Today in Headbanger History

October 11, 1999 – Tommy Lee of Mötley Crüe is released on $5000 bail after being arrested for inciting the crowd to attack a security guard at a North Carolina show.  He is charged with “assault and inciting a riot with ethnic animosity” and later sentenced to 18 months probation after pleading “no contest” to the […]

October 10, 1975 – Deep Purple release Come Taste the Band, their only studio album to feature guitarist Tommy Bolin.  The album is also the final of three albums to feature Glenn Hughes on bass and a pre-Whitesnake David Coverdale on lead vocals. October 10, 1995 – Peter Frampton releases Frampton Comes Alive II, the long awaited sequel to his record-setting live album released in 1976. October 10, […]

October 9, 1985 – On what would have been John Lennon‘s 45th birthday, Yoko Ono opens Strawberry Fields in New York City’s Central Park. The entrance to the memorial is located directly across from the Dakota Apartments where Lennon last lived and where he was murdered in 1980.  Ono donated $1 million to open the park. October 9, 1974 – Rush make their American television […]

October 8, 2010 – Ozzy Osbourne blasts the Westboro Baptist Church for paraphrasing lyrics from his song “Crazy Train” after they tell reporters the U.S. deaths in Afghanistan and Iraq are “punishment for America’s tolerance of homosexuality and abortion.”  Ozzy says, “I am sickened and disgusted by the use of “Crazy Train” to promote messages of hate […]

October 7, 1984 – Dee Snider is arrested after a concert in Amarillo, TX for using “profane and abusive” language.  According to Snider, a mom who had escorted her daughter to the show filed a complaint after Snider screamed, “Suck my mutha-f****n’ d**k!” at a concertgoer who was harassing him.  Snider would pay a whopping fine of $75. October […]

October 6, 1990 – A Gathering of Tribes, a two-day concert said to be the inspiration behind Lollapalooza, is staged in Mountain View, CA and Costa Mesa, CA by The Cult’s Ian Astbury and promoter Bill Graham. Artists on the bill include Soundgarden, Ice-T, Indigo Girls, Queen Latifah, Joan Baez, Steve Jones, Michelle Shocked, Iggy […]

October 5, 2003 – Surviving Nugent, Ted Nugent’s reality show, set on Nugent’s 2000-acre Michigan ranch, premieres on VH1. Seven contestants compete in a series of challenges, like building an outhouse and skinning a boar, for a new pickup truck and $25,000. October 5, 2008 – Ritchie Blackmore and Candice Night finally tie the knot after dating for 20 years. […]

October 4, 1986 – Dan Rather is mugged by two men who repeatedly ask him “Kenneth, what’s the frequency?” The incident later influences the R.E.M. song “What’s the Frequency, Kenneth?”  Years later, in 1994, in an attempt to get in contact with someone who might be able to identify the frequency and put an end to […]