December 2, 2012 – Led Zeppelin‘s three surviving members, Robert Plant, John Paul Jones and Jimmy Page, receive the Kennedy Center Honors from President Barack Obama. Their tribute is performed by the Foo Fighters, Kid Rock, Lenny Kravitz, Jason Bonham, and Ann and Nancy Wilson of Heart.
December 2, 2003 – Alice Cooper receives a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Cooper’s star is the 2,243rd on the Walk of Fame and sits between those of Gene Autry and Hugh Hefner. He says, “We would walk over the names of Vincent Price, Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi, never, ever thinking that our names would ever be on the Walk of Fame. That is really quite a privilege to be here.”
December 2, 1970 – Eric Burdon of the Animals launches a “Curb The Clap” bumper sticker campaign aimed at fighting what he calls “the number-one sickness in the record business today — VD.” Burdon’s manager, Steve Gold, denies that it has anything to do with MGM Records president Mike Curb’s recent announcement that he was dropping eighteen acts from his roster because their music advocated drug use. “It’s because Eric has the clap,” says Gold. “He says from age fifteen to twenty-six he only had it once, but it’s happened three or four times since. For every donation to the L.A. Free Clinic, Eric will send out a CURB THE CLAP bumpersticker. VD has more effect on this industry than any drug.”
December 2, 1976 – Pink Floyd‘s giant inflatable pig for the Animals album cover breaks free from its moorings, and is spotted by airline pilots at thirty thousand feet in the air causing flights at Heathrow Airport to be cancelled. It finally lands on a rural farm in Kent. The pig (known as Algie), is later withdrawn from auction in 2015 due to the band’s interest in restoring it.
Top 10 Classic Rock Album Covers
Classic Rock Birthdays
December 2, 1960 – Rick Savage, bass, vocals (Def Leppard)
December 2, 1960 – Nicholas “Razzle” Dingley, drums (Hanoi Rocks) (d. 1984)
December 2, 1968 – Nate Mendel, bass (Foo Fighters)
December 2, 1941 – Tom McGuinness, guitar, vocals (Manfred Mann)
December 2, 1906 – Dr. Peter Carl Goldmark, inventor of the long-playing microgroove 33-1/3 rpm phonograph disc (d. 1977)
Original Names of Famous Classic Rock Bands
Rock Remembrances
December 2, 2014 – Bobby Keys dies as a result of cirrhosis at his home in Franklin, Tennessee. He was 70. Keys started touring at age fifteen with fellow Texan Buddy Holly and is best known as being the main saxophone player for The Rolling Stones. Keys’ most famous solo is on the Stones’ “Brown Sugar”, but he also played with artists ranging from Lynyrd Skynyrd, George Harrison and Eric Clapton to Sheryl Crow, Humble Pie and Barbra Streisand.
December 2, 1982 – David Blue dies of a heart attack. He was 41. Blue was a folk singer who was a member of Bob Dylan‘s Rolling Thunder Revue. He also wrote “Outlaw Man” covered by The Eagles on 1973’s Desperado.
December 2, 2009 – Eric Woolfson dies from kidney cancer in London. He was 64. Woolfson was co-creator and sometime lead vocalist of The Alan Parsons Project, singing some of their biggest hits. After his 10 albums with the Alan Parsons Project, he moved into musical theater and wrote five musicals. In total, he sold over 50 million albums worldwide.
No Easy Trick: Alan Parsons Mixes Magic and Music on New Album ‘The Secret’
