Music History Events: Non-Music Accomplishments
August 23, 2007 Brian May of Queen gets a degree from London's Imperial College. It's not one of those honorary degrees either - he earned a PhD in astrophysics. He would have gotten it sooner, but he was busy being a rock star.More
July 24, 2001 Bob Seger's boat Lightning (named because a previous boat was struck by lightning) wins its division in the 291-mile Port Huron to Mackinac Boat Race in Michigan with a time of 30 hours, 34 minutes, 42 seconds. Seger is one of 11 crew members on board.
December 18, 1998 Alice Cooper's Cooper'stown restaurant opens in Phoenix (try the "Welcome To My Nightmare" chili). To celebrate, Cooper performs with his original bandmates Michael Bruce and Neal Smith - the first time the three have been on stage together in 24 years.
June 9, 1998 Jimmy Buffett's memoir A Pirate Looks At Fifty is released. It reaches #1 on the New York Times Best Seller List for Nonfiction. The title is taken from his 1974 song "A Pirate Looks At Forty."
November 8, 1994 Sonny Bono, half of Sonny and Cher and former mayor of Palm Springs, Calfornia, is elected to the US House of Representatives, representing the 44th district in California.
July 11, 1992 Jerry Garcia, who has a passion for painting and studied at the San Francisco Art Institute, introduces a line of neckties he designed.More
April 19, 1988 Sonny Bono (Sonny & Cher) is inaugurated as mayor of Palm Springs, California.
April 17, 1983 Joe Strummer of The Clash runs the London Marathon, finishing with a time of 4 hours 13 minutes. He claims that his training included 10 pints of beer the night before.
May 4, 1982 Under the leadership of chairman Elton John, who has invested heavily in the team, the Watford Football Club is promoted to the First Division of English football with a win over Wrexham. The team was in the lowly Fourth Division when Elton took over as chairman in 1976.
June 5, 1959 Robert Zimmerman graduates from Hibbing High School in Minnesota. He moves on to the University of Minnesota, but soon leaves for New York City to become the full-time folk singer, Bob Dylan.
January 6, 2024 Tool frontman Maynard James Keenan earns his Brazilian jiu jitsu black belt after 20 years of training.
November 19, 2007 Queen guitarist Brian May is named Chancellor of Liverpool's John Moores University.
October 26, 2007 Acting on the advice of director David Lynch, folk-pop icon and former student of the Maharishi, Donovan, begins drawing up plans for The Invincible Donovan University, a college for studying transcendental meditation.
April 26, 2004 Sean Combs (aka Puff Daddy) makes his Broadway debut starring as Walter Lee Younger in the revival of A Raisin In The Sun.
May 1, 1999 The Lyz Art Forum in Siegen, Germany, presents an exhibition of 70 paintings by Paul McCartney, including "Bowie Spewing," which is indeed a young portrait of the singer.
May 17, 1989 Rolling Stones bassist Bill Wyman opens the Sticky Fingers restaurant in West London. Guest with big appetites can order the Beggars Banquet.
October 29, 1987 Rolling Stones guitarist and sometime painter Ron Wood gets his first public presentation, Decades, in London, featuring mostly portraits of Wood's famous friends over the past two decades.
November 4, 1986 Soul legend Jerry "Iceman" Butler is elected to the Board of Commissioners in his home district of Cook County in Chicago.
November 7, 1974 Hard rocker Ted Nugent (of The Amboy Dukes) becomes national squirrel shooting champion.
January 14, 1970 John Lennon's erotic "Bag One" lithographs are exhibited publicly in London (and removed by Scotland Yard two days later).
June 1, 1965 Art Garfunkel graduates from Columbia University in New York.
February 1, 1963 Paul Simon graduates from New York City's Queens College.
September 10, 2019 John Cooper of Skillet releases the graphic novel Eden, which follows the band's adventure through a dangerous post-apocalyptic world to find a mysterious paradise.
April 14, 2019 Logic (Bobby Hall) becomes the first rapper with a New York Times best seller when his novel Supermarket tops the Paperback Trade Fiction list.
February 15, 2019 The superhero series The Umbrella Academy, based on a comic by former My Chemical Romance frontman Gerard Way, premieres to positive reviews on Netflix. The show, starring Ellen Page, also features Mary J. Blige as an assassin.
January 16, 2016 Alanis Morissette debuts her advice column for The Guardian, answering a plight from a woman on the brink of an emotional affair.
February 12, 2015 "Weird Al" Yankovic becomes the first-ever guest editor at MAD magazine when it is announced that he will be assisting with issue #533.
February 25, 2014 Kelis' Saucy and Sweet show premieres on The Cooking Channel. The singer trained part-time as a chef in the late 2000s, eventually graduating from Le Cordon Bleu culinary school.
August 3, 2010 Madonna launches her "Material Girl" line of clothing, shoes, jewelry and handbags at Macy's. The line is targeted to teenage girls and based in part on some of Madonna's various looks. Assisting the 51-year-old singer with the project is her 13-year-old daughter, Lourdes.
August 22, 2002 Jimmy Buffett's first Cheeseburger In Paradise restaurant, named for his 1978 song, opens in Indianapolis, Indiana.
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