Unusual Rock Trivia?

[roccobass]

Steve Lukather vs. His Neighbor's Gardeners

After being woken up by his neighbor's gardeners setting off their leaf blowers, Toto guitarist Steve Lukather picked up his guitar, placed an amplifier atop his kids' trampoline and unleashed a furiously loud solo into their open windows. He concluded with a long shout of "Good morning!" The plan worked.

 

[roccobass]

In 1973, ZZ Top were a little-known band who got the opportunity of a lifetime when they were booked as The Rolling Stones opening act for three Hawaii shows. As they revealed in their documentary That Little Ol' Band From Texas, they flew out two weeks early under the pretense of wanting to be as tight as possible — but spent more time at the beach and hotel bar. With their tab mounting and gigs approaching, manager Bill Ham put the band members on a two-drink limit; however, the trio discovered that the lounge had a drink called the Chimp in Orbit, whose size required its container to be placed on the floor and sipped from a giant straw. It became their poison for the rest of the trip.

 

[roccobass]

You’d expect Alice Cooperto have all sorts of things tucked away in his loft: guillotines, severed heads, snakes. What about a Warhol print potentially worth millions? Turns out Alice and Andy were buddies back in the early 70s, when Warhol did his Little Electric Chair series, based on a press photograph of the Rosenberg executions. Cooper had also recently faked his own chair electrocution on stage in a concert that Warhol had attended. It was a neat crossover, and Cooper’s then girlfriend Cindy convinced him to buy a print for $2,500. The print was forgotten and tucked away rolled up in a tube.

Then in 2013, Cooper’s manager Shep Gordon had a conversation with an art dealer that persuaded him he might want to get Alice to look out for that print. But where could it be? How could they find it? To the rescue came Alice’s dear old mum, who remembered it going into the singer’s tour storage, and the tube was retrieved. The print was sent off to an art dealer, who said that the highest price reached for a print in the series was $11.6m. According to Rolling Stone, Cooper’s response was: “Are you serious? I own that!”

 

[roccobass]

Billy Gibbons reflecting on how the band got its name.

Gibbons particularly noticed B.B. King and Z. Z. Hill and thought of combining the two into "ZZ King", but considered it too similar to the original name. He then figured that "king is at the top" which gave him the idea of naming the band "ZZ Top".

 

[roccobass]

German singer Nico had a throaty, husky voice. While recording "I'll Be Your Mirror," the band wanted a more delicate sound and Nico grew frustrated to the point of starting to cry. Crying changed the quality of her voice just enough to be spot on, and the band was able to make the recording.

 

[roccobass]

Tower of Power’s original band name
was The Motowns. The name change came about because they thought it be a hindrance to getting into Bill Graham’s San Francisco Fillmore Auditorium.

 

[Richland123]

Before Dusty Hill And Frank Beard became members of ZZ Top, the band's original lineup consisted of Billy Gibbons, bassist/organist Lanier Greig, and drummer Dan Mitchell. They released their first single, "Salt Lick", in 1969 with "Miller's Farm" as the B-side. Shortly after the recording, Greig was replaced by bassist Billy Ethridge and Mitchell was replaced by Frank Beard. Ethridge quit the band and Dusty Hill became his replacement in late 1969. At that time, all three members of the band were 20 years old. They performed their first concert together with the new lineup at a Knights of Columbus Hall in Beaumont, Texas on February 10, 1970.

 

[Richland123]

Don Brewer, Mel Schacher, and Craig Frost were in the band Flint after Grand Funk Railroad.

 

[MrClassicMetal]

Victor Conte was a member of Tower of Power from 1977 until 1979 playing bass guitar. During that period he also collaborated with pianist Herbie Hancock and violinist Sugarcane Harris.

In 1984 he founded the Bay Area Laboratory Co-operative (BALCO).

Through regular urine and blood testing, Conte would monitor and treat mineral shortages in athletes, supposedly elevating their level of physical wellness dramatically. BALCO achieved professional success in the summer of 1996 with the addition of NFL linebacker Bill Romanowski to its client list. From there, Conte began acquiring additional high-profile athletes with his special concoction of undetectable drugs, manufactured by rogue Illinois chemist Patrick Arnold and distributed by personal trainer Greg Anderson.

In 2003, the United States Attorney for the Northern District of California began investigating BALCO.
Conte served time in prison in 2005 after pleading guilty to conspiracy to distribute steroids and money laundering.

In 2011, Conte started a new company, Scientific Nutrition for Advanced Conditioning (SNAC Nutrition) based in San Carlos, California, which in addition to nutritional supplements also offers boxing and sports training. SNAC Nutrition has worked several pro boxers, including Zab Judah, Andre Berto, Nonito Donaire, and Andre Ward.

Interestingly back in 1970 Conte joined a band called Pure Food and Drug Act. That's when he got the nickname "Walking Fish", due to his unusual way of moving across the stage when he was performing.

 

[roccobass]

There are three stories about the genesis of Little Feat. One has it that George showed Zappa his song "Willin'," and that Zappa fired him from the Mothers of Invention, because he felt that George was too talented to merely be a member of his band, and told him he ought to go away and form his own band. The second version has Zappa firing him for playing a 15-minute guitar solo with his amplifier off. The third version says that Zappa fired him because "Willin'" contains drug references ("weed, whites and wine"). George often introduced the song as the reason he was asked to leave the band. On October 18, 1975 at the Auditorium Theater in Rochester, New York while introducing the song, George commented that he was asked to leave the band for "writing a song about dope"

 

[Eli_Kyiv]

There are three stories about the genesis of Little Feat. One has it that George showed Zappa his song "Willin'," and that Zappa fired him from the Mothers of Invention, because he felt that George was too talented to merely be a member of his band, and told him he ought to go away and form his own band. The second version has Zappa firing him for playing a 15-minute guitar solo with his amplifier off. The third version says that Zappa fired him because "Willin'" contains drug references ("weed, whites and wine"). George often introduced the song as the reason he was asked to leave the band. On October 18, 1975 at the Auditorium Theater in Rochester, New York while introducing the song, George commented that he was asked to leave the band for "writing a song about dope"
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Fred White, brother of Verdine White and half-brother of Maurice White (all three of Earth, Wind & Fire fame) played drums for Little Feat for some time around 1974.

 

[SubHuman]

Peter Baker was born in Lewisham, South London; he was nicknamed "Ginger" for his shock of flaming red hair.

Baker also holds a record for releasing the first double album to be registered as platinum-selling. One thing that really got on Baker’s nerves was doing interviews, and he wasn’t afraid to speak his mind. On many occasions, Baker was outright abusive towards interviewers, unconcerned about looking brutish in front of audiences.

One of the consequences of being a part of Cream, according to Baker himself, was a serious hearing issue. By the end of his life, Baker was virtually deaf.
According to Baker himself, he relied on improvisation to get him through live shows, and almost never practiced beforehand. This resulted in songs that often lasted 20 minutes!

 

[roccobass]

“Kiss From a Rose" became one of Seal's greatest hits partly because of its inclusion in a blockbuster Batman film. But Seal himself was unhappy after writing the song, finding it embarrassing and throwing it into a corner. His producer Trevor Horn eventually heard it. "He turned that tape from my corner into another 8 million record sales and my name became a household name,"

 

[MonetBass]

“Kiss From a Rose" became one of Seal's greatest hits partly because of its inclusion in a blockbuster Batman film. But Seal himself was unhappy after writing the song, finding it embarrassing and throwing it into a corner. His producer Trevor Horn eventually heard it. "He turned that tape from my corner into another 8 million record sales and my name became a household name,"

This is why the Horn-produced Seal stuff is so good.

 

[Eli_Kyiv]

Fred White, brother of Verdine White and half-brother of Maurice White (all three of Earth, Wind & Fire fame) played drums for Little Feat for some time around 1974.

P.S. Of these three only Maurice was genuinely White (no pun intended). Verdine and Fred were originally Adams iirc.

 

[Richland123]

Les Paul was Steve Miller's godfather.

Steve Miller was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. His parents were good friends with Les Paul and Mary Ford. The Millers were best man and matron of honor at the December 1949 Paul/Ford wedding. Les Paul became Steve's godfather.

 

[Indiedog]

P.S. Of these three only Maurice was genuinely White (no pun intended). Verdine and Fred were originally Adams iirc.

And all three had the middle name of “Ramone.”

 

[IMMusicRulz]

The 2008 motion picture, The Longshots, which starred Ice Cube as a football coach trying to let his niece (played by Keke Palmer), play in a Pop Warner football team, was actually directed by Fred Durst, the rapper of the critically reviled nu metal band Limp Bizkit.

 

[roccobass]

This could’ve been written for the Cheech & Chong’s “Up in Smoke”, as we all know, life is stranger than fiction.

During the recording of Bob Marley’s “ I Shot the Sheriff”, one incident linked to the song is quite real and happened after the production of I Shot The Sheriff, when the reel of tape with the original recording was damaged by burning ash which the bassist Aston "Family Man" Barrett dropped from his joint. According to engineer Phil Brown, the atmosphere during the mixing was very fun as the guys danced and smoked in the control room. He did manage to mix the track by including a drum part from another take. He also didn't forget to mention the special quality of those spliffs, saying, "We called them baseball bats, it was neat grass.

 

[SubHuman]

Fender necks that have been sawn down the middle to show the truss rod curve, the top is a '50s/one piece maple neck and the bottom a later '70s neck with bullet truss rod adjusted from the headstock end. The truss rod is a 3/16" steel rod set in a curved channel. Look how thin the wood is on the back of the neck!

By modern standards this is considered one of the more basic designs, tightening the rod forces it to straighten and hence give the neck a back bow. If the neck develops a natural back bow there's nothing you can do about it. More modern dual action truss rods can bend the neck both ways.