Three artists that have Tom Petty's "I'll do exactly what I want" attitude...

Johnny Cash Plays Guitar On 'Johnny Cash Show'
Johnny Cash, c 1968. (Hulton Archive/Getty Images)
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10/5/1965 (52 years ago today) - From the "Sounds About Right" Dept.: While crossing the Mexican border into El Paso, Texas, Johnny Cash is arrested when the customs dudes discover hundreds of who-knows-what-kinda-pills in his guitar case. Thanks to the fact that his album release at the time, the classic "Orange Blossom Special", was doing extremely well on the charts amidst the mania of the British Invasion (it went as high as No. 3!), The Man In Black managed to get off with a suspended sentence and a $1,000 fine.

10/5/1966 (51 years ago today) - Once again, we make a plea for that Time Machine: The location is "swinging" London, England, and this date marks the occasion of the very first time Jimi Hendrix played with drummer Mitch Mitchell and bassist Noel Redding; no one could have possibly imagined the influence that this power trio was about to have on rock culture, and entirely new concepts of electric music possibilities are now going to have to be re-imagined...

10/5/1948 - Happy Birthday to Russell Mael, the super-talented and criminally underrated lead vocalist for Sparks, 69 years old today. Along with older brother Ron on keyboards, Sparks have been consistently churning out some of the most provocative and occasionally-beyond-indescribable rock albums of any band that's ever been! You know how it goes, either you've known about 'em since the 1970's and still love 'em today, or you've never been a fan and yer unlikely to become one now. Must-have LP's include the legendary over-the-top trilogy on the Island label, so bizarre, so much fun: "Kimono My House" and "Propaganda" (unbelievably, both from 1974!) and "Indiscreet" (1975 and still doesn't sound like anything else!) -- Excessively and deliberately weird, and as sharp as it gets, whatever it is...God Bless Sparks!

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"For we all are someone special/Where the customer is king...", xoxo!

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