August 29, 2002 Pepsi pull their commercial with Ludacris after Bill O'Reilly blasts the rapper on his show The O'Reilly Factor for "peddling antisocial behavior." Luda does just fine: His next three albums go to #1 and he lands a role in the Fast & Furious franchise.
August 27, 2002 Queens Of The Stone Age release their third album, Songs For The Deaf, touted as being so heavy even deaf people can hear it. The drummer is Dave Grohl, taking some time away from Foo Fighters.
August 22, 2002 Jimmy Buffett's first Cheeseburger In Paradise restaurant, named for his 1978 song, opens in Indianapolis, Indiana.
August 17, 2002 "Dilemma," a duet between Nelly and Kelly Rowland (Nelly and Kelly) hits #1 in America, where it stays for 10 weeks. It's the first hit for a Destiny's Child member outside the group.
August 17, 2002 Hours before his wife is murdered, Jacksonville resident Justin Barber downloads the Guns N' Roses song "Used To Love Her." The song is later played at the trial as evidence, with the lyrics displayed for the jury ("I used to love her, but I had to kill her..."). Barber is convicted of first degree murder and given a life sentence.
August 16, 2002 Twenty-five years after the death of Elvis Presley, an album containing 30 of his #1 hits is released with "A Little Less Conversation" as a bonus track - a remix of that one went to #1 UK in June.
July 26, 2002 A week before he is due to sign a contract with Universal South Records, Matthew West suffers a serious injury to his arm. Having accidentally locked himself in his house, West attempts to escape through a window, but his arm goes straight through the glass pane. West is rushed to hospital, where he is told he came close to severing a major artery. He will go on to fully recover from the incident.
July 26, 2002 Beyoncé makes her film debut, playing Mike Myers' love interest, Foxxy Cleopatra, in Austin Powers in Goldmember. Her catch phrase: "I'm a whole lotta woman." Britney Spears also shows up in the film as a fem-bot who gets blown up by Myers.More
July 23, 2002 New Jersey-based alt rockers My Chemical Romance release their vampire-themed debut album, I Brought You My Bullets, You Brought Me Your Love. Released through the independent punk label Eyeball Records, it was produced by Thursday frontman Geoff Rickly.More
July 19, 2002 It's "Solomon Burke Day" in Philadelphia in honor of their native singer.
July 19, 2002 Movin' Out, a stage musical dedicated to the songs of Billy Joel, premieres in Chicago.
July 16, 2002 After unfinished tracks from their shelved project The Lillywhite Sessions are leaked on the internet, Dave Matthews Band reworks the songs and release them as Busted Stuff.More
July 14, 2002 The Australian rock band The Vines release their debut album, Highly Evolved, earning raves from both NME and Rolling Stone, which put them on their covers and compare them to Nirvana.
June 25, 2002 Benson Boone is born in Monroe, a small town in Washington. After building an online following he competes on American Idol but drops out in the round of 24. Dan Reynolds of Imagine Dragons signs him to his imprint and releases Boone's debut album, Fireworks & Rollerblades, in 2024, which includes the hit "Beautiful Things."
June 25, 2002 Maroon 5 release their debut album, Songs About Jane, Jane being lead singer Adam Levine's ex-girlfriend. It slowly finds and audience and becomes a surprise hit over a year later thanks to the songs "Harder To Breathe," "She Will Be Loved" and "This Love."
June 21, 2002 Widespread Panic headline the first Bonnaroo Music Festival, held on a 700-acre farm in Manchester, Tennessee. The inaugural four-day event - named for the Creole slang for "good stuff," borrowed from a Dr. John album - focuses on jam bands and folk acts, welcoming Trey Anastasio, Ben Harper, Jack Johnson, Jurassic 5, and The String Cheese Incident to the line-up.
June 16, 2002 A remixed version of Elvis Presley's 1968 single "A Little Less Conversation" hits #1 in the UK, released as part of a successful plan by his estate to claim the UK record for most #1 hits on the tally from The Beatles.
June 11, 2002 Paul McCartney marries former model Heather Mills in Glaslough, Ireland. Among the guests: Elton John, David Gilmour, Chrissie Hynde and Ringo Starr. The couple divorces in 2008.
June 11, 2002 American Idol premieres on the FOX network. A singing competition judged by three hosts, it becomes one of the most popular network reality shows and launches a number of careers, with many contestants - and not just winners - becoming stars.More
June 5, 2002 Eleven weeks after being inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Dee Dee Ramone, a founding member of the Ramones, dies of a heroin overdose at age 50.
June 5, 2002 R. Kelly is indicted on 21 counts of child pornography, accused of coercing underage girls into sexual acts.More
June 4, 2002 Avril Lavigne, 17, releases her debut album, Let Go, which goes to #1 in her native Canada and sells over 7 million copies in America.More
June 4, 2002 Wyclef Jean is one of ten people arrested for disorderly conduct in a New York rally protesting cuts to education. Jean is arrested and led away in handcuffs following an attempt to perform, which was forbidden by the event's permit. Puff Daddy, Alicia Keys, Jay-Z, LL Cool J, Erykah Badu, Foxy Brown and Wu-Tang Clan were also at the rally to show their support and protest a proposed $1.2 billion cut to New York's public education system.
June 4, 2002 George Michael is jeered and heckled by the audience of a CNN news show as he defends the video for his new single "Shoot The Dog," in which US President George Bush is shown in bed with UK Prime Minister Tony Blair. Michael says it is an attack on Blair and not President Bush.
June 2, 2002 Pop Idol winner Will Young's version of The Doors' 1967 classic "Light My Fire" hits #1 on the UK singles chart.
June 1, 2002 Eminem, still without an American chart-topper, lands his third UK #1 hit with "Without Me," where he takes shots at a number of soft targets including Chris Kirkpatrick, Limp Bizkit and Moby.
May 15, 2002 The Wu-Tang Name Generator goes online. The app turns your real name into one suited for the rap collective; the Songfacts Calendar Wu name is Drunken Desperado. Donald Glover gets his stage name from the generator, becoming Childish Gambino.
May 7, 2002 Carole King guests on the WB Network's TV show Gilmore Girls (for which she also sings the opening song).
May 7, 2002 Tom Waits releases the albums Blood Money and Alice on the same day. Blood Money contains songs used for a Robert Wilson production of the unfinished play Woyzeck by German playwright Georg Büchner, while Alice contains mostly songs written for Wilson's adaptation of a play also named Alice. They're his 13th and 14th studio albums.
April 27, 2002 For the first time since 1963, there are no British acts in the US Hot 100, as Americans reject acts like Blur, Oasis and Robbie Williams.More
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