If you hear thunder today or tonite, it's Bonzo on the kit at his birthday party. If you don't hear thunder, it could because you got to witness him doing it in person.

U2 tours are spectacles of sights and sound. On May 27, 1987 the group's massive sound system managaed to trigger earthquake alarms during the Irish group's performance in Rome.

Stephanie Lynn Nicks... has the ring of a Country Music artist, and she might have become one. Her earliest singing was with her grandfather while growing up in the southwest.  After stints living in Phoenix, Albuquerque, and El Paso, the Nicks family settled in California, where Stevie joined a folk-rock group. She met her future musical and romantic partner Lindsey Buckingham in her senior year of high school. They were together in a band named Fritz while attending San Jose State until 1972, when Buckingham Nicks was formed. Their album got released in '73. Buckingham played guitar on Fleetwood Mac member Bob Welch's solo album, putting him on Mick Fleetwood's radar.  The drummer wanted Lindsey to replace Welch in FM, but Welch said he'd only do it if Nicks was added, too.  The pair became Fleetwood Mac members in January, 1975.

Def Leppard called on Trixter's Steve Brown to play guitar for them Friday (5/25) at the Hershey, PA stop on the Def Leppard/Journey tour  after Phil Collen let the band know he needed time to tend to a family emergency.  It wasn't clear how long Collen would need off.  

MORE DEF LEPPARD INSIGHTS

Most bands are lucky to have one guitarist as good as this guy. With Rudy, Scorpions has two.

Van Halen's 8th album and the second with Sammy Hagar out front was released 5/24/1988 and went on to sell more than 4 million copies.

The enigma/genius/crumudgeon/legend was born on this day in 1941 in Duluth, Minnesota.

Dead & Company kicking off 24 concert tour with a free webcast via nugs.tv from Xfinity Center in Mansfield, MA on Wednesday (5/30). All of the other concerts on the 19 city tour will also be live streamed on an individual or bundled basis.

Rleased in the UK 5/23/1969, six days after its US release, the Who's Tommy was met with a combination of rave and dismissive reviews, many of the negative ones based on the opinion that an album revolving around a multi-handicapped boy was distasteful and exploitive.

Nick Mason's Saucerful Of Secrets did the first of four London area concerts Sunday (5/20).  The performances of material from Pink Floyd's first couple of albums are appropriately low tech from a production standpoint, as you can see in this video of Fearless.

The Fender Stratocaster guitar Robbie Robertson owned that Bob Dylan played on his first electric tour was sold at auction by Julien's Auctions for $490,000. The instrument's value was boosted by the fact that George Harrison and Eric Clapton also played it. Bought with a jet black finish, the guitar was later stripped down to its natural wood surface.  The sunburst finish Fender Dylan used in his very first electric performance at the Newport Folk Festival sold five years ago for about twice the amount this guitar was purchased for. 

Rapid recovery wishes to Burton Cummings.  The Guess Who veteran was in an accident on Mother's Day in LA apparently caused by someone running a red light. He suffered a concussion, bruising and lacerations and a back injury.  Ironically, Cummings was in Los Angeles to serve on the jury in a medical malpractice trial.  The judge agreed to excuse him from jury duty so he could sing the anthem before the Winnipeg Jets/Las Vegas Knights hockey playoff game, on the condition that he sing it in court, which he did.  Adding insult to injury, Las Vegas eliminated the Jets before the game Cummings would have sung.

A double CD concert performance David Bowie delivered in London in 1978 is coming out in June. The Earl's Court concert came during a period Bowie was concentrating on material from his Low and Heroes albums.  Welcome to the Blackout gets released June 29. A good deal more live Bowie material expected to be mined in the coming years.  

MORE DAVID BOWIE INSIGHTS

Stevie Ray Vaughan's second album hit the streets on May 15, 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 big songs on the release.

One of the bigger co-headlining tours this summer has a twist that could put a dent in the amount of cleanup required after the concerts. Def Leppard fans will be able to buy a Pale Ale branded with the group's name and some art work from the Hysteria album.  The group is getting the brewing done by the Seattle based Elysian Brewing.  16 oz cans will be available starting with theDef Leppard/Journey tour's second stop,  Albany, New York's Times Union Center on May 23.  
Billboard.com

MORE DEF LEPPARD INSIGHTS

The soundtrack to the movie documenting the original Woodstock festival got released on this date in 1970.  Amazing as the lineup was in hindsight, several of the groups were in very early stages. It was only CSN's second performance with Neil Young as a member, Santana's debut album hadn't been released.  Several heavy hitters took a pass, including The Doors who, after looking at a map, concluded the location was so remote that it wouldn't draw much of a crowd.

Paul David Hewson born on this date in Dublin in 1960. Got to be known as Bono Vox, a variation on bonavox, the latin word for 'good voice', before forming U2 in 1976.

Pearl Jam has done some stripped down but powerful versions of I Won't Back Down in concert. Now, PJ guitarist Mike McCready has recorded a version of the Tom Petty anthem with KT Tunstall to raise money for his band's Vitalogy Foundation.

Happy birthday to William Martin Joel.  The Rock and Songwriters Hall of Fame member was born on May 9, 1949 in the Bronx.

The last go-round for Lynyrd Skynrd got underway Friday night (5/4) with a farewell tour opener in West Palm Beach, Florida.

Yesterday we congratulated Bob Seger on the 40th anniversary of the release of Stranger In Town, Today, join us in a toast to the man himself celebrates the start of his 73'rd year, Still Runnin' Against The Wind.

While several Rockers his age have said 'no mas' to touring or are in or planning farewell tours, Alice Cooper plans on doing more tours.  The 70 year old Cooper, who recently released his 27th album, is gearing up for a 40 date tour that will include a couple of nights with Ace Frehley.

MORE ALICE COOPER INSIGHTS

The album was Stranger In Town. He was.  After the multi-platinum success of Night Moves, Bob Seger made the move his Detroit area musical friend Glenn Frey had made many years earlier - he moved to Southern California and into a house in the hills of Hollywood.  Frey and fellow Eagle Don Felder played on the album Bob released on this date in 1978. So did Little Feat's Bill Payne.  But Bob's Hollywood Nights were short lived. It wasn't long before he abandoned Hollyweird to return to his home state and state of mind.

The local group Dysfuntion was getting New Orleans warmed up for the annual influx of Jazz Festival fans when one of the annual festival's best known Rockers jumped on stage with them on Bourbon Street. Dysfunction member Adam Haines told WWLTV that it's not unusual for fans to get excited enough to jump on stage with them during certain songs, but having Steven Tyler do it when his band broke into Walk This Way took everyone by surprise Thursday night (5/3).

After learning that National Guard troops had opened fire on Vietnam War protestors on the campus of Kent State University, Neil Young sat down and wrote a song that helped turn the tide of the country against the war.

Many fans consider the album released on May 3rd, 1976 to be Aerosmith at it's raw, Rockin' best. 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.

Bruce Springsteen will add to a hardware collection that includes a number of Grammys an Oscar and numerous other honors in June when he adds a Tony Award for his one man show Springsteen on Broadway.  The groundbreaking show at the Walter Kerr Theatre has been extended three times and will come close to 250 performances by the tme the run wraps in December.

The Tony Awards recognition is being bestowed on The Boss for what the organization calls Springsteen's "...ongoing engagement, a once-in-a-lifetime theatregoing experience for the Broadway stage, allowing fans an intimate look at a musical idol."

The Tony Awards telecast takes place from Radio City Music Hall on Sunday, June 10 and will air on CBS starting at 8p eastern.

MORE BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN INSIGHTS

Birthday wishes to THE voice of Foreigner, Lou Gramm, born Louis Andrew Grammatico on this date in 1950. Lou was in the Rochester, NY band Black Sheep. When Mick Jones performed there with Spooky Tooth, Grammatico gave Jones a Black Sheep album. He was impressed enough to invite Lou to audition for the lead vocal spot when Jones' was in the group that would become Foreigner. Lou got the gig, dropped a few letters from his last name and went on to become one of Rock's most highly acclaimed front men.

A sour note for Gibson today. The nearly 125 year old guitar maker filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.  The company, which also produces Baldwin pianos and products under the Wurlitzer, Cerwin Vega, Epiphone and Dobro brand names, hopes to stay in the business of producing instruments, but consumer electronics like the headphones and speakers under the Phillips name will get the axe.

Rapid Recovery wishes to Bonnie Raitt. She has announced she won't be able to do a series of concerts with James Taylor  due to a medical situation that requires surgery.