A.A. RockBlog

Today for many is a day of children opening presents, and just being with the family for the height of the holiday season. However, today is one very sad day. For it was two years ago today that we lost one of the greatest stars in music history - George Michael! Although not neccessarily "rock," he is still worth mentioning in this blog. George Michael was born on June 25, 1963 in the London district of Finchley. In 1981 he hooked up with Andrew Ridgeley as Wham! Wham released their debut album in 1983 - Fantastic , which topped charts in the UK; however, their second record, Make it Big (1984) was a massive success topping charts in both the US and the UK and being number 1 in 25 countries overall. The record featured hits such as Wake me up Before You Go-Go , Everything She Wants , Freedom , and Careless Whisper  - the latter of the two that were released as George Michael's solo singles in the late 1980s. Wham! are also known for their Christmas song Last Christm

Some of you may have heard, some of you haven't, but several years ago, the "Thunder from Down Under," a.k.a. AC/DC, has experienced a period of reorganizing. It all started in 2015 when Phil Rudd was busted for posession of illegal drugs, which prompted him to have to leave AC/DC with Chris Slade taking over for him (Slade had played with AC/DC through the late 80s and early 90s before Rudd rejoined). But the BIG heartbreak came in the spring of 2016, when longtime singer, Brian Johnson, announced that he had to retire from the band to his worsened hearing. Docs told Johnson that if he keeps touring further his hearing will heavily degrade due to extended exposure to loud noise. Even more recently, bass player Cliff WIlliams announced his retirement in late 2016. This big shift has left many AC/DC fans with question marks about the band's ability to go on. Even today, many remember (and miss) the classic lineup of AC/DC which had to come to feature Johnson, R

In today's blog post, we will examine perhaps one of the GREATEST rock bands of the former Yugoslavia. Bijelo Dugme (The White Button), which by sound is largely influenced by the heavy metal likes of Deep Purple, Zeppelin, and Sabbath; however in culture, they were most simillar to the Beatles. In fact, there was a Dugmeania in the former Yugoslavia in the late 70s akin to Beatlemania in the US in the 60s. The brainchild of the band was a young man named Goran Bregovich, aka Brega. He was born on 3, 22, 1950 in Sarajevo to a Serbian mother and a Croatian father. At some point, his mother enrolled him into a music school with violin as a chosen instrument, but around twelve he was expelled showing lack of interest. Consequently, his mother bought him a guitar in his early teenage years. Brega's first bands were high school bands. He played bass guitar for Beshtije (The Beasts). At a  br in 1969, Bregovich met Zeljko Bebek who was part of a band called Kodeksi (The Codexes)

Ozzy Osbourne, also known as the Prince of Darkness, has turned 70 today. Born way back in 1948 in Birmingham, England, he has made a name for himself as a hard rocker throughout his career. In this positing, we are going to take a look at his career. In 1968 Ozzy joined Tony Iommi's band, Earth. The band also featured Geezer Butler on bass and Bill Ward on drums. Later that year, they changed their name to Black Sabbath and since have become pioneers of heavy metal. After a lackbuster self-title debut in 1969, Sabbath released the highly influential, Paranoid record in 1970, which other than the title track, includes one of their signature songs in my opinion, Iron Man . Throughout the 70s, Sabbath continued to rise to prominence with songs like Children of The Grave  (1972), or N.I.B. as well as albums such as Sabbath Bloody Sabbath . However, in 1979, the decision was made by the rest of the band to fire Ozzy. This was what launched his solo career. In 1980, Ozzy debuted