October 8, 1979 – Fleetwood Mac release their first double album, Tusk, which is the follow-up to Rumours. Costing over $1 million to record, at the time it was the most expensive rock album ever made. It sold 4 million copies worldwide, and featured the USC Trojan Marching Band on the title song “Tusk.”
October 8, 2010 – Ozzy Osbourne blasts the Westboro Baptist Church for paraphrasing lyrics from his song “Crazy Train” after they tell reporters the U.S. deaths in Afghanistan and Iraq are “punishment for America’s tolerance of homosexuality and abortion.” Ozzy says, “I am sickened and disgusted by the use of “Crazy Train” to promote messages of hate and evil by a church.”
October 8, 1985 – Little Richard crashes his sports car into a telephone pole in West Hollywood and is taken to Cedars-Sinai Hospital with a broken right leg, bruised ribs and head and facial injuries. Little Richard was driving his car at approximately 60 mph in a 30 mph zone, and was trapped in the car for 30 minutes while county firefighters used the “jaws of life” to pry him loose. Police determine that he was not under the influence of drugs or alcohol.
October 8, 1987 – Chuck Berry is awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. His film biography, Hail, Hail Rock & Roll also premieres that night.
10 Classic Rock Songs That Inspire Baby Girl Names
Classic Rock Birthdays
October 8, 1948 – Johnny Ramone (born John William Cummings), guitar (Ramones) (d. 2004)
October 8, 1965 – C. J. Ramone (born Christopher Joseph Ward), bass (Ramones)
10 Questionable Classic Rock Song Choices in TV Commercials
Rock Remembrances
October 8, 1990 – B. J. Wilson (born Barrie James Wilson), dies of pneumonia. He was 43. Wilson, who had been the drummer in Procol Harum during their formative years, collapsed after a drug overdose in 1987 and was in a vegetative state until his death from pneumonia three years later. During his career, Wilson played briefly with AC/DC after Phil Rudd left in 1983 and also played on the Rocky Horror Picture Show soundtrack. He was also asked to be the original drummer for Led Zeppelin by Jimmy Page and Robert Plant.
October 8, 2013 – Philip Chevron (born Philip Ryan), the guitarist with Irish band The Pogues, dies of oesophageal cancer. He was a 56. Chevron joined the Pogues after the release of their first album, 1984’s Red Roses for Me, as a temporary member. By the time the band released the follow-up, Rum, Sodomy & the Lash, Chevron had become a permanent fixture , and contributed one of the Pogues’ most beloved songs, “Thousands Are Sailing.”
October 8, 2021 – Everett Morton, drummer for The (English) Beat, dies at the age of 71. Originally from St. Kitts, Morton emigrated to Birmingham, UK and co-founded The Beat in 1978. The ska-influenced band had a Top 10 hit with their first single, “Tears of a Clown”, followed by “Mirror In The Bathroom.”
