Today in rock history 21st July

1947 – Cat Stevens (Steven Georgiou) is born in London

1955 - Howie Epstein-bassist for Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers is born today

1956 – Billboard dubs Elvis Presley “the most controversial entertainer since Liberace.”

1956 – Johnny Cash goes to No. 1 on the country chart with “I Walk the Line.”

1961 – Big Jim Martin, the scary-looking guitarist with Faith No More, is born in Oakland, Calif.

1968 - Jane Asher announces on a national British TV show, Dee Time, that her engagement to Paul McCartney was off by saying "I haven't broken it off, but it's finished.

1969 – The Who release their single “I’m Free” from Tommy. It goes to No. 37.

1971 – Jesus Christ Superstar mania seizes Pittsburgh. An audience of 13,000 packs the Civic Arena to see a special performance of the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical.

1973 – Carlos Santana and John McLaughlin crash into the album top 20 with Love, Devotion, Surrender.

1977 - Despite protests, The Sex Pistols made their first appearance on the UK music show Top Of The Pops, where they lip-synched to their third single, "Pretty Vacant"

1977 – In Tucson, Ariz., Linda Ronstadt joins the Rolling Stones onstage to perform “Tumbling Dice.”

1987 – Paul McCartney finishes recording Russian-language versions of rock ‘n’ roll songs for his Soviet Union-only release Choba B CCCP.

1980 - Keith Godchaux, former keyboards player with The Grateful Dead, was killed in a car accident in Marin County, California.

1990 – The BBC issues an apology after one of its radio stations broadcasts a profanity-laden Madonna live performance.

1990 – Former Pink Floyd member Roger Waters stages a production of his rock opera, The Wall, in Berlin

1993 – Bob Dylan films the video for “Blood in My Eyes” in North London.

1996 – In North Carolina, Soundgarden guitarist Kim Thayil allegedly belts a fan trying to take his photograph. He’s arrested.

1998 – Scott Weiland is arrested again on a felony warrant in Los Angeles. Weiland posts the $250,000 bail and is released the next morning. Weiland’s court appearances stem from a September ’97 arrest, which alleged two charges of felony possession of heroin and misdemeanor possession of a hypodermic needle.

1998 – The Beastie Boys begin touring in support of their fifth release, “Hello Nasty,” at Seattle’s Key Arena. It is their first headlining tour since 1995’s “Quadrophonic Joystick” tour.

2003 – Dead Kennedys vocalist Brandon Cruz leaves the California punk legends to spend more time with his family.

2003 – Iron Maiden kick off their Give Me ‘Ed … ‘Til I’m Dead tour in Worcester, Mass., with Motorhead and Dio

2004 – Black Sabbath remove images from a film that plays during their Ozzfest set associating George W. Bush with Hitler after drummer Bill Ward posts his disapproval on his Web site.

2005 – British R&B artist “Long John” Baldry dies in Vancouver after battling a chest infection for four months. He is 64.

2007 - Don Arden, the man once dubbed “the Al Capone of pop”, father of Sharon Osbourne & manager of acts such as The Small Faces, Black Sabbath, & Electric Light Orchestra died of Alzheimer’s disease in Beverly Hills. He was 81 years old.

Today in rock history 19th July

1946 – Alan Gorrie of Average White Band is born in Perth, Scotland.

1947 - Bernie Leadon-guitarist for Eagles born

1947 – Queen guitar king Brian May is born in Twickenham

1948 – Grateful Dead keyboardist Keith Godchaux (1973-79) is born in San Francisco.

1952 - Allen Collins-guitarist for Lynyrd Skynyrd born this very day

1963 – Another setback for the still-struggling Rolling Stones. On their way to perform at the coming-out party of the daughter of an English lord, Brian Jones falls ill. The Stones have to cancel and Mick Jagger will have to wait a decade to hobnob with royalty.

1969 – Having just turned 28, Spencer Davis decides to break up the Spencer Davis Group.

1969 - The Rolling Stones' "Honky Tonk Women" is released in the US, where it will become the fifth of their eight Billboard number one hits.

1973 – Byrds guitarist Clarence White is buried after being killed by a drunk driver. He was 29.

1974 – David Bowie wraps up his tour supporting Diamond Dogs in New York.

1976 – Deep Purple split up for the first time

1980 – Production of The Elephant Man starring David Bowie opens in Denver.

1986 – No. 1 Chart Toppers Pop Hit: “Invisible Touch,” Genesis.

1986 - Van Halen headlined the Texas Jam at the Cotton Bowl in Dallas. Other acts on the bill included Bachman-Turner Overdrive, Loverboy, Dio & Krokus.

1987 - Bruce Springsteen played his first ever show behind the Iron Curtain when he appeared in East Berlin in front of 180,000 people. The show was broadcast on East German TV.

1991 – Drummer Steve Adler files suit in Los Angeles against his former band, Guns N’ Roses. The 26-year-old claims band members pressured him to use heroin and then dropped him after he entered a rehabilitation program.

1999 – “Weird Al” Yankovic kicks off his Running With Scissors tour in Green Bay

2000 – Creed accuse Limp Bizkit’s Fred Durst “of a mobster mentality” in his bid to get TapRoot signed to his label, Interscope.

2003 – The troubled Lollapalooza tour with Jane’s Addiction and Audioslave cancels an upstate New York date, citing rising production costs.

2006 – Thom Yorke has more reasons to be unhappy. The Radiohead frontman’s solo disc The Eraser debuts at No. 2 in the U.S. album charts, right below hits compilation Now That’s What I Call Music.

2010 - Ozzy Osbourne and his former Black Sabbath band mate Tony Iommi settled a long-running legal dispute over the use of the group's name.

Today in rock history 18th July

1929 – Screamin’ Jay Hawkins – one of rock’s original showmen – is allegedly born on this date in Cleveland.

1939 – Singer Dion (Dion DiMucci) is born in the Bronx, N.Y.

1950 – Golden Earring drummer Cesar Zuiderwijk is born in the Hague, Netherlands.

1960 – It’s reported that Elvis has taken out a mortgage on Graceland for $164,000.

1964 – The Rolling Stones get their first U.K. No. 1 with “It’s All Over Now.”

1966 – Bobby Fuller of the Bobby Fuller Four (“I Fought the Law”) dies at age 23.

1968 – The Grateful Dead release Anthem of the Sun. Their second album fails to chart.

1969 – Janis Joplin and her Kozmic Blues Band make their first appearance on The Dick Cavett Show.

1970 – Pink Floyd and Deep Purple play a free concert at London’s Hyde Park that attracts an audience of 20,000.

1972 – Boston Mayor Kevin White helps get Mick Jagger and Keith Richards of the Rolling Stones out of jail in Warwick, R.I., so they can make their performance at the Boston Garden. The two were arrested for getting into a scuffle with a Providence, R.I., photographer.

1973 – Jethro Tull sell out three nights at the Los Angeles Forum in one-and-a-half hours.

1974 - The US Justice Department ordered John Lennon out of the country by September 10th. The Immigration and Naturalization Service denied him an extension of his non-immigrant visa because of his guilty plea in England to a 1968 marijuana possession charge.

1978- Def Leppard made their live debut at Westfield School in Sheffield, England in front of 150 students.

1981- The Texas Jam was held at the Astrodome in Houston. The lineup included REO Speedwagon, Heart, Foghat & Blue Oyster Cult.

1983 - Abbey Road Studios in London is opened to the public, making it one of the city's most popular tourist attractions.

1988 – Nico – smack-addicted former lead singer with the Velvet Underground and the very model of a doomed diva – dies after falling off her bicycle in Ibiza.

1988 – A California court upholds an earlier decision clearing Ozzy Osbourne’s song “Suicide Solution” of being responsible for a teenager taking his own life in 1984.

1989 – Jefferson Airplane re-form. Paul Kantner, Marty Balin, and Grace Slick are joined by Jorma Kaukonen and Jack Cassady, who left the Airplane to play with Hot Tuna.

1994 – Singer Dolores O’Riordan of the Cranberries marries Don Burton in Ireland.

1994 – The Rolling Stones play a secret gig in a Toronto nightclub for their fans.

2006 – Pamela Anderson tells her Web site that she’s become engaged to Kid Rock – for a second time.

2007- Sting was ordered to pay his former chef $50,000 after being sued for sexual discrimination for being fired because she was pregnant.

2017 - Red West, a boyhood friend and member of Elvis Presley's "Memphis Mafia", passed away at the age of 81 after suffering an aortic aneurysm.

Today in rock history 17th July

1939 – Spencer Davis, he of the Spencer Davis Group, is born in Swansea, Wales.

1949 – Bassist Geezer Butler of Black Sabbath is born in Birmingham

1949 – Mick Tucker, who only could have played drums for Sweet with a name like that, is born in Harlesden, England.

1967 - Jimi Hendrix either quit or was fired as the opening act for the Monkees' US tour after only five days. Mickey Dolenz later recalled, "Jimi would amble out onto the stage, fire up the amps and break out into 'Purple Haze' and the kids in the audience would instantly drown him out with 'We want Daaavy!'

1968 – The full-length animated film “Yellow Submarine,” with songs by the Beatles, premieres in London.

1972 – In Montreal, a bomb destroys several speaker cones inside an equipment truck belonging to the touring Rolling Stones. The musical terrorist responsible remains at large.

1974 – The Moody Blues open the first quadraphonic studio in London.

1974 – The U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service orders John Lennon to leave the country within 60 days.

1975 – Ringo Starr divorces his wife, Maureen Cox.

1979 – Guitarist Gary Moore leaves Thin Lizzy, to be replaced by future Ultravox member and “Do They Know It’s Christmas” songwriter Midge Ure.

1987 – Keith Richards signs with Virgin Records as a solo artist

1987 – The Ozzy Osbourne Band started a 16-week tour of US prisons.

1991 – The revamped Lynyrd Skynyrd launch their latest world tour in Baton Rouge, La.

1994 – In Pontiac, Mich., Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley make a surprise appearance at a Kiss convention. But while browsing the stalls, they discover Kiss costumes stolen from them more than a decade ago.

1996 – Chas Chandler, the Animals bassist who became Jimi Hendrix’s manager, dies in England at age 58.

1996 – Smashing Pumpkin Jimmy Chamberlin is fired from the band. A week earlier the drummer had been arrested on drug-possession charges in connection with the fatal overdose of touring keyboardist Jonathan Melvoin.

2000 – British vocalist Paul Young, who sang with Mike And The Mechanics and Sad Cafe, dies of a heart attack in Cheshire,

2006 – Hunky Jane’s Addiction guitarist Dave Navarro and teen fantasy Carmen Electra announce they are splitting after three years of marriage. Their beautiful division is described as “amicable.”

2011 – The main stage at Ottawa Bluesfest collapsed during a Cheap Trick concert as a severe thunderstorm sent the musicians and thousands of fans running for cover.

2011 - Bruce Springsteen made a surprise appearance at a tribute to Clarence Clemons at the Wonder Bar in Asbury Park, N.J. The boss played a 45 minute set to an intimate crowd of 400.

Today in rock history 16th July

1952 – Stewart Copeland of the Police is born in Alexandria, Egypt.

1966 – Eric Clapton forms Cream with bassist Jack Bruce and drummer Ginger Baker.

1968 – Big Brother & the Holding Company and Sly & the Family Stone open the Fillmore West, the new name given to San Francisco’s Carousel Ballroom since Bill Graham took over.

1969 – On TV tonight, it’s a meeting of the minds as Janis Joplin appears on The Dick Cavett Show.

1969 - The Beatles worked on two new George Harrison songs, "Here Comes The Sun" and "Something" during recording sessions at Abbey Road studios in London.

1969 – The Who release their single “I’m Free” from Tommy. It goes to No. 37.

1973 – NBC broadcasts David Bowie’s TV special

1976 – The Allman Brothers Band splits up.

1980 – No Nukes, a documentary film on the benefit concerts of the same name starring Bruce Springsteen and James Taylor, premieres in New York.

1981 – Harry Chapin dies in an auto accident in Jericho, N.Y., while on his way to play a benefit performance.

1983 – No. 1 Chart Toppers Pop Hit: “Every Breath You Take,” The Police.

1984 – Roger Waters kicks off his Pros and Cons of Hitch Hiking tour with Eric Clapton in Stockholm.

1992 – Rolling Stones drummer Charlie Watts walks off the set of Late Night With David Letterman with his quintet after a disagreement with the show’s producer.

1993 – Bob Dylan has to cancel a show in Lyon, France, due to his bad back.

1993 – In Buenos Aires, a judge throws out a case of drug possession involving Guns N’ Roses. The “drugs” were in fact just vitamins.

1996 – Drummer John Panozzo dies at the age of 49 this day in rock. John was the drummer for the band Styx.

2002 – Dave Matthews Band release Busted Stuff, whose songs date from bootlegged sessions held with producer Steve Lillywhite prior to the release of 2001’s Everyday.

2003 – Santana wraps up his Supernatural tour and donates $2 million to help conquer the AIDS crisis in South Africa.

2003 – Pretenders frontwoman Chrissie Hynde blocks traffic with fellow PETA protesters in front of a Paris Kentucky Fried Chicken. They also cover the restaurant’s windows in red blood. Hynde is taken into police custody and released about an hour later.

2007 – The White Stripes played their ‘shortest live show ever’ at George Street, St. John’s, Newfoundland, Canada. Jack White played a single C# note accompanied by a bass drum/crash cymbal hit from Meg. At the end of the show, Jack announced, “We have now officially played in every province and territory in Canada.”

2012 - Deep Purple keyboardist Jon Lord died after suffering a pulmonary embolism at the London Clinic. He was 71 years old.

2014 - Johnny Winter, the Blues guitarist who overcame albinism and poor eye sight and rose to fame as an arena-level concert draw in the early to mid-'70s, died at the age of 70.

2016 - A two-page, handwritten letter from Paul McCartney to Prince was sold by Boston's RR Auction for nearly $15,000. The note, which begins "Dear Princely person," shows the former Beatle asking for a donation to help establish the Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts, which McCartney co-founded in 1996.

Today in rock history 15th July

1949 – Producer Trevor Horn is born in Hertfordshire,

1952 – New York Dolls guitarist Johnny Thunders is born in Leesburg, Fla.

1956 – Joseph “Satch” Satriani is born

1956 – Born on this day, Ian Curtis, guitar, vocals, Warsaw, Joy Division,

1958 – John Lennon’s mother, Julia, dies in a road accident in Liverpool, England, thereby providing the young songwriter with plenty of angst-ridden solo material.

1963 – Paul McCartney is busted for speeding and fined 17 pounds for the offense.

1967 – Jefferson Airplane and the Doors perform at the Anaheim Civic Center in California. Jim Morrison behaves himself.

1968 – Creedence Clearwater Revival release their self-titled debut album.

1970 – Creedence Clearwater Revival release their very popular fifth album, Cosmo’s Factory.

1970 – No. 1 Chart Toppers Pop Hit: “Mama Told Me Not to Come,” Three Dog Night. The song is written by Randy Newman.

1971 – Yoko Ono appears at the London department store Selfridges, where she signs copies of her book Grapefruit. John Lennon turns up to lend a wrist.

1973 – A depressed Ray Davies, balancing a beer can on his head, announces he is retiring from music during a Kinks concert at London’s White City Stadium.

1974 – Elton John re-signs with MCA. Elton will receive $8 million for delivering his next five albums to the record label, including Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy.

1988 - MTV bans Neil Young's video "This Note Is For You", which parodied corporate Rock by showing a Michael Jackson look-alike whose hair catches fire. The ban would soon be lifted and the video was put into heavy rotation, resulting in it eventually winning the MTV Video Music Award for Best Video of the Year in 1989.

1989 – Pink Floyd perform in Venice on a floating stage. Seems like a good idea. But the 200,000 people who gather to see them end up causing damage to the city’s bridges and make marble crumble from centuries-old buildings.

1994 – Phil Collins, whose songs like “In the Air Tonight” dwelled on the breakup of his first marriage, announces that he’s divorcing his latest wife, Jill.

1999 – The Grateful Dead’s Bob Weir marries his lady Natasha.

1999 – Opening night of Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band’s North American reunion tour.

1999 – Rock drummer Tommy Lee is congratulated by a judge for abstaining from drugs and alcohol while on probation for spousal abuse.

2002 – Sir Paul McCartney was named the highest-earning music star of the year so far after selling tickets worth £33.9m during his recent US tour.

2004 – U2 called in police after thieves nicked a copy of the bands latest album ‘Vertigo’. The CD was stolen during a photo shoot with the band in the south of France.

2006 – Avril Lavigne is married to sweetheart Deryck Whibley of Sum 41 in Montecito, California.

2007 – The UK music industry reacted angrily at a decision to give away ‘Planet Earth’ the new album by Prince as a ‘covermount’ with the Mail on Sunday newspaper.

2015 - Neil Young announced on his Facebook page that he intended to remove his music from all streaming services because he was unsatisfied with the quality of the sound.

2017 - The first Eagles concert since Glenn Frey passed away in January, 2016, took place at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles. Detroit rocker Bob Seger joined Don Henley, Timothy B. Schmit, Joe Walsh and Vince Gill for "Heartache Tonight".

Today in rock history 14th July

1912 – Folk singer Woody Guthrie (Woodrow Wilson Guthrie) is born.

1958 - The Quarrymen, featuring John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, John "Duff" Lowe on piano and Colin Hanton on drums, record a vanity disc at a small studio in an electronics shop owned by a man named Percy Phillips.

1967 – The Who begins its first U.S. tour, opening for Herman’s Hermits.

1968 – Promoter Bill Graham leaves the Fillmore Auditorium to take over San Francisco’s Carousel Ballroom. Electric Flag and Blue Cheer play the final Fillmore concerts.

1969 – At the Mississippi River Rock Festival, the Band find themselves upstaged when their boss, Bob Dylan, joins them on stage for three songs. He’s introduced as “Elmer Johnson.”

1973 - Clarence White, a former guitarist with The Byrds, was killed by a drunk driver while loading his car after a gig in Lancaster, California. He was 29.

1977 – Elvis Costello played the first gig with his new band, The Attractions, less than a week after quitting his day job at Elizabeth Arden.

1980 – Former Beatles and Stones manager Allen Klein begins a two-month jail sentence for cheating on his tax return.

1982 – Alan Parker’s film Pink Floyd’s The Wall premieres at the Leicester Square Empire in London.

1987 – Steve Miller is awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

1989 – Alice Cooper releases his comeback single “Poison.” It later goes to No. 7, his biggest hit since 1972’s “School’s Out.”

1992 – Megadeth release their fifth album Countdown to Extinction, which becomes their most successful record to date – peaking at No. 2 in the Billboard album charts.

1992- Motley Crue began writing & rehearsing with their new singer John Corabi. Their first and only album with Corabi was released in March of 1994.

2007 – A pair of glasses worn by former Beatle John Lennon sparked a bidding war after being offered for sale online. The circular sunglasses were worn by Lennon during the Beatles 1966 tour of Japan, where the band played some of their last ever live dates.

2011 - Triumph had a street named after them in their hometown of Mississauga, ON. The dedication of Triumph Lane was attended by all three members of the group.

2012 – Bruce Springsteen with Paul McCartney performs in London’s Hyde Park and gets the plug pulled.