Ten notable rock and roll events of the past decade
Depending on what set of calendar beliefs you have, the final days of 2019 also mark the end of the decade, putting a period on the 2010s. That stretch of time has been a furiously swinging pendulum for rock and roll, filled with wild stories, long goodbyes and the specter of death coming to take a host of veritable legends.
There’s not enough ink to cover all that happened over the last 10 years, but when it comes to notable events, the list below is a good a place as any to start reminiscing on the cusp of the 2020s. In no particular order, let’s take a look.
PARIS TERROR ATTACKS
The world at large was shocked by the coordinated terror attacks in November 2015 throughout Paris, which left hundreds injured and 138 people dead. Ninety of those deaths took place in a mass shooting at the Bataclan, a venue where California rock band Eagles of Death Metal were performing. The majority of killings that night were innocent concertgoers, forever changing how people looked at attending shows.
UNIVERSAL FIRE CASUALTIES REVEALED
The three-acre fire that took place on the Universal Studios backlot in June 2008 wasn’t much more than a blip on the radar for many, until this past spring when a damning New York Times report revealed the loss of up to 175,000 master tapes in the musical archives had been covered up. Some of the catalogs deeply affected by the blaze and lost forever were those by Soundgarden, Nirvana, Guns N’ Roses, Elton John, Tom Petty, Nine Inch Nails, Neil Diamond and dozens more.
THE ‘BIG FOUR’ OF METAL UNITE
Four of the most influential and popular bands in heavy metal, appropriately dubbed “The Big Four,” played together for the first time in 2010 at the Sonisphere music festival in Warsaw, Poland, repeating the moment a few days later in Sofia, Bulgaria for a night broadcast to movie theaters around the world. Metallica, Slayer, Megadeth and Anthrax all took the stage to play their respective sets, and the shows featured with a jam with bandmembers from each on the Diamond Head song “Am I Evil?” More festival appearances overseas took place, and the next year the Big Four finally played the States with gigs in Southern California and at New York’s Yankee Stadium.
GUNS N’ ROSES REUNITE
The partial reunion of Guns N’ Roses classic lineup was an incredible moment for rock music when it took place in 2016, with the majority of fans having given up hope that Axl Rose, singer and sole original member of the group still carrying on under the moniker, would ever share the stage with estranged guitarist Slash. The unthinkable not only happened – with bassist Duff McKagan on board as well – but entering 2020, the “Not in This Lifetime…” tour is heading into it’s 12th and 13th legs in Latin America and Europe
respectively and nearing 200 shows performed.
AC/DC DRUMMER MURDER PLOT
The 2014 release of AC/ DC’s latest album should’ve been cause for celebration, but by the time ‘Rock or Bust’ landed on shelves in late-November, headlines surrounding the band were dominated by drummer Cliff Rudd’s murderfor-hire plot where he was charged with scheming to have two men killed in his home country of New Zealand. The unreal tale involved drugs, money and legal woes that will eventually make an excellent book, with Rudd given eight months of home detention. He’s supposedly back working with the band on new material.
AXL ROSE JOINS AC/ DC
AC/DC couldn’t catch a break for their last world tour, first needing to replace Rudd – easily done with onetime band drummer Chris Slade – but then facing a much bigger personnel obstacle when frontman Brian Johnson had to leave the tour because of hearing issues. The final 22 dates of the ‘Rock or Bust’ run saw Axl Rose take over on vocals, with even the most hardcore fans begrudgingly giving him positve reviews. Local fans got to see up close as the trek came to a close at the Wells Fargo Center in September 2016.
U2 GIVES AWAY ALBUM
Apple’s product launches always contain an element of surprise, and in 2014 it wasn’t just the iPhone 6 that was revealed, the company also delivered the news that the smartphone would come with a brand new U2 album, ‘Songs of
Innocence,’ preloaded for free on the device and into some 500 million iTunes libraries. That was great for the many fans of the Irish rockers who patronize Apple, but for the many, many people who don’t like the band, it was a thumbs down, making for a public relations disaster when it turned out to be a complicated end around to remove the LP from listener’s digital collections.
BLACK SABBATH, KISS AND MORE SAY FAREWELL
Used as a marketing gimmick for decades, farewell tours have gotten to the point where they are immediately laughed off when an artist announces one. The 2010s saw Black Sabbath, Ozzy Osbourne, Elton John, Kiss, Slayer and Paul Simon complete and/or begin the long goodbye, with Ozzy and Kiss doing it for the second time. Judas Priest and the Scorpions said they would be hanging it up but then pulled back the claims. And then there is the case of Motley Crue…
MOTLEY CRUE RETIRE AND REUNITE
The Crue get their own special recognition because of how adamant they were about their exit from the road. “The Final Tour” was launched in 2014 with a press conference declaring the bandmembers had signed a “cessation of touring agreement,” a neat little headline grabber that really meant nothing legally. They even had mock headstones made up with their names on them. The last show took place on New Year’s Eve 2015 in the sleaze rocker’s hometown of Los Angeles, but at the beginning of this month, Motley announced they would be returning in 2020 for a stadium tour with coheadliners Def Leppard, Poison and Joan Jett.
UNRELENTING DEATHS
The number of music legends we lost in the previous decade were unprecedented. Some were terribly unexpected, like the suicides of Soundgarden singer Chris Cornell and Linkin Park frontman Chester Bennington or the shocking losses of Prince and Beastie Boys’ Adam Yauch. This column doesn’t have nearly enough space to list all those who departed, here is a handful of the artists we mourned in the 2010s:
Metal singer Ronnie James Dio. Motorhead leader Lemmy Kilmister. Guitarist Ronnie Montrose. David Bowie. AC/DC rhythm guitarist Malcolm Young. Stone Temple Pilots and Velvet Revolver frontman Scott Weiland. Guitar pioneer Chuck Berry. Tom Petty. Cranberries frontwoman Dolores O’Riordan. Pantera drummer Vinnie Paul. Cream members Ginger Baker and Jack Bruce. Whitney Houston. George Michael. Type O Negative frontman Peter Steele. Rising songstress Amy Winehouse. The Doors keyboardist Ray Manzarek. Slayer guitarist Jeff Hanneman. Velvet Underground singer/ guitarist Lou Reed. Soul legend Aretha Franklin. The Cars frontman Ric Ocasek. Fats Domino.