50 Interesting Facts about Popular Bands – Part 1

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

27. 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."

28. 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?"

29. 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."

30. 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.

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.

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

33. 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.

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

35. 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.

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.

37. Pink Floyd's album "The Wall" is cyclical, with the phrase “Isn’t this where..." "...we came in?” split in half between the first and last song. When the two songs are spliced together, the complete phrase "Isn’t this where we came in?” forms, proposing that Pink's story repeats itself.

38. Pink Floyd's "Dark Side of the Moon" album was so popular, it had a German factory pressing nothing but that album 34 years after it was first released.

39. Pink Floyd's "Dark Side of the Moon" spent 741 weeks on the billboard charts, from 1973 to 1988, longer than any other album.

40. Led Zeppelin and Pink Floyd members helped to fund the making of Monty Python and the Holy Grail.

Aerosmith earned more money from Guitar Hero than from any of their albums.

42. Aerosmith had once written the music for a song, but couldn't come up with any words. They finally got their inspiration when they went to see Young Frankenstein movie. The song was Walk This Way, became one of the band's biggest hits.

43. In 1994, Guns N' Roses Bassist Duff McKagan bought $100,000 in stock in Microsoft, Amazon, and Starbucks.

44. Axl Rose once postponed a Guns N’ Roses show because he was watching TMNT 2: Secret of the Ooze.

45. In 1984, Steven Tyler heard an old Aerosmith song on the radio and didn't recognize it due to memory loss from years of drug use. He suggested to the band that they record a cover version. Joe Perry told him "It's us, fu*khead."

Guns N' Roses hit song Sweet Child o' Mine came under controversy in 2015 when a very similar sounding track by a lesser known Australian rock band was discovered to have been released 6 years prior. Upon hearing the song, Guns N' Roses's bassist, Duff McKagan, called the similarities "stunning."

47. David Bowie had an affair with the mother of Guns N' Roses guitarist, Slash.

48. Before Guns N'Roses, Slash once auditioned for the band Poison. He decided not to join when he was asked about wearing makeup.

49. The producer recording "Sweet Child O' Mine" with Guns N' Roses suggested there be a breakdown at the end of the song. The band had no idea where to take the song, resulting in the iconic repetition of "Where do we go now?"

50. When Pink Floyd was completing "Shine On You Crazy Diamond," which was an exploration of their former band mate Syd Barrett's mental decline, an overweight man with a shaved head and eyebrows entered the studio. He turned out to be Syd Barrett himself, who they had not seen in 7 years.