On this day 1970, the Who released Live at Leeds, the group's ferociously raw set recorded on Valentine's Day three months earlier at the University Refectory, a 2,000 seat auditorium at the University of Leeds in West Yorkshire, UK. The concert was arranged expressly to record a live album that would dispel impressions the Tommy rock opera album created that the group was heading in an art rock direction. The intensely raw and hard rocking set delivered from the stage that night is produced what is widely considered one of the best live albums ever released.

Other Noteworthy Classic Rock Events on May 16th include...

1946 King Crimson's Robert Fripp is born.

1946 Foghat drummer Roger Earl is born

1947 Nazareth drummer Darrell Sweet is born.

1950 Zephyr, James Gang, Deep Purple and Firefall guitarist Jock Bartley is born

1951 Jonathan Richman born.     

1966 The Beach Boys release Pet Sounds.     

1966 The Beatles record Taxman and For No One.

1969 John Lennon is declared 'inadmissible immigrant' by the US State Department. 

1969 Jack Casady of Jefferson Airplane gets arrested on drug charge in a New Orleans hotel.

1969 Pete Townshend is jailed for hitting plain clothes cop who went on stage during Who Fillmore East concert to tell audience to evacuate due to a fire in an adjoining building.

1970 Marty Balin of Jefferson Airplane gets busted on a drug charge in a Bloomington, Indiana hotel.

1974 Queen cancels US tour when Brian May comes down with hepatitis.

1975 Kinks release A Soap Opera.

1978 Joe Walsh releases But Seriously, Folks.

1980 Paul McCartney releases McCartney II in the UK.

1980 Yes replaces Jon Anderson and Rick Wakeman with Geoff Downes and Trevor Horn.

1980 Brian May collapses during a Queen concert and is hospitalized with hepatitis.

1984 Ozzy Osbourne is charged with public intoxication in Dallas.

1986 Elvis Costello marries Caitlan O'Riordan of the Pogues.

1998 Several Rolling Stones Bridges to Babylon tour dates get cancelled when Keith Richards breaks ribs in a fall while reaching for a book in his home.

2010 Ronnie James Dio dies of stomach cancer in Houston hospital.

2017 Bon Jovi does surprise performance of Reunion during Fairleigh Dickinson University graduation.

Stevie Ray Vaughan's second album hit the streets on this day in 1984.  Side one ended with his 8 minute version of Voodoo Chile (Slight Return), the Hendrix classic off Electric Ladyland. Cold Shot, the opener on side two and the title track were the other biggest songs on the release that was recorded in New York City's Power Station studios under the guidance of John Hammond of Columbia Records.

Other Noteworthy Classic Rock events on May 15 include...

1948 Brian Eno is born. 

1948 Uriah Heep's Gary Thain is born.

1953 Mike Oldfield is born. 
1963 The Rolling Stones sign Decca Records contract.

1967 Paul McCartney meets future wife Linda Eastman at a London Georgie Fame concert. 
1968 Wonderwall film premieres at the Cannes Film Festival.  George Harrison and Ringo Starr attend the screening.  John Lennon and Paul McCartney skip it to hold a press conference announcing they were ending their association with Maharishi Mahesh Yogi.  

1974 Bill Wyman releases Monkey Grip, first Rolling Stones solo project.   

1975 The Fleetwood Mac lineup of Mick Fleetwood, Lindsey Buckingham, Stevie Nicks, and Christine and John McVie debuts live in El Paso, Texas.

1976 Thin Lizzy releases The Boys Are Back In Town. 

1976 The Steve Miller Band releases Fly Like an Eagle.

1980 The Sex Pistols Great Rock Swindle premiers.  

1981 Moody Blues release Long Distance Voyager. 

1984 Nils Lofgren joins Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band.     

1987 David Crosby marries Jan Dance.     

1994 Sting picks up Berklee College of Music degree in Boston.

1997 Buffalo Springfield, Crosby, Stills and Nash, Joni Mitchell, the Young Rascals are inducted into the Rock Hall Of Fame.  

1995 Scott Weiland arrested on drug charges outside Pasadena hotel.

2016 A guitar George Harrison borrowed sells for $490,000 at New York Hard Rock Cafe auction.   

2017 Don Henley confirms that Glenn Frey's son Deacon has joined the Eagles.

2020 Bob Dylan awarded Sweden's Polar Music Prize...

One of rock's most prominent bassists was born on this day in 1943. Jack Bruce teamed with his future Cream bandmate, Ginger Baker, in the band known as the Graham Bond Organisation in the early 1960s. Bruce left that group  for a brief stint as the bass player in John Mayall & the Blues Breakers during Eric Clapton's  tenure in that band. After Bruce and Clapton parted with Mayall's outfit, they tapped Baker to join them in forming Cream. In addition to being a fantastically gifted bassist Bruce was a solid songwriter and distinctive vocalist. He penned and sang lead on a number of  the short lived but prolific  trio's biggest songs, including Sunshine of Your Love, White Room and I Feel Free.  Following Cream's demise, Bruce teamed with former Mountain members Leslie West and Corky Laing in another power trio, West, Bruce and Laing.

Other Noteworthy classic rock events on May 14 include...

1952 Talking Heads front man David Byrne is born.     

1953 Red Rider's Tom Cochrane is born.   

1962 Cult's Ian Astbury is born. 

1968 John Lennon and Paul McCartney guest on the Tonight Show to announce the formation of Apple Records.   

1969 Neil Young releases Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere.

1970 Crosby Stills & Nash break up.     

1976 Yardbirds lead singer and harp player Keith Relf is electrocuted playing guitar in his home.   

1976 Linda Ronstadt, Jackson Browne and the Eagles do a benefit for Jerry Brown's presidential campaign.

1977 Heart releases Little Queen. 

1979 Black Keys guitarist and singer Dan Auerbach is born.

1985 Supertramp releases Brother, Where Are You Bound.

1988 Led Zeppelin reunites for 40th anniversary of Atlantic Records, Madison Square Garden.     

1996 Def Leppard releases Slang.

2002 Rush releases Vapor Trails.

2008 Metallica opens North American tour in Los Angeles.  

2015 B.B. King dies at 89 after a stroke related to Diabetes.   

2016 The Edge falls off stage during U2 concert in Vancouver.

2016 Jimmy Carter awards Gregg Allman Humanities doctorate during Mercer University graduation in Macon, Georgia. 

2017 Robert Plant and Brian Johnson join Paul Rodgers for encore during Bad Company front man's solo band concert.

2017 E Street Band guitarist and Sopranos star Steven Van Zandt delivers graduation address at Rutgers University.

2017 Early Alice Cooper Band members reunite with him during Nashville encore...

One of the great Classic Rock albums of the 1980's dropped on this day in 1985 when Dire Straits released Brothers in Arms.The fifth studio album from the group topped the album sales charts for 14 weeks, became one of the top 10 albums in UK sales history and went platinum 9 times over in the US, with more than 30 millions copies world wide.

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

1947 Mott The Hoople's Overend Watts is born. 
1950 Fleetwood Mac's Danny Kirwan is born. 
1950 Stevie Wonder is born.

1951 Roxy Music's Paul Thompson is born.

1966 The Kinks record Sunny Afternoon.

1970 The Beatles Let It Be has premiere in New York City. 

1970 Badfinger records No Matter What.   

1971 Grace Slick of Jefferson Airplane is in a car wreck near the Golden Gate Bridge.     

1977 Ted Nugent releases Cat Scratch Fever.

1985 Bruce Springsteen marries Julianne Phillips.

2005 Stevie Wonder becomes a father on his 55th birthday.   

2006 Cheap Trick performs in the infield during the Indianapolis 500 qualifying.   

2010 Bruce Springsteen, Sting and Elton John do Journey’s Don’t Stop Believin’ with Deborah Harry, Shirley Basey and Lady Gaga at a rainforest preservation benefit at Carnegie Hall.

2012 Donald ‘Duck’ Dunn dies while on tour in Tokyo. 

2014 The Black Keys release Turn Blue.

2017 A Major Pink Floyd exhibit opens at the Victoria & Albert Museum in London.

2017 Axl Rose joins Billy Joel on Highway To Hell and Big Shot at Dodger Stadium.

2018 Guess Who veteran Burton Cummings suffers multiple injuries in a Los Angeles car accident.

2022 Eddie Vedder invites teenage drummer and Pearl Jam fan Kai Neukermans to join them on the song Mind Your Manners during the group's Oakland Arena concert.

2022 Canadain rock trio Triumph's documentary Triumph: Rock and Roll Machine premieres on Nugs.net...

A couple of amazing albums had their releases on this day five years apart.  The debut album from the Jimi Hendrix Experience on May 12, 1967 and Exile On Main Street from the Rolling Stones on this day in 1972.

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

1942 Ian Dury is born.   

1945 Faces keyboard player Ian McLagan is born.     

1948 Spencer Davis Group, Traffic, Blind Faith's Steve Winwood born.   

1950 Billy Squier is born. 

1958 Kiss drummer Eric Singer is born.

1963 Bob Dylan walks out of Ed Sullivan Show rehearsal over CBS refusal to let him perform Talking John Birch Paranoid Blues on the show.  

1965 The Rolling Stones record (I Can't Get No) Satisfaction.

1967 Tjhe Who stage a quadrophonic concert in London.   

1967 Pink Floyd debuts surround sound at a concert in Queen Elizabeth Hall in London.

1968 Brian Jones does his final concert with the Rolling Stones.

1968 Jimi Hendrix is arrested on Hashish and heroin charges in Toronto.

1971 Mick Jagger marries Bianca Perez Morena in St. Tropez.   

1972 John Lennon says the FBI is trailing him on Dick Cavett Show.     

1975 Jefferson Starship does free Central Park concert for an estimated 60,000 in New York City. 

1977 The Sex Pistols sign with Virgin Records.

1981 Van Halen opens Fair Warning tour in Halifax, Nova Scotia.
1981 Meat Loaf files for bankruptcy.

1984 The Cars play Saturday Night Live. 
1985 Phil Collins opens his No Jacket Required tour in Worcester, MA.

1986 Joe Strummer of the Clash loses his drivers license on a DUI conviction.

1990 Eagles members Glenn Frey, Don Henley and Timothy B. Schmit perform together at a convention in LA.

1992 The Black Crowes release Southern Harmony & Musical Companion.

1992 Billy Joel meets with Russian premier Mikhail Gorbachev.   

1997 Yes cancels US tour because Rick Wakeman won't tour.

2000 The gates to Strawberry Fields are stolen,

2002 Aerosmith's Tom Hamilton loses his Cape Cod house in a fire.

2006 James Hetfield of Metallica given Stevie Ray Vaughan award for helping in fight against addiction. 

2007 The Edge of U2 gets Berklee College of Music honorary degree in Boston.

2011 David Gilmour and Nick Mason join Roger Waters on Comfortably Numb and Behind The Wall during concert at London’s 02 Arena. 

2012 Eagles members get honorary degrees from Berkleee School Of Music in Boston.

2017 Eddie Vedder joins  Red Hot Chili Peppers on Shine On You Crazy Diamond  duringK Arena concert in Seattle. 

2017 U2 opens Joshua Tree anniversary tour in Vancouver...

The soundtrack to the original Woodstock festival film got its release on this day in 1970. The triple album has been repackaged and expanded a number of times in the decades since. The Rhino Records collection released on the original festival's 50th anniversary dwarfed all of the previous releases. It contains 38 discs and more than 20 hours of performances from the 1969 festival that had not been previously released.

Other noteworthy May 11 events over the years include...

1941 Eric Burdon of the Animals and War is born.

1947 Allman Brothers Band drummer Butch Trucks is born.
1967 The Beatles record baby You're a Rich Man.

1973 Paul McCartney & Wings open their first tour in Bristol, England.

1973 Stevie Wonder records Higher Ground.

1974 Robert Plant joins Elvis Presley on the song Love Me during Presley's  Los Angeles concert.

1979 Bob Dylan opens recording sessions for Slow Train Coming.

1981 Bob Marley dies of cancer.

1981 Frank Zappa puts out four albums on the same day.

1989 The Songwriters Hall of Fame inducts Roy Orbison.

1993 Dire Straits releases On The Night

1995 Eric Clapton, BB King, Jimmy Vaughan, Buddy Guy, Robert Cray and Bonnie Raitt do a tribute to Stevie Ray Vaughan concert in Austin, Texas.

2003 Noel Redding, bass player in the Jimi Hendrix Experience, dies of cirrhosis of the liver complications.

2014 Foreigner bassist Ed Gagliardi dies of cancer at 62

Paul David Hewson was born on this day in 1960 in Dublin. The future U2 front man, who now divides his time between music, political activism, extensive business dealings and humanitarian campaigns, has legions of people that love him and quite a few with a less favorable opinion about him.

He acquired the nickname Bono Vox, a variation on a Latin phrase for 'good voice', while a member of a young street gang. The forerunner to U2 was the group Feedback, formed when Bono, Dave Evans (The Edge) and Adam Clayton contacted Larry Mullen, Jr. about a school bulletin board post he'd put up at their school in 1976 seeking musicians interested in forming a band. After a brief run as Feedback, the group switched to The Hype and then jettisoned that in favor of U2.

The group's first release came in the form of a 3 song EP titled U2-3 in 1979. U2 signed with Island Records and issued its first full album, Boy, in 1980. The 1981 release October and 1983's War built recognition for the group and the release of the live album Under a Blood Red Sky helped establish them as one of Rock's most dynamic live groups. They reached their pinnacle of popularity with 1984's The Unforgettable Fire and The Joshua Tree (1987), the album that moved them into the ranks of acts that could fill stadiums.

Other noteworthy May 10 events include...

1945 Traffic's Dave Mason is born.

1946 10CC's Graham Gouldman is born.

1946 Donovan (Leitch) is born.

1947 Spirit and Jo Jo Gunne's is Jay Ferguson born.

1957 Sex Pistol's Sid Vicious (John Simon Beverley) is born.

1967 Keith Richards and Mick Jagger enter not-guilty pleas on drug charges.
1968 Jim Morrison incites a riot during a Doors concert in Chicago.

1969 The Turtles play at the White House.

1972 Slade opens its first headlining tour.

1974 An LA Bash is staged for the debut of Sawn Song, Led Zeppelin's own subsidiary record label. 

1974 The Who sell out 8 nights at Madison Square Garden in 8 hours.

1974 Eric Clapton records I Shot The Sheriff.

1975 Allman Brothers Band release The Road Goes On Forever.

1975 The Beatles Apple record label shuts down.

1976 Ace Frehley marries Janette Treotola.

1976 Warren Zevon releases his self-titled debut.

1986 Tommy Lee marries Heather Locklear.

1993 Stage production of The Who's Tommy musical earns 11 Tony Award nominations.

1995 Black Crowes do Oklahoma City benefit show for Federal Building bombing victim's families.

2003 Berklee College of Music awards an honorary degree to Steven Tyler.

2005 The Rolling Stones announce their Bigger Bang tour with 3 song live set at Julliard School of Music in New York.

2006 Great White's road manager draws a four year prison sentence in connection with his role in the Rhode Island night club fire that killed 100 in February of 2003.

2007 Tribute to Syd Barrett of Pink Floyd staged in London.

2014 Jimmy Page gives commencement talk at Berklee College of Music in Boston.

2013 Two arrested and charged for toppling the statue of Thin Lizzy's Phil Lynott erected in his honor in Dublin.

Billy Joel was born on this day in 1949 in the Bronx.  Before opting to be a solo artist, Joel was in a band named The Hassles that released a pair of albums and then formed the duo Attila with other Hassles member Howie Blauvelt, who later became a co-founding member of the group Ram Jam that released the hit Black Betty in 1977.
Joel's solo career began with the 1971 album Cold Spring Harbor.  Columbia Records signed him after his 1972 live performance of Captain Jack on Philadelphia radio station WMMR  ignited a huge response.  A slightly shortened version of that song became the closing track on Joel's 1973 album, titled with the song what would become Billy's nickname, Piano Man. Streetlife Serenade and Turnstiles followed. Joel's biggest album, The Stranger, came out in 1977 and became the best selling album in Columbia's history to that point with more than 10 million copies sold.

Once Billy's days of long tours were in his rear view mirror, he started doing monthly concerts at Madison Square Garden that frequently include special guests dropping in to share the stage with him for a song or two.  

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

1944 Buffalo Springfield and Poco member Richie Furay born.

1945 Steve Katz of Blood Sweat & Tears born.

1950 Cheap Trick’s Tom Petersson is born.

1953 Status Quo's John Edwards is born.

1962 The Beatles sign their first recording contract with EMI.

1963 Paul McCartney meets Jane Asher for the first time back stage at Royal Albert Hall.

1965 Members of the Beatles and Rolling Stones attend Bob Dylan's concert at Royal Albert Hall.

1966 The Doors audition to be the house band at the Whiskey A Go Go in Hollywood.
1970 Lynyrd Skynyrd did Free Bird for the first time live.

1974 Bruce Springsteen does Born To Run for the first time while opening for Bonnie Raitt in Cambridge, MA.  Jon Landau's account of the concert includes, "I have seen the future of rock & roll and his name is Bruce Springsteen."
1978 Fee Waybill breaks leg in fall from stage during a Tubes London concert.

1982 Bob Dylan finishes recording his Infidels album.

1986 Peter Gabriel releases So.

1989 John Mellencamp releases Big Daddy.

1992 Springsteen does his first live TV appearance on Saturday Night Live.
1998 Jimmy Page plays Saturday Night Live.

2006 Neil Young releases Living With War.

2014 Keith Richards 1972 Dino 246 GT Ferrari auctioned in Monaco.

Happy birthday to the beat keeper and co-founding brother of Van Halen, Alex Van Halen - born on this day in 1953 in Amsterdam.  He and his brother Eddie became US citizens when Alex was nine.  Both had classical musical training on piano before Eddie took up drumming and Alex started playing guitar.  The pair flipped instruments after Eddie was blown away by his brother's playing of the drums to the Safaris 1963 hit song Wipe Out.

Other noteworthy May 8 events in Classic Rock include...

1917 Papa John Creach of Jefferson Airplane & Starship born.

1943 Danny Whitten, guitarist in Neil Young's band Crazy Horse is born.

1943 Yardbirds bassist Paul Samwell-Smith is born.     

1944 Gary Glitter born.    

1951 Talking Heads drummer Chris Frantz is born. 

1953 Fleetwood Mac’s Billy Burnette is born. 

1970 The Beatles release Let It Be 

1971 Alice Cooper releases Love It To Death. 

1972 Billy Preston becomes the first Rock act booked a New York City's Radio City Music Hall.

1977 Joe Bonamassa is born. 

1992 Genesis open US tour in Dallas. 

1993 Mark Knopfler given honorary degree from the University of  Newcastle.

1984 Roger Waters releases The Pros And Cons Of Hitch Hiking.

1996 A judge rules photos from an X-rated home movie Motley Crue's Tommy Lee and Pamela Anderson filmed can be published by Penthouse magazine.

1998 Johnny Winter added to Hollywood Walk Of Fame.

2006 Keith Richards undergoes brain surgery to address an injury resulting from a fall out of a palm tree in Fiji. Stones postpone European tour.

2008 Bruce Springsteen and his band do Born To Run in its entirety in Red Bank, New Jersey.

2009 Jimmy Buffett plays the Miami stadium that is home to the NFL Miami Dolphins when it is temporarily renamed Landshark Stadium for the Buffett branded beer.

2016 Rush opens R40 tour in Tulsa.

2021 Van Morrison releases Latest Record Project: Volume One...

Drummer Bill Kruetzmann was born on this day in 1946 in Palo Alto, California. The future co-founding drummer of the Warlocks and the Grateful Dead was undeterred by a school music teacher who pronounced him incapable of keeping a beat. He developed his own style derived in part from listening to R&B session drummers and from relentless solo drumming sessions on a Slingerlands kit he'd gotten. Lore has it that English writer and philosopher Aldous Huxley happened to hear young Kreuetzmann wailing away on the skins in a large, empty room at his school. Drawn to the scene by the innovative style of what the young drummer was laying down, Huxley was said to have remarked that he'd never heard anything like it, and that he encouraged Kreuetzmann to keep it up. 

Other  Noteworthy classic rock events on May 7 include...

1950 Tubes Prairie Prince is born.

1951 David Bowie band member Carlos Alomar is born.

1961 Motorhead's Phil Campbell is born. 1972 Reginald Dwight officially changes his name to Elton Hercules John.

1974 Led Zeppelin hosts a launch party for The group's Swan Song record label.

1985 Promoter Bill Graham’s San Francisco offices burn – arson is suspected.

1991 A court rules against a couple that sought to hold Ozzy Osbourne responsible for their son's attempted suicide.

1998 Steve Perry exits Journey for the second time.

2002 The Rolling Stones arrive via blimp in New York's Central Park to announce their 2002-2003 tour.

2003 Fleetwood Mac opens Say You Will tour in Columbus, Ohio.

2006 Rolling Stone magazine publishes issue 1,000.

2006 Roger Daltrey sings song he wrote for his favorite soccer team at closing of their stadium. He says the invitation is more exciting to him than when the Who were invited to play Woodstock.

2011 Bob Weir performs with the Marin County Symphony Orchestra in California. 2022 U2's Bono and The Edge do a 40 minute set in an underground metro station doing double duty as a bomb shelter in Kyiv, Ukraine during the Russian invasion of the country.

Join us in a toast to Bob Seger as he starts another year, Still Runnin' Against The Wind.

The son of a musical Ford Motor Company employee who played a number of instruments, Bob was introduced to a lot of music at a young age. But there was little harmony between his parents and his father deserted the family when Bob was just 10.

At 16, Seger became the lead singer, keyboard player and guitarist in a trio of fellow Ann Arbor High School members playing as the Decibels before moving into a quartet known as the Town Criers and then to Doug Brown & The Omens before forming his own group, Bob Seger and the Last Heard late in 1965.

The group name shifted to the Bob Seger System after landing a contact with Capitol Records in 1968. Their breakout single was Ramblin' Gamblin' Man, which became the title song for the band's 1969 album. The following year's album, Mongrel, failed to build interest and the System disbanded, after which Seger hooked up briefly with a duo known as Teegarden & Van Winkle for the album Smokin' O.P.'s in 1972. Bob put together another group to record the 1973 album Back In '72.

Things finally gelled musically for Seger with the formation of the SIlver Bullet Band in 1974. That year's album, Seven, included Get Out Of Denver. Capitol Records was impressed enough by it to give Seger another shot. 1975's Beautiful Loser album solidified Bob with the regional Rock fans to the point he could book back-to-back nights at the Cobo Arena by the fall of '75 and record Live Bullet, the 1975 double album that earned Seger and his band big time national recognition.

Even though he's retired from touring, Seger's vocal prowess remains as impressive as ever. Thanks for all the great years, songs and albums, Bob!

Other Noteworthy Classic Rock events on May 6 include...

1973 Paul Simon opens his first solo tour in Boston.

1977 The Boomtown Rats do their first concert in London.

1992 Bruce Springsteen plays an invitation only show at the Bottom Line in New York City.

1993 David Crosby guests on The Simpsons.

1994 Pearl Jam files a ticketing monopoly complaint against Ticketmaster with the Justice Department.

1995 Berklee School of Music awards James Taylor with an honorary degree.

1997 CSN&Y, Buffalo Springfield, Rascals and Joni Mitchell get inducted into the Rock Hall Of Fame.

1998 Canada names Bryan Adams an Officer of the Order of Canada.

2000 John Mellencamp delivers the commencement address at Indiana University.

2006 A memorial to Bon Scott of AC/DC is unveiled in Scottish hometown.

2006 Lynyrd Skynyrd’s Ean Evans dies of cancer.

2022 Timothy B. Schmit releases Day By Day, the Eagles member's 6th solo album... 

Bob Seger's second album with the Silver Bullet Band and his 10th studio album overall dropped on this day in 1978.  The bar was set high after the breakout success of his Night Moves album moved Seger into an Arena scale artist nationwide, a standing he had previously achieved in and around Detroit.  Stranger in Town would go platinum within weeks of its release.  Bob took the same appraoch on it as he had with Night Moves, relying on the Silver Bullet Band for about half the songs and working with the Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section on the others.

Other Noteworthy Classic Rock events on May 5 include...

1948 Black Sabbath drummer Bill Ward is born. 

1965 The Warlocks, forerunner of the Grateful Dead,make live debut in a Menlo Park, California pizza place. 

1965 Alan Price quits the Animals.

1968 Buffalo Springfield does its last concert, Long Beach, CA.

1969 Creedence Clearwater Revival releases Bayou Country.

1978 AC/DC releases Powerage.

1981 Tom Petty releases Hard Promises.

1985 Chrissie Hynde of the Pretenders marries Jim Kerr of Simple Minds in Central Park.   

1986 Rock Hall Of Fame officials announce museum will be in Cleveland.   

1996 Def Leppard’s  Joe Elliott gets arrested after altercation with lady in an LA hotel. 

1995 Former Guns N' Roses drummer Steven Adler is arrested on heroin charge.  

1997 Bruce Springsteen awarded Polar Music Prize by Sweden.

1997 Beat poet Allen Ginsberg dies.   

2014 Kenny Wayne Shepherd releases Goin' Home. 

2015 U2 members busk on a train platform at Grand Central Station in New York.   

2015 John Lodge releases 10,000 Light Years Ago...

An event widely considered to be a turning point in the nation's willingness to continue to support US military action in Southeast Asia took place on this day in 1970 when National Guard troops opened fire on Kent State University students in Ohio protesting the war in Vietnam.

In less than 20 seconds, four were killed and close to another dozen wounded. Neil Young wrote Ohio in the immediate aftermath of the incident and he and his band mates, David Crosby,Stephen Stills and Graham Nash recorded it the same day he'd written it.  The song was released as a single with the Stills song Find the Cost of Freedom on the flip side.

Other Noteworthy Classic Rock events on May 4 include...

1923 Spirit’s Ed Cassidy born.   

1951 Mick Mars (Bob Deal) of Motley Crue born1959 First Grammy awards given out. 

1964 The Moody Blues form. 

1967 Mick Jagger drops in to watch the Jimi Hendrix Experience rehearse for the Top Of The Pops TV show in the UK.   

1973 Led Zeppelin opens a US tour in Atlanta.

1987 Paul Butterfield dies of heart failure linked to a drug overdose in his Hollywood home at 44.

1989 Stevie Ray Vaughan opens his last tour in Vancouver. He would lose his life in a helicopter crash after a concert in Wisconsin on August 27, 1990,  just a few dates before the tour was scheduled to end.

1991 Berklee College of Music in Boston awards Phil Collins an honorary degree.

1997 Crosby Stills & Nash play Kent State University in Ohio on anniversary of 1970 shootings of war protesters on campus.

2000 Metallica demands Napster suspend the accounts of 335,000 people transferring the group's songs on the service.  

2006 Pearl Jam plays David Letterman Show.

2021 Steve Miller Band releases Breaking Ground August 3, 1977.

2022 The Black Crowes release 1972.

Many fans consider the album released on May 3rd, 1976 to be Aerosmith at it's raw, Rockin' best. The follow-up to Toys in the Attic did not disappoint, thanks in part to the group members bringing the live performance chops they honed during the lengthy 1975 tour into the studio with them.  The release has been cited as inspirational by many musicians including Slash, who said that hearing the the album convinced him to start playing guitar.The group's 4th studio release arrived just before the band's increasingly wild lifestyle would start undermining their ability to hold things together in the studio and on the road.

Other noteworthy May 3 events include...

1919 Pete Seeger is born. 

1928 James Brown is born.     

1953 REO Speedwagon bassist Bruce Hall is born. 

1955 Sex Pistol's Steve Jones is born.   

1968 Jimi Hendrix records Voodoo Chile

1971 Grand Funk Railroad invites 150 to a press conference in New York. 6 show up.     

1971 Led Zeppelin opens a European tour in Copenhagen.

1976 David Bowie opens a six night series of concerts at Wembley Stadium during his Station to Station tour.

1973 Paul McCartney opens Wings Over America tour in Dallas, TX.

1976 Paul McCartney and Wings open a US tour inFort Worth, Texas.

1977 Led Zeppelin sets single act attendance record at King Dome in Seattle (76,229).   

2006 Bob Dylan's Theme Time Radio Hour debts on satellite radio.

2009 Bruce Springsteen, John Mellencamp and dozens more perform at 90th birthday party for Pete Seeger at Madison Square Garden.

2012 Paul McCartney and wife Nancy Shevell avoid a near crash when the pilot of a helicopter transporting them in bad weather from London to the couple's Sussex home gets disoriented and almost clips trees.

2014 John Fogerty joins Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band on Proud Mary at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival.

2021 Yes releases Union 30 box set.

Louis Andrew Grammatico was born on this day in 1950 in Rochester, New York. The son of a band leading trumpet player, the future front man for Foreigner was in a few regional groups before becoming the drummer and lead vocalist of a group named Black Sheep that released albums in 1974 & '75.

Gramm met Mick Jones and gave him a copy of Black Sheep's first album when Jones played Rochester with his group Spooky Tooth. That earned him an opportunity to audition for a new group Jones was putting together a couple of years later. His strong audition landed Lou a place in the band what was briefly known as Trigger before switching its name to Foreigner, a good fit for an outfit comprised of both UK and US members.

Gramm released his first solo album in 1987 and his role in Foreigner entered an on-off phase that lasted several years until the group elected to seek a permanent replacement.

At the end of 2018, Lou announced at the end of a solo concert in Schenectady, New York that his audience that night had heard what would be his last concert as a touring musician.

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

1946 Kinks and Argent drummer Bob Henrit is born.

1965 Appearance number two for the Rolling Stones on the Ed Sullivan Show.

1969 The Beatles record Something.

1969 Who perform Tommy live at London club during press party.

1972 Bruce Springsteen auditions for John Hammond at Columbia Records offices in New York City.

1972 Stone The Crows guitarist Les Harvey is electrocuted on stage and dies when he grabs an ungrounded microphone with wet hands.

1977 Eric Clapton records Wonderful Tonight.

1979 Who do first concert with Kenny Jones on the drums in place of the late Keith Moon.

1980 The South African government bans Another Brick in The Wall by Pink Floyd.

1989 The Allman Brothers Band releases Dreams.

1991 The government of Ireland bans R.E.M. video for Losing My Religion due to religious images it contained.

1992 Berklee College of Music in Boston awards Bonnie Raitt an honorary doctorate of music degree.

2005 Bruce Springsteen releases Devils & Dust.

2011 Stevie Nicks releases In Your Dreams.

On this afternoon in 1975, the Rolling Stones announced their US tour at the 5th Avenue Hotel in New York City and then climbed onto a flatbed truck to play live while rolling through midtown Manhattan.

Other Noteworthy classic rock events on May 1 include...

1939 Judy Collins, the inspiration for Suite: Judy Blue Eyes by Crosby, Stills & Nash is born.

1945 Rita Coolidge is born.

1946 Blood, Sweat & Tears trumpet player Jerry Weiss is born.

1949 Jim Clench, bassist with April Wine and Bachman Turner Overdrive is born.

1966 Black Crowes and Lynyrd Skynyrd bassist Johnny Colt is born.

1967 Carl Wilson of the Beach Boys gets charged with draft evasion,

1967 Elvis Presley marries Priscilla Beaulieu at the Aladin Hotel in Las Vegas.

1969 Jimi Hendrix is arrested on drug charges in Toronto.

1973 Bachman Turner Overdrive releases it's debut album.  

1977 Clash open first tour in London.

Bianca Jagger files for divorce from Mick Jagger. 

1984 Mick Fleetwood declares bankruptcy.

1988 Mike Rutherford of Genesis loses 4 teeth in a polo match.   

2007 Rush releases Snakes & Arrows. 

2016 7,356 guitarists set Guinness World Record jamming to Hey Joe in Poland.