On This Day in Guitar History: July 17
Edited by Sleuth · Reviewed
On July 17, guitar, bass, and drum history includes Ron Asheton's 1948 birth, Black Sabbath bassist Geezer Butler's 1949 birth, and the births of drummers Bruce Crump (Molly Hatchet, 1957) and Mick Tucker (Sweet, 1947); Bob Marley and the Wailers recording their Live! album at London's Lyceum in 1975; a 1972 dynamite blast that destroyed the Rolling Stones' touring gear before their Montreal show; Guns N' Roses and Metallica launching their infamous joint stadium tour in 1992; and the 1996 death of Chas Chandler, the talent scout who discovered Jimi Hendrix in a New York club in 1966.
On July 17 in guitar history
1947 · Born
Sweet's Mick Tucker is born in North West London
Michael Thomas Tucker was born in Kingsbury, North West London, and co-founded the glam-rock band Sweet in January 1968. His double-bass-drum power and elaborately staged solos anchored hits including 'Ballroom Blitz' and 'Fox on the Run' until his 2002 death from leukemia at 54.
Source: Mick Tucker
1948 · Born
The Stooges' Ron Asheton, a founder of punk guitar tone, is born
Ron Asheton was born in Washington, D.C., and co-founded proto-punk band the Stooges with Iggy Pop and his brother Scott Asheton in 1967. His fuzzed-out, wah-drenched guitar work on the band's first two albums went largely unheard at the time but became a foundational text for punk and alternative rock. Rolling Stone twice ranked him among the 100 greatest guitarists of all time.
Source: Ron Asheton
1949 · Born
Black Sabbath's Geezer Butler is born in Birmingham
Terence 'Geezer' Butler was born in Aston, Birmingham, and co-founded Black Sabbath in 1968 with Ozzy Osbourne, Tony Iommi, and Bill Ward, switching from guitar to bass because Iommi didn't want a second guitarist. His downtuned, melodically active playing helped invent heavy-metal bass; Rolling Stone ranked him 21st on its 2020 list of the 50 Greatest Bassists of All Time.
Source: Geezer Butler
1957 · Born
Molly Hatchet's Bruce Crump is born in Memphis
Bruce Hull Crump Jr. was born in Memphis, Tennessee, and joined the Jacksonville Southern-rock band Molly Hatchet in 1976 at age 20 after sneaking out one night to see them play. He drummed on the band's platinum self-titled debut and 1979's Flirtin' With Disaster, its biggest seller, across two stints through 1991, and died March 16, 2015, at 57.
Source: Bruce Crump
1972 · Milestone
A bomb destroys the Rolling Stones' equipment before their Montreal show
Dynamite exploded beneath two of the Rolling Stones' equipment trucks at the Montreal Forum around 3 a.m., wrecking 30 speaker cones. No one was hurt. The band flew in replacement gear and played about 45 minutes late that night, then a separate riot broke out outside after 3,000 forged tickets flooded the venue. The bomber was never identified.
Source: Stones Tour: All Ends Well Despite Bust, Bomb · 1972-08-17
1975 · Performance
Bob Marley and the Wailers record Live! at London's Lyceum Theatre
Marley and the Wailers played the first of two Lyceum Theatre shows, taped by Island Records for the Live! album. Aston 'Family Man' Barrett's bassline on the resulting version of 'No Woman, No Cry' became the recording most people now mean when they cite the song; it reached number 22 on the UK Singles Chart and later entered the Grammy Hall of Fame.
1992 · Milestone
Guns N' Roses and Metallica launch their ill-fated stadium tour
The two bands played the first date of a joint stadium tour at RFK Stadium in Washington, D.C., with Faith No More opening after Nirvana's Kurt Cobain turned down the slot. The tour started smoothly, but a pyrotechnic accident later burned James Hetfield's arm in Montreal and Guns N' Roses' late arrival that same night sparked a riot.
Source: 33 Years Ago: Guns N' Roses + Metallica Launch Ill-Fated Tour · 2023-07-17
1996 · Passed
Chas Chandler, who discovered Jimi Hendrix, dies at 57
Chas Chandler, The Animals' original bassist, quit the band in 1966 to become a talent scout and found an unknown guitarist named Jimmy James playing a Greenwich Village club that same year. He convinced the guitarist, soon renamed Jimi Hendrix, to move to London, financed the Jimi Hendrix Experience's first single, and produced Hendrix's first two albums. Chandler died of an aortic aneurysm at Newcastle General Hospital.
Source: Chas Chandler
Why we track this
Eight documented events land on July 17 so far, spanning just under half a century (1947 to 1996): two glam- and Southern-rock drummers' births, a proto-punk guitarist's birth, a metal bassist's birth, a reggae legend's most famous live recording, a bombing that could have ended a tour, one of rock's most notorious tours actually starting, and the death of the man who found Jimi Hendrix in the first place. This page grows every time we verify another event for the date. If today has you thinking about your own guitar, the Ernie Ball Regular Slinky is still the closest thing the instrument has to a default set.
Start your own July 17
Whichever era of this page speaks to you, from a Greenwich Village club in 1966 to a smoking equipment truck in Montreal in 1972 to a sold-out stadium in 1992, the through-line is a guitar or a bass in someone's hands.
Regular Slinky
Why this one: A widely played, balanced electric set and a safe starting point no matter which era of guitar history brought you here today.
More guitar history
Read more in our full profiles of Jimi Hendrix, Keith Richards, James Hetfield, and Geezer Butler, check today's news desk for what is happening right now, or head to the full history index to see which dates are live so far.