September 1, 1998 – Deep Purple singer Ian Gillan is charged with assault and battery for allegedly hitting a security guard in the head with a microphone during a concert at Pine Knob in Michigan. “I’ve seen everything at Pine Knob, but I’ve never seen it where the lead singer bends over and hits someone,” says the local sheriff.
September 1, 1967 – Boz Scaggs reunites with his longtime friend and schoolmate, Steve Miller, after receiving a postcard in Europe inviting him to come to San Francisco to join the Steve Miller Band.
September 1, 1983 – Mick Jones, co-founder of The Clash, is fired by the other three members who claim he’s “drifted apart” from the band. “Mick was intolerable to work with by this time,” the late Strummer remembered in the Clash documentary, Westway to the World. “He wouldn’t show up. When he did show up, it was like Elizabeth Taylor in a filthy mood.”
September 1, 1979 – U2 release their very first EP titled Three, later known as U2-3. There is an initial pressing of 1,000 individually numbered copies that is only available in Ireland. The songs included on the EP are “Out of Control” and “Stories For Boys” (both later included on the Boy CD) and “Boy-Girl” which is later featured live as the B-side of the “I Will Follow” single.
September 1, 1976 – Famed manager and record company owner Lou Adler and his employee Neil Silver are kidnapped at Adler’s house in Malibu. They are later released after paying a $25,000 ransom. A week later, two men and a woman are charged with the crime. Adler produced the cult classic The Rocky Horror Picture Show, owns The Roxy Theatre on the Sunset Strip with his son Nic, sits courtside next to his friend Jack Nicholson at LA Lakers home games, and has managed Jan & Dean, Sam Cooke, The Mamas & the Papas, Johnny Rivers, The Grass Roots, Spirit, Carole King and Cheech and Chong among many others.
September 1, 1978 – Steven Tyler marries actress and model Cyrinda Foxe, who had just left her husband David Johansen of the New York Dolls for Tyler. They have a daughter Mia together and divorce in late 1987. Foxe later died of a brain tumor in 2002.
Classic Rock Birthdays
September 1, 1955 – Bruce Foxton, bass, vocals (The Jam)
Rock Remembrances
September 1, 2014 – Jimi Jamison, lead singer of Survivor, dies in Memphis, TN of a stroke from “acute methamphetamine intoxication.” He was 63. Jamison joined Survivor in 1984 and sang several Top 20 hits like “High On You” and “I Can’t Hold Back.” He also co-wrote and sang “I’m Always Here,” the theme song for the TV series, Baywatch.
September 1, 2012 – Hal David, a lyricist who wrote dozens of hits with collaborator Burt Bacharach, dies in Los Angeles of a stroke. He was 91. With Bacharach he wrote the Oscar-winning “Raindrops Keep Fallin’ on My Head” from Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. He contributed lyrics to three James Bond film themes, co-wrote “To All the Girls I’ve Loved Before” with Willie Nelson and Julio Iglesias, and was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame, the Songwriters Hall of Fame, and received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2011. Surprisingly, he and Bacharach were not close friends. Bacharach says, “Hal and I never really socialized, except for going to the bar at the local Chinese restaurant to celebrate a particularly good recording session. Basically, we did our work and didn’t hang out.”
