22 JANUARY
In Music History
2021 In their hometown of Oklahoma City, Flaming Lips pull off the first COVID-protected space bubble concert, with audience members enclosed in plastic bubbles like the kind frontman Wayne Coyne often uses to walk over the crowd.
2020 Neil Young, born in Canada but a resident of California since 1966, finally becomes a US citizen.
2018 Neil Diamond announces that he's retiring from concert touring because he's been diagnosed with Parkinson's Disease.
2013 Shakira and Spanish soccer star Gerard Pique welcome their first child, baby boy Milan.
2012 Seal and Heidi Klum, who got married in 2005 and had four kids together, announce they are separating.
2008 British tabloid The Sun posts video they claim is of Amy Winehouse smoking crack. The 24-year-old singer has been in and out of rehab, and is clearly in ill health. The video was apparently taken by a guest at her home.
2004 Famed New York nightclub the Bottom Line closes the doors forever at its Greenwich Village location. Opened nearly 30 years previously by Allan Pepper and Stanley Snadowski, the club is forced to close after failed negotiations with its landlord, New York University.
2002 Bad Religion release their 12th full-length studio album, The Process of Belief. It is their first recording with Brett Gurewitz on guitar since 1994's Stranger Than Fiction and their debut with current drummer Brooks Wackerman. It's also their first studio album released on Epitaph Records since 1993's Recipe for Hate.
2001 Chubby Checker guest stars on Fox's Ally McBeal in the episode "Mr. Bo."
2000 Robbie Williams reaches #53 on the Hot 100 with "Angels," the highest the British superstar will ever place on the American chart.
1997 Scottish singer Billy MacKenzie (of The Associates) commits suicide at age 39 by overdosing on prescription drugs.
1997 Pop singer Ron Holden, known for the 1959 hit "Love You So," dies of a heart attack at age 57 in Rosarito Beach, Mexico.
1994 Rhett Forrester (former lead singer of Riot) is shot and killed during an attempted carjacking in Atlanta, Georgia. He was 37.
1991 Sting releases his third full-length studio album, The Soul Cages.
1989 Gene Simmons of Kiss and his girlfriend, the Playboy model Shannon Tweed, welcome their first child, a boy named Nicholas.
John And Yoko Appear On Rolling Stone Cover In Photo Taken Day Of John's Death
1981The John Lennon tribute issue of Rolling Stone is published with the famous Annie Leibovitz photo of a naked Lennon embracing a fully-clothed Yoko Ono. Lennon's full interview is not published by the magazine until 2010.
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Featured Events
1989 Metallica's first music video, for "One," makes its debut. Running 7:44, it incorporates footage from the 1971 war movie Johnny Got His Gun.
1985 In his annual list of the Worst-Dressed Women, designer/fashion critic Mr. Blackwell names Cher the Worst of 1984, writing that she "has little or less respect for being a woman." Cyndi Lauper comes in at #4 ("looks like the aftermath of the San Francisco earthquake"), and rounding out the list in a tie for #10 are Dee Snider of Twisted Sister ("a car crash in a whorehouse) and Prince ("a toothpick wrapped in a purple doily").
1984 What goes better with football than Barry Manilow? The "Mandy" singer performs the national anthem at Superbowl XVIII in Tampa, Florida. Disney handles the halftime show.
1972 In an interview with Melody Maker, David Bowie says, "I'm gay and I always have been."
1949 Steve Perry is born in Hanford, California. He becomes Journey's lead singer in 1977, debuting on Infinity, their fourth album. His songwriting chops and instantly identifiable vocals help Journey become one of the top bands of the '80s. He and the band part ways in 1998 when Perry develops a hip condition that keeps him from touring.
1931 Sam Cooke is born in Clarksdale, Mississippi. He grows up in Chicago, where at six years old he forms the group the Singing Children with his siblings.
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