It’s July 9th and here are some reasons why this day matters in rock history:

In 1972, Paul McCartney’s Wings made their live debut in Chateauvillon, France. It marked the singer’s first live performance since the breakup of The Beatles.

In 1983, The Police started an eight-week run on top of the charts with “Every Breath You Take.”

In 1996, for the first time, Deep Purple played “Smoke on the Water” in the Swiss city that inspired it. The band wrote the song after surviving a fire in Montreux. The inferno, which happened during a Frank Zappa show the guys were attending, destroyed the auditorium where they planned to record, so they were forced to go to the cold Grand Hotel.

In 2001, Metallica singer James Hetfield checked himself into rehab to undergo treatment for alcoholism and other addictions.

In 2003, White Stripes singer Jack White was in a car accident, leaving him with a compound fracture to his left index finger. The injury prevented him from playing guitar so the band had to scrap a couple festival gigs, but White went on to recover fully.

In 1977, Elvis Costello quit his job at Elizabeth Arden Cosmetics to become a professional musician.

In 1988, Cheap Trick had the number one song in the country with “The Flame,” their only track to top the chart.

In 1999, Jerry Hall’s lawyers released a statement saying she agreed to separate from Mick Jagger, her husband of eight years.

In 2010, during a Santana concert in Illinois, Carlos Santana proposed to his girlfriend and the band’s drummer, Cindy Blackman.

And in 2004, Courtney Love was rushed to a hospital in New York with what her lawyer called a “gynecological medical condition.” At the hospital, the singer was handcuffed to her hospital gurney since the police had been called to her apartment after there were reports that she was throwing bottles from her window.

And that’s what happened today in rock history.

(H/T This Day in Music)

John Clay Wolfe