Rock/Pop Tidbits

Rod Stewart was always known as a ladies man. But his girlfriend Britt Ekland had a very stern warning for the loose lover: “If you screw another woman while you’re with me, I’ll chop your balls off.” We can only presume that the overly friendly Rod was on his best behavior while with Ekland.

It was rough going in the beginning for Axl Rose. In fact, in 1985, Axl and his band mates rented a small apartment in Los Angles. To cook dinner, the resourceful rockers had to set fire to a set of drum sticks and proceeded to roast hamburgers over the improvised flames.

Before joining the Monkees, Davy Jones was both a stage actor and a racehorse jockey.

Joey Dee, who had a US number one hit in January, 1962 with "Peppermint Twist" was surrounded by future recording stars at various stages of his life. He attended Passaic Highschool in New Jersey at the same time as the Shirelles. A female trio that was part of his act at the Peppermint Lounge went on to become The Ronettes. When he opened his own club, his backup band included Felix Cavaliere, Gene Cornish, and Eddie Brigati, who would form the Young Rascals. After Joey sold the club and went on the road, his guitar player was Jimi Hendrix.

After his short fifteen minutes of fame, former Partridge family actor Danny Bonaduce landed a gig as a DJ. So he had the call letters and the name of the station tattooed on his rear end. His thinking? He was under the impression that it would help him keep his job- it didn’t work.

In 1961 Ricky Nelson's father, Ozzie Nelson, filmed a video for the hit "Travelin Man,” featuring pictures of places mentioned in the song. This film is often called the world's first rock video. This is disputed however by Jay Perry Richardson, the son of J.P. Richardson, better known as The Big Bopper, claiming that his father made a video in 1958 for "Chantilly Lace" and actually coined the term 'music video' in 1959.



Wango tango! When a female reporter inquired why ted Nugent didn’t wear tuxedos on his album covers, his reply was, “Why did you decide not to douche yourself with molten lava?”

When Vernon Presley re-married on July 3rd, 1960, Elvis did not attend the ceremony.

Elton John wrote his US number one hit, "Philadelphia Freedom" after watching Billie Jean King play a tennis match with her World Tennis League team, the Philadelphia Freedoms.

It was in 1972 when John Denver dropped some acid and drove around on a motorcycle. Then he penned the hit song, “Rocky Mountain High.” Denver explained: “What a far out experience that was.”

Denver also thought that saying “far out” was really, well for the lack of a better term, far out. “The first time I appeared as guest host of the Tonight Show, I must have said ‘far out’ fifty times. I would say ‘far out’ without even thinking, it was like a nervous tic…” Far out.

After John Denver saw a Rolling Stones concert in Long Beach, California, the soft rock troubadour confessed, “I didn’t get Mick Jagger or his onstage gyrations. It just didn’t compute to me.” Maybe he needed more of that ‘Rocky Mountain’ high to appreciate it.

In 1951, when Brenda Lee was only 6 years old, she auditioned for a local Atlanta television show called TV Ranch. An hour and a half after singing "Hey, Good Lookin'" for the producer, she appeared on the program.

Apparently Madonna’s pet Chihuahua “Chiquita” was suffering a bout of doggy depression over the attention that was given to Madonna’s new baby, Lourdes. So the ‘material girl’ sent the sad pooch to a canine shrink. I guess the $7,500 choker from Tiffany’s just wasn’t enough to cheer up the little yapper.

Before Michael Jackson made love to his wife Debbie Rowe, the gloved one would dress up as Peter Pan and dance around the room. Another time he wore a horse’s head and galloped around on a broom stick. “It made him feel romantic,” explained Debbie. Uh, okay…and why doesn’t that surprise anyone?

The Queen song, “Radio Gaga” was actually inspired by band member Roger Taylor’s son who had heard a song on the radio and called it “Radio Ka-Ka.”

When the record producer for the Spice Girls hired a voice and singing coach to train the girls, his first impression: “My God, there’s a lot of work to be done here!”

In the early fifties, Neil Sedaka teamed up with some high school friends to form a vocal group. They had a local hit in New York, but then parted ways. The group later went on to record as The Tokens and in 1962, scored a Billboard number one smash with "The Lion Sleeps Tonight.”

Courtney Love and Kurt Cobain got very close early on in their relationship. “We bonded over pharmaceuticals,” detailed Love. “I had Vicodin extra-strength…and he had hycomine cough syrup.”

In a Vanity Fair interview in 1992, Love said “If there ever is a time that a person should be on drugs, it’s when they’re pregnant, because it sucks.”

At a Pink Floyd concert in 1980 for the concept album “The Wall,” fireworks ignited the stage curtains. Pieces of burning fabric rained down on the audience, who cheered mightily; they thought it was part of the show.