Pick a Day

11 JUNE

In Music History

2025 Brian Wilson, the creative engine in The Beach Boys, dies at 82. After a run of hits with jaunty songs like "Fun, Fun, Fun" and "Surfin' U.S.A.," he stopped touring with the group to focus on studio work, resulting in masterworks like "Good Vibrations" and "God Only Knows."

2025 The rapper Silento, whose 2015 hit "Watch Me (Whip/Nae Nae)" sparked a dance craze, is sentenced to 30 years in prison for his role in the 2021 shooting death of his cousin. Following his star turn, Silento (real name: Ricky Hawk) struggled with depression and other mental health issues.

2021 Wolfgang Van Halen, Eddie's son and Van Halen's bass player from 2007 until their disbandment in 2020, releases his first album, Mammoth WVH. He plays all the instruments and does all the singing on the album, which is well reviewed and launches him as a solo artist.

2020 Country trio Lady Antebellum change their name to Lady A to avoid connotations with slavery. "Antebellum" refers to the period before the Civil War in America; the band name referred to the architectural style of Southern homes built during this period.

2016 22-year-old Christina Grimmie, known for placing third on Season 6 of The Voice, is killed when gunman Kevin James Loibl opens fire at a meet-and-greet at The Plaza Live theater in Orlando, Florida. The singer's brother, Marcus Grimmie, tackles Loibl, who fatally shoots himself during the scuffle.

2011 Bonnaroo celebrates its 10th anniversary by hosting a performance of Dr. John's Desitively Bonnaroo, the 1974 album that inspired the festival's name. The performance reunites the New Orleans R&B veteran with the album's producer, Allen Toussaint, and legendary backing band The Meters. More

2011 Lily Allen marries the decorator Sam Cooper in Gloucestershire, England. They split in 2018; in 2020 she marries the actor David Harbour.

2011 Jessie J ruptures tendons in her foot while rehearsing for the Capital Radio Summertime Ball. She does her set the next day from a throne; 13 days later she would perform a seated set once again at the Glastonbury Festival.

2008 Nancy Sinatra appears before the US Congress pleading for legislation that would require all performers, not just songwriters, to get paid for songs played on commercial analog radio.

2000 Busta Rhymes rides atop his own float in the National Puerto Rican Day Parade in New York. "I'm here to thoroughly represent the entire spectrum of the urban community," Rhymes says.

1992 U2 invites ABBA's Bjorn Ulvaeus and Benny Andersson to join them onstage at their concert in Stockholm for a rendition of ABBA's 1976 smash "Dancing Queen."

1991 Skid Row release the album Slave To The Grind, the follow-up to their 5-million-selling self-titled debut. It debuts at #1 in America and sells 2 million, but it doesn't have legs: none of the songs catch on with radio or MTV.

1991 Lynyrd Skynyrd return to recording with Lynyrd Skynyrd 1991. It's their sixth album, following Street Surviors, but is their first since the plane wreak take took three band-members lives in 1977. The new lineup initially uses the name "Lynyrd Skynyrd 1991," but eventually has to drop this name after the media and fans essentially ignore it and continue to call them Lynyrd Skynyrd.

1982 After much anticipation Grease 2, the sequel to the smash 1978 musical, lands in theaters... but crashes and burns.More

1981 13-year-old Celine Dion releases her first single, "Ce n'était qu'un reve," in her native Canada. It earns her a local following and leads the way for her debut album, La voix du bon Dieu, in November. For the rest of the decade, she records in her native French and becomes quite popular in Canada and across Europe. She starts recording in English at the start of the '90s.