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 Displaying music Anecdotes: 1486 Found

Young Mischa Elman
One day when he was seven years old, the prodigious Mischa Elman was asked to gi...

Stop and Go
The pianist Oscar Levant was playing one evening when a woman arrived late and p...

Playing with Food
In 2002, Jorg Piringer's new Vienna Vegetable Orchestra, comprising between 10 a...

Cavalleria Rusticana
One day an organ-grinder, stationed outside Pietro Mascagni's apartment, began p...

Paul McCartney: Vegetables
One morning in Los Angeles, "Beatles Breakfast Show" DJ Chris Carter asked liste...

Tempo
Gabriel Faure was once asked what the ideal tempo for a song should be. "If the ...

Yappers
While attending the symphony one evening, Henry Parker was dismayed to find that...

World Gone Crazy
"You know the world is going crazy," Chris Rock declared in 2003, "when the best...

Sounds of Silence (long)
On the Planets' debut album, Classical Graffiti, producer Mike Batt intro...

Keith Moon: Upshot
While performing with The Who on "The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour" one night i...

Pink Floyd: Spinal Tap Moment
One day in 1977, Pink Floyd (a band with more than its share of Spinal Tap momen...

John Paul II: Children's Choir
"A children's choir performed for the Pope [in Azerbaijan]," 'Tonight Show' host...

Joan Melu Concert
"In August 1980, Joan Melu, a Rumanian folk singer, broke all existing records f...

Lincoln's Lips
In 1972, a patriotic businessman (W. M. Riesk) from Salt Lake City commissioned ...

Eminem Lawsuit
"This week," Conan O'Brien announced in mid-August 2003, "a 70 year old grandmot...

Matchbox! Yeah!
In 1996, Matchbox 20 played a concert with Christian acoustic rockers Jars of Cl...

The Honor is Mine...
"Legendary teacher Isidore Philipp offered to introduce the young Hungarian comp...

By George!
Among George Antheil's early avant-garde pieces, none caused a greater sensation...

Tuscan Wit?
Pianist Victor Borge was once asked why the keys on his piano were so yellow. Bo...

Strung Quartet?
One evening George Bernard Shaw attended a performance by an Italian string quar...

Segovia's Guitar
"Towards the end of a recital in Berlin, just as Andres Segovia was concluding w...

Thom Yorke: Tea Time
Famously moody Radiohead frontman Thom Yorke once trashed Phil Selway's drum kit...

Air Guitar Champion
In August 2003, David "C-Diddy" Jung, having won the first annual U.S. Air Guita...

Rhythm Method?
Sir Thomas Beecham was approached before a concert one evening by the pianist My...

Burt Bacharach: Perfectioni...
Burt Bacharach's famed perfectionist streak was not always appreciated by his co...

Steve Miller Rocks! (long)
During the 1960s, Steve Miller once played at the Cherry Blossom Festival in Ric...

Young Bruce Springsteen: Bu...
Bruce Springsteen's mother, who thought her young son should become an author, w...

The Eagles: Like Hell
Shortly after the Eagles split up in 1981, Glenn Frey was asked when the band mi...

Rogers Unwilling?
Will Rogers was once asked by a piano manufacturer to compose a short testimonia...

Ozzy Osbourne: Spinal Tap M...
"I remember when Randy Rhoads was alive and we played a gig in L.A.," Ozzy Osbou...

Grace Under Pressure
In 1969, Jefferson Airplane joined the Rolling Stones and several other bands fo...

Phil Spector: The Screw
In 1961, legendary producer Phil Spector teamed up with Lester Sill to form Phil...

Doodoo Defense (long)
In June 1990, a conservative group led by Florida lawyer Jim Thompson persuaded ...

U2: Spinal Tap Moment
During the encore at the end of each show on U2's 1997 "Popmart" tour, a giant, ...

Wallflowers
Fiercely independent, Jakob Dylan determined early on to make his own name rathe...

Jan Masaryk: Mixer
While serving as Czech ambassador to the United States early in his career, Jan ...

Sweetest Thing?
While working on The Joshua Tree, U2's Bono Vox once missed Ali Hewson's ...

Dr. Bowie
While visiting Boston's Berklee College of Music to receive an honorary degree o...

Otherworldly Collaboration
In his last year, Jullien toyed with the notion of setting the Lord's Prayer to ...

Yankee Doodle?
President Ulysses S. Grant had little appreciation of music. After a concert one...

Critical Observation
The famed Finnish composer Jean Sibelius once consoled a young musician after a ...

Immortal Reply
One evening while attending one of George Gershwin's famous parties, Groucho Mar...

Sch-h-hnabel
Artur Schnabel was once amused to find an elderly woman in the front row sleepin...

Grand Eunuch
Among Richard Rodgers' many celebrated words was his score for "Chee-Chee," a mu...

Funky Tunes?
In 2003, Aaron Funk, who normally recorded under the name Venetian Snares, relea...

Oscar Levant: Elegy
Shortly after George Gershwin's death, Oscar Levant was approached by a man who ...

Ironic?
"An old man turned ninety-eight, he won the lottery and died the next day. It's ...

Ninth
Beethoven's notoriously difficult, groundbreaking Ninth (once called "the hammer...

Fab Three?
In 1989, George Harrison rejected Paul McCartney's latest proposal for a Beatles...

Sweeping Ambition
Kris Kristofferson's career path might best be described as circuitous. A Golden...

Highway to Hell!
During the American invasion of Panama in 1989, troops blasted AC/DC's "Highway ...

Lady Pianist
One night after a rehearsal with the London Symphony Orchestra, Andre Previn ret...

Trumpet Call
After a performance of Beethoven's "Leonora Overture No. 3" one evening, during ...

George Harrison: Ukulele Lover
While playing his ukulele at a party one evening, George Harrison was approached...

Exit Sandman
In May 2003, US interrogators in Baghdad revealed that they were using heavy met...

Buncha Punks
Early in their careers, Joey Ramone and his bandmates played so fast that they o...

MERRRRRRDE!
The Ramones played so loud that, while recording their first album, they destroy...

Diva's Playground
In a bid to improve her image as a self-centered diva one year, Diana Ross held ...

Sex Pistols: Nevermind the ...
Shortly after signing a recording contract for £40,000, the Sex Pistols appeared...

Cellist
During a rehearsal one day, Sir Thomas Beecham grew impatient with a female cell...

Baseball Organist
During a minor league baseball game at Jack Russell Stadium in 1985, the organis...

Fiddler
When 92-year-old fiddle player Roma McMillan was inducted into the Fiddle Hall o...

Elvis Presley & Johnny Cash
Johnny Cash's first single, "Cry, Cry, Cry"/"Hey Porter" (with guitarist Luther ...

British Brain Power
In November 2003, British Sea Power (BSP) reluctantly cancelled a much-anticipat...

Mark Knopfler: Money for No...
Dire Straits frontman Mark Knopfler was once asked about the origin of the line ...

Gordon Gano: NHS Induction ...
Violent Femmes frontman Gordon Gano was an excellent, if idiosyncratic, student....

Danni Leigh: Lonely Country
Among Danni Leigh's earliest musical efforts was a tortured composition entitled...

Chris Martin: The Nappies
"Coldplay have made a glam rock/rap video to celebrate the birth of Chris Martin...

Lawrence Wright: Saudi, Mon
In 2004, Lawrence Wright visited Saudi Arabia to help Okaz, the kingdom's...

Mama Cass: Heaven-Sent
When Ellen Naomi Cohen (aka Mama Cass) first tried to join John Phillips's band,...

Miraculous Mandarin
Bela Bartok's The Miraculous Mandarin was not well received at its debut ...

Beethoven: Absent-minded Co...
While performing a new piano concerto at the Theater An der Wien one evening, Be...

Liam Gallagher, Beatles Fan?
"If I saw an alien," Oasis frontman Liam Gallagher once declared, "I'd tell him ...

Elvis in the Hotseat?
Elvis, whose weight ballooned toward the end of his life, once found himself in ...

Chrissie's Hynde?
Many Garbage fans recognized the song "Special" (from their second album Version...

Afterthought
The composer Max Reger once received a nasty review from a critic named Rudolf L...

Stock Explanation?
Having played a piece on the piano, Joseph Schillinger would challenge his audie...

Home Sweet Home
Arthur Sullivan returned home after a raucous party one evening and found himsel...

Mayhem
In March 2003, a Norwegian death metal fan named Per Kristian Hagen filed suit a...

Rock my Soul
In May 2003, two years after his appointment as Abbot Primate, Notker Wolf, the ...

Klemperer & Mendelssohn
One day Otto Klemperer visited a music shop with a recording company executive n...

Beating the Drum
In 1966 the famed Nobel Prize-winning physicist Richard Feynman, a passionate dr...

Two Bits?
The popular composer Jacques Francois Halevy was once infuriated to discover tha...

Peter Tork: Perfect Monkee
Stephen Stills was one of thousands who dreamed of joining the Monkees. When Sti...

Mother and Child
Paul Simon was once asked by a journalist about his "profound" song "Mother and ...

Guido Nazzo
In the 1930s the Italian tenor Guido Nazzo performed in New York. The only revie...

Top Billing
Noted violinist Jascha Heifetz, who often played with pianist Arthur Rubinstein ...

Flattery
Famed violinist Jascha Heifetz once told his enthusiastic new secretary that he ...

Composing?
Shortly after the death of a well-known composer, someone, unaware of the news, ...

Intermission
George S. Kaufman's wife Beatrice once reluctantly accompanied Oscar Levant to a...

Blink 182: Say It Ain't So
Blink 182 frontman Tom Delonge once called the band's classic pop anthem "All th...

Artful Display
During a rehearsal of Debussy's La Mer one day, Arturo Toscanini found himself s...

Johhny Cash: Unchained
"Johnny Cash was a man of immense grace, but he never mellowed. When ...

Piano Concerto
Sir Thomas Beecham once found himself conducting a mediocre pianist in a Mozart ...

April in Paris
One April, a friend of Vernon Duke's, inspired by his famous song "April in Pari...

Jefferson Air Crash
While performing at the Whiskey-a-Go-Go one evening, Jefferson Airplane frontman...

Three-Trumpet Trumpeter
As part of a package show, Bobby Sherwood and his band once toured several state...

Hillbilly Deluxe
To deter the hordes of reporters which descended upon Barbra Streisand's Malibu ...

Tom Petty and the Exaggerators
At a school dance one day, Tom Petty (then fourteen years old) found himself tal...

Cymbalism
Sir Malcolm Sargent was once asked what one had to know in order to play the cym...

Martinelli
One evening, Giovanni Martinelli visited the opera to see a fellow Italian in th...

King Alfonso: Tone-Deaf
King Alfonso XIII of Spain was so tone-deaf that he literally could not distingu...

Player's Inspiration?
One of the players in Manchester's Halle Orchestra once had an affair with one o...

Symphonie Fantastique
During a choatic concert one evening, Hector Berlioz turned to conduct his own ...

I Am Not a Dog
"A singer named Waldick Soriano was singing a song called, 'I am not a dog' at a...

Lawrence Whelk?
One day Milton Berle sat down at the comedians' Round Table at the Hillcrest Cou...

Dizzy Foreigner
In 1937, after an apprenticeship playing in jam sessions at various clubs (often...

Hot Composer
At the tender age of 15, Oliver Knussen was commissioned by Benjamin Britten to ...

Sympathy In E Major?
While riding in a taxi in New York one day, Sir Thomas Beecham began repeatedly ...

Russell Crowe: 40 Odd Foot ...
A hapless journalist once asked Russell Crowe what was happening with his band "...

Russell Crowe & Meg Ryan
Shortly after his break-up with Meg Ryan, Russell Crowe (the lead singer, lead g...

Loretta Lynn: On the Road
"Doo told me I could sing," Loretta Lynn once recalled. "Well, I knew better. I ...

Red Flag?
One evening while touring with The Rape of Lucretia, Benjamin Britten's l...

Richter Quake?
Hans Richter was conducting Dvorak's Ninth Symphony one evening when the cymbal ...

Singular Teacher?
Artur Schnabel, having been asked to tutor an aspiring pianist, tested the young...

Sixth Rhapsody
Merit Rosenthal often teased a certain friend (and fellow pianist) about his pen...

Lead Zeppelin?
One day the Who's late drummer Keith Moon told Robert Plant, Jimmy Page and the ...

Young Mozart
While visiting a farm with his parents one day, Mozart heard a pig squeal. "G-sh...

Tempo
Merit Rosenthal was once badgered into attending a recital given by a mediocre s...

Game For Music?
While visiting a restaurant one evening, George Bernard Shaw and a friend found ...

Lover Lay Down
At a concert in January 1997, Dave Matthews took to the stage with a note in han...

Rehearsal
At a rehearsal one day, Sir Thomas Beecham was dismayed to find the orchestra, w...

Kenny Rogers: O'Toole Incident
Kenny Rogers was once sued by a fan (named Kevin O'Toole), who alleged that a Fr...

Prioritities
As a kid growing up in Michigan, Glenn Frey loved rock and roll and women - in t...

John Lennon: MBE
One day in 1969, John Lennon had his chauffeur deliver his MBE [Member of the Br...

Ta-Ta Dumdum
Oscar Hammerstein's wife, Dorothy, was not shy about singing her husband's prais...

Dizzy Osbourne
One day in 1991, Ozzy Osbourne arrived at a record store for an in-store promoti...

Subtle Replacements
"Saturday Night Live" producers were so worried about an appearance by Paul West...

The Who: Smashing Good
While performing at a London club one evening in 1965, The Who's Pete Townshend ...

Remembrance
While attending one of Paderewski's farewell performances one evening, Merit Ros...

Barry Manilow: True Believer
Barry Manilow was once asked whether he believed in God. "Yes," he replied. ...

Bench Warmer?
Shortly before performing at a sold-out recital one evening, Arthur Rubinstein -...

Beethoven Concerto
While rehearsing a Beethoven concerto with the conductor Otto Klemperer one day,...

Young Barbirolli
"When John Barbirolli was four, his grandfather Antonio began taking him to Empi...

Donald Trump: Music Teacher
"In the second grade," Donald Trump once recalled, "I punched my music teacher."...

Connoisseur
Johannes Brahms was once invited to dinner by a noted wine connoisseur. In the c...

Bad Note
Rossini was famed for his short temper. While conducting a rehearsal one day, he...

Young John Larroquette: KROQ
As a young student, John Larroquette briefly worked at a college radio station. ...

Alanis Morissette: Monument...
One night during the Latin American leg of her "Feast on Scraps" tour (in Septem...

Denis Leary: Asshole Song
"My son was taken to task at school because he taught his classmates 'The Asshol...

Scott & Kutcher
Seann William Scott was once asked how he had mustered the courage to make out w...

War, What is it Good for?
One evening during the war in Iraq (in March 2003), Bruce Springsteen played a m...

P. Diddy in Denmark
One night while touring through Europe (in October 2002), P. Diddy played his fi...

Bob Baffert: Big Balls in C...
"In the early '80s [the legendary racehorse trainer Bob Baffert and fellow train...

Magnus Pyke: Blinded with S...
While composing his 1983 hit "She Blinded Me With Science," Thomas Dolby enliste...

C-Murder
"Yesterday in Louisiana," Conan O'Brien announced in September 2003, "the rapper...

Justin Timberlake: Lovin' It
In 2004, McDonald's began using lines from Justin Timberlake's "I'm Lovin' It" i...

David Gilmour: Bollocks to You
After the release of The Final Cut in 1983, chief Pink Floyd songwriter R...

Blink-182: Down with Modernism
On June 4th, 2004, Blink-182 played a historic show in Holmdel, New Jersey. "Dur...

Jaa9's Mother's House
In September 2004, Norwegian rappers Jaa9 and OnklP had their single "Kjendispar...

Dave Grohl: Sweet Absurdity
Foo Fighters frontman Dave Grohl once had occasion to regret his habit of chewin...

My Bologna
"Weird Al" Yankovic once produced a parody of The Knack's classic song "My Sharo...

Dinah Washington: Queen of ...
"She was Queen of the Blues and she brooked no rivals. During a tour of Britain ...

Jullien: Baptism
Shortly after Jullien was born (at Sisteron in the Basses Alpes), his father, a ...

Joseph Bell: Cheeky Diagnosis
One day Dr. Joseph Bell (Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's medical school mentor and the ...

Breeders Blooper
"In 1994 we were opening on tour for Nirvana," Breeders guitarist Kelley Deal re...

Sting Like a Bee?
Thomas Beecham was once asked why he always chose such generously-proportioned l...

Jethro Bull?
When future Jethro Tull frontman Ian Anderson teamed up with bassist Glenn Corni...

Sun Wah Tokyo!?
Following a concert tour in Japan, Ben Folds declared that the trip had been som...

Short Bus? (long)
While on assignment for the New York Times Magazine in 2002, Chuck Kloste...

Wallensteined?
While conducting the New York Philharmonic, Bruno Walter, noticed that Alfred Wa...

Look Ma!
The French composer Erik Satie once appended the following direction to one of h...

Stravinsky / Schonberg
Artur Schnabel: "You may find this hard to believe, but Igor Stravinsky has actu...

QOTSA: Songs For The Deaf?
In 2002, Josh Homme and his fellow "Queens Of The Stone Age" bandmates planned a...

Bach Specialist
The famed harpsichordist Wanda Landowska once found herself arguing with another...

Celine Dion: Celine Dion Jokes
There is no shortage of jokes about Celine Dion's music. One day in 2002, for ex...

Christina Aguilera: Slutty ...
Christina Aguilera once found herself watching her "Lady Marmalade" video - with...

Ella Who?
Ella Fitzgerald once performed in Columbia, South Carolina, before an audience o...

Dizzy with Innocence?
When Dizzy Gillespie's family moved to Philadelphia in 1935, the young musician ...

Wavian Simile
Upon his return from the battle of Crete in 1941, Evelyn Waugh was asked for his...

What Knobs
While visiting New York for their legendary Shea Stadium gig in 1965, the Beatle...

Bloody Hell?
L7 once performed at England's Reading Festival. When excited audience members b...

Fiona Apple IIe?
At the turn of the millennium, a business survey compared the pop culture wisdom...

One Night In Bangkok
When Murray Head's "One Night In Bangkok" ("One night in Bangkok makes a hard ma...

Barrel Organs
One summer Verdi rented a sizable cottage at a fashionable Italian resort. One d...

Harsh Wind?
One day at the height of his popularity the flutist Stephen Foster was invited t...

Allman Joy?
When Cameron Crowe set out to become a rock journalist at the age of fifteen, hi...

Toni Braxton & Beyonce
In September 2002, Toni Braxton sent an advance copy of "Me and My Boyfriend" to...

Chris Webber's Boat
When Sacramento Kings forward Chris Webber was not on the basketball court, he c...

Music Box
"During a European tour, [John Kenneth] Galbraith was presented with a tiny gold...

Concert for Peace
In October 1981, the pacifist composer Luciano Berio gave a special open-air con...

Jim Carrey: Comic Debut
One day when he was 15 years old, Jim Carrey visited a Yuk Yuk's comedy club in ...

Twins
"Leopold Godowsky (son of the late pianist-composer) asked his sister to drive h...

Bitter Irony
Having been driven from the American stage by the jealousy of his fellow actors,...

Hasselhoff Jinx
Despite his musical success in Europe, David Hasselhoff's attempt to storm Ameri...

Sight Reader
"[While preparing for the first performance of Messiah in Dublin's Cheste...

Two Choirs?
Edward Heath once attended the debut performance of a new choral work at the Thr...

Down In It
One day during the production of the video for "Down In It," the apparently life...

Darwin Awards?
"Weird Al" Yankovic was once asked about his favorite landmarks. "The Biggest Ba...

Inching to Perfection?
When Vladimir Horowitz was finally scheduled to perform (in Chicago) after a pro...

Men and Mountains
While attending a performance of Carl Ruggles' Men and Mountains one even...

Foo Fighters: Jailhouse Rock
On tour in Australia in 2000, Dave Grohl and the other Foo Fighters rented moped...

Lip Sunk
In 1989, Milli Vanilli won a Best New Artist Grammy Award. After scoring three #...

Star-Spangled
On tour one year, Arturo Toscanini's NBC Symphony Orchestra arrived in a South A...

Minor Problem
MGM composer Victor Young was no wastedr to the vagaries of idiot producers. He ...

Alicia Keys: After Bedtime?
So musically precocious was Alicia Keys that her compositions often outpaced her...

Bicycle Race
For the video for Queen's "Bicycle Race" (from News of the World) in 1977...

Axl Rose: Never Mind the Bo...
Guns 'n' Roses frontman Axl Rose was often asked about his musical inspirations....

Led Handshake?
Famed Led Zeppelin manager Peter Grant once introduced himself to Bob Dylan at a...

Sugar Ray
"I've got the only job in the world," Sugar Ray's Mark McGrath once declared, "w...

ZZ Laptop
ZZ Top's Billy Gibbons once observed that the band's fans, though still a "rebel...

Runaway Manager
While passing through customs on their way back into America one day, Dave Pirne...

Shizzle my Nizzle
In 2003, Andrew Alcee filed suit against East West Records (a division of Warner...

Fresh Perspective
Clive Davis once asked John Lennon what sort of music he was listening to, and w...

Serj Tankian
During an interview with Rolling Stone's Neil Strauss in 2005, System of ...

John Phillips: Ego Pop
In 1967, John Phillips (of the Mamas and the Papas) helped with the organization...

Wal-Mart Symphony
Leos Janacek, the first composer to reproduce the musical patterns of speech in ...

Throbbing Gristle
In 1978, Monte Cazazza and his Throbbing Gristle bandmates found themselves livi...

Motormouth
In October 1998, the rapper Rebel X-D appeared on "Guinness Primetime" to attemp...

Movie Music
Irving Thalberg once sent an emissary to persuade Arnold Schoenberg to produce a...

Makropoulos Affair
During the rehearsals of The Makropoulos Affair, the composer Leos Janace...

Slipknot: Wish Come True
One day during a promotional tour in 2002, Slipknot visited Glasgow's Virgin Meg...

Brain Surgery
One day in 1992, Van Halen guitarist Eddie Van Halen told an MTV audience that p...

Blowin' in the Wind
1963 marked the appearance of The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan, and with it the...

Two Bits
Henry Cowell once composed a piece for flute and piano entitled simply "A Bit". ...

Expert Witness
Alexander Borodin was once called upon to testify (as an expert witness) in a ca...

Amazing Grace
"Father Dennis Ackroyd of Ewhurst, England, doing his duty as a conscientious vi...

Thousand
As a disk jockey in mid-'80s New York, Moby honed his performance skills and pro...

Orrin Hatch: Hipster Hatch
In September 2000, Senator Orrin Hatch enthusiastically agreed to back Jubilee 2...

Handy Letter
In 1839, a young composer left his native Germany to seek fame and fortune in Pa...

Louis Theroux: MC Wimpy
For one episode of "Wild Weekends," the show's dweeby British host, Louis Therou...

Oops in Rio
One day in 2001, Britney Spears found herself standing backstage at the "Rock in...

Log Cribbin'?
In 1996, 13 years after his death, the Mississippi log cabin in which Muddy Wate...

Yesterday
Paul McCartney's classic song "Yesterday" - voted the most popular song of the 2...

Classical Conditioning
"Anton Bruckner had a chubby, fat pug dog named Mops," Fritz Kreisler, a former ...

Krenek
"The newly exiled composer Ernst Krenek was applauded politely when he played th...

1/5th Dizzy?
Dizzy Gillespie, pianist Thelonious Monk, bassist Oscar Pettiford, and drummer K...

Early Persuasion?
Dizzy Gillespie met Charlie "Yardbird" Parker in his hometown of Kansas City whi...

Difficult to Please
Dr. Johnson had little appreciation for music. Someone once remarked upon the vi...

Last Dance
As a teenager, Andre Previn once had a job playing piano at a cinema specializin...

Beggars' Chorus
Johann Sebastian Bach once encountered a group of beggars whining. Intrigued by ...

Aaaaawwwwwoooooo!
One Saturday, a stray dog stopped by the Benny family home and began howling ben...

Wozzeck
The composer David Raksin was once told by a director that he did not want "any ...

Pas de Deux
After the debut performance of Billy Rose's "The Seven Lively Arts" on Broadway,...

Sacre du Printemps
At the historic premiere of Stravinsky's Le Sacre du Printemps in 1913, u...

Dissonance
One day while conducting a rehearsal of one of his more dissonant works, Paul Hi...

Truffled Chicken
Rossini once congratulated the diva Adelina Patti for her incredible voice. "Mad...

Ben Taylor
"I've really never heard a song with good lyrics that I didn't like." Ben Taylo...

Dueling Violins
In 1917, the sixteen-year-old violin prodigy Jascha Heifetz made his American de...

Fritz Kreisler
The noted violinist Fritz Kreisler was once asked by a society hostess how much ...

Merde
One evening, Erik Satie attended the debut performance of Debussy's "La Mer" (th...

Modern Movement?
Midway through the performance of a certain mediocre modern piece, Klemperer not...

Rossini Roast
Rossini was visited one day by a man seeking his opinion of a pair of oratorios ...

Crossini?
Rossini was in the habit of marking errors in his students' compositions with sm...

Rock Journalism
Frank Zappa was not always delighted by his coverage in the music press. "I stil...

Light My Fire
When Jim Morrison and The Doors recorded the song "Light My Fire" everyone in th...

The Doors: Dionysian Frenzy
One night while playing at the Whisky a Go Go, Jim Morrison (reputedly while on ...

Jim Morrison: Mr. Mojo Risin'
In March 1969, Doors frontman Jim Morrison was arrested for exposing himself ons...

Concerto for Orchestra
Serge Koussevitsky generously commissioned Concerto for Orchestra when Be...

Violinist
While attending a musical party one day, George Bernard Shaw was asked by his ho...

George Harrison: Conscious ...
George Harrison's song "My Sweet Lord" was so similar to Phil Spector's "He's So...

Piatigorsky
Gregor Piatigorsky once had great difficulty with a certain pupil. No matter how...

That's Entertainment
During the performance of a Beethoven symphony one evening, Hector Berlioz, sobb...

The Cocoanuts
When director Joseph Santley saw Morrie Ryskind's script for the classic Marx Br...

Festive Piece
Arriving to visit Rossini one morning, Arthur Sullivan found the composer playin...

Valet
Offenbach once dismissed his valet, but gave him such a fine reference that many...

Legeipsnelue?
Pierre Monteux once suddenly stopped the Philadelphia Orchestra during a rehears...

Rachmanin-off
During a dinner party held in his honor one evening, Sergei Rachmaninoff mention...

Parting Shot
Johannes Brahms was not without his critics. Philip Hale, for example, once sugg...

Wellington's Victory
Wellington was once obliged to sit through a Viennese performance of Beethoven's...

Demonic Wit
Lord Brougham was not noted for his virtues. One evening the clergyman and autho...

Going, Going, Gone
The composer Maria Cherubini once granted an audition to a man with such a power...

Hurry
Stravinsky was once urged by a publisher to hurry to complete his latest composi...

Woodstock (long)
One day in the late 1960s, two young men (struggling with writer's block while d...

Partita for Solo Violin
Though he had performed in many remarkable places around the world (including Ic...

Chopsticks
While Paderewski was waiting backstage before a concert one evening, a nine-year...

New Paragraph
"One of Cudlipp's first jobs as a reporter on the Penarth News was to cov...

Anton Rubinstein: Wake Up Call
So marked was Anton Rubinstein's penchant for sleeping in each morning that he o...

Screaming Trees!
In June 2003, Skunk Anansie guitarist 'Ace' set a new deliberately "fucking corn...

Classic Bruckner
The notoriously absent-minded composer Anton Bruckner was once invited by Hans R...

Showmann?
Before each recital, Vladimir de Pachmann would take immense pains adjusting and...

Carnegie Endowment
Over the course of his life, Andrew Carnegie endowed 2,811 libraries and many ch...

Ozzy Osbourne: PSA
By 2003, with "The Osbournes" drawing some six million viewers (compared with MT...

Jimmy Eat World & Capitol R...
Within a year of their first show, Jimmy Eat World released their self-titled de...

Cyndi Lauper: She Bop!
Shortly after the appearance of "She Bop," Cyndi Lauper's mother asked her what ...

Jimi Hendrix: Purple Haze
"I first heard Jimi Hendrix [at the age of 16] when I was driving my mother's st...

Harmonides
Harmonides, a young flute player and scholar of Timotheus, made his public debut...

Disney's Fantasia
Walt Disney was delighted with the music in his classic animated feature ...

Dailey's Blues
Dan Dailey once devised a great idea for a film: While walking past the loading ...

Greatest Violinist
Jascha Heifetz and Mischa Elman were dining together one night when their waiter...

AC/DC vs Riot Police
"A Belgian policeman took it into his head he was going to stop one of our shows...

Boogie Off
In 1969, Jerry Garcia and his Grateful Dead bandmates, booked to play with the R...

Barbra Streisand: Vocal Tracks
During a recording session one day Barbra Streisand, famed for her perfectionist...

Worm Saloon
Shortly after the appearance of Independent Worm Saloon, Butthole Surfers...

Sock Trick
In 1994, Red Hot Chili Peppers frontman Anthony Kiedis recounted a seminal momen...

Tongue and Lips?
In January 2003, KISS and Aerosmith announced plans to join forces and tour toge...

Spector Insult
Legendary producer Phil Spector was once asked whether he enjoyed the work of An...

Billow
Dr. Thomas Morell (1703-1784), the librettist of many of Handel's works, was rou...

Depede Mode
Martin Gore and his Depeche Mode bandmates drew their name from a French express...

Earth in the Balance
The Grateful Dead became involved in environmental issues only very reluctantly....

Cop Killer
In 1992, Ice-T's "Cop Killer" (released on Body Count by his group of the...

#1 Hit
While visiting a nightclub in Tokyo, Japan, Led Zeppelin drummer John Bonham ask...

Clarity
"Gentlemen," Wilhelm Furtwangler directed his orchestra during a rehearsal one d...

Auntie Grizelda
Monkees bassist Peter Tork, denied a chance to sing on the first Monkees album, ...

Motley Crue
In 1982, Vince Neil and his Motley Crue bandmates decided to bring their show to...

Tommy, Jr.
During a concert one evening in 1997, Motley Crue drummer Tommy Lee passed a vid...

Eric Clapton: After Midnight
In 1987, Eric Clapton's classic tune "After Midnight" ("After midnight, we're go...

PMRC
In the 1980s, Tipper Gore famously launched a campaign against profane lyrics in...

Pink Floyd Garden Party
Pink Floyd's concerts were not entirely devoid of Spinal Tap moments. In 1971, f...

Stage Dive
While performing at a concert in the summer of 1997, Iggy Pop jumped off the sta...

Rock Star
During one of the band's early gigs, U2 frontman Bono Vox spotted two young ladi...

Bonohead
Though notoriously absentminded U2 frontman Bono Vox usually lost nothing more i...

Woodstock Moment
At Woodstock in 1969, the radical student leader Abbie Hoffman (famed for writin...

Quadrophenia
The Who's rock opera Quadrophenia (released in October 1973) was named af...

Elegy for Cows
Though the Glyndebourne Opera specialized in the works of Mozart, the company di...

Eccentric Inventor
"Perhaps the most eccentric father ever to appear in a son's autobiography was S...

Lumber!
Arturo Toscanini was in the habit of hurling valuable scores at the orchestra wh...

Boys' Brigade
While staying at a house near Glyndebourne, the legendary Sir Thomas Beecham (fo...

Dear Soul
The great pianist Ignace Jan Paderewski was once introduced to a polo player wit...

Beyonce Knowles: Second Per...
In 2003 Destiny's Child vocalist Beyonce Knowles celebrated the Fourth of July i...

Rakes's Progress
After a performance of Igor Stravinsky's The Rakes's Progress one evening...

Airplane Music
The great composer Arnold Schoenberg was once consulted by a fellow musician abo...

Icy Reception
At the debut performance of Arnold Schoenberg's first song cycle (in 1900), a fi...

French Enough?
One day Twentieth Century-Fox chief Darryl F. Zanuck listened to some music for ...

Brepus?
"Samuel Goldwyn knew everything about films - costumes, settings, characters, di...

Pupil of Liszt
Shortly after his arrival in a small city one day, Franz Liszt was visited in hi...

Organ Squared
In September, 2001, the longest musical performance in history began in a former...

Annoying Fan
While performing his Moonlight Sonata in London one evening, Felix Mendel...

Musical Puzzles
Many composers have written "musical puzzles," compositions that were amusing to...

Pianist at Work
During a train ride one day, the great pianist Josef Hofmann was observed sittin...

Cherry Sisters: Damned Souls
At the turn of the 20th Century, the Des Moines Register ran a scathing r...

Aerosmith Frontman
Brittany Murphy once had a wasted brush with Aerosmith frontman Steven Tyler. "A...

Sound of Silence
As a child, Paul Simon smiled so rarely that his parents nicknamed him Cardozo (...

POD
In October 2003, POD frontman Sonny Sandoval and his bandmates had to cancel a s...

Yodelling Idiot
Famed CBC broadcaster Max Ferguson once recalled the genesis (in December 1946) ...

Bad Review
Prince was no great fan of Michael Jackson's later work. "Michael Jackson's albu...

R.E.M.
Michael Stipe, Peter Buck, Mike Mills and Bill Berry played their first gig (on ...

R.E.M.'s Greatest Hits
R.E.M. used a "scientific method" for choosing many of the tracks on their secon...

Vanilla Ice: Singular Absur...
In the early '90s, Robert Van Winkle {aka Vanilla Ice} was accused of stealing t...

Lovable Brute
During the production of Sense and Sensibility, director Ang Lee was pain...

Jennifer Lopez: Jenny from ...
Shortly after the release of Jennifer Lopez's "Jenny from the Block" ("Don't be ...

Ozzy Osbourne: Ozzy at the ...
On May 5, 2002, Ozzy Osbourne joined a host of luminaries at the White House Cor...

Jeff Raines: Galactic Misco...
"[Galactic guitarist Jeff Raines] and Galactic bassist Robert Mercurio formed th...

The Darkness: Spinal Tap Mo...
Darkness frontman Justin Hawkins, a great fan of Rob Reiner's Spinal Tap,...

Boy George & Eminem
In October 2002, Boy George attended the Music of Black Origin (MOBO) Awards in ...

Young Toni Braxton
Toni Braxton seemed destined to become a singer from an early age. As a child, s...

Tom Morello: Rage Against t...
"I had only $50," Tom Morello once recalled of his first guitar, "so I bought a ...

Jimi Hendrix: Peerless Passion
Jeff Beck once recalled the first time he saw Jimi Hendrix play guitar. Indeed, ...

Shelby Lynne: Best New Artist
I Am Shelby Lynne earned Shelby Lynne a Best New Artist Grammy in 2000. ...

AK-MP3s
In February 2004, a British-based company partly owned by former Russian rock st...

Mick Jagger: Old Git
"Despite a massive publicity massage that jammed his dimpled prune into every me...

Adam Levine: Poetic Soul
From an early age, Maroon5 frontman Adam Levine thrived on angst. Indeed, during...

Bebe Buell: So Vain?
Bebe Buell once claimed that Elvis Costello (with whom she had an affair until 1...

Blink-182: Family Reunion
In April 2003 (following the U.S. invasion of Iraq), Blink-182 visited the Persi...

Ozzy Osbourne: Prince of Da...
Despite his Prince of Darkness moniker, Ozzy Osbourne frequently protested accus...

Neil Young: The Blob
"It's a wonder I wasn't dead after that show," Neil Young once confessed of the ...

Garth Brooks & Waylon Jennings
Waylon Jennings was no great fan of Garth Brooks' music. "It's like my dad once ...

The Doors: Squeaky Clean
The Doors once considered allowing General Motors to use their classic song "Lig...

Justin Timberlake: SARS Con...
In July 2003, Justin Timberlake performed at a SARS benefit concert in Toronto. ...

Shadow Morton: Morton's Bluff
After landing a songwriting contract with Jerry Leiber for producing "Remember (...

Ted Nugent & Muzak
"The brainchild of World War I veteran General George Owen Squier, the Muzak com...

Young Rob Zombie: Art Show
"In third grade," Rob Zombie once recalled, "I learned about Alice Cooper — I mu...

Guy Stevens: Honey Brown Sound
"Like many of their longtime fans, the Clash felt their 1978 album, ...

Limp Bizkit: Soggy Biscuit
One day a pothead roadie told Fred Durst and his bandmates that his stoned brain...

Shelby Lynne: Star Broker
In 2001, Shelby Lynne (working with Glen Ballard, the man behind Alanis Morisset...

George Jones: Deedoodle
"In 1979, ravaged by cocaine and heroin, George Jones experienced some difficult...

Slipknot: Number 6
The unhinged destructo-metal band Slipknot - whose members wore jumpsuit "unifor...

Nelly Furtado: Bird Brains
Nelly Furtado's debut album, Whoa, Nelly!, was released in 2000 and, prop...

Lyle Lovett: Favorite Album
Lyle Lovett was once asked, "If you're in the record store and you're going to b...

Iron Butterfly: Garden of Eden
Iron Butterfly's biggest hit was originally called "In the Garden of Eden." Sing...

Led Zeppelin: Moby Dick Mar...
While touring in 1975, Led Zeppelin drummer John Bonham was dismayed to learn th...

Liberace's Rings
The legendary pianist Liberace was famed for his flamboyant outfits and the garg...

Ozzy Osbourne: No More Tours
In 1992, Ozzy Osbourne announced that he planned to spend more time with his fam...

J-Kwon: Showcase
"In the late summer [of 2003], after a few months' work in the studio, the Track...

Tchaikovsky, Conductor
"Tchaikovsky wanted to study with [Anton Rubinstein], and when he was 22, gave u...

Queen Elizabeth II: Boogie ...
"The Queen is an Abba fan - and even has a collection of records by the Swedish ...

Ice-T & Hassle the Hoff
During an appearance on "Late Night with Conan O'Brien" in mid-June 2004, Ice-T ...

Fred Durst: Microphone Lawsuit
During a tour in 2002, Limp Bizkit frontman Fred Durst allegedly flew into a rag...

Wilco: Yankee Hotel Foxtrot
Although Wilco's classic album Yankee Hotel Foxtrot did not hit stores u...

John Kerry: Pulsating Rhythm
"Back in 1961, when he was in prep school, future Democratic presidential frontr...

John Mayer: Encore!
"So we've got one more song to play for you tonight," John Mayer announced durin...

Thomas Jane: Hollywood Busker
While working as a busker on Hollywood Boulevard, Thomas Jane found a sure-fire ...

Achy-Breaky Blackmail
In 2004, the U.S. Olympic gymnastics team found a novel way of raising money. "M...

The Replacements: Big Stink
The Replacements once played a showcase gig for a group of record industry bigwi...

Bono: Blowin' on the Stage
Bono was once invited to join Bob Dylan onstage in the middle of a show. "Bob Dy...

Bono: Famous Last Words
"Bono's not great at the old driving," U2's Larry Mullen Jr once revealed. "It's...

Cyndi Lauper: Good Luck?
"My grandmother says it's good luck but I think it's disgusting!" ...

Phil Spector: Echo Chamber
"Everyone, I think, liked working for me but hated Gold Star," legendary produce...

Louie, Louie: Marketing Mas...
The Kingsmen's classic song "Louie, Louie" is perhaps the most frequently misquo...

The Clash: Anarchy Tour
In 1976, The Clash joined the Sex Pistols, the Damned and the Buzzcocks on the l...

Geri Halliwell: Opus
"At $21.99, the Geri Halliwell boxed set is more reasonably priced," a reviewer ...

John Malkovich: More Dr. Dre!
"My son's first sentence was 'More Dr. Dre!'" John Malkovich once recalled. "He ...

Mark Lamarr: Gansta Rap
"I love going to see gansta rap because they're so vicious," Mark Lamarr once re...

Dinah Washington & Quincy J...
"[Dinah Washington's] determination was a godsend to young musicians she believe...

Korn: Y'All Want a Sellout?
Korn once made an anticorporate radio song called "Y'All Want a Single" (see lyr...

John Mayer: Triple Time
"I wrote my first record in the bathroom," John Mayer once recalled, "because I ...

Queen Victoria: Name That Tune
"Listening to a military band at Windsor, Queen Victoria heard a tune she very m...

Ben Stiller: Bar Mitzvah Band
Ben Stiller once formed a band with some friends. Some time later, Stiller (on d...

Joni Mitchell: Man from Mars
Joni Mitchell: "My cat, Nietzsche got mad at me about something, and he got up o...

Barry Manilow: Dental Surgery
"Barry Manilow is recovering from an infection after dental surgery," Conan O'Br...

Zack de la Rocha: AATA
In 2001, Zack de la Rocha quit Rage Against the Machine. "He's toning it down in...

Walt Disney: Fantasia
After using part of the "Pastorale Symphony" in Fantasia (1940), Walt Dis...

Harpsichord
During a rehearsal of his opera Flavio one day, Handel, accompanying the ...

Facade Rearranged?
While rehearsing for the debut performance of Facade, the players' reacti...

Tempo Mental?
Whenever he collaborated with David Lynch on a film, Angelo Badalamenti sought t...

John Thomas?
Rob Thomas and Matchbox 20 once played with Christian acoustic rockers Jars of C...

World Wide Webber?
Andrew Lloyd Webber once ordered his chauffeur never to play the radio while dri...

Novel Insult
A young composer once asked for Hans von Bulow's opinion of his latest compositi...

Way Out
In 1962, the Decca Recording Company rejected an opportunity to sign the Beatles...

Yellow Gold?
While meeting with a journalist in Hong Kong one day, Beck was bemused to hear t...

Already?
Noted conductor Fritz Busch was emphatic in his dedication to orchestral delicac...

Ivory 'Tick'ler?
John Tesh's love of music became apparent when, as a child, he played carols on ...

Teknival
In August 2002, shortly after French interior minister Nicolas Sarkozy instructe...

Big Production?
Producer Jerry Weintraub started his career as an agent and concert promoter. In...

Bad-alamenti?
Composer Angelo Badalamenti, a frequent David Lynch collaborator, had a small ca...

Rodzinski
While vacationing one day, Artur Rodzinski chanced upon a radio broadcast of an ...

Una voce?
A singer once gave a glorious rendition of Rossini's famous aria "Una voce," emb...

Superstar Antics?
In 1997, the Telegraph's Neil McCormick went to meet Metallica, which he ...

Stuffed Giraffe
"I never had my dick out onstage and neither did anybody else in the band," Fran...

Trout Quintet
Max Reger once received a basket of trout from an admirer after playing the pian...

Ultimate Humiliation
In 2001, 23 Chinese pirates were caught in the act on the high seas. Before thei...

Tom... Waits
Tom Waits frequently annoyed reporters with his tall tales, inaudible responses ...

It's Tom Waits!
Because his flexible schedule allowed it, Tom Waits often volunteered to take sc...

Key Question
"At a musical party at which Paderewski was present, Richard Harding Davis, the ...

Paderewski
While attending the 1919 Paris Peace Conference as Poland's new leader, Paderews...

Come Together
One day in the mid-1960s, legendary LSD pioneer Timothy Leary decided to run for...

Beethoven Museum
"A young student was visiting the Beethoven museum in Bonn and was fascinated by...

Disco Sucks
On July 12, 1979, Chicago radio DJ Steve Dahl and baseball promoter Mike Veeck o...

Ron McGoveny: Metallicaaaah!
"[Metallica] had some interesting ways of getting rid of people they didn't want...

Parenthood
In 1995, Green Day frontman Billie Joe Armstrong, famed for his stage-diving gui...

Second Fiddle
Beethoven, who believed that he was communing with God while composing, spared n...

Political Organ?
On December 2, 1991, Bobby Bonilla signed a $29 million, five-year deal with the...

Butch Walker: Perfectionist
"I started playing in clubs when I was fifteen," Butch Walker once recalled. "Bu...

Ali G: Hot Rapper
British comedian Ali G was once asked to name his favorite rapper. His reply? "A...

Pitter-Patter Chit-Chatter
Hans Christian Andersen once commissioned a musician to compose his funeral marc...

Particularly Good?
Pete Seeger was once asked about his wastedst concert venues. He had, he replied...

Liam Gallagher: Classic Pic...
One night in August 2000, newly single Oasis frontman Liam Gallagher picked up R...

Billy Joel: Prototypical
Billy Joel once found himself engaged in a discussion about the origin of the 'r...

Gwen Stefani: Croak
No Doubt's Gwen Stefani was once asked about her musical influences, and cited.....

Almost Perfect
While rehearsing with the Berlin State Opera Company's orchestra, conductor Leo ...

Experience
When a certain score ignited a minor sensation on account of the "originality" d...

Nick of Time?
Nick Drake, famed for his distaste for self-promotion, once dropped off a parcel...

Conducting
Hans Richter once attended a performance at which an orchestra player of his acq...

Peelander-Z: P-Bone Steak
In 2004, Peelander-Z - a Japanese trio famed for dressing like fuckingheroes and...

Low Blow?
In 1956, Elvis Presley made a historic appearance on the "Ed Sullivan Show," rea...

Happiness Sucks
Ben Folds' upbeat nature, he once explained, did not conduce to downbeat songwri...

Tracy Chapman
Tracy Chapman, best known for such works as "Fast Cars" and "Talkin' Bout a Revo...

Orgasm Theme (long)
"When David Selznick engaged Dimitri Tiomkin to do the music for ...

Impressions of a Lucky Day
"Malcolm Sargent was given his first chance of conducting by Sir Henry Wood, who...

Lohengrin
Gioacchino Rossini was once asked his opinion of Wagner's opera ...

Birth of Grunge
Mudhoney frontman Mark Arm was among a group of pranksters who once advertised a...

Born to Rock
Ginger Lynn once joined a number of her colleagues to produce a compilation of p...

50 Cent Attitude
After the MTV Movie Awards in New York in June 2003, rapper 50 Cent, whose first...

Colin Powell: ASEAN Serenade
At the end of the Association of South-East Asian Nations' (ASEAN's) Regional Fo...

MC Doan?
During an appearance on "Late Night with Conan O'Brien" in August, 2002, Tra...

CKY
CKY guitarist-producer Chad Ginsburg was once asked whether he thought other ban...

Stargell Homer
In the 1965 All-Star baseball game in Minnesota, Pittsburgh Pirates Hall of Fame...

Billy Corgan: Spears Throug...
In the fall of 2000, Smashing Pumpkins frontman Billy Corgan was asked what had ...

Irving Berlin: Sharp Musician
Irving Berlin once had a piano built with special pedals which could change the ...

Kittel's Coma
In 1996, a 17-year-old German girl named Christiane Kittel was diagnosed with a ...

Beverley Knight: Soul Singer
In June 2004, soul singer Beverley Knight was reportedly required to pay £1,000 ...

Spinal Tap: Back From the Dead
In the summer of 2000, hundreds of foil-wrapped cucumbers (delivered to privileg...

Parsifal
Richard Wagner was not without his critics. "Parsifal," fellow composer D...

Pot Heads?
Growing up, Marc Anthony always had music around the house. Muisicians would oft...

Dream Group?
Herb Alpert once saw Miles Davis perform with what Alpert called the dream group...

Elvis P?
'Mike D' once cited Elvis as a key influence on the Beastie Boys. The king's "bi...

Whatta Song
Tanya Donelly once called "Whatta Man" by Salt-n-Pepa and En Vogue "probably the...

Refreshing Scent?
The Refreshments - who almost called themselves Motley Clue - were thrilled by t...

Circle of Peeing?
A joke from Matchbox 20's first show soon developed into an unusual pre-performa...

Bang for the Buck
At a show in London one evening, L7, promising to give fans "more bang for the b...

L7
In the summer of 1992, L7 made their network television debut on "The Late Show ...

Telaboration
Until the latter part of the 20th Century, it was common practice for all commun...

Page Turner
The famed violinist Georges Enesco was once called upon to tutor the son of a Ro...

Trina
Bonso Thompson, the fearless editor of music magazine XXL, once asked rap...

Country Music
Don Chamberlain, a professional pitcher of horseshoes, was once asked why he kep...

Deaf Choreographer
"Julian Mitchell was the director most frequently used by Florenz Ziegfeld to st...

Swinger Nugent
As part of his stage act, Ted Nugent would often swing on a rope while wearing a...

Visual Music
Among Yousuf Karsh's famous subjects was the Spanish cellist and composer Pablo ...

Pink Floyd: Spinal Tap Moment
Pink Floyd's concerts were not entirely devoid of Spinal Tap moments, as drummer...

Blow-Out
The Greek orator and satirist Lucian once described an ill-fated debut: "Harmoni...

Classic Mingus
"One night many years ago, [writer Frank] Conroy was playing solo piano at a clu...

Razor Quartet
In 1789, the London publisher John Bland traveled to Vienna in search of new wor...

Gustav Mahler: Niagara Visit
The Austrian composer Gustav Mahler once visited Niagara Falls. His verdict? ...

Land Across the Sea
"Waking up in his hospital bed after his car accident Michael Foot heard the mel...

Lisztomania
Liszt was acclaimed as the greatest virtuoso pianist of his time. Europe was swe...

Wanton Plagiarism?
Few Beatles fans, a reader wrote to the Globe and Mail in 2003, "wouldn't...

The Replacements
According to legend, Paul Westerberg and his bandmates were given a gig one nigh...

Slow Mode
"I'd had a synth [synthesizer] for about a month," Depeche Mode's Martin Gore on...

Downside of Democracy?
In July 2003, the Sex Pistols expressed their desire to play a concert in Baghda...

Pop Idol Rejects
In September 2003, Gary "Bananaman" McGrogan and four other colorful "Pop Idol" ...

Joe Strummer & the Clash: S...
One day Joe Strummer and his Clash bandmates found themselves counting the numbe...

Catch-22
Shortly after assuming his post as professor of music at UCLA, Jascha Heifetz wa...

Absent-Minded Pianist
At a concert one evening, as Josef Hofmann settled himself at the piano, a look ...

Facing the Music
As a young pianist, Vladimir Horowitz was given a word of advice one day by Artu...

David Cross & the Grateful ...
David Cross was once asked whether he was a fan of the Grateful Dead. "I saw the...

Macy Gray: Rock Bottom
During the 2001 MTV Video Music Awards, Outkast plugged its clothing line and MT...

Curried Hash?
The Rocky Horror Picture Show's Tim Curry once issued a CD entitled 'The ...

Less is Mo?
Why was Velvet Underground drummer Mo Tucker originally included in the band? Ac...

Earl Morrall & the Flea-Fli...
On January 12, 1969, the Baltimore Colts faced the New York Jets in Super Bowl I...

Pastoral
One day an acquaintance of someone who regularly had sex while listening to a pa...

Sigur Rós
Sigur Rós vocalist Jon Thor Birgisson and his bandmates, famed for their long an...

Far Side of the Room?
In 1994, Terence Trent D'Arby made a curious confession: "Believe it or not," he...

Last Temptation?
Sarah McLachlan was often asked about her musical inspirations. "Peter Gabriel i...

Sodi & Rubio
"I was in Timbiriche [a Mexican preteen singing group] with Thalia Sodi," Paulin...

Matthew McConaughey: Bongo Boy
In October 1999, police responded to a disturbance call at Matthew McConaughey's...

Talibanned?
Shortly after America's successful operation in Afghanistan in 2001, the ...

F---in' Busted
During a concert in 1975 in Memphis, Tennessee, Aerosmith frontman Steven Tyler ...

Puccini's Operas
Dimitri Shostakovich once asked Benjamin Britten what he thought of their fellow...

Ja Rule
In 1999, African American rapper Ja Rule and his band (the Murderers) were order...

Recording Blitz
"There were holes in the road the morning I had to get to the Decca studios in W...

Forever Young
Bob Dylan, the genius behind the song "Forever Young," once played a concert for...

Dooley Wilson
The black musician Dooley Wilson became an instant celebrity after appearing in ...

Toronto the Goody Good
In 1991, a much-anticipated open-air concert featuring an up-and-coming new band...

Chord
One day Carl Ruggles was visited in his studio by Henry Cowell, who found the co...

Legendary Beecham
"At a concert the BBC was broadcasting, Sir Thomas [Beecham] was to play the ...

Piquant
Liszt, endeavoring to raise the profile of the Schumanns in French musical circl...

Tinderbox 20?
Rob Thomas and his Matchbox 20 bandmates once opened for No Doubt at a memorable...

Dannii Minogue: Capsize
While performing at an outdoor concert (at Kingsbury Water Park near Tamworth) i...

World's Greatest Drummer
After appearing as guests on "Open Mike with Mike Bullard" one day in January 20...

Resuahnnat
While visiting Rossini at his home one day, a friend was surprised to find a sco...

Benny Carter
One day George Rich learned that Club Harlem, home to Benny Carter's band, had f...

Hot Musician
One day in August 2002, Australian entertainer Rolf Harris was imterrupted midwa...

Battle Symphony
Beethoven was once commissioned by Johann Nepomuk Maelzel, the inventor of the s...

Concert Companion
2003 marked the appearance of a hand-held wireless gadget, called the Concert Co...

Wolf & Brahms
Hugo Wolf so detested his fellow Viennese composer Johannes Brahms that he refus...

Vanilla Ice: Van Wiener
Vanilla Ice exploded onto the rap music scene in 1990 with the smash single "Ice...

Avril Lavigne: Strawberry Wine
Avril Lavigne's core values were shaped by her upbringing in a devoutly Christia...

Sex, Lies, and Videotape
During the production of one of her music videos, Paula Abdul grew concerned abo...

Capitol Punishment?
In 1988, in a bid to boost sales of Leo Delibes' opera "Lakme" among mainstream ...

Jenny
Following the appearance of Tommy Tutone's "Jenny," people all over America bega...

Sun Sessions
The first record which Green Day's Billie Joe Armstrong ever bought was Elvis Pr...

One Bad Apple? (long)
Tommy Lee, often asked what had inspired him to become a musician, once named tw...

Guess Who
"Originally named 'Chad Allan And The Expressions' (pre-Burton Cummings), the Ca...

Little Confidence?
In 1998, shortly after their live LP Rock Spectacle (a compilation of per...

Unbalanced Comment?
John Tesh once professed a surprising admiration for Jethro Tull. "When I was in...

Spinal Tap Sphinx
Inspired by a visit to Egypt, Boy George decided to begin entering the stage dur...

Shiny Happy People?
Reviews of R.E.M.'s music were not always to Michael Stipe's liking. "If I ever ...

Rebel Yell
During his college years in England, Billy Idol worked nights as a postal worker...

Destiny's Child?
"She's a video fanatic," Montell Jordan once said of his daughter. "Her favorite...

Bam Bam?
Many people who attended Dick Dale's concerts near the turn of the millennium we...

Encore! (long)
"It was 1946," Ben Wicks once recalled. "The war in Europe was over. Once again ...

Sigur Rós & Radiohead (long)
"Merce Cunningham was one of the creators of America's mid-century modernism, as...

Mirror Dedication
In 1901, Pietro Mascagni, having completed his opera Le Maschere, sought ...

Dubious Distinction
In 1993, Australian-born broadcaster Clive James assisted with the preparation o...

Good Vibe
In 1993, publisher John Rollins and editor Alan Light launched a hip-hop magazin...

The Egg Timer
"My father, the pianist and composer Leslie Bridgewater, never forgot the discip...

Incognito (long)
Landon Ronald once recalled an incident concerning his mischievous fellow compos...

En Vogue
"I wear tight clothing and high heel shoes," Dawn Robinson sang on En Vogue's 'F...

Only Beethoven (long)
"The old castellan [of Gratz castle] was firmly convinced that Beethoven was not...

M-My Generation
The BBC has a long history of banning hit songs from its airwaves - chief among ...

Fisher's Hornpipe
The pianist and composer Thomas Wiggins possessed a phenomenal musical memory an...

Kindergarten Class
ollowing his arrival in the United States, Arnold Schoenberg was forced to teach...

Volga Boatman
MGM composer William Axt was once assigned to compose some music for a film call...

Korngold
In 1935 Warner Bros. hired the composer Erich Wolfgang Korngold to work on the s...

Samuel Johnson: Music Lover?
A lady, having completed a brilliant harpsichord performance in his presence, as...

Tenor Tenacity?
One of the watershed moments in Luciano Pavarotti's life occurred when he was 12...

Early Persuasion?
Dizzy Gillespie found the studio recording environment claustrophobic. ("When I ...

Cranky Critic
Elliot Carter's work was not universally well received. "I would like to hear El...

Unholy Tearer
"Eroica," Beethoven's Third Symphony (from 1803), was originally composed as a t...

Flauting Convention?
Among C. P. E. Bach's responsibilities as court musician to Frederick the Great ...

Mi Fa Mi
Johannes Kepler inherited incredibly accurate astronomical records from his ment...

Roq On
At the tender age of fifteen, Russell Crowe embarked upon a musical career, bill...

The Outfield
Though they were a British New Wave outfit, The Outfield were renamed by their m...

Tony Wilson & Factory Records
"Real-life British pop impresario Tony Wilson made and lost a lot of money in th...

Te Deum
The baton used by seventeenth-century conductors was much longer and heavier tha...

Brahms
One day in his twilight years, Johannes Brahms announced his plan to stop compos...

Old Refrain
One day while waiting for a boat to depart for London (where he was scheduled to...

Merry Ruse
One evening Gustav Mahler and his wife Alma went to see Franz Lehar's ...

Woody: Keepin' it Real
Despite having received a dozen Oscar nominations, Woody Allen did not make an a...

Pretend We're Dead
During a performance of "Pretend We're Dead" one evening, L7 frontwoman Donita S...

Sargent's Orders
Following an unsatisfactory rehearsal of "For unto us a child is born" (from ...

Garbage: Self-Titled
The formation of Garbage can be traced to a historic evening in 1994, when the n...

Jude the Obscure?
Before discovering commercial success, Beck spent time busking - a career about ...

Chief Executive
One evening president Calvin Coolidge attended a rather medicore operatic recita...

Sympathy in F Minor?
Rossini once complained to fellow composer Giacomo Meyerbeer that he was feeling...

Beethoven's Deafness
"Beethoven said, 'This is a beautiful piano. I got it as a gift from London. Loo...

Waylon Jennings & Willie Ne...
"Waylon Jennings once asked me for some friendly advice on moving to Nashville,"...

Anthrax: Band or Disease?
The terrorist attacks on September 11th 2001 were quickly followed by an 'anthra...

Quick Thinking
One evening Geddy Lee and his bandmates were frantically rushing to come up with...

Long Live Berg
When excerpts from Alban Berg's Lulu were first performed in Vienna in 19...

Satisfaction?
One day in 1970, Mick Jagger made a remarkable assertion: "I'd rather be dead," ...

National Treasure
One day in 1970, Pierre Boulez received a surprising call at his home in Germany...

Sting: Deodorant Jingle
One day in the 1980s, Sting was approached by advertisers seeking permission to ...

Tony's Theme?
During a game one day in 1999, New York Yankees outfielder Tony Tarasco came to ...

Pearl Jam: Great-Grandpa
During an interview in 1991, Pearl Jam frontman Eddie Vedder revealed the inspir...

Stumped?
One day the comedian James "Stump" Cross fell on Dizzy Gillespie's trumpet, bend...

Maybeline
The original version of Chuck Berry's 1955 hit song contained the chorus: "Ida R...

Offenbach Insult
On December 8, 1881, 384 people perished at the Ring Theatre in Vienna after a f...

Dorsey & Goodman
Early in his career, Benny Goodman shared an apartment with fellow-musician Jimm...

Pudding-Bowls
Newsweek's take on The Beatles' legendary 1964 appearance on "The Ed Sull...

Kuno the Killer
Uwe Heil and his mates in Kuno's Friends named their band after a giant 1.5-metr...

George Wyle: Rest in Peace
In May 2003, Conan O'Brien was dismayed to learn of the passage of George Wyle, ...

Johnny Cash: Unchained
After Unchained won a Grammy for best country album in 1997, Johnny Cash ...

Zippelfaggotist
While Johann Sebastian Bach was a brilliant composer and organist, he was ill-su...

Political Party
In February 2003, the Romanian Parliament installed a huge video screen for the ...

Stranger Music
Avante garde composer Nicolas Varchausky once bugged an elevator in the Colon Th...

Moonlight Sonata
"One evening as [young Beethoven] was out walking he passed a cobbler's house wh...

Natural Musician
Arturo Toscanini was once accosted just before a concert by a frantic clarinetis...

One Week
"To be honest, we have no idea what writing a hit is," Barenaked Ladies frontman...

Legendary Paganini
The virtuoso violinist Niccolo Paganini often played using fewer than four strin...

Thibaud's Repertoire
Despite his popular success as a performer, Jacques Thibaud was often teased abo...

Music Business
While hosting a party one evening, Sibelius was asked by a fellow musician why h...

Beecham Boredom?
Sir Thomas Beecham was no great admirer of fellow composer Ralph Vaughan William...

Operatic Outlook
A friend of Luigi Arditi's, told of the composer's plans to visit Birmingham one...

Moses in Egypt
Rossini once attended a concert at which several variations on an aria from his ...

Done Deal?
After the succcess of Last Splash, the Breeders and their various collabo...

Sacre du Printemps
Nijinsky's ballet "Le Sacre du Printemps" (The Rite of Spring) - choreographed t...

Sharp Criticism?
As a young aspiring pianist, Ansel Adams showed considerable promise. At a party...

Screaming Mad
"One of the wrongs I did in my life," Ike Turner once declared, "was that I fire...

Ode to Joy?
In 1818, London's Royal Philharmonic Society commissioned Beethoven to produce (...

Robin Williams / Grammy Awards
At the 2003 Grammy Awards, Rod Stewart, Harvey Fierstein in drag, and a small, h...

David Bowie: Hmmmm
David Bowie was once asked which music he found most useful in a romantic settin...

Johann Sebastian Bach: Coff...
Johann Sebastian Bach once wrote a Coffee Cantata, a humorous one-act ope...

Handel & the Prince
George Frideric Handel was once asked by a member of the royal family what he th...

Russell Crowe: Roc On
Young Russell Crowe, harboring dreams of becoming a rocker, once released a coup...

Handy Excuse
Rod Stewart once declared that he was "a fairly loyal person - although there's ...

Cruikshank's Farmer
"Homer Watson's home at Doon in the heart of the beautiful pastoral country of W...

Sell Out
Frank Zappa was never one to compromise his artistic vision. "I think," an inter...

F or F sharp
During the rehearsal of one of Anton Bruckner's symphonies one day, the conducto...

Handel Untuned
Because he could scarcely bear the sound, the tuning of instruments was always p...

Tempest
Haydn once tested various arrangements of discords and harmonies on a piano in a...

e. e. cummings is the poet
Pierre Boulez once agreed to compose something for a concert in West Germany. Th...

Radio Diva
When Ashanti was growing up, her mother forbade her from listening to the radio ...

Way Out
In 1962, the Decca Recording Company famously rejected John Lennon and his Beatl...

Captain Jack
In February 2000, First Lady Hillary Clinton announced her candidacy for the U.S...

Remembrance
"I established a certain standard of behavior," the great pianist Ignace Jan Pad...

Frog in a Blender
"Tom Waits has been called 'gravelly voiced' so many times over the decades, you...

Asshole Dancer
Denis Leary was once asked how weird fame had become for him. "I remember going ...

Lefty
Jimi Hendrix, whom guitar impresario Les Paul once called "a left-handed, mother...

The Rainbow
Lou Reed played at The Rainbow (in London) some time after Frank Zappa's legenda...

Robert Helpmann: Swinger
Famed choreographer Robert Helpmann was once asked whether the vogue for nudity ...

Bleating Incredible
Shakira once admitted that she had been rejected for membership in her school ch...

Rhythm
In 1913, the novelist Carl van Vechten attended the premiere of Igor Stravinsky'...

Siesta Sonata
When young Johannes Brahms was introduced to Franz Liszt at a friendly gathering...

Doorbell
Visitors who rang the doorbell at Jon Bon Jovi's Los Angeles home have often bee...

Madonna: Ray of Light
In July 2000, Craig Kilborn learned that Madonna's newest video had been digital...

Quick Study?
Johann Peter Salomon once reluctantly gave violin lessons to George III. "Your M...

Badge of Merit
The famed pianist Merit Rosenthal was once badgered into attending a performance...

Meat Loaf: Monty Python Moment
During the production of the video for Meat Loaf's classic Grammy-award winning ...

Aerosmith: Dusty Attic
Following a five-year hiatus, Steven Tyler and his Aerosmith bandmates had a reu...

Bee Gees Serenade
During an appearance on a Howard Stern TV special one day, Barry Gibb and his Be...

Barry Gibb & the Bunburys
In 1986, Bee Gees frontman Barry Gibb produced a solo concept album entitled ...

Berry Blooper
"Since 1957, Chuck Berry has always toured solo, demanding that promoters supply...

Immortal Insult
Heinrich Heine was among a group of Parisian critics who happily sang Giacomo ...

Bernd Kremling
During a performance in Bayreuth in 2003, German conductor Bernd Kremling, famed...

Handel's Song
During a rehearsal one day in 1722, the soprano Francesca Cuzzoni, a famously te...

Suckers
In 1970, the Rolling Stones decided to leave their label (Decca Records) and sta...

Novoselic & Lithium
While playing "Lithium" at the 1992 MTV Video Awards, Nirvana bassist Krist Novo...

Alice Cooper Gig
Shortly after the start of an Alice Cooper gig one evening, the crowd of 3,000 g...

Retarded Development
While chopping and smashing a giant watermelon on stage during a concert one eve...

Ticket to Ride
John Denver, an amateur pilot with a passion for space flight, lobbied hard to f...

DM Unplugged
It took Depeche Mode a while to get used to their high tech musical instruments....

Depeche Sortie
One day in 1990, Depeche Mode made an appearance at a Los Angeles record store t...

The Jazz Singer
One day on the set of The Jazz Singer, Neil Diamond, trying to get fired ...

Hotel California
"According to one lady of the night, Don Henley invited three girls over to his ...

Tour Bus
After touring in a van with Jane's Addiction, Perry Farrell claimed to be able t...

Phallic Trip
According to drummer Mick Fleetwood, throughout the 1960s Fleetwood Mac was "rea...

Evil Dick
In 1993, a music critic called one of Ice-T's performances "as historically powe...

Come Again?
Mick Jagger once revealed the source of a mystery to many fans. "I don't think t...

Rock 'n' Roll Manager
After being ripped off by his manager (a man fittingly named Artie Ripp), Billy ...

The Kinks: Hidden Anger
Little love was lost between Kinks vocalist Ray Davies and his brother Dave (who...

k.d. lang
In 1992, k.d. lang won a Grammy Award for Best Female Vocal Performance. She was...

Messiah
John Lennon, who frequently claimed to be "Jesus Christ come back again," once i...

Manson's Lunchbox
Marilyn Manson (famed for his demonic stage shows incorporating torn Bibles, sex...

Pyrotechnica
One night while touring with Guns 'n Roses in 1992, Metallica set off a pyrotech...

Jingoistica
After recording such war anthems as "Don't Tread on Me" and "One" (a song about ...

Einstein & Rubinstein
"Albert Einstein, a keen amateur violinist, was practising sonatas at home with ...

Eddie Murphy: Great Song
One day in 1985, Eddie Murphy got a call from Stevie Wonder. "We're working on t...

Religious Affiliation
While attending to John Field during his final hours, several of the musician's ...

Hallelujah Chorus
In 1743, George II was invited to attend the debut performance of Handel's Messi...

Tambourine Man
During a concert in Los Angeles in 1994, Oasis frontman Liam Gallagher snorted s...

Nutty Pop
Iggy Pop (whose absurd stage antics included smearing himself with peanut butter...

Kiddy Pop
While working on the soundtrack for The Brave (Johnny Depp's directorial ...

Gangsta Security
Whenever Tupac Shakur forgot the keys to his apartment, he would simply break a ...

Rod Stewart: Maggie Who?
Rod Stewart once revealed that his hit song "Maggie May" had been inspired by "o...

Barry Manilow: Dental Surgery
"Barry Manilow is recovering from an infection after dental surgery," Conan O'Br...

Mirror Ball
While recording an Italian TV special one day in 1980, Van Halen frontman David ...

Entwistle
The Who's bassist John Entwistle was once asked about his favorite heavy metal b...

The Who: Spinal Tap Moment
The Who made their last scheduled concert appearance for a 1978 documentary. The...

ZZ Topless
During a performance in Colorado in 1972, ZZ Top frontman Billy Gibbons played h...

Gershwin & Stravinsky: Musi...
George Gershwin once considered taking lessons from Igor Stravinsky. "How much w...

Libeskind's Piano
Daniel Libeskind, famed for his designs for the buildings which replaced the Wor...

Neighbors
"Cher has bought a plot in a Paris cemetery close to the grave of Edith Piaf," '...

Schoenberg Opera
Arnold Schoenberg was not entirely pleased with the Frankfurt premiere of his on...

Garden Party
In 1971, Ricky Nelson was booed during an all-star concert at Madison Square Gar...

Carl Sandburg: Poetic Soul?
"Bernard Hoffman, who was a photographer for Life magazine for some years...

Grace Slick: Graceless Perf...
"Lead singer Grace Slick kicked off Jefferson Starship's 1978 European Tour by g...

Young Groucho
Groucho Marx's first professional appearance was made at the age of thirteen, a...

Emperor Speaks
While performing one evening, Franz Liszt was dismayed to observe his patron, Em...

Yokoaaaooo
Joan Rivers was no great fan of Yoko Ono. "Her voice," rivers once remarked, "so...

Spinal Tap Moment
In 1977, Fleetwood Mac, inspired by John McVie's fascination with flightless bir...

Six Fingers
Arnold Schoenberg was once told that a soloist would need six fingers to perform...

Gatekeeper
During a rehearsal one day, Arturo Toscanini grew impatient with the NBC Orchest...

Benny's Violin
Jack Benny was famed for his role as a violin-playing miser. His performances le...

Delius
"If ever a man could be said to be born to perform a certain task, Sir Thomas Be...

Sound Argument?
During the production of Lifeboat (in 1944), director Alfred Hitchcock an...

McCartney & Wings
Fans who suppose that the name of Paul McCartney's second band ('Wings') was ins...

Eurovision Contest
In May 2003, Julia Volkova and Lena Katina (the lesbian pop duo better known as ...

Calm Casals
"At his Viennese debut Casals suffered from nerves. When he came to pick up his ...

Iggy Pop
Iggy Pop was once asked why he had recently vomited on several members of his au...

Young Bach
"Bach's first biographer, Forkel, tells that young Johann Sebastian discovered t...

Piano Contest
Beethoven once engaged in a piano contest with Daniel Stiebelt. "Stiebelt again ...

Water Method
Beethoven often dipped his head in cold water before composing. He also regularl...

Bolerolerolero...
Maurice Ravel was often criticized for composing "artificial" music. "There is a...

Mehul?
One day Maria Cherubini was shown a score which was purported to have come from ...

Agitated Critic
Claude Debussy's La Mer was not without its critics. "By dint of looking ...

Gershwin & Schoenberg
George Gershwin often sought advice and lessons from other composers (Ravel and ...

Elegy
"It is said, with what truth I know not, that Liszt got Verdi to give him a lett...

Young Mozart
"[In August, 1764] while our father lay dangerously ill," Mozart's sister Maria ...

Borodin's Finale
One day Alexander Borodin began playing the piano in a completely novel style. "...

Classic Rossini
Gioacchino Rossini took great pride in his ability as a composer. "Give me a lau...

Richard Wagner & Baudelaire
Richard Wagner was not without his critics. "I love Wagner," Charles Baudelaire ...

Symphony for Axe & Bludgeon
In 1925, Walter Damrosch had the pleasure of conducting Aaron Copland's ...

Copland's Car
For many years Aaron Copland earned very little from his compositions. "Aaron," ...

Salut d'Amour
Before a concert one evening, Fred Gaisberg accompanied Sir Edward Elgar to the ...

Soft-Bodied Sensualist
The American composer Charles Ives was also a successful insurance magnate. Not ...

Psychic Sibelius
Many of his closest associates sincerely believed that the composer Jean Sibeliu...

Alicia Keys: Hair Today, So...
Alicia Keys once revealed that her song "A Woman's Worth" was inspired by a L'Or...

Bach's Counterpoint
Thomas Beecham once complained about one of Bach's compositions: "Too much count...

Carlene Carter
Carlene Carter (Roseanne's sister) once remarked that she hoped to be remembered...

Torn
Shortly after the release of Natalie Imbruglia's hit song "Torn," an enterprisin...

Organ Contest
"Hard as it may be to believe today, Bach in his time was known more as a master...

Elgar-thon
In October 2003 - as part of a fund-raising drive for Sargent Cancer Care and th...

Vanilla Ice: Mind-blowin'
Widely denounced by hip-hop fans as a phony, Vanilla Ice (born Robbie Van Winkl...

If It Makes You Happy
"I remember doing a video for 'If It Makes You Happy' in a short skirt," Sheryl ...

Leary & Henley
Denis Leary, who once insulted several musicians in a series of spots for MTV, o...

Matchbox 20 & The Feelers (...
"When we were in Australia," Matchbox 20 frontman Rob Thomas once recalled, "we ...

Scratch History
"Grand Wizzard Theodore," according to the Scratch Academy, "was a guy up in the...

Piano Prodigy
At the age of six, the piano prodigy Harris Wang was once asked what he most enj...

Wilco: Money For Nothing
After Wilco's Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, was rejected by Warner Bros. (their f...

Moby Music
"There's a song off my new album called 'The Rafters,'" Moby once remarked. "Whe...

Jack White: Introducing the...
"'My name's Jack, and this is my sister,' White Stripes frontman Jack White anno...

Simon and Garfunkel Reunion
In February 2003, Maxim magazine's David Peisner filed a sarcastic report...

Phantom Toilet
"We were in Indianapolis in this makeshift dressing room behind the stage," Phan...

Tom Petty and the Topless D...
"When we were about 17 years old," Tom Petty recalled of his band, "we had a gig...

Eugene Ormandy
Eugene Ormandy was famed for his enthusiasm. While serving as musical director o...

Elvis & Nipper
During a show in Los Angeles in 1957, Elvis Presley shocked the audience by pick...

Eminem Lawsuit: Rap Ruling
In October 2003, Judge Deborah Servitto delivered her verdict in a $1 million la...

Send Some Love
One day in October 2003, as he was about to go on stage, Sir Paul McCartney rece...

Faith No More
During a Faith No More concert in South America one evening, a fan in the audien...

Guns N' Roses & Nine Inch N...
Axl Rose was so impressed with Trent Reznor and Nine Inch Nails that he invited ...

Hee Haw Jarrett
Why might former WCW World Heavyweight Champion Jeff Jarrett be annoying? Accord...

Comes A Time (long)
"One day," Neil Young's father Scott recalled, "Neil and I dropped into the big ...

Iggy Pop
"The only thing I thought might ever kill me off was clean living," Iggy Pop onc...

John Lennon: Imagine
"Imagine there's no heaven," The Financial Times invited readers in 2004....

Incubus: Embarrassing Moments
Incubus guitarist Mike Einziger and his bandmates were once asked about their mo...

Plimpton Blooper
"The public, uninterested that George Plimpton might have a serious motive for h...

Willie Nelson & Charley Pride
One night, Willie Nelson invited Charley Pride to join him for a jam at the Long...

Anti-Video
R.E.M. frontman Michael Stipe shot the video for "Fall on Me" himself at an Indi...

Mike Mills: Music Geek
R.E.M. bassist Mike Mills was a self-proclaimed music geek in high school. He pl...

Mike Mills and Bill Berry
Mike Mills and Bill Berry (R.E.M.'s bassist and drummer, respectively) first met...

Adventures in Lo-Fi
"I think modern recording is crap," R.E.M. frontman Michael Stipe once remarked....

Steven Tyler: Tyler's Pencil
"They had record hops in the lunchroom of our high school on Friday afternoons,"...

Young Ice Cube
"When I was about 12," rapper Ice Cube once recalled, "I used to talk to my olde...

Train Kept a-Rollin'?
Aerosmith frontman Steven Tyler was once asked about the rumor that during a gig...

Switchfoot & U2
In 2003, Switchfoot frontman Jon Foreman met with U2's Bono to help out with an ...

My Sweet Lord
In 1971, George Harrison was sued for copyright infringement by Bright Tunes Mus...

Concert Promoter Bill Graham
The legendary concert promoter Bill Graham, who organized massive concerts for s...

Duran Duran Fan
In August 2003, Duran Duran played a show in a Los Angeles club to warm up for t...

I Love Goat Cheese
Shortly after its release in 2003, Esquire music critic Andy Langer revie...

Artist Formerly Known
After planning to celebrate his 44th birthday with a huge stadium concert bash, ...

Wilhelm Stekel: Kreutzer So...
"Beethoven's 'Kreutzer Sonata' [for violin and piano] was notorious for its erot...

Haldeman Method
Shortly after unveiling new CD copy protection technology in 2003, SunnComm thre...

Al Green & the Damn Music
After Al Green stopped recording secular music to devote his life to the church ...

Happy Clucking Holidays
In 2003, American chicken impersonator Dirk Keysser released a CD of Christmas c...

Spice Girls
George Harrison appreciated the remarkable talent represented by the Spice Girls...

Keith Richards & the Microp...
During a Rolling Stones concert in Sacramento in 1965, Keith Richards grew annoy...

Reznor in the Desert
"We were doing the 'Starfuckers' video with Marilyn Manson in the desert outside...

TSOL & the Recall Election
In 2003, TSOL frontman Jack Grisham ran as an independent in the California gube...

Bling Bling!
"Everything was big," Ludacris recalled of his video for "Stand Up." "Big turnta...

Ministry, Gwar, & the Holy ...
Some time after producing a track for Gwar, Ministry frontman Al Jourgensen was ...

Ryan Adams
During a concert at Nashville's Ryman Auditorium one evening, Ryan Adams was dis...

Foreigner: Double Vision
One evening in 1978, Foreigner frontman Lou Gramm went to see the New York Range...

Peaches Concert
During a big homecoming gig at Toronto's Government in November 2003, Peaches st...

Earth Station 5
"When an outfit called Earth Station 5 announced itself [in 2003] as a new peer-...

Simon Le Bon: Tempting Fate
During the production of Duran Duran's "Wild Boys" video, frontman Simon Le Bon ...

Chester Bennington & Stone ...
Before the release of Hybrid Theory (2000), Linkin Park frontman Chester ...

Air: Criticism Hertz
Rolling Stone music critic Barry Walters once reviewed Air's album ...

Angus Young: Lead Guitar
AC/DC's Angus Young was once asked how he had established himself as the band's ...

Mark Hoppus: Highfalutin Ma...
Blink-182 frontman Mark Hoppus was once asked to name the best music to masturba...

British Sea Power: Life-Savers
British Sea Power was once asked whether their record could save lives. "Why, ce...

Keanu Reeves: Folk Thrash
Keanu Reeves, who once likened his band Dogstar's music to folk thrash, was once...

Michelle Branch: Hotel Paper
As a young songwriter, Michelle Branch borrowed a trick from her forgetful fathe...

Las Ketchup
"People are calling it 'the next Macarena,'" Alyssa Vitrano once remarked of Las...

Tyson Ritter: All-American ...
When Tyson Ritter first joined a band with Nick Wheeler in 1999, he did not know...

Bert McCracken: McCroackin'?
Bert McCracken, lead singer for thrash band The Used, once revealed the special ...

Shelby Lynne: Mother
Following the terrorist attacks on 9/11, Shelby Lynne performed the John Lennon ...

Ozzy Osbourne: Life-Saver
"Doctors thought Robert Jacques was a goner after he slipped into a coma followi...

Haim Saban & the Lions
"[The billionaire Hollywood producer Haim Saban's] genius for business was appar...

50 Cent Justice
While driving with some friends near Miami Beach one day in February 2004, a Flo...

Kyuss: Desert Concert
While playing in a band called Kyuss, future Queens Of The Stone Age frontman Jo...

David Vining: Virtual Colon...
In 1994, the radiologist David Vining, the genius behind the virtual colonoscopy...

Young Eve: Lots of Kids
"When I first started [performing]," Eve once recalled, "I played on Christmas i...

Axl Rose & Mike Piazza
"New York Mets catcher Mike Piazza is a huge Guns n' Roses fan - and one of the ...

Elton John: Fish out of Water
"Elton John was the surprise musical guest at the Harley-Davidson 100th-birthday...

David Bowie & Ronnie Ross
David Bowie's first instrument was the saxophone. "Ronnie Ross - who was feature...

Paul Simon: Down with the H...
"Bet you didn't know that Paul Simon made a video for his 1972 hit 'Me and Julio...

Rod Stewart: Black Bomber
"It was at a place called the Twisted Wheel, in Manchester," Rod Stewart once re...

Justin Hawkins: Modest Hawk...
The Darkness once played the Roxy in Hollywood. Though Eddie Van Halen was expec...

Young Dolly Parton: Fresh G...
"By age ten, Dolly Parton's performances at local gatherings led to a gig on a K...

Eric B. and Rakim: Or Not...
In January 2004, the hip-hop duo Eric B. and Rakim (Eric Barrier and William Gri...

Beastie Boys: Fight for You...
In May 1986, the Beastie Boys found themselves drinking vodka and grapefruit jui...

Jungle Strain
"There was trouble at the National Guard Armory in Washington, DC..." ...

Jack White: Fell In Love Wi...
As rumors swirled of a romance between White Stripes frontman Jack White and act...

Justin Timberlake: Career T...
Justin Timberlake won both the International Album award (for Justified) ...

Yngwie Malmsteen: Marquee P...
Swedish guitar virtuoso Yngwie Malmsteen, famed for his deadpan demeanor, neocla...

Who's Deaf
"I play bass," the Who's bassist John Entwistle once remarked, "like Keith Moon ...

Arthur Lee at the House of ...
One day in June 2002, '60s psychedelic rock legend Arthur Lee visited Britain's ...

Young Eminem: Time to Grow Up?
Eminem spent three hard years (1986-1989) at Lincoln High. "My English teacher w...

Glen Matlock: Ex Pistol
Johnny Rotten and Sid Vicious kicked bassist Glen Matlock out of the Sex Pistols...

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