50 Interesting Facts about Popular Bands – Part 2

In 2008, Prince covered Radiohead's "Creep" at Coachella. Someone uploaded a mobile video of it to Youtube. Prince quickly made Youtube remove it. After finding out about the blocking, Radiohead's lead singer Thom Yorke said "Well, tell him to unblock it. It's our song."

27. Bohemian Rhapsody by Queen returned to the US top 10 charts after 16 years due to its appearance in the "Wayne's World" movie.

28. When asked to headline a show with The Pixies opening, Radiohead refused to headline, saying "That's like the Beatles opening for us".

29. Stayin' Alive by Bee Gees was used in a study to train medical staff to perform CPR. The song has close to 104 beats per minute, and 100-120 chest compressions per minute are recommended by the British Heart Foundation.

30. Joe Strummer, from The Clash, wept when he learned "Rock the Casbah" was written on a bomb dropped during Operation Desert Storm.

Rick Allen, the drummer for Def Leppard, lost his arm after a car accident in 1984. He thought he could never play in the band again and became very depressed until a fellow drummer helped him design an electronic drum kit that could be played with one arm. He returned to the band in 1986.

32. Anthony Kiedis once missed a Red Hot Chili Peppers concert because he was off scoring drugs, so Keith Morris filled in on vocals and just yelled and made up lyrics because he didn't know any of the songs.

33. In 1986, the Red Hot Chili Peppers were budgeted $5000 by EMI Music to make a demo tape and set aside $2000 to spend on heroin and cocaine.

34. Donnie from The Wild Thornberrys animated show was voiced by Flea, the bassist from Red Hot Chili Peppers.

35. Bono was campaigning to have first-world taxpayers forgive all third world debt whilst hiding U2's earnings from Irish tax collectors in the Netherlands.

Bono wears glasses all the time because he has glaucoma.

37. When Grateful Dead singer Jerry Garcia died, an autopsy was done. In his large intestine, the medical examiner found a bottle cap, a pipe screen, a mascara brush, and a small brass key "probably consumed in Buffalo, between 1979 and 1981."

38. Deep Purple was recognized by The Guinness Book of World Records as the "globe's loudest band". When in a concert at the London Rainbow Theatre their sound reached 117 dB. Three of their audience members were rendered unconscious.

39. Adam Levine once tweeted at Fox News to never play Maroon 5 on their "evil, f*cking channel ever again;" the network went onto disobey his request.

40. Eddie and Alex Van Halen's original band “Mammoth” had no P.A. system of their own, so they’d rent David Lee Roth’s system for $50 a night. After years of Eddie singing lead vocals, they figured they could save money by letting David Lee Roth into the band because he had the P.A. system.

Eddie Van Halen's guitar solo on Michael Jackson's "Beat It" caused a speaker to catch on fire during its recording.

42. Dimebag Darrell once asked Eddie Van Halen for a copy of his guitar "Bumblebee" from the cover of Van Halen II. Eddie said yes but forgot, but after Dimebag was killed he turned up at the viewing with the original and it is now buried with him.

43. Eddie Van Halen didn't ask for royalties after completing Michael Jackson's "Beat It" song guitar solo, he did it as a favor.

44. Eddie Van Halen actually started out playing the drums. He bought a drum set and his brother bought a guitar. When his brother got better at the drums than him, Eddie said: "OK, f*ck you, I'll play your guitar."

45. When Quincy Jones called to ask Eddie Van Halen to do the guitar solo on Michael Jackson's "Beat It", Van Halen thought it was a prank call and called Jones an a*shole before hanging up on him.

Van Halen's "no brown M&Ms" clause was to check that venues had adhered to the safety standards in the contract. If there were brown M&Ms, it was a tell tale sign they had not.

47. Eddie Van Halen donated 75 of his personal guitars to underfunded music education programs in public schools in Los Angeles.

48. Freddie Mercury had a throat infection at the time of Live Aid concert and was advised by his doctors to not risk performing at the festival. He defied their orders, and Queen's set went down in history as one of the best performances that day.

49. Queen guitarist Brian May developed hepatitis from a tainted needle in 1974, almost forcing him to have his arm amputated. He eventually regained his health in time to help his bandmates finish the album which contained their first mega hit, "Killer Queen".

50. Flea from The Red Hot Chili Peppers was not only Nihilist #2 in The Big Lebowski, he was also Marty McFly's rival needles in Back to the Future Part II and III.