Classic Rock Facts

2011-11-01T11:00:00.001-04:00

Axl Rose is an anagram for Oral Sex. Maybe that's why Guns N' Roses Sucked?

Axl also used to earn $8 an hour for smoking cigarettes for a science experiment at UCLA.

2011-11-01T11:00:00.000-04:00

Ten out of the fourteen songs which comprise the Beatles first album "Please Please me" were recorded in little over twelve hours.

2011-10-29T11:00:00.002-04:00

The Clash's "Rock The Casbah" was allegedly written after the banning of rock music in Iran under Ayatollah Khomeini.

2011-10-29T11:00:00.001-04:00

U2's The Edge turned up to their first ever rehearsal with his brother Dick and a home-made electric guitar carved in the shape of a swan.

The Edge also wanted to be a surgeon as a kid.

Coincidence? Probably not.

2011-10-29T11:00:00.000-04:00

Lemmy was once a roadie for Jimi Hendrix. Lemmy Rules!

2011-10-28T11:00:00.001-04:00

Rod Stewart holds the record for the largest concert crowd ever. Rod filled the Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro in Brazil with 3,500,000 people on Dec. 31st, 1994.

2011-10-28T11:00:00.000-04:00

The power chord is credited to guitarist Link Wray, whose signature track "Rumble" is featured in Quentin Tarantino's "Pulp Fiction"

2011-10-27T11:00:00.001-04:00

The Beach Boys' "Pet Sounds" was named because of an insult between bandmates. When Brian Wilson showed Mike Love the new material, he said "Who's gonna hear this shit? The ears of a dog?".

2011-10-27T11:00:00.000-04:00

The final chord of The Beatles' "A Day In The Life" was played by ten hands on three pianos simultaneously: John, Paul, Ringo, George Martin and their roadie Mal Evans.

Evans also controlled the alarm clock and counted the measures in the original 24-bar break. The intent was to edit out the alarm clock when the missing section had been filled with music, but as it complemented McCartney's piece (the first line of McCartney's section began with, "woke up, got out of bed") the decision was made to keep the ringing, although George Martin later commented that editing it out would have been unfeasible.

Click HERE to read the very interesting and short life of Beatles roadie Mal Evans.

2011-10-24T10:40:00.001-04:00

The rock band Foreigner came up with the idea for their name at the suggestion of Mick Jones. This was because half of the band was English while the other half was American.

2011-10-24T10:29:00.002-04:00

Pete Townshend is credited for coining the phrase "Power Pop" to describe The Who's sound.

2011-10-24T10:15:00.001-04:00

"It sounds strange for me to be saying this, but I've come around to the idea that sex really is for procreation."- Eric Clapton

2011-10-24T10:10:00.002-04:00

Def Leppard have sold more than 65 million albums worldwide, and have two albums with RIAA diamond certification, Pyromania and Hysteria. They are one of only five rock bands with two original studio albums selling over 10 million copies in the U.S.

The only other rock bands to receive this status are The Beatles, Van Halen, Led Zeppelin and The Eagles.

2010-08-08T11:00:00.003-04:00

Angelina Jolies uncle, Chip Taylor, wrote the classic song "Wild Thing". Taylor used a lot of this money to gamble - for years he bet about $10,000 a day and was kicked out of every casino in Las Vegas for card counting. He also wrote "Angel Of The Morning"

2010-08-08T11:00:00.002-04:00

At the end of the Beatles' song "A Day in the Life," an ultrasonic whistle, audible only to dogs, was recorded by Paul McCartney for his old English sheepdog "Martha".

2010-08-08T11:00:00.001-04:00

Gene Simmons of Kiss has a tongue that is seven inches long, two inches longer than most men.

2010-08-07T11:00:00.007-04:00

Throughout his career, Ringo received far more fan mail than any of the other Beatles.

2010-08-07T11:00:00.002-04:00

While playing in front of a large lake at the Crystal Palace Bowl in London in 1970, Pink Floyd played so loud, a number of fish were killed.

2010-08-07T11:00:00.001-04:00

“A man is a success if he gets up in the morning and gets to bed at night, and in between he does what he wants to do.” - Bob Dylan

2010-08-06T11:00:00.005-04:00

Previous to April 1966, David Bowie had recorded under the name of Davy Jones and The Lower Third.

2010-08-06T11:00:00.004-04:00

In Sept 1974 Keith Richards of The Rolling Stones entered a Swiss Clinic to have his blood cleaned [in a form of dialysis] to get him off heroine quickly, to complete a European tour.

2010-08-06T11:00:00.003-04:00

Jimi Hendrix claimed 'Purple Haze' was inspired by a dream where he was walking under the sea. In the dream, he said a purple haze surrounded him, engulfed him and got him lost. It was a traumatic experience, but in his dream his faith in Jesus saved him. At one point, Hendrix wrote the chorus as "Purple Haze, Jesus Saves," but decided against it.

2010-08-05T11:00:00.005-04:00

Lou Reed's father was a tax accountant, who raised him with the expectation that he would take over the family business. When Lou turned out to be more of a handful than they'd bargained for, his parents signed their son over to the Creedmore State Psychiatric Hospital, where Lou Reed suffered eight weeks of electroshock therapy at the age of 17.

2010-08-05T11:00:00.003-04:00

Joey Ramone was an avid online stock trader in the late '90s.

2010-08-05T11:00:00.001-04:00

John Lennon died on Jim Morrison's Birthday.