Here is a montage of the top Rock N Roll
events from the '80s. If you can think of any more, we'll add them! Just
put it into our web form at the end of this page...
The Plasmatics' Wendy O. Williams is arrested
for simulating sex on stage. (1981)
Karen Carpenter dies of complications from anorexia. (1983)
Def Leppard's drummer, Rick Allen, loses
his arm in a car crash. (1984)
Cat Stevens supports the fatwa against controversial author
Salman Rushdie. (1989)
Madonna scandalizes with her "Like a Prayer" video.
(1989)
Boy George reveals that he is a heroin addict. (1986)
Neil Young is sued by David Geffen for making "unrepresentative"
music. (1983)
John Fogerty is sued by his record company for plagiarizing
himself. (1985)
The Red Hot Chili Peppers perform in their
socks. (1983)
Rolling Stone Bill Wyman marries a 19-year-old model. (1989)
Studio 54 is closed when the owners are found guilty of tax evasion. (1980)
2 Live Crew's As Nasty as They Wanna Be
is banned. (1989)
Super-groupie Pamela Des Barres publishes
her memoirs. (1987)
Chuck Berry is accused of videotaping people in his restaurant's
bathroom. (1989)
The Go-Go's share sex secrets with a drunk
roadie on video. (1980)
Public Enemy's Professor Griff makes anti-Semitic comments.
(1989)
Michael Jackson buys the Beatles song catalog. (1985)
Motley Crue's Nikki Sixx is revived after
OD'ing. (1987)
James Brown leads police on an interstate car chase. (1988)
Michael Jackson is burned while filming a Pepsi commercial.
(1984)
Ozzy Osbourne bites the head off a dove at a record label
meeting. (1981)
Frank Zappa challenges the PMRC hearings on record labeling.
(1985)
Marvin Gaye is murdered (1984)
Marvin Gaye had always wavered between the claims of his faith and his body's
appetite for both sex and narcotics. After a period in the wilderness, he
had made a decisive comeback with "Sexual Healing." But an argument
with his father ended in his being shot dead.
John Lennon is murdered (1980)
Rather like hearing the Space Shuttle had just exploded or that Pearl Harbor
had been bombed, this was just one of those stories that seemed too outlandish
to believe. Who would want to kill John Lennon, the leader of the Beatles,
as he prepared to emerge from bread-baking retirement?