Fiberglass Jacket

 It is a most unusual May 19th for me. Normally I have Joey Ramone or Pete Townshend on my mind, but today I'm thinking about Chris Cornell. Right now I'm honestly feeling heartbroken...I feel sad that Chris took his own life. I have no idea what he personally went through and I didn't know how much he was struggling. Some artists do a great job at conveying their pain and somehow in the process healing your own. Chris Cornell is one of them for me.  The first music poster that I ever put on my wall was Soundgarden. The first music video that blew my mind and made me fall in love with them was Soundgarden's "Black Hole Sun." I'll never forget how interesting that music video was to a young me. It marked the beginning of my love for twisted reality; it was bizarre, it bothered me...but I liked it. The melting Barbie felt like an FU to conventional life. The whole music video felt like an FU to what a music video is supposed to be like. And then came Aud...

  There are a lot of myths about rock and roll, allow me to clear up one I just discovered! (Thanks to Ashlee). I saw this image on facebook and automatically thought "Wow cool." The screen capture from Tumblr reads... "All these famous, semi-god motherfuckers were all left handed and all died at the age of 27 and all their autopsies reported that a white bic lighter was found in their pockets."  Sounds neat, right? Only if it were true! A bit of quick research will tell you that bic lighters weren't even around until 1973 , and all of those folks (except Kurt) died before 1973. Then there is of course Snopes that verifies this story as false.  You can also easily find Kurt Cobain's crime scene photos  which show no white bic lighters. According to my research, there is no evidence of *any* of these folks having a white bic lighter on them when they died.  This story is just that; a story. A classic example of a rock n roll related myth....

 A few years ago I started the Rock and Roll Almanac which featured detailed lists of rock star birthdays, deaths and other significant anniversaries. It has always been a work in progress and has been updated quite a bit by fellow rock fans in the past. Well I am asking for your help again rockers! It's the end of the year and I'm looking to improve the almanac and update it for the upcoming year.  Check out Bite-the-dust.com's Rock and Roll Almanac  and see if there are any birthdays, dates of death or other changes that should be made or added. I've identified a few spelling errors which I also plan to fix. Once the main list is updated I will put together the new version of the PDF printable version of the info on the site .  If you have any feedback feel free to email me at Beccajs@gmail.com

The last photo shoot David Bowie did.  On the morning of January 11th, I woke to my boyfriend telling me that David Bowie died. He had to say it a few times for it to sink in. Not only was I half awake but I also just couldn't believe it. Was it a rumor? Is it verified? If this was true I knew my Facebook and email would have exploded with messages. Sure enough, that was the case. I logged on to numerous messages and comments verifying the terrible news. He had died the night before. By some stroke of luck I had went to bed kind of early; so I slept through the initial wave of the news. Scrolling through my news feed and seeing all the images, words, posts, it began to hit me like bricks pilling up on my lap. I started to cry. My hero is dead. Then what felt like out of nowhere, I began to get angry. My status update: "I've been dreading and thinking what this day would be like for a long time now. I never thought I'd feel so angry. Right now even though I...

 "Why are you so upset that [insert rock star's name here] died? You didn't even know them personally!" This is something my mom said to me a handful of times when I was in High School. In about the 9th grade is when my music taste changed and took off into the hemisphere of rock and roll. When I got into an arist, I went all in. I wanted all their music, which I would loyally purchase from the local music store. I wanted to read their biographies and learn everything about them and their music. That is the kind of music fan I am. So when a rock star I follow and idolize dies, it feels like losing a friend or family member.  Growing up, I took solace in rock and roll where it felt like my family in an extended way. Naturally, I cared about the people I admired for their work, and cared if they lived or died. If they were ill, I would wish them well, and once they recover, I cheer for that. So when they die, I of course find myself caring. Many times when I was ...

 I have worried about the pending but inevitable deaths of a few of my Rockstar idols, and sadly today one of them has passed. As a teenager (13-14) I got really into the Beatles and the Monkees. I fell in love with two men, and one of them was Davy Jones. In my teens I felt the need to change my name and make my own identity (that is a whole different story)  and I took the last names of "the two guys I would take to the prom." Still not quite sure why it boiled down to that for me, but it did. Davy Jones and Ringo Starr were my guys. And if you gave me a time machine those would be the men I would try to find.   Obviously I was Monkees obsessed, and favored Davy because he was adorable and English. What can I say, I'm a sucker for English guys. Some have called me an Anglophile. I had a huge crush on Davy and fantasized about finding a younger version. But in reality I listened to their music and drew dragons. That's what I did in High School. On ...

Rock stars have notoriously led more 'risky' lives as far as sex, drugs and alcohol goes. Even rock stars who are old still die of drug overdoses like John Entwistle and Dee Dee Ramone. Both of those men had lifetime battles with coke and heroine which ultimately won after many attempts to kick the habit. Who drummer Keith Moon also died of a drug overdose but was not 27. We've lost rock stars who were sexually promiscuous and were infected with HIV as well. As a lifetime rock and roll fanatic, I see that most musicians in the past and present tend to experiment with drugs and promiscuous sex. I get it, that goes with the territory, but we can also see that for some...it becomes a real problem.  Amy Winehouse was one of them, one of many. She was a young musician who found herself immersed in a tumultuous relationship and a drug addiction. When The Doors Jim Morrison was found dead by his girlfriend... she decided to take a nap instead of call an ambulance....