July 29th, 2015, The Eagles do their final concert with Glenn Frey. It happens in Louisiana. It’s the last date on their History of The Eagles tour. They do 27 songs in a regular set, come out and do 2 encores, the final song that they play together, “Desperado.” And then just six months later, Glenn is gone. Now, the band makes a decision to carry on. They add Glenn’s son, Deacon, to the band and also country artist Vince Gill.
Today in 1979, the last date on Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers lawsuit tour. Now, what is this all about? Tom’s contract was sold from Shelter Records, his original record company, to MCA Records, and he objected to the fact that they could just sell his contract like that. So he was locked up in a lawsuit with them. To finance things during the lawsuit, he went out on tour to add money, and this was the end of that tour.
On this date in 1967, The Doors go to number one in the singles charts with “Light My Fire” for the first of three weeks. They end up getting knocked out of the top spot by the Beatles and “All You Need Is Love.”
And then a few Rock birthdays on today’s calendar. John Sykes, guitarist from both Whitesnake and Thin Lizzy, and frontman from Rush Bassist as well, Geddy Lee, and also the keyboardist from REO Speedwagon, Neal Doughty.
See more today in rock history stories from Joe here