18 October

Pick a Day

18 OCTOBER

In Music History

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2021 Kanye West legally changes his name to the mononym Ye, his longtime nickname.

2013 Rockabilly guitarist Roland Janes dies at age 80 after suffering a heart attack. As a Sun Records session guitarist, he played on tracks from Jerry Lee Lewis, Charlie Rich, and Sonny Burgess, among others.

2011 The Stone Roses announce they are to reunite after a 15-year split. The band confirms three gigs at Heaton Park in Manchester on June 29th, 30th and July 1st 2012, and also claim a world tour and new album is in the works.

2011 A Birmingham County Court declares four of the original members of UB40 bankrupt. Even after selling 70+ million records over their 33-year career, saxophone player Brian Travers, drummer Jimmy Brown, trumpeter Terence "Astro" Wilson and percussionist Norman Hassan fail to fight off bankruptcy proceedings over debts related to the band's now defunct record label DEP International.

2008 T.I. claims the top two spots on the Hot 100 with "Live Your Life" (featuring Rihanna) at #1, trailed by "Whatever You Like."

2008 R&B/soul singer Dee Dee Warwick dies after a long struggle with ill health in Essex County, New Jersey, at age 63. Known for the '60s hits "I Want to Be with You" and "I'm Gonna Make You Love Me."

2001 Mexican singer Paulina Rubio, whose languishing career made a spectacular comeback with her 2000 release, Paulina, is the big winner at the third annual El Premio de la Gente Ritmo Latino Music Awards. Rubio wins for Album of the Year and Best Female Artist of the Year, while her hit "Y Yo Sigo Aqui" wins in the music video category.

2000 Jazz/pop singer Julie London dies in Encino, California, at age 74, five years after a stroke left her in poor health. Known for her signature song, "Cry Me a River" (1955).

1994 Tenor saxophonist Lee Allen dies of cancer in Los Angeles, California, at age 68. A prominent rock-and-roll session musician, his sax playing can be heard anywhere from Little Richard's "Tutti-Frutti" to Fats Domino's "I'm Walking" to Etta James' "Tough Lover."

1991 Los Angeles declares it "Rocky Horror Picture Show Day" in honor of the 1975 cult classic musical.

1989 During a gig opening for The Rolling Stones in Los Angeles, Axl Rose of Guns N' Roses announces on stage: "Unless certain people in this band get their s--t together, these will be the last Guns N' Roses shows you'll f--king ever see. Cause I'm tired of too many people in this organization dancing with Mr. Brownstone." It's an early indicator of the fissures that will arise between the capricious Rose and his drug-addicted bandmates.

1988 Stephen M. Love, brother of Beach Boys singer Mike Love, pleads guilty in LA Municipal Court to one count of grand theft. He had embezzled $900,000 from the band he formerly managed. God only knows why.

1986 Fleetwood Mac's Christine McVie marries her second husband, Portuguese music composer Eduardo Quintela.

1984 Jazz bassist Esperanza Spalding is born in Portland, Oregon. She wins the 2011 Grammy Award for Best New Artist, becoming the first Jazz artist to do so... beating out nominee Justin Bieber in the process.

1979 After a series of renovations, New York's legendary venue Radio City Music Hall re-opens with a showing of its first film, Disney's Snow White And The Seven Dwarfs.

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Al Green's Grits Incident

1974

Al Green's "Grits Incident": When a stewardess friend of Green's shows up to meet the singer, he ends up at his Memphis home with her and his companion, Mary Woodson, who is dangerously obsessed with the singer. When Green goes into the bathroom to brush his teeth, Woodson bursts in and pours a pot of boiling grits on him, burning him badly before going in the next room and killing herself with his gun. Green takes these disturbing events as a sign from God and focuses his career on gospel music and preaching.


Green undergoes skin grafts and spends months in recovery. He had been toeing a line between advocate for the Holy Spirit and serial philanderer for a while. Earlier in the year, he released "Take Me to the River on his album Al Green Explores Your Mind, a song about a baptism that is filled with Biblical imagery. After the incident, he is determined to spread the word of God, turning more toward gospel music with a "message to get across." In 1976, be becomes an ordained minister - the Reverend Al Green - and opens the Full Gospel Tabernacle Church in Memphis, Tennessee. This new direction manifests in his 1977 release The Belle Album, where devotion to God is a running theme. In 1980, he issues his first gospel album, The Lord Will Make a Way. Green is cleared of any wrongdoing in the death of Mary Woodson, who was married with four children (Green claims he didn't know this) and had a history of psychiatric problems. She left behind two suicide notes, including one proclaiming her love for Green. He says that before her death, she told him he would someday become a great preacher. Green honors her memory with a nameplate at his church.

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Comments: 4

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Nika Latrice from Little Rock That's sad we always thought Al had did something to this woman. Now we see she was obsessed with him but, it's sad that she didn't think about her children before taking her life.
Chris from WinonaBecause in 1972 they did not have the internet.
Luvie from GeorgiaThis is not a Christian religion story. Why didn't he know that she was married with children?
Beverly Ellis from LaBe careful in this life, it is some very mental people's. God bless Mr. Al Green.

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