1971 - The Grateful Dead's former manager was arrested after disappearing with more than $70,000 of the band's money. Lenny Hart, father of drummer Mickey Hart. He was later arrested in San Diego giving fake baptisms. The band pressed embezzlement charges.
Mickey Hart left the band out of embarrassment nine months after, and did not return until 1974.
The song "He's Gone" is about Lenny, written by Robert Hunter. As he later told Relix, “I warned them about him from the beginning. That song just contained more warning… People thought it was about Pigpen after Pig died, but they didn’t think.”
Hunter: It was considerations of Lenny in my head that kicked off the whole “Rat in a drain ditch, out on a limb, you know better but I know him.” I was telling them all along this was not the right way to go. I must say, I told you all so!
Garcia: Yeah, you did.
1982 - Fleetwood Mac kick off their Mirage tour in Atlanta. Their opening act is Men at Work, whose debut album Business as Usual is racing up the charts in America. Two weeks after the tour ends in October, Men At Work get their own tour as headliners.
1993 - Pearl Jam's "Jeremy" video wins four awards, including Video of the Year, at the MTV Video Music Awards. Pearl Jam responds by not making any more videos until 1998.
The song takes on a heavy topic and is based on a real-life tragedy: In 1991, a 15-year-old student in Texas named Jeremy Delle killed himself in his English class. "If it weren't for music, I think I would have shot myself in the front of the classroom," Vedder says. "It really is what kept me alive."(Photo by Kristian Dowling/Getty Images)
1995 - The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame opens in Cleveland, with opening ceremony performances by Bob Dylan, Chuck Berry, James Brown, Aretha Franklin, Little Richard, Al Green, The Allman Brothers Band, Booker T. & the MG's, Jerry Lee Lewis, Johnny Cash, The Pretenders, John Fogerty, Lou Reed, Iggy Pop, George Clinton, The Kinks, John Mellencamp, Bruce Springsteen, The Animals' Eric Burdon, and Boz Scaggs.
Birthday:
Billy Preston was born today in 1946. Preston was a prodigy on organ and piano, recording during the early '60s for Vee-Jay and touring with Little Richard. In 1969, George Harrison invites him to sit in on the "Get Back" sessions, which become the Let It Be album, and Preston mans the keys during their historic rooftop concert. The hit single "Get Back" is released with credit to "The Beatles with Billy Preston," making Preston the only artist to share credit on a Beatles record.
At the same time, he develops a fruitful collaboration with the Rolling Stones, playing on nearly all of their albums from the decade, starting with Sticky Fingers.
Despite ups-and-downs with drug addiction and legal woes, Preston continues performing up until his death related to kidney disease in 2006, working with Bob Dylan, Johnny Cash, Eric Clapton, and the Red Hot Chili Peppers. At his memorial service, Joe Cocker sings "You Are So Beautiful," the 1975 hit ballad penned by Preston.
Steve Porcaro of Toto is 65.
Jerry Augustyniak of 10,000 Maniacs is 64.
On This Day In Music History was sourced from Relix, Dead Essays, This Day in Music, Song Facts Allmusic, and Wikipedia.