeks of sessions at the Power Station studios in New York in the spring of 1982.  Bobby Jean, No Surrender and My Hometown were recorded in October, 1983. Dancing in the Dark was a late addition that did not get written and recorded until mid February of 1984.

1953 Wings, Thunderclap Newman and Stone The Crows guitarist Jimmy McCulloch born.

1955 Danny Brown of The Fixx born.

1959 Bob Dylan (Zimmerman) graduates from Hibbing Minnesota high school.

1963 Dave Matthews Band’s Stefan Lessard born.

1964 Beatles open first European tour in Copenhagen, Denmark.

1966 Pete Quaife of the Kinks breaks his foot in a car wreck.
1966 Janis Joplin joins Big Brother and the Holding Company.
1967 Procol Harum makes live debut opening for Jimi Hendrix at the Seville Theater.

1969 Nicky Hopkins quits the Jeff Beck Group.

1974 David Bowie's Diamond Dogs tour opens in Montreal.
1979 Chuck Berry does a White House cooncert set for Jimmy Carter.
1979 Fleetwood Mac records Tusk with the USC Marching Band at Dodger Stadium.

1986 U2, Peter Gabriel, Sting open Amnesty International Tour in San Francisco.

1989 Ozzy Osbourne donates $15,000 to AIDS research.

1993 Kurt Cobain jailed after police break-up a disturbance with his wife over his gun collection.

1996 Metallica performs outside of record stores in San Francisco, San Jose and Sacramento the day Load is released.

1996 Crowded House announces break-up.

1997 Faces veteran Ronnie Lane dies of Pneumonia.

2013 Jefferson Airplane, Hot Tuna veteran Joey Covington dies in a car wreck.

2021 Billy Gibbons releases Hardware...
 

Mott the Hoople's Ian Hunter was born on this day in 1939 in Shopshire, England.

Other Noteworthy classic rock events on June 3 include...

1942 Curtis Mayfield born.

1946 Michael Clarke of the Byrds born.

1947 T-Rex percussionist Mickey Finn born.

1950 Suzi Quatro born.
1952 Lynyrd Skynyrd keyboard player Billy Powell born.
1964 Ringo Starr collapses, hospitalized with acute tonsillitis.

1970 Deep Purple releases In Rock.

1970 Ray Davies flies from New York to London to change ‘Coca’ to ‘Cherry’ Cola in the Kinks song Lola.
1972 Rolling Stones open Exile On main Street tour. 
1977 Bob Marley releases Exodus.

1978 Peter Gabriel releases his second self-titled album.

1994 Eddie Vedder marries Beth Liebing in Rome.

1995 U2 signs 6 album $60 million deal. 

1998 Falling plaster during a Van Halen concert sound check in Hamburg, Germany injures Alex Van Halen, some dates cancelled.   
1997 Pat Benatar releases Innamorata.

1998 1,683 guitarists set new Guinness record by playing Smoke On The Water in Kansas City. 

2000 Allman Brothers Band veteran Dickey Betts is arrested after threatening his wife with a knife.

2002 The Queen's Jubilee concert features Paul Mccartney, Sting, Ozzy Osbourne, Elton John and Brian Wilson.

2008 Journey releases Revelation.
2009 Blues great Koko Taylor Dies.   
2010 Paul McCartney is awarded Gershwin Popular Song award, performs in East Room of the White House.

2017 Gregg Allman is laid to rest near his brother Duane and Berry Oakley in Rose Hill Cemetery in Macon, Georgia following a service and a procession through the streets of the city.

A pair of monumental albums had their releases on this day. On June 2,1967 the mind bogglingly groundbreaking Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Heart's Club Band  got its US release and established itself as the top selling album for the next six months.  Eleven years later, Bruce Springsteen's Darkness on the Edge of Town's album ended a 3 year album drought brought on by legal wrangling with his former manager. His highly anticipated follow-up to Born To Run did not disappoint. Springsteen had written close to 70 songs during the recording hiatus. Some of the ones he left off of Darkness were big songs for other artists.  Because The Night became the top track of Patti Smith's career and was also a hit for the Pointers Sisters. Fire put Robert Gordon on a lot of peoples radar. Bay Area rocker Greg Kihn had a good run with Rendezvous and Southside Johnny included three Darkness leftovers on his Hearts of Stone album.

Other Noteworthy Classic Rock events on June 2 include...

1941 Rolling Stones drummer Charlie Watts is born.

1951 .38 Special drummer Steve Brookins born.

1964 The Rolling Stones do their first concert on US soil in Lynn, MA.

1967 Small Faces release From the Beginning.

1973 John Bonham dumps bucket of ice water on promoter Bill Graham's head during backstage argument in San Francisco.

1973 Electric Light Orchestra opens its first US concert in San Diego.

1976 Paul McCartney and Wings do largest indoor concert to date for 67,100 in Seattle Kingdome.

1978 Thin Lizzy releases Live and Dangerous.

1984 Aerosmith opens the Back in the Saddle tour in Concord, NH.
1986 Bruce Hornsby and the Range release The Way It Is

1989 48 year old Rolling Stone Bill Wyman marries 19 year old Mandy Smith.

1992 Rod Stewart marries Rachel Hunter.

1993 Aerosmith opens Get A Grip tour in Topeka.

1993 Mick Jagger and Keith Richards are inducted by the Songwriters Hall of Fame.

1998 Jimi Hendrix BBC Sessions released.

2006 Vince Welnick of the Tubes and Grateful Dead takes his own life at 55.

2006 Jackson Browne plays Congressional campaign fund raiser for John Hall of Orleans.

2007 Jackson Browne and David Crosby do benefit for arts programs in Santa Monica public schools.

2008 Woodstock Museum opens in Bethel, NY.

2008 Bo Diddley dies.

2010 Don Henley wins suit against California senate candidate that used 2 of his songs in parodies.

2010 Paul McCartney gets the Gershwin Prize during an awards ceremony featuring performances by Elvis Costello, Emmylou Harris and Jack White,

2017 Toxicology report shows Chris Cornell had multiple prescription drugs in his system when he committed suicide.

2022 Ringo Starr picks-up an honorary degree from Berklee College of Music in Boston...

Jeff Beck Group, Faces and Rolling Stones veteran Ron Wood was born on this day in 1947.  He did recording sessions for 1974 the Stones album Black and Blue and toured with the group in '75 while still a member of the Faces  in '75 before becoming officially declared a member of the Rolling Stones in in April of 1976. 

Other noteworthy June 1 events in Classic Rock include...

1951 Triumph's Mike Levine born.   

1964 Rolling Stones arrive in New York for first US tour.

1972 Eagles release self titled debut. 

1972 Pink Floyd starts recording Dark Side Of The Moon.   

1981 George Harrison releases Somewhere In England.

1982 Rolling Stones release Still Life. 

1983 Talking Heads release Speaking in Tongues. 

1999 Napster makes online debut. 

2009 Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, Yoko One & Olivia Harrison attend announcement Beatles Rock Band game release.   

2009 Bruce Springsteen sells out 3 Giants Stadium concerts.   

2011 Ringo Starr and his All-Starr Band stream live performance during press conference announcing European Tour.