January 27, 1980 – AC/DC play their last show, a makeup date on the Highway To Hell tour, with lead singer Bon Scott. The show is held at the Gaumont theater in Southampton, England. Scott would die on February 19.
January 27, 1997 – At the 24th annual American Music Awards, Pat Boone and Alice Cooper present Mötley Crüe the award for Favorite Heavy Metal/Hard Rock artist. Crooner Boone appears in leather pants and a studded collar to promote his new album, In a Metal Mood: No More Mr. Nice Guy, which features cover songs of metal and hard rock songs.
January 27, 2018 – Huey Lewis loses most of his hearing prior to a concert in Dallas. Lewis is later diagnosed with Meniere’s disease, which can cause hearing loss, tinnitus and vertigo. There is no cure and it is a progressive disease which worsens, more slowly in some and more quickly in others. Lewis was told to discontinue touring.
January 27, 1971 – David Bowie arrives in the U.S. for the first time in Washington, D.C. He’s held up for hours by Customs officials, “maybe because I look so strange.” In order to cultivate an attention-getting androgynous look, Bowie wears a purple maxi-coat and white chiffon scarf, and his luggage contains two dresses.
Classic Rock Birthdays
January 27, 1944 – Nick Mason, drums (Pink Floyd)
January 27, 1948 – Kim Gardner, bass (The Birds, Badger Ashton, Gardner & Dyke) (d. 2001)
January 27, 1958 – Charles Waltz, vocals, violin (Shooting Star, The Young Dubliners)
January 27, 1951 – Seth Justman, keyboards (The J. Geils Band)
January 27, 1968 – Mike Patton, vocals, multi-instrumentalist (Faith No More)
January 27, 1951 – Brian Downey, drums (Thin Lizzy)
January 27, 1918 – Elmore James, vocals, guitar (d. 1963)
How Thin Lizzy Finally Built Themselves a Reputation
Rock Remembrances
January 27, 2014 – Pete Seeger dies at New York-Presbyterian Hospital. He was 94. Seeger helped create the modern American folk music movement, and was a protest singer who was blacklisted during the McCarthy era. Seeger was one of the folksingers most responsible for popularizing the spiritual “We Shall Overcome” that became the acknowledged anthem of the 1960s American Civil Rights Movement. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1996.
January 27, 1972 – Mahalia Jackson dies in Chicago of heart failure and diabetes complications. She was 60. Known as the “The Queen of Gospel”, she became one of the most influential gospel singers in the world and was heralded internationally as a singer and civil rights activist. Jackson won four Grammy awards and was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1997.
