37 Funky Facts About Bands That Rocked The World – Part 1

Nirvana purposely hired a bad video director, Sam Bayer, so that the music video for Smells Like Teen Spirit would turn out to be rough and 'not corporate' like. But the video was so well received that it gave the band, along with MTV, major corporate success.

2. Nirvana was adamantly told not to play the song "Rape Me" at the 1992 MTV Music Awards. Nevertheless, at the start of the performance, Cobain started playing the chords to "Rape Me" as MTV producers watched in horror. He then switched back to "Lithium", as scheduled.

3. Rolling Stones readers voted Nirvana at one of the worst bands of the 1990's. Right along with Creed, Limp Bizkit, and Hanson.

4. Dave Grohl tried to quit Nirvana once after he overheard Kurt Cobain calling him a 'sh*tty drummer', but was convinced to stay by the band's manager.

5. During a brief power-outage at Nirvana in Munich, Krist Novoselic joked “We’re on the way out. Grunge is dead. Nirvana’s over." It would be Nirvana's last concert before Cobain's death.

The Rolling Stones magazine originally gave Nirvana's Nevermind a 3-star rating in 1991. They now give it 5 stars and rank it as the 17th greatest album of all time.

7. Nirvana was kicked out of their own release party for Nevermind because of a food fight.

8. Peter Grant, Led Zeppelin's manager, is reported to have secured 90% of gate money from concerts performed by them. His trust and loyalty to Led Zeppelin was such that his managerial arrangement with the band was via a gentlemen's agreement.

9. Led Zeppelin let Ben Affleck use "When the Levee Breaks" in Argo with a condition that he digitally alter the player's needle drop to correct spot on the record.

10. Led Zeppelin was sued by the band Spirit for stealing the famous intro to "Stairway to Heaven" from its song "Taurus".

Metallica's lawyer once sent a cease and desist letter to a Metallica cover band. Metallica later said they had no idea the letter had been sent and offered an apology and told Rolling Stone that they had started out as a cover band, adding "Heck, we even recorded a two-disc album of covers!"

12. In 2013, Metallica performed in Antarctica just to break a record and be the first musical act to perform on all 7 continents.

13. In 2014, Metallica's lead guitarist Kirk Hammett lost his phone that had over 250 ideas for riffs on it and didn't have a backup. Because of this, he has no songwriting credits on the new album.

14. Metallica was told that expletives were prohibited during their performance at the 1996 MTV Europe awards performance. They were expected to play a slow song from their new album. Instead, they played the two most offensive songs that they had.

15. Metallica wrote the song "The God That Failed" because Hetfield's mother died due to Christian-science beliefs, influencing her to reject cancer treatment.

When asked if there was validity in the media's criticism of violence in his movies, Quentin Tarantino said, "Sure, Kill Bill's a violent movie. But it's a Tarantino movie. You don't go to see Metallica and ask the f*ckers to turn the music down."

17. The US military would play 'Enter Sandman' for hours on end to aid in the interrogation and torture of prisoners. When asked about this, Metallica's James Hetfield responded "We've been punishing our parents, our wives, our loved ones with this music for ever. Why should the Iraqis be any different?"

18. Kirk Hammett encouraged Les Claypool to audition for Metallica after Cliff Burton died. After not getting the job, James Hetfield said it was because Claypool was "too good" and "should do his own thing."

19. Exactly 700 actual beds were precisely laid out on a beach and used for the cover of Pink Floyd's album, "A Momentary Lapse Of Reason". None of them were cardboard cutouts.

20. Alan Parsons (the audio engineer of Dark Side of the Moon) rejected Pink Floyd's invitation to work as the audio engineer of "Wish You Were Here" and started Alan Parsons Project.

Slash from the band Guns N' Roses refused to allow "Glee" to use the band's music because he thought the show sucked.

22. A 10+ hour film version of Dune was almost produced with Salvador Dali as the Emperor, with art by HR Giger and music by Pink Floyd.

23. During the English broadcast of the Apollo 11 moon landing, Pink Floyd was the background music, jamming live in the BBC studios.

24. 1 in every 14 people in the US under the age of 50 are estimated to have owned a copy of 'The Dark Side of The Moon' by Pink Floyd.

25. The final song on Pink Floyd's album "Atom Heart Mother" -"Alan's Psychedelic Breakfast", features a dripping sink at the end where on original vinyl copies, the effect was cut into the vinyl's run-off groove, causing the dripping noise to play on infinitely until the stylus was removed.