Today in Boston ROCK: April 13

Welcome to another edition of Today in Boston ROCK, where I, Adam 12, spotlight Very Important Days In Rock History. April 13th is one.

• 1962

  April 13, 1962: Hillel Slovak is born in Haifa, Israel. Lucky for us, his parents moved him to Southern California at the age of 5. That’s where he would meet the future members of Chain Reaction, who would to on to become the Red Hot Chili Peppers. Slovak’s death in 1988 at the age of 26 cut his run with the band tragically short, but his contributions still loom large.

  Red Hot Chili Peppers: The Hillel Slovak Years

• 1972

  April 13, 1962: Aaron Lewis is born in a log cabin in Vermont. No joke: the parents of the future Staind frontman were living in a log cabin when he was born. Were you one of the 10,000 on City Hall Plaza in 2005 when the band played a free show?

• 1981

  April 13, 1981: The rock n’ roll pride of Wellesley, MA, Billy Squier, releases his sophomore album Don’t Say No. Triple platinum, this is the album with the monster singles “The Stroke,” “Lonely Is The Night,” and “My Kinda Lover.” But it’s the opening track that’s the best one of the lot.

  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G1Diyv4kbRI

• 1983

  April 13, 1983: Violent Femmes release their self-titled debut album. Talk about a slow burn: it didn’t debut on the Billboard 200 until August of 1991, six months after hitting the platinum mark. Since then, it’s gone triple-platinum. I interviewed Gordon Gano in 2021 and we talked a bit about it.

  Gordon Gano of Violet Femmes Talks Boston and Big Anniversaries with Adam 12