- Termites will eat wood two times faster when listening to heavy metal.
- John Lennon wrote Good morning, good morning after hearing a Corn Flakes commercial.
- The familiar sign of the horns was first used by the singer of “Black Sabbath” Ronnie James Dio. Before this gesture used to be a sign that scares away evil spirits.
- Jimi Hendrix was hired as the Monkees opening act for their 1967 Summer tour. Unfortunately, US audiences had never seen anything like Hendrix before and booed him off of the stage. He quit the tour after two weeks.
- The first CD that was pressed in the U.S. was Bruce Springsteen’s Born in the USA.
- “Layla” was written by Eric Clapton to steal George Harrison’s wife, Patty Boyd. Layla was the nickname Eric had given her.
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Jimi Hendrix got the inspiration for “Purple Haze” after having a dream where he could walk underwater.
- The Nirvana hit, “Smells Like Teen Spirit” was named after a deodorant brand.
- Black Sabbath’s guitarist, Tony Iommi, lost part of two fingers in an accident, and it seemed the band was over. However, he managed to continue playing using a device which made his two stump fingers “longer”, and tuning the guitar three steps down in order to loosen the strings and bend them more easily. His first song with his new “style” was “Iron Man“.
- Among the famous rock and blues musicians there is a vast number of those who died at age 27. These musicians have even received the name “Club 27”. It includes Robert Johnson, Jim Morrison, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Kurt Cobain, Brian Jones and Amy Winehouse.
- The name AC/DC was suggested by Angus and Malcolm’s sister Margaret Young, who saw a label that read AC/DC on the back of a vacuum cleaner. The Young brothers thought it was a good name for their band, because “it had something to do with electricity, so it seemed to fit”
- Ozzy Osborne saved his wife Sharon’s Pomeranian from a coyote by tackling and wresting the coyote until it released the dog.
- The contract that made Brian Epstein the Beatles’ manager was never really valid. Both Paul and George were under 21 at the time and needed a legal guardian to sign. Epstein himself never signed the document at all.
- When Paul McCartney wants to play some of his old Beatles’ hits in concert, he must pay a royalty fee to Michael Jackson, who bought the publishing rights for $47.5 million in 1985.
- Performance contracts for the band Van Halen stipulated that they be provided with a supply of M&Ms at every show, but all of the brown ones had to be removed.