June 1
• 1969: During their “bed-in,” John Lennon and Yoko Ono record “Give Peace a Chance” with friends Tommy and Dick Smothers and Timothy Leary
• 1967: The Beatles release Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band in the U.S.; the Grateful Dead play their first-ever East Coast concert in Tompkins Square Park
June 5
• 1971: Grand Funk Railroad sell out Shea Stadium in 72 hours (less time than The Beatles)
• 1983: With Barry Fey promoting the show, U2 records Live at Red Rocks: Under a Blood Red Sky, later included in Rolling Stone’s “50 Moments that Changed Rock and Roll”
June 6
• 1990: 2 Live Crew’s As Nasty As They Wanna Be LP is deemed obscene by a federal judge in Florida
June 9
• 1915: Les Paul is born
June 10
• 1971: During a performance by Jethro Tull at Red Rocks, 1,000 people without tickets break through a police line to see the show. When police release tear gas, it drifts over the paying fans and the band, leading to a five-year ban on rock concerts at the famous venue
June 11
• 1969: David Bowie’s “Space Oddity” is released to coincide with the first lunar landing
June 15
• 1941: Red Rocks Amphitheatre construction is completed and formally dedicated
• 1956: John Lennon (15) and Paul McCartney (13) meet for the first time
• 1937: Waylon Jennings is born
June 16
• 1971: Tupac Shakur is born Lesane Parish Crooks
• 1967: Rock’s first major festival, The Monterey International Pop Festival, takes place, with Jimi Hendrix, The Mamas and The Papas, The Who, Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane, Ravi Shankar, Otis Redding, Buffalo Springfield, and many more
June 18
• 1942: Paul McCartney is born
June 20
• 1942: Brian Wilson of The Beach Boys is born
• 1983: Grace Potter is born
June 21
• 2002: The very first Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival begins in Manchester, Tennessee
June 25
• 1984: Prince’s album Purple Rain sets a record when 1.3 million copies are sold in one day
June 27
• 1989: At New York’s Radio City Music Hall, The Who perform their rock opera Tommy in its entirety for the first time in 17 years
• 1971: New York’s Fillmore East, the heralded rock venue, is closed
June 29
• 1967: Keith Richards is sentenced to one year in jail on drug charges
