April 8, 1998 – Mötley Crüe drummer Tommy Lee is sentenced to at least six months in County Jail after pleading no contest to a felony charge of beating his wife, actress Pamela Anderson Lee. He was released after 90 days for good behavior. Concurrently, he completed a 30-day sentence for beating a security guard at a Crüe concert in Phoenix.
April 8, 1980 – Brian Johnson fills the vacant vocalist slot in AC/DC, 6 weeks after the death of Bon Scott. Scott himself had spoken about Johnson to his bandmates when he saw him onstage in England in the early ‘70s.
April 8, 2016 – Steve Miller is inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and notices that no women that year were voted in. He says, “I encourage [the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame] to keep expanding your vision, to be inclusive of women, to be more transparent in your dealings with the public and most importantly, to do much more to provide music to our schools.” He then went backstage for press interviews and continued to slam the Rock Hall for their mistreatment of artists, calling his whole experience “unpleasant.”
15 Most Overlooked Artists by the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
Classic Rock Birthdays
April 8, 1962 – Izzy Stradlin, guitar (Guns N’ Roses)
April 8, 1947 – Steve Howe, guitar (Yes, Asia)
April 8, 1963 – Julian Lennon, vocals, guitar
April 8, 1972 – Paul Gray, bass (Slipknot) (d. 2010)
April 8, 1952 – Adam Woods, drums (The Fixx)
April 8, 1951 – Mel Schacher, bass (Grand Funk Railroad)
Rock Remembrances
April 8, 2010 – Malcolm McLaren dies of mesothelioma in Switzerland. He was 64. McLaren famously managed the Sex Pistols and the New York Dolls among others.
April 8, 1997 – Laura Nyro dies of ovarian cancer at her home in Danbury, CT. She was 49. Aside from her solo career, Nyro was quite an influential songwriter, penning hits for Barbra Streisand, The 5th Dimension, Three Dog Night and Blood, Sweat & Tears, who asked her to be their lead singer. With David Geffen, she established a publishing company, Tuna Fish Music, which they went on to sell in 1969 for the unheard of sum of $4.5 million. She was revered by many performers, including Elton John “I idolized her,” Cyndi Lauper, Elvis Costello, Steely Dan, Todd Rundgren, Alice Cooper and Paul Stanley. Nyro was posthumously inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2012.
