8 DECEMBER
In Music History
1984 Nicholas "Razzle" Dingley (of Hanoi Rocks) dies in a drunk-driving accident in Redondo Beach, California. The 24-year-old drummer is the passenger in a car driven by Motley Crue's inebriated frontman, Vince Neil.
1982 Nicki Minaj is born Onika Tanya Maraj-Petty in Trinidad. With a panoply of flows and a striking visual presense, she signs with Lil Wayne's Young Money label and becomes the most popular female rapper in history, with over 100 chart placements, mostly features on tracks by the likes of Rihanna, Usher and Post Malone.
1982 Country singer Marty Robbins dies at age 57, six days after undergoing quadruple coronary bypass surgery.
1981 Blues harmonicist Big Walter Horton dies of heart failure at age 60.
1980 Annie Leibovitz photographs John Lennon and Yoko Ono at their apartment in New York City for a feature in Rolling Stone. Lennon is shot and killed hours later.
1980 John Lennon mixes Yoko Ono's "Walking On Thin Ice" at the Record Plant studio in New York. It is the last time he is in a studio, as he is shot and killed when he returns to his apartment building.
1979 The Styx ballad "Babe," which Dennis DeYoung wrote for his wife, hits #1 in America.
1977 A riot breaks out in Brisbane, Australia, when Blondie fails to appear for a concert.
1976 The Carpenters' Very First Special, featuring guest star John Denver, airs on ABC.
1975 The benefit concert "A Night of the Hurricane" is held at Madison Square Garden. The last date on Bob Dylan's Rolling Thunder Revue tour, the show features many non-musical celebrities and raises over $100,000 for the release of wrongly imprisoned boxer "Hurricane" Carter and his alleged accomplice. Carter himself calls the stage from jail.
1975 Gary Thain, bassist for Uriah Heep, dies of respiratory failure after a heroin overdose in Norwood Green, London, at age 27.
1973 Slipknot lead singer Corey Taylor is born in Des Moines, Iowa.
1972 Ryan Newell (lead guitarist for Sister Hazel) is born in Gainesville, Florida.
1972 Carly Simon's No Secrets album is certified Gold.
1971 Reginald Dwight legally changes his name to Elton Hercules John. He had been using the "Elton John" name since 1968, but had never made it official. The middle name he picked in honor of the mythological hero, which also happened to be the name of a horse on one of his favorite British TV shows: Steptoe and Son.
John Lennon Is Killed
1980John Lennon, 40 years old, is shot and killed outside his apartment in New York City.
Read more8 DECEMBER
Featured Events
2004 Dimebag Darrell is shot dead on stage while performing with his band Damageplan at Alrosa Villa in Columbus, Ohio. The murderer, Nathan Gale, kills three others before being shot dead by a police officer.More
1995 Four months after the death of founding member Jerry Garcia, The Grateful Dead announce their breakup, stating, "The 'long strange trip' of the uniquely wonderful beast known as the Grateful Dead is over." Members Bob Weir and Vince Welnick continue as Ratdog.
1976 An updated version of the musical drama A Star is Born debuts in movie theaters, starring Barbra Streisand and Kris Kristofferson, and featuring the Academy Award-winning chart-topper "Evergreen."More
1969 The GTO's (Girls Together Outrageously) release their only album, Permanent Damage, with Frank Zappa producing. The band is entirely made up of "groupies." The lineup consists of Pamela Miller (later Des Barres), Mercy Fontenot, Cynthia Wells (later Cale-Binion), Christine Frka, Lucy Offerall, Sandra Rowe and Sandy Parker.More
1963 Frank Sinatra Jr. is kidnapped in Lake Tahoe, Nevada, and freed three days later after his famous father pays the $240,000 ransom. The three men responsible are eventually caught and incarcerated.
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