October 9, 2003 Yeah Yeah Yeahs frontwoman Karen O, a very frenetic performer, is hurt when she tumbles off the stage at a show in Sydney and a monitor lands on her head. After one more song she's taken to the hospital, but two days later she performs from a wheelchair when the band return to the same venue for a festival.
October 5, 2003 Irish singer-songwriter Damien Rice collects the third annual Shortlist Music Prize, climaxing a four-and-a-half hour concert, featuring Rice and seven of the nine nominees at the Wiltern Theatre in Los Angeles. Styled as a US equivalent to Britain's Mercury Prize, the Shortlist Prize honors cutting-edge performers whose latest albums have sold less than 500,000 copies at the time of their nomination.
October 3, 2003 School of Rock opens in theaters, starring Jack Black as a musician who poses as a substitute teacher and forms a band with the students. Classic rock abounds in the film, with teachable moments soundtracked to "Highway to Hell," "Smoke on the Water" and even "Immigrant Song" - a track secured after Black made a video literally begging Led Zeppelin to let them use it. The movie is also notable for featuring Miranda Cosgrove's acting debut.More
October 2, 2003 Despite trashing Radiohead's latest album Hail to the Thief, Q magazine gives them the award for Best Act In The World Today for the third consecutive year at their annual Q Awards in London. The band doesn't appear.
October 2, 2003 The Del McCoury Band wins top honors at the 14th annual International Bluegrass Music Awards in Louisville, Kentucky. The group takes home the Entertainer of the Year award for the eighth time. Band members Mike Bub and Jason Carter win in the instrumentalist categories for Bassist and Fiddler of the Year, respectively.
September 29, 2003 "Stacy's Mom" by Fountains of Wayne is released. The music video stars model/actress Rachel Hunter, who plays Stacy's mom - the obsession of her teenage daughter's friend.
September 29, 2003 McDonald's launches the "I'm Lovin' It" ad campaign in America, with Justin Timberlake singing the "ba da ba ba bah" hook and releasing a full-length version of the jingle as a single. It becomes the company's longest-running ad campaign.More
September 22, 2003 Auditioning for the third season of American Idol, William Hung performs a lively, but stupefyingly bad rendition of the Ricky Martin hit "She Bangs."More
September 20, 2003 Fire destroys a lodge on Chuck Berry's Wentzville, Missouri, estate (arson is the cause, but no one is ever arrested for the crime).
September 19, 2003 A week after his death at the age of 71, country legend Johnny Cash is bestowed with artist, song and album of the year awards at the Americana Music Awards ceremony in Nashville. Cash wins Song of the Year for his cover of Nine Inch Nails' "Hurt" and Album of the Year for American IV: The Man Comes Around, the fourth in a series produced by Rick Rubin.
September 15, 2003 Madonna's first children's book is published in 42 languages in more than 100 countries. The release of The English Roses by Callaway Editions and Penguin Group, in association with various publishers around the world, is touted as the largest simultaneous worldwide release of a book in history.
September 15, 2003 Johnny Cash is buried in the Cash family cemetery in Hendersonville, Tennessee, next to his wife, June Carter Cash. Among the mourners at the private ceremony: Al Gore, Emmylou Harris and Sheryl Crow.
September 14, 2003 Jet release their debut album, Get Born, on Elektra Records. Leading the Australian invasion of the early 2000's with bands like The Vines, the album would go on to sell well over three million copies. The title is lifted from the lyrics of Bob Dylan's "Subterranean Homesick Blues."
September 14, 2003 The Australian band Jet release their debut album, Get Born, which includes the hit "Are You Gonna Be My Girl," used in a popular iPod commercial. The band is part of a wave of young rock acts with a back-to-basic sound that includes The Strokes and The White Stripes.
September 12, 2003 Johnny Cash dies of complications from diabetes in Nashville, Tennessee, at age 71. One of the biggest stars of the '60s and '70s, he made some of his most memorable music near the end of his life with a set of back-to-basics albums produced by Rick Rubin, including American IV: The Man Comes Around, which wins the CMA for Album Of The Year posthumously.
September 9, 2003 John Mayer releases his second studio album, Heavier Things. The title is a response to some critics who believed his previous songs were too soft. The album debuts at #1 in the US and includes his enduring hit "Daughters."
August 28, 2003 Britney Spears and Madonna share a big, juicy kiss during the opening performance of the MTV Video Music Awards. Madonna then plants one on Christina Aguilera, but we only get a glimpse of it because the director cuts to a shot of a thunderstruck Justin Timberlake in the audience.More
August 17, 2003 The Kid Laroi is born Charlton Kenneth Jeffrey Howard in Waterloo, New South Wales, Australia. At 17 the rapper tops the ARIA albums chart in his homeland with his debut mixtape, F*ck Love, and dominates the all-genre Billboard 200 in the US the following year.
August 11, 2003 Phish bass player Mike Gordon is arrested backstage at a Grateful Dead concert in Jones Beach after he is found taking photos of a 9-year-old girl. He is later cleared of the charges, and the girl's parents agree that it was an "unfortunate misunderstanding."
August 9, 2003 Daron Malakian of System Of A Down plays in the annual Hollywood Stars Night celebrity baseball game at Dodger Stadium. Vexed by his teammates, he writes "Old School Hollywood," which appears on their next album, Mezmerize. One actor gets a specific mention: "Tony Danza cuts in line."
July 30, 2003 When the disease SARS spreads to Toronto, it scares a lot of people away. To get visitors back, the city puts on a huge open-air concert featuring The Rolling Stones, The Guess Who, Rush, The Isley Brothers, The Flaming Lips and Justin Timberlake (who is jeered and has muffins thrown at him). About 450,000 people attend.More
July 26, 2003 Limp Bizkit appear at the Hawthorne Racetrack in Chicago as part of Metallica's Summer Sanitarium tour with Deftones, Linkin Park and Mudvayne. But the crowd soon shows how they feel about frontman Fred Durst and his crew, as the band is booed and Durst is pelted with coins and bottles, leading him to launch into homophobic taunts. As a result, Limp Bizkit leaves the stage after 30 minutes and only six songs, but not before Durst challenges audience members to a fight.
July 25, 2003 Erik Braunn (Iron Butterfly guitarist) dies of a heart attack related to a birth defect in Los Angeles, California, at age 52.
July 23, 2003 In a bizarre ad placed in Variety, James Brown announces his separation from his fourth wife, Tomi Rae, by featuring a picture of the couple and their two-year-old, James Brown II, posing with Goofy at Disney World.
July 22, 2003 Yellowcard release Ocean Avenue, their major-label debut album and a pop-punk landmark. It's named for Ocean Boulevard in their hometown of Jacksonville, with the name changed because it's a lot harder to rhyme "boulevard."
June 28, 2003 After Ruben Studdard beats Clay Aiken to win Season 2 of American Idol, their first singles debut at the top of the Hot 100. Aiken takes the top spot, becoming the first new artist to go straight to #1 on the chart.More
June 24, 2003 Beyoncé releases her first solo album, Dangerously in Love. The standout track is "Crazy In Love," which features her boyfriend Jay-Z.
June 23, 2003 Diana Ross pleads not guilty to drunk driving charges in Tucson after being discovered with a 0.2 BAC, claiming that the arresting officer threatened her with injury if she didn't take the breath test.
June 10, 2003 The Luther Vandross album Dance With My Father is released two months after the singer suffered a debilitating stroke. The album goes to #1 in America and the title track wins the Grammy Award for Song of the Year, but Vandross dies on July 1, 2005.
June 10, 2003 Following a four-year hiatus, Fountains of Wayne reunite in order to release Welcome Interstate Managers. The album spawns the hit single "Stacy's Mom."
©2026 Songfacts®, LLC