43 Fun Facts About Hard Rock

Whose death in September 1980 led Led Zeppelin to disband?

John Bonham died at Jimmy Page's house after a day of heavy drinking, while Led Zeppelin were preparing for an American tour.

Malcolm and Angus Young took the name AC/DC from a label their sister Margaret spotted on what?

A sewing machine belonging to their sister Margaret carried the AC/DC mark, and Margaret also suggested Angus's schoolboy stage outfit.

'Smoke on the Water' describes a 1971 fire at the Montreux Casino during a concert by which artist?

Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention were on stage when a fan fired a flare gun into the ceiling, and the fire destroyed the casino and all of the Mothers' equipment.

Van Halen's touring contract famously demanded a bowl of M&M's backstage with which colour removed?

The clause was a canary in the coal mine: if the brown ones were there, the crew knew the venue had not read the technical rider properly.

Aerosmith's 'Walk This Way' was reborn in 1986 as a collaboration with which hip hop group?

Run-DMC's remake reached number four, higher than Aerosmith's original, and set off a comeback for a band whose 1985 album had flopped.

Kiss showed their bare faces on MTV in 1983 to launch which album?

Lick It Up made the unmasking pay off: after years of falling sales, Kiss had a platinum album again.

Brian May's homemade Red Special guitar has a neck carved from wood salvaged from what?

A fireplace mantel gave the Red Special its neck, and Brian May built the guitar with his father Harold because they could not afford a proper electric one.

Which Def Leppard member lost his left arm in a 1984 car crash yet stayed in the band?

Rick Allen's bandmates stood by him, and he learned to play drums using his feet in place of his left arm.

Which member of ZZ Top's classic trio is famously the one without the band's trademark facial hair?

Frank Beard is the exception: Billy Gibbons and Dusty Hill stopped shaving during a late-1970s break, and later turned down $1 million from Gillette to shave.

Ozzy Osbourne bit the head off a bat he thought was rubber during a 1982 show in which city?

Des Moines, Iowa, hosted that January 1982 show, and Osbourne was vaccinated against rabies afterwards.

The Scorpions' 'Wind of Change' famously opens with singer Klaus Meine doing what?

Whistling opens the song, which Klaus Meine was inspired to write by the Scorpions' 1989 visit to Moscow for the Music Peace Festival.

Why did Mick Jones name his band Foreigner?

Half the members were British and half American, and Mick Jones found his singer, Lou Gramm, by revisiting a Black Sheep album Gramm had once given him.

Soundgarden took their name from what in Seattle?

A wind-channelling pipe sculpture, A Sound Garden, gave the band its name, and fans turned it into a memorial after singer Chris Cornell died in 2017.

Nirvana's Nevermind hit number one on the Billboard 200 in January 1992 by knocking off which album?

Nevermind knocked Michael Jackson's Dangerous off the top in January 1992, although its label had expected the album to sell only modestly.

Which 1966 London trio is widely regarded as rock's first supergroup?

Cream broke up in 1968, mainly because of tension between Jack Bruce and Ginger Baker.

Which Guns N' Roses album ran up an estimated $13 million in production costs?

Chinese Democracy finally appeared in November 2008, the year Dr Pepper had promised everyone in America a can of soda if it came out.

Which AC/DC album, released five months after Bon Scott's death, introduced singer Brian Johnson?

Back in Black, Brian Johnson's first album as singer, came in an all-black cover that the band meant as a sign of mourning for Bon Scott.

Bon Scott's final AC/DC album, Highway to Hell, was the first of three the band made with which producer?

Mutt Lange took over after sessions with Eddie Kramer stalled, and he gave AC/DC something new: melodic backing vocals on the choruses.

Which Def Leppard album includes 'Pour Some Sugar on Me'?

Hysteria got 'Pour Some Sugar on Me' late, from a riff Joe Elliott was playing on acoustic guitar during a studio break, and it became a number-two hit.

Bad Company was formed in 1973 by Paul Rodgers and Simon Kirke, both formerly of which band?

Rodgers and Kirke had sung and drummed in Free ('All Right Now') before forming Bad Company with Mick Ralphs and Boz Burrell; the new band signed to Led Zeppelin's Swan Song label.

Journey hired which singer in October 1977, beginning the run that produced 'Don't Stop Believin''?

Steve Perry got his chance after Journey's manager, Herbie Herbert, heard his demo and called him to try out as the band's new lead singer.

Which two sisters have been the only constant members of Heart?

Ann and Nancy Wilson have outlasted every Heart line-up, and Ann wrote 'Barracuda' in fury after an insinuation that the sisters were lovers.

Audioslave paired Chris Cornell with the instrumentalists of which band?

Rage Against the Machine's Tom Morello, Tim Commerford and Brad Wilk teamed up with Chris Cornell after Zack de la Rocha left, on producer Rick Rubin's suggestion.

Velvet Revolver joined three Guns N' Roses alumni with the singer of which band?

Scott Weiland of Stone Temple Pilots fronted Velvet Revolver until April 2008, when he split from the supergroup and reunited with his old band.

Which band did the 1975 Guinness Book list as 'the globe's loudest' after a 1972 Rainbow Theatre gig?

Deep Purple later lost the title to The Who, and Guinness eventually stopped listing a loudest band for fear of promoting hearing damage.

Boston's Tom Scholz built his first basement studio while working for which company after MIT?

Scholz was a product design engineer at Polaroid when he built the basement studio where he cut the demos that became 'More Than a Feeling' and 'Peace of Mind'.

Which drummer and lyricist completed Rush's classic power-trio line-up in July 1974?

Neil Peart joined two weeks before Rush's first US tour, and Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson soon handed him the lyrics because he read so much.

Who was Thin Lizzy's bassist, singer and chief songwriter?

Phil Lynott's Thin Lizzy broke through with 'Whiskey in the Jar', a traditional Irish song they had recorded only as a B-side.

Which Whitesnake single reached number one on the US Hot 100 in 1987?

Here I Go Again topped the Hot 100 in October 1987 in a version re-recorded at the urging of label bosses, five years after Whitesnake first cut it for Saints & Sinners.

Dee Snider testified before the Senate about explicit lyrics in 1985 alongside which folk singer?

John Denver opposed the warning labels, telling the hearing that many radio stations had banned his 'Rocky Mountain High' as a drug song.

Queen's 'Bohemian Rhapsody' climbed to a new US peak of number two in 1992 thanks to which film?

Wayne's World lifted the song past its original 1976 US peak of number nine; in the UK it was Christmas number one twice with the same recording, in 1975 and 1991.

Which 1970 concert album, recorded on a university campus, cemented The Who's reputation on stage?

A gig at Hull the next night was also taped, but technical problems meant Leeds was released.

Which Van Halen album was the first to feature Sammy Hagar on vocals?

5150 introduced Sammy Hagar, whom Eddie Van Halen called after a car mechanic they both used suggested him, and became the band's first number-one album.

Aerosmith's first Hot 100 number one, 'I Don't Want to Miss a Thing', came from which 1998 film?

Diane Warren wrote the ballad for Armageddon, the 1998 asteroid film starring Steven Tyler's daughter Liv; it gave Aerosmith its only Hot 100 number one.

What did Led Zeppelin's untitled 1971 album carry in place of a title?

Four hand-drawn symbols replaced a title and even the band's name, because Led Zeppelin wanted to answer critics who had dismissed them.

Mötley Crüe's metal umlauts were reportedly inspired by what the band members were drinking?

The band were drinking Löwenbräu when they settled on the name, and the beer's umlaut inspired the dots on Mötley Crüe.

Living Colour's 'Cult of Personality' won which Grammy Award in 1990?

Best Hard Rock Performance went to the song Living Colour is best known for, even though the band scored several other hits.

Wolfmother, whose 'Woman' won a Grammy in 2007, come from which Australian city?

Their first show under the name was at a Sydney pub in April 2004.

Greta Van Fleet, the band Robert Plant called 'Led Zeppelin I', formed in 2012 in which Michigan town?

The band formed in Frankenmuth, Michigan, in 2012 and twisted its name from Gretna Van Fleet, a local resident who gave her blessing.

Which White Album track was an attempt to out-noise The Who and is often cited as proto-metal?

McCartney wrote 'Helter Skelter' after reading Pete Townshend boast about The Who's loudest, dirtiest record yet; the track ends with Ringo's shout of 'I've got blisters on my fingers!'

Which 1964 British Invasion single by the Kinks is regularly cited as an early form of hard rock?

'You Really Got Me' topped the UK chart in September 1964 on Dave Davies' distorted riff, produced by slashing the speaker cone of his little Elpico amplifier with a razor blade.

At the 1967 Monterey Pop Festival, Jimi Hendrix ended his set by doing what to his guitar?

Setting it on fire capped the 1967 Monterey set that made Hendrix a star in America, after his first success had come in Britain.

Black Sabbath wanted to call their second album War Pigs, but the label named it after which song instead?

Paranoid was written quickly as filler when the album came up short, yet it became Black Sabbath's only UK top-ten hit.