September 5th, 2008, the very first guitar that Jimi Hendrix sets on fire sells at auction for $575,000. Believe it or not, this is kind of a disappointment because they expected it to go for at least a million. Now there’s only two guitars that Jimi definitively set on fire, and the other one was at the Monterey Pop Festival in 1967.
Today in 1991, C.C. DeVille, guitarist from Poison, gets fired by the band. Why? They go on MTV’s Video Music Awards. The rest of the band hits the stage expecting to play “Unskinny Bop” instead CC launches into “Talk Dirty To Me.”
Today in 1976, Gary Rossington, guitarist from Lynyrd Skynyrd, falls asleep behind the wheel of his brand new Ford Torino, hits a house and a tree, and inspires the lyrics to their song, “That Smell”, especially the line, “Oak tree, you’re in my way.”
And then a couple of rock birthdays on today’s calendar. One, Dweezel Zappa, and the other born in Zanzibar, Farrokh Bulsara. You probably know him better as Queen frontman Freddie Mercury.
