CULVER CITY, CA - JUNE 5: (U.S. TABLOIDS OUT) Music group The Beastie Boys backstage at the 2004 MTV Movie Awards at the Sony Pictures Studios on June 5, 2004 in Culver City, California. The 2004 MTV Movie Awards will air on the MTV Network June 10, 2004 9 PM (ET/PT). (Photo by Frank Micelotta/Getty Images)
We’ve had Beastie Boys on the brain this summer, what with 30 years of Paul’s Boutique and 15 years of To The 5 Boroughs.
All that to say, it felt like the right time to revisit SPIN’s 1998 Oral History of the Beastie Boys. And this time around, three pretty cool facts jumped out:
- It wasn’t MCA, Ad-Rock or Mike D who named the band: it was former founding member John Berry who came up with “Beastie Boys.”
- Before joining the band, Ad-Rock covered Beastie Boys songs with his band The Young and the Useless
- Legendary producer Rick Rubin was an actual Beastie Boy–the band’s first DJ–before helming the mixing board with the band in studio.
Click here to take a spin through the entire SPIN oral history.