The domain names we use every day tell the untold story of the Internet.

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

Why are the top rock bands of all time from the UK? And what are the top-10 American rock bands?

Last night at dinner, a buddy of mine recalled a conversation he’d had with his brother-in-law a while ago.  Both music lovers, my buddy was trying to make a point about great rock music – or lack thereof with origins in the United States. 

He asked his brother-in-law, “Name your top 10 rock bands of all time.” 

The brother-in-law responded:

“We’ll start with Led Zeppelin, the Beatles, and probably the Stones.”

“Ok, good ones.  British, British, British,” my buddy said. 

“And then maybe the Who, Pink Floyd, and U2?”

“English, English, and Irish. And it’s your list so I won’t bother to debate you.”

“I’d probably put AC/DC and the Police in there,” said his brother-in-law, obviously a big fan of classic rock.

“Sure thing – English and English.”

“What’s your point with this?”

“Almost all the best rock bands from all time are from somewhere outside the United States.  How come we don’t have GREAT rock bands?”

“Well what about Bob Marley and the Wailers?  They weren’t English.”

“No, but they were from Jamaica, not the U.S.”

‘Elvis – one of the best every.”

“Elvis wasn’t a band, he was a solo artist.  Doesn’t count.”

“What about Rush?”

“Canada.”

They went on and on – Queen, Black Sabbath, Deep Purple, Fleetwood Mac.  Finally the list of all-time great rock bands shifted within American borders when Metallica came up.

“Definitely one of the top rock bands ever – probably top 5.”

They compiled their list of all-time best rock bands and surprisingly, only Metallica made the list.  (Again, this is all debatable but they were old-school classic rock and metal fans.)  When my friend told me about this conversation at dinner, I threw my choices in the ring:

1. Metallica

2. The Red Hot Chili Peppers (one of my all-time favs.)

3. Nirvana (They might be my #2 but their body of work was cut short.)

4. Bruce Springsteen (Really a one-man show, but we’ll give credence to the E-Street band.)

5. The Doors (Now that’s a true rock band!)

6. Guns and Roses (Ditto!)

7. Journey (Although some would argue that San Francisco isn't really the United States.)

8. Bon Jovi (If I’m counting The Boss then we’ll sneak Bon Jovi onto the list.)

9. The Grateful Dead

10. Pearl Jam (I’m not a big fan but I respect them.)

Who am I forgetting?  What bands would be on your all-time top 10?  And why are so many real bands from England and so few from the U.S.? 

10 Music stars you never knew went to rehab.

It’s no secret that famous musicians party hard – buying into the myth of the indestructible, hotel-room trashing, fast-living celebrity.  But when the music stops and the fans go home, the result is usually a path of destruction, harm to loved ones, and often overdose or even death.  When the music star realizes that they’re just human and mortal like the rest of us it can be ugly – and probably time to get some help.  Visits to drug and alcohol rehabilitation facilities are so ubiquitous with celebrities that the tabloids are filled with the biggest offenders and most tragic users.  But there are still some musical stars that slipped our attention as substance abusers and rehab attendees.  Whether they were out of the public eye at the time, lived in an era without as much media attention, or were from a musical genre (like country) or had an image we don’t normally equate with partying, they escaped our scrutiny.  So here are 10 musicians you may not know went to rehab. 

1. David Bowie

Emboldened by his alter ego, Ziggy Stardust, Bowie released plenty of psychedelic spaceman albums in the 1970s but fell victim to his own experimentation.  Ironically around 1975, the same time he hit it big in the U.S. market with the song, “Fame,” he developed a cocaine habit so derailing that critics noticed the “choppy” influence on his music.  He was sent to rehab for a short stint and went on to make great music for many more decades.

2. Eric Clapton

Clapton may have a clean image as a guitar God now, but he suffered through an epic addiction problem in the 1970s.  His cocaine and heroin use was so prevalent that he almost lost his life on several occasions before entering rehab a few times.  Sadly, he replaced one addiction for another and started drinking heavily instead of abusing harder drugs. 

3. Ray Charles

We know that Ray Charles had an addiction to heroin, well documented because of the movie about his life, but not everyone knows that the blind blues singer voluntarily committed himself to the St. Francis Hospital in California to get clean.  

4. Keith Urban

Don’t discriminate – country music stars  -who sing about white picket fences and apple pie - can be as messed up as everyone else, and Urban certainly had his time.  In 1998, the popular country singer went to rehab for drug and alcohol abuse.  He fell off the wagon in 2006, when he went back to reach sobriety, once again.  Urban is now a spokesperson for alcohol treatment.

5. George Jones

Speaking of country music icons, the man, the myth, the legend himself – George Jones – danced with the devil far too many times.  Throughout his career, Jones was checked in to rehab centers many times for his alcohol and cocaine addiction.

6. Billie Joel

The folksy and clean-imaged Joel has long battled alcohol addiction, checking himself into the same Silver Light Hospital for rehab that Michael Jackson visited in 2002 and 2005.  He’s on record that he overindulged in alcohol to self-treat his lifelong depression, which got markedly worse after 9/11.

7. Billie Holiday

The legendary blues singer lived a short, sad life – dying at the age of 44 after battling addiction her whole life.  Her obsessive and dangerous heroin and alcohol escalated to suicidal levels, to the point where she was cooking up her heroin doses in a tuna can, not a teaspoon, because that’s how much she’d shoot.  She did enter a rehab clinic in 1947 after her arrest for heroin possession but she never conquered her demons.

8. Johnny Cash

The man in black with the voice like a runaway train had a lot of problems with alcohol, cocaine, and amphetamines for most of his career.  However, it’s little known that he checked himself into the Betty Ford clinic for the latter in 1983, only to relapse and return to rehab in 1992.

9. Eminem

The mega-popular rapper was known for having plenty of personal problems with his ex-wife and anger issues when he was young, but not many people know that Marshall Mathers had a drug addiction problem that landed him in rehab.  In 2005, Eminem took a puzzling two-year hiatus from the rap game right at the height of his success.  It turns out that he was in and out of rehab during that time as he cleaned up from an Ambien and prescription drug addiction.

10. Michael Jackson

The King of Pop had many skeletons in his closet, but it’s not widely known that drug addiction was one of them.  As the decades transmogrified our favorite singer from the Jackson 5 to a troubled and embattled adult with a disturbing appearance, Jackson fell victim to prescription drugs.  After an accident during his Dangerous Tour, he began taking Valium and Ativan for pain and got hooked.  In 1993, he secretly checked into the Silver Hill Hospital and went through the 12-step program.