Stryper frontman Michael Sweet recalled how he was “shocked” when he was invited to join Boston in 2007, following the death that year of singer and guitarist Brad Delp.
Band leader Tom Scholz hired both Sweet and singer Tommy DeCarlo for what was originally supposed to be a farewell concert, but he enjoyed the experience so much that he took the group on tour the following year. However, Sweet bowed out in 2011.
“The first Boston album changed my life,” Sweet wrote on Facebook, posting a picture of Delp. “Mostly due to the voice of Brad Delp. He was one of a kind and is irreplaceable IMO. I was shocked when they asked me to join the band after his passing. I’m not 1/10th the singer Brad was, but I gave my all and was somehow able to relate to all the Boston fans in a powerful way as we celebrated Brad's life.”
Sweet said he'll "never forget meeting everyone after every show and hearing the most kind comments about my involvement. It was truly amazing and so memorable. Were you able to see me perform with Boston in 2008 and, if so, did you enjoy it? I sure did, even though it was short-lived. ... I was a member of one of the most iconic bands in rock ’n’ roll. … R.I.P. Brad Delp. I never met you, but I sure do wish I had.”
Michael SweetThe first Boston album changed my life. Mostly due to the voice of Brad Delp. He was one of a kind and is irreplaceable IMO. I was shocked when they asked me to join the band after his passing. I’m not 1/10th the singer Brad was but I gave my all and was somehow able to relate to all the Boston fans in a powerful way as we celebrated Brads life. I’ll never forget meeting everyone after every show and hearing the most kind comments about my involvement. It was truly amazing and so memorable. Were you able to see me perform with Boston in 2008 and if so, did you enjoy it? I sure did😉 Even though it was short lived, I was a member of one of the most iconic bands in rock & roll👊 RIP Brad Delp, I never met you but I sure do wish I had.........
Before the tour launched in 2008, Scholz described Delp as “the most talented musician [and] singer that I have ever know. ... No one person could replace him. We could have looked for a lifetime and never found that person. I have to say that both Michael and Tommy have done a great job filling his shoes. … I am not a mystical sort of person, but it is almost as if Brad is up there pulling some strings. … It was the most serendipitous set of circumstances that I have ever experienced.”
In 2017, Scholz noted he was still writing music, but was doing so in order to develop Boston’s live performances. “I got into recording because I wanted to play live, and I realized the only way I was going to get to play live was if I recorded some music that people could hear and would want to come and see,” he told the Sun-Herald.
“I have to write new things for the tour every year, which is what I wanted to do in the first place. But I got sidetracked in the studio, recording. Now, I’m actually a performing musician, and I have to tell you, it’s much more fun.”
How 100 of Rock's Biggest Bands Got Their Names
How AC/DC Got Their Name
Malcolm and Angus Young have their sister Margaret to thank for their famous band's name. She suggested it to the duo after seeing the letters "AC/DC" (meaning that the device could be powered by either alternating or direct current) on a vacuum cleaner or sewing machine, depending on who's telling the story.
Aerosmith
Joey Kramer has said that he and his girlfriend were listening to Harry Nilsson’s “Aerial Ballet” when the couple began toying with cool band names that had “aero” in them. He liked how “aerosmith” sounded, but the band he was in at the time didn’t. So it was shelved until Kramer joined Joe Perry and Steven Tyler’s group. He still had to convince them, however, that it had nothing to do with the Sinclair Lewis novel “Arrowsmith” from high school.
Alice Cooper
Alice Cooper was originally a band name, selected as a replacement since the Nazz had already been taken by Todd Rundgren. The fictional Alice was envisioned as a demented, possibly homicidal, elderly woman, and singer Vince Furnier played the part onstage so well that he ultimately became more associated with the name than the band did.
Bachman-Turner Overdrive
There’s not a great deal of mystery surrounding this one, but then again – there is. The guitarist for the band that gave the world “Takin’ Care of Business” and “You Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet” was Randy Bachman, formerly of the Guess Who. The singer/bassist was C.F. Turner. However, our research has failed to uncover just who this "Overdrive" guy was.
Bad Company
Singer Paul Rodgers says he got the idea for the song ‘Bad Company’ when he saw a poster for a 1972 western starring Jeff Bridges. He said he enjoyed how the name inspired visions of early settlers, the Civil War and the lawless wild west. Bad Company was quickly repurposed as the band’s name.
Badfinger
They started out in the ‘60s as the Iveys, but by the end of the decade that name started to seem a tad too quaint. After signing to the Apple label, the Beatles' right-hand man Neil Aspinall came up with Badfinger – likely based on “Bad Finger Boogie,” the original working title for Ringo Starr's “With a Little Help From My Friends.”
The Beatles
This name was inspired by early-rocker Buddy Holly, whose backing group was called the Crickets. All four Beatles were big fans, their earliest shows often featured his music and Paul McCartney later purchased the publishing rights to Holly's songs. However, they only ever recorded one Buddy Holly tune together: "Words of Love," for 1964's 'Beatles for Sale.'
Billy Idol
William Broad’s stage name was born in the punk era, when he was fronting Generation X. Everyone else was coming up with names like Johnny Rotten and Rat Scabies, but Billy decided to put the “pun” into “punk,” intending Idol to be a play on “idle” as well as being an ironic take on a classic rock-star persona.
Black Sabbath
Originally known as the Earth Blues Company, they later shortened it to Earth – then discarded that name altogether, because another band was already using it. They settled on Black Sabbath after attaching the title – which had earlier been used for a 1963 film starring Boris Karloff – to a spooky new song inspired by an apparition seen by bassist Geezer Butler.
Blind Faith
Featuring Eric Clapton, Steve Winwood, Ginger Baker and Rick Grech, Blind Faith was rock’s first real supergroup. Their name came from the photographer who shot the controversial cover for the short-lived band’s only album. He apparently titled the photo "Blind Faith." When looking for a name, the band followed suit.
Blue Oyster Cult
These pioneering hard rockers started out as Soft White Underbelly before getting a new name from music journalist Sandy Pearlman, an early manager and producer. "Blue Oyster Cult" was mentioned in a series of poems by Pearlman, in reference to a secretive group of beings from outer space that clandestinely influenced our common fate.
Bob Dylan
A last-name switch from his given name of Zimmerman to Dylan began back when the singer-songwriter was in his late teens. According to a biographer, he was a fan of Matt Dillon – the sheriff on the TV western ‘Gunsmoke.’ In 1958, Bob told his high-school squeeze that he planned to devote his life to music and assume the name Bob Dillon. (The spelling would eventually be altered for stylistic reasons.) He also subsequently told new friends that Dillon was his mother's maiden name, even though it wasn’t.
Boston
Although they were the only performers named on the Epic Records contract, Boston’s Tom Scholz and Brad Delp nixed the idea of calling their band Scholz-Delp. (It’s a decision Scholz must have regretted later when some members challenged his ownership of the group’s name.) Scholz, producer John Boylan and his engineer Warren Dewey suggested “Boston” for the new act, since that's where their musical roots were firmly planted. In fact, even as a high school student in Toledo, Ohio, Scholz carefully tuned into Boston’s WBZ, a high-powered AM radio station.
Buffalo Springfield
When Stephen Stills, Neil Young and Richie Furay’s triple-threat singer-songwriter assault hooked up with rhythm section Dewey Martin and Bruce Palmer to make rock ‘n’ roll history, everybody else on the West Coast was coming up with weird, fanciful band names. They instead chose theirs from a random brand of steamroller that Stills and Furay saw outside the place where they were living.
The Cars
David Robinson was more than a drummer for the Cars. Best known before then for his work with the Modern Lovers, Robinson suggested the Cars as a band name, and also played a key role in their album-cover artwork.
Cheap Trick
This name was inspired at a Slade concert, where bassist Tom Petersson commented that the band used "every cheap trick in the book" as part of their act.
Chicago
In 1968, the Big Thing moved to Los Angeles at their manager’s request and signed with Columbia Records. That’s where Jimmy Guercio, who would eventually become Chicago’s producer, changed the name to Chicago Transit Authority in honor of the bus line he used to take to school. It was later shortened to Chicago after the release of their first album.
Cream
Eric Clapton, Jack Bruce and Ginger Baker arrived in this new band having already earned a lofty reputation on the U.K. music scene via their work with the Yardbirds and John Mayall. They darn well knew it too. The name was apparently in reference to the lineup itself, which featured the cream of the crop of ‘60s British blues rockers.
Deep Purple
These British rockers had been calling themselves Roundabout, before the Yes song of the same name. At guitarist Ritchie Blackmore’s suggestion, they changed it to Deep Purple after a song that went back to the big-band era. It was first cut by the Paul Whiteman band in the '30s.
Def Leppard
Singer Joe Elliott initially coined the name "Deaf Leopard” while writing reviews for imaginary rock bands in his high-school English class. Tony Kenning, percussionist for the band’s original lineup, suggested modifying the spelling to make the name seem less “punk.”
Derek and the Dominos
Formed in the spring of 1970, Derek and the Dominos featured a core lineup of Eric Clapton, Bobby Whitlock, Carl Radle and Jim Gordon. The late addition of Duane Allman gave their lone studio album a fiery sense of interplay – and a title that seemed to reference both Eric and Duane's names. Actually, the group had been earlier billed as Del and the Dominos, as Clapton attempted to shift the spotlight away during a more collaborative period. Later, his label sought to make Clapton's presence clear by distributing buttons that said "Derek is Eric."
Dire Straits
Brothers David and Mark Knopfler, along with friends John Illsley and Pick Withers, formed Dire Straits – choosing a name believed to originate from a suggestion by a musician flatmate of Withers'. He allegedly plucked it out of thin air while they were rehearsing in the kitchen of a friend, before Dire Straits recorded a five-song demo tape under the name in 1977.
The Doobie Brothers
Before they became a ‘70s pop sensation, the Doobies were a bunch of hippies living together in a house in Northern California. When they were in search of a name for their band, a non-musical housemate suggested the Doobie Brothers on account of the members’ penchant for smoking weed. (“Doobie” was slang for a joint at the time.)
The Doors
This one took a winding path into the rock canon. Poet William Blake's 18th century, post-French Revolution book 'The Marriage of Heaven and Hell' initially inspired Aldous Huxley to give a mescaline-soaked 1954 tome the title of 'The Doors of Perception,' which in turn led a collection of late-'60s-era rockers to call their group the Doors.
Eagles
Bernie Leadon is typically credited with coining the name "Eagles" during a drug- and alcohol-enhanced group trip to the Mojave Desert. There, Leadon recalled reading about the Native American Hopi tribe's reverence for the eagle. However, J.D. Souther suggested the name stuck after Glenn Frey shouted out "eagles!" when they saw some flying above them in the desert. Comedian Steve Martin, a friend of the band, later said he suggested the group should be referred to as "THE Eagles,” but Frey insisted that the group's name should simply be "Eagles."
Electric Light Orchestra
When Roy Wood, formerly of the Move, teamed with erstwhile Idle Race member Jeff Lynne to form an orchestral pop and rock outfit in the early ‘70s, they chose their name as a pun on the British phenomenon of “light orchestras” – groups that would play easy-listening music rather than classical compositions.
Elton John
Born Reginald Kenneth Dwight in 1947 at Pinner, Middlesex, Elton John was known as "Reggie" from his first tentative weekend pub performances through to a career-turning meeting with lyricist Bernie Taupin. Not long after that, however, he began going a new name that honored two former bandmates in the group Bluesology: saxophonist Elton Dean and Long John Baldry.
The Faces
The Small Faces came out of the ‘60s mod scene, and were named for their physical stature and the mod term “face,” meaning a person of style and import. When Steve Marriott was replaced by Rod Stewart and Ron Wood, the band shifted styles and shortened its name accordingly.
Fleetwood Mac
Striking a blow for the bass player and the drummer, workhorses who always get short shrift in a rock band, Fleetwood Mac were named for Mick Fleetwood and John McVie – basically as a ploy on guitar player Peter Green’s part to keep them in the band. It apparently worked; five decades and many lineups later, the pair is the only remaining members from the ‘60s.
Foghat
On the eve of completing its first album, this band was still struggling to find the right name. Brandywine Track and Hootch had been considered and rejected before "Foghat" was finally selected. Guitarist Dave Peverett reportedly made up the meaningless word in a childhood game with his brother.
Foreigner
Trigger, this band’s original name, was already being used by someone else, so Mick Jones came up with "Foreigner." The name was inspired by the fact that at least three of them would always be foreigners no matter where they went. Their original lineup included a trio of Brits (Jones, Ian McDonald and Dennis Elliott) as well as three Americans (Lou Gramm, Al Greenwood and Ed Gagliardi).
Free
Alexis Korner, widely considered the father (or sometimes grandfather) of British blues, suggested this band’s name and also recommended 15-year-old Andy Fraser join Paul Kossoff, Simon Kirke and Paul Rodgers as Free’s fourth member.
Genesis
The prog-rock pioneers got their name from their first manager. Jonathan King had initially considered calling the band Gabriel’s Angels, in reference to founding frontman Peter Gabriel. Instead, he kept the biblical feeling but went for a name that seemed more appropriate for the beginning of an endeavor.
Golden Earring
Originally called the Tornados until they learned that moniker had already been claimed, the Golden Earrings took their name from an instrumental called "Golden Earrings" by the Hunters, a British group for whom they often opened. They streamlined to "Golden Earring" before the dawn of the '70s, then scored hits with "Radar Love" and "Twilight Zone."
Grand Funk Railroad
Grand Funk Railroad is a rather wobbly play on words suggested by manager Terry Knight. The Grand Trunk Western Railroad still runs through the band's hometown of Flint, Mich. They were simply known as Grand Funk for a time, beginning in the early '70s.
Grateful Dead
Unsurprisingly, the Grateful Dead came up with their name while tripping. Paging through a folklore dictionary, Jerry Garcia stumbled upon the term, which related to the soul of an unburied dead person expressing karmic gratitude to someone who arranged for their eventual burial. Legions of death metal bands would doubtlessly come to resent the fact that the hippies beat them to this one.
Guns N' Roses
Hollywood Rose member Izzy Stradlin spent some time in the mid-'80s as roommates with L.A. Guns member Tracii Guns. When L.A. Guns needed a new singer, Hollywood Rose's Axl Rose came aboard. This led to the 1985 formation of Guns N' Roses, a combined lineup that featured Rose, Stradlin and Guns, along with Ole Beich and Rob Gardner. Melding the names of both previous groups proved to be a much better call than rejected suggestions, which included Heads of Amazon and AIDS.
Heart
In the early '70s, Ann Wilson joined a previously established band by the name of White Heart, which had been formed in 1967 as the Army by bassist Steve Fossen. When Wilson joined, the band changed its name to Hocus Pocus. In 1972, Wilson met Mike Fisher, bandmate Roger Fisher’s brother. Ann and Mike fell in love and came together with Roger and Fossen to regroup as a variation of Hocus Pocus/White Heart. For reasons unknown, “White” was dropped from the title and the first iteration of Heart was born. (Ann's sister Nancy joined in 1974.)
Humble Pie
Peter Frampton has said his new band was batting around names within hours of Steve Marriott's departure from the Small Faces. Each member put forward a suggestion, and Marriott's – "Humble Pie," making clear their rejection of the outsized "supergroup" label that was sure to follow – ended up as the one that stuck. Drummer Jerry Shirley's rejected name? "Evil Cardboard."
Iron Butterfly
Much in the vein of Led Zeppelin (who released their debut the year after these San Diego psychedelic soldiers), Iron Butterfly arrived at their name out of the desire to combine two contrasting elements that would simultaneously represent something heavy and something airborne. The fact that it sounded pretty trippy too probably didn’t hurt at the time either.
Iron Maiden
Iron Maiden were formed on Christmas Day 1975 by bassist Steve Harris shortly after he left his previous group, Smiler. Harris attributes the band's name to a film adaptation of 'The Man in the Iron Mask' from the novel by Alexandre Dumas. The title reminded him of the iron maiden, a notorious torture device from the Dark Ages.
The James Gang
There was nobody named James in the Cleveland-based band that put Joe Walsh on the map in the early ‘70s. Much as his later band Eagles would do with their 'Desperado' album, the James Gang went for the maximum rock ‘n’ roll bad-boy association by reaching back to some old-school outlaws from the old West: the band of real-life desperadoes led by Jesse James.
Jefferson Airplane / Starship
In ‘60s-era San Francisco, Quicksilver Messenger Service and Moby Grape ruled the day, so it wasn’t unusual for a band to call itself something like Blind Lemon Jefferson Airplane – playing off the name of bluesman Blind Lemon Jefferson. If anything, shortening it to Jefferson Airplane was an impressive display of concision. When naming a later, revamped version of the band, they changed again to reflect the late Paul Kantner’s sci-fi obsession.
Jethro Tull
When they started out, the band that became Jethro Tull changed their name constantly to keep getting booked by clubs where they had bombed before. The real Jethro Tull was an 18th-century pioneer of agricultural technology in England, before lending his name to a bunch of art rockers. For good or ill, the name stuck with them.
Journey
The original members of Journey came together in San Francisco in 1973 as the Golden Gate Rhythm Section. They’d eventually hold a radio contest to come up with a new name – though it produced disappointing results and the suggestions were disregarded. Lucky for the group, a roadie named John Villanueva suggested the name "Journey,” which was ultimately agreed upon by all.
Judas Priest
Early member Bruno Stapenhill pitched this moniker to original frontman Al Atkins after hearing "The Ballad of Frankie Lee and Judas Priest" by Bob Dylan. "I remember telling Al, 'What do you think of that for a name?'" Stapenhill later said. "I mean, he was never really into Bob Dylan and he says, 'Oh, that's a great name.' And that how it came about."
Kansas
It doesn’t get much more self-explanatory than this one. Though they eventually sanded off their stylistic edges, these guys started out playing some pretty complex prog rock. They took a markedly less creative approach to coming up with a name, though, seemingly just saying, “Well, what state do we live in?”
King Crimson
Original lyricist Peter Sinfield was not a fan of the name given to King Crimson's predecessor band – saying "anything" was better than Giles, Giles and Fripp. So, he came up with the name King Crimson – an apparent reference to the fallen angel Beelzebub in John Milton's 'Paradise Lost.' "I wanted something like Led Zeppelin, something with a bit of power to it," Sinfield has said. "King Crimson had arrogance to it."
Kiss
They started out calling themselves Wicked Lester before determining that they needed something that seemed a little more ready for prime time. When Peter Criss brought up the fact that he had previously played in a band called Lips, Paul Stanley chimed in with the name that would accompany him and his compatriots to superstardom.
Led Zeppelin
The Who's Keith Moon and John Entwistle joined Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones on the Jeff Beck single "Beck's Bolero" in the summer of 1966 – leading to studio chatter about the prospect of forming a new group. Moon – or perhaps Entwistle – joked that it would go over like a lead balloon. While trying to come up with a name for a new group featuring Jones, John Bonham and Robert Plant two years later, Page remembered the quip – and they became Led Zeppelin.
Lynyrd Skynyrd
These Southern rock heroes chose their name in the spirit of rebellion. It was a tongue-in-cheek swipe at Leonard Skinner, the high-school gym teacher who had clashed with them in their younger days for having long hair, which was against school policy.
Marshall Tucker Band
As with their fellow Southern rockers Lynyrd Skynyrd, Marshall Tucker basically had nothing to do with this group. His name was written on the key to the space the band practiced in, and it referred either to a piano tuner or the owner of the place – depending on which account you believe.
Meat Loaf
After receiving an inheritance following his mother’s death, Marvin Lee Aday isolated himself in an apartment in Dallas for more than three years before finally moving to Los Angeles, where he formed his first band, "Meat Loaf Soul.” "Meatloaf" was the cruel nickname given to the heavy-set rocker by his high-school football coach.
Metallica
Lars Ulrich’s friend Ron Quintana was brainstorming titles for a new metal music fanzine, and had proposed 'MetalMania' and 'Metallica.' When Metallica was abandoned as a possible title, Ulrich snapped it up for the band he’d just formed. 'Metal Massacre I,' a 1982 compilation album, featured Metallica’s first recorded track – but early pressings listed the band incorrectly as "Mettallica.”
The Moody Blues
These heady psych-popsters’ name had a surprisingly boozy beginning. They started out as the M&B 5, in tribute to a local pub named Mitchells & Butlers. The switch to Moody Blues was said to have been at least partly an ode to the famous '30s Duke Ellington composition “Mood Indigo.”
Motley Crue
Mötley Crüe bassist and founder NIkki Sixx considered naming the band Christmas, but the other members hated it. While brainstorming, guitarist Mick Mars remembered that while playing with a band called White Horse, a bandmate referred to his group as "a motley looking crew." Mars scribbled the name down as Mottley Cru. After tweaking the spelling for full rock potential, "Mötley Crüe" was eventually selected. The two metal umlauts were allegedly added by singer Vince Neil, who had been inspired by the German beer Löwenbräu.
Motorhead
"Motorhead" is actually used in reference to amphetamine users. The band's name is usually printed in a lowercase with an umlaut character ö, which is possibly derived from the similar "heavy metal umlaut" in the name of their 1975 acquaintances Blue Öyster Cult. It should be noted, the umlaut is not grammatically necessary and does not alter the pronunciation of Motorhead's name.
Mott the Hoople
Previously known as the Silence, which admittedly is not very rock ‘n’ roll sounding, these Brits next adopted the title of a ‘60s-era novel. Norman Mott, its protagonist, is a draft-dodging scam artist who ends up doing some time behind bars. That's much more like it.
Mountain
Though it could just as easily have been a reference to the outsized nature of their heavy, riff-happy hard-rock sound, Mountain’s name was allegedly inspired instead by singer and guitarist Leslie West’s physical stature.
Nazareth
Nazareth formed in December 1968 in Dunfermline, Scotland, but took their name from Nazareth, Penn. – a town cited in the first line of "The Weight" by the Band. "We were sitting around in the place we used to rehearse in when we first got together, and we couldn’t agree on a name," singer Dan McCafferty has said. "We were listening to 'The Weight' when it first came out, and Pete Agnew, our bass player, said, 'What about Nazareth?' And that was it."
Ozzy Osbourne
John Michael Osbourne has been called "Ozzy" since primary school. The nickname was initially meant as a taunt by other students, but the future Black Sabbath singer embraced it rather than let it get to him.
Pink Floyd
You'd think these guys were rootsy pickers. After all, Pink Floyd were hastily named by Syd Barrett – who'd just found out there was another group already using their old moniker, the Tea Set – by combining the names of two Piedmont bluesmen from his record collection: Pink Anderson and Floyd Council.
Poison
Bret Michaels began his performing career in Mechanicsburg, Penn., with a basement band called Laser. Then in 1979, Michaels joined forces with childhood friend Rikki Rockett in the Spectres. Next, Michaels and Rockett teamed up with Matt Smith and Bobby Dall to form the band Paris, which mostly played rock covers in bars. But the group managed to earn a strong local following, and in 1980 they made two career-boosting changes: They moved to Los Angeles and changed their name from Paris to Poison.
Procol Harum
There’s a lot of uncertainty about this name’s origin. The most commonly quoted story, however, is that it was taken from the name of a cat owned by someone in the British proto-prog band’s inner circle – and then ultimately misspelled as Procol Harum.
Queen
While attending Ealing Art College, Farrokh Bulsara became friends with Tim Staffell of the local band Smile. Bulsara, who'd later call himself Freddie Mercury, shared a common taste in music with Tim and became a fan of Smile. In 1970, Bulsara joined the group after Staffell left for another gig. He then encouraged the remaining Smile members to change their name to Queen. They performed their first gig that July.
Rainbow
Deep Purple veteran Ritchie Blackmore began recording with Ronnie James Dio in 1973, using Dio's band Elf as additional musicians – but still in search of their own name. They ultimately turned to the Rainbow Bar and Grill in Hollywood for inspiration. Using a rotating group of musicians, Rainbow remained active through 1984, and reformed between 1993-97 before Blackmore resurrected the band again in 2015.
Ramones
In 1974, John Cummings and Douglas Colvin invited Jeffrey Hyman to join them in a band. Colvin was the first to adopt the name "Ramone,” calling himself Dee Dee Ramone. He was allegedly inspired by Paul McCartney's use of the pseudonym Paul Ramon during his early Beatles days. Dee Dee convinced the other members to take on the name and came up with the idea of calling the band the Ramones. Hyman became Joey Ramone and Cummings became Johnny Ramone, beginning a tradition that lasted through the tenure of Christopher Joseph Ward (known as C.J. Ramone) in the band's final incarnation.
REO Speedwagon
Named for manufacturer Ransom Eli Olds, the REO Speed Wagon was introduced in 1915 as a groundbreaking predecessor of the pickup truck. Fast forward to 1967, and keyboardist Neal Doughty learns of the name, taking it for his newly formed band. "I sometimes say that's the only thing I learned in college," Doughty has said. "I was in a class which studied the history of transportation – and one day I walked in and 'REO Speed Wagon' was written on the blackboard."
The Rolling Stones
It's easy to picture the Rolling Stones offering a very hearty thank you to Muddy Waters when they sat in with the legendary bluesman at Buddy Guy's Chicago-based Checkerboard Lounge in November 1981. After all, they took their now-iconic band name from Waters' 1950 song "Rollin' Stone."
Ringo Starr
Because of his penchant for wearing jewelry, Ritchie naturally evolved into "Rings" and then quickly morphed into the more Western sounding "Ringo." Starkey became shortened to Starr because it fit better with Ringo, and so that his solo shows could be billed as "Starr Time."
Rush
Rush's original bassist and lead vocalist was replaced shortly after they formed in 1968 by Geddy Lee, a schoolmate of Alex Lifeson's. Their first official incarnation – featuring Lee, Lifeson and John Rutsey – wouldn't lock into place until May 1971. "Rush" was suggested by Rutsey's brother, Bill.
Scorpions
It’s widely believed that the band initially chose the name Scorpions because it sounded particularly tough and dangerous. Still, they almost ended up being known as Dawn Road. In the mid-'70s, members from Dawn Road and an earlier incarnation of Scorpions combined and briefly considered using one name or the other. They ultimately decided to use the Scorpions because it was already well known in the German hard-rock scene. Unknowing fans often use "the" in conjunction with this band’s name (e.g. “The Scorpions”), but it’s simply Scorpions.
Steely Dan
It should come as no surprise that offbeat, endlessly literate rockers like Donald Fagen and Walter Becker were reading some pretty twisted stuff in their college days. They got their name from William S. Burroughs' legendary 1959 novel 'Naked Lunch,' in which a steam-powered, strap-on dildo is referred to as the "Steely Dan III from Yokohama."
Steppenwolf
Producer Gabriel Mekler reportedly suggested that the Sparrows change their name to the title of Herman Hesse’s 1927 novel, and the archetypal biker-rock band was born. The German author's book details a struggle within the protagonist between his human and animal (specifically wolf-like) dual natures, making "Born to be Wild" a perfect soundtrack.
Stryper
"Stryper" comes from Isaiah 53:5 in the King James version of the Bible: "But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed." The verse is frequently included as part of their logo. Stryper drummer Robert Sweet also created a reverse-engineered acronym for the band's name: "Salvation through redemption, yielding peace, encouragement and righteousness."
Styx
Styx is the river that runs into hell in Greek mythology. While it might seem like a more appropriate name for a metal band than the Styx you’ve come to know, be advised that A) they were rather more rocking at the time, and B) it was the early ‘70s.
Supertramp
The pop-loving British art rockers got their name from W. H. Davies’ 1908 memoir 'The Autobiography of a Super-Tramp,' in which the Welsh writer (who coincidentally shares a surname with Supertramp's Rick Davies) details his wandering, hardscrabble early days.
T. Rex
When Marc Bolan’s ‘60s psychedelic-folk duo Tyrannosaurus Rex evolved into glam-rock gods, Bolan chopped the name down to T. Rex. What made them name themselves after a dinosaur to begin with? Maybe the same thing that moved guitarist Steve Peregrine Took to name himself after a Tolkien character.
The Amboy Dukes
If the name of the heavy psychedelic band that gave Ted Nugent his start sounds like it belongs to an old-school R&B band, that’s because it did. Nugent took the name of a defunct Detroit R&B group for his own, reportedly unaware that it had also been the title of a notorious '40s book about teenage gangs in New York.
The Band
Having already backed Bob Dylan before striking out on their own, the five musicians were used to being referred to unofficially as simply “the band.” "If I was trying to cash a check in the Colonial Pharmacy, someone there might vouch for me by saying, 'Yeah, he's with the band' – meaning Bob Dylan's band," Rick Danko once said. So, when it came time to pick a proper name, they stuck with that.
The Clash
The punk pioneers picked this name with tongue twisted in cheek, having noticed that the British 'Evening Standard' tabloid employed the word “clash” again and again in its sensationalistic headlines.
The Cult
These ‘70s-inspired hard rockers got their name from singer Ian Astbury’s previous band, a goth outfit called Southern Death Cult. That earlier band was allegedly named after a Native American tribe, due to Astbury’s abiding fascination with the culture. When Astbury adopted a new sound and some new bandmates, he simply shortened the name.
The Kinks
After earlier going by such forgotten titles as the Pete Quaife Band, the Bo-Weevils, the Ramrods and the Ravens, Ray Davies and company finally settled on a suggestion (perhaps from a friend of first manager Robert Wace or from their subsequent manager Larry Page) that was both mildly perverse and appropriately punchy: the Kinks. Oh, and we do mean "settled." Davies later said, "I've never really liked the name."
The Monkees
Since the Monkees were created to be an American answer to the Beatles, they needed a moniker similar to that of the Fab Four. Accordingly, they corrupted the name of a creature from the natural world just as the Beatles had done before them.
The Police
Drummer Stewart Copeland named the band before Sting even came on board. Some have suggested that it was an oblique reference to the CIA career of Miles Copeland Jr., father of Stewart and Police manager Miles III. But reports that Stewart simply saw it on the side of a cop car and adopted it as his band’s name seem more likely, if less intriguing.
The Who
Desperate times lead to goofy suggestions, and that's reportedly how this band – which had already considered then discarded winking candidates like No One, the Group and the Hair – finally decided on a successor title to the Detours and then the High Numbers. Roger Daltrey is said to have chosen "the Who" on a lark.
The Zombies
Original Zombies bassist Paul Arnold chose their name in 1961. The other members barely even knew what it meant, but keyboardist Rod Argent has stated that after Arnold departed, “I thought this was a name that no one else is going to have. And I just liked the whole idea of it.”
Them
Though it’s hard to tell what exactly it had to do with the music of the bluesy garage rock band that brought Van Morrison to stardom, their name apparently came from a 1954 monster movie about giant, bloodthirsty ants wreaking havoc on humanity.
Thin Lizzy
The Irish hard rockers took their name from a character called Tin Lizzie in a long-running British comic called 'The Dandy.' The change to “Thin” was a pun on the way Irish accents replace a “th” sound with just a “t.”
38 Special
Stuck for a name, Don Barnes and Donnie Van Zant remembered a night when .38-waving constables broke up one of their early rehearsals. Van Zant's brother Ronnie also referenced a .38 in the Lynyrd Skynyrd song "Saturday Night Special." 38 Special had earlier been known as the Other Side and Standard Production.
Three Dog Night
Supposedly, it was June Fairchild, then girlfriend of Three Dog Night’s Danny Hutton, who came up with the name. She'd apparently heard a story about Australians sleeping outdoors who would lie down in a ditch, using dingoes for warmth on the coldest nights.
Toto
The story goes that drummer Jeff Porcaro randomly scribbled the name on the then-unnamed band’s earliest demos just to have some kind of identifying mark. Seeing the name on the tapes, bassist David Hungate remarked that “in toto” was Latin for “as a whole” or “all encompassing,” and the band was sold on it.
Traffic
Sometimes the truest tales are the least inspiring. Traffic cooked up a heady mix of psychedelia, fusion, prog and more, but the origin of their name is pretty unspectacular. Drummer Jim Capaldi simply came up with it while crossing the street one day.
Twisted Sister
According to legend, the band that began as Silver Star changed its name when an audience member fortuitously referred to the members (who were done up as heavy-metal drag queens) as a bunch of “twisted sisters.”
UFO
Phil Mogg, Mick Bolton, Pete Way and Andy Parker formed a band in August 1969 under the name Hocus Pocus. However, in October 1969 they switched to UFO in honor of the London club where they were first spotted by Noel Moore, who later signed them to Beacon Records label.
Uriah Heep
In 1969, when everyone in England was mining old books for band names, hard rockers Uriah Heep got theirs from a character in Charles Dickens’ 'David Copperfield.' Uriah Heep was a man untrustworthy and unlikable in the extreme. So how did he end up as their band name? "We were formed on the 100th anniversary of Charles Dickens," guitarist Mick Box once said. "There was publicity all over London to celebrate his birthday."
White Zombie
Inspired by a classic 1932 Bela Lugosi horror film, Rob Zombie and his band named themselves White Zombie and quickly became one of the pioneers of industrial metal. Zombie later became a horror-film director himself, beginning with 2003's 'House of 1000 Corpses.'
The Yardbirds
This group began their journey as the Metropolitan Blues Quartet, which was appropriate enough considering they helped put blues rock on the map in Britain, but then ended up with something much better. Depending on which account you prefer, the Yardbirds name was either inspired by the slang for hobos loitering in train stations or the nickname for jazz giant Charlie Parker.
Yes
When making the shift from psych-pop to proto-prog, the band with the unfortunate moniker Mabel Greer’s Toy Shop understandably decided a change was needed. Founding guitarist Peter Banks reportedly determined that "Yes" was punchy, memorable and short enough to be printed very large on gig posters.
ZZ Top
The Texas trio’s name is rooted in guitar man Billy Gibbons’ blues obsession. He originally considered combining the names of two bluesmen: Z.Z. Hill and B.B. King. But when ZZ King didn’t seem quite right, Gibbons made the slight shift to ZZ Top.
