We know the bands, we listen to their music, and we’ve even heard all about their feuds, breakups, and the stories behind their most famous songs. But we don’t necessarily know about their origin stories. Sometimes, a band’s beginnings are humble – like the Van Halen brothers who recruited David Lee Roth to save money – and some are a little more, um, extreme – like the Grateful Dead’s early days performing at Ken Kesey’s “Acid Tests.”
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The wild and remarkable stories behind some of the most iconic rock acts are often recited, but the ways in which they came to exist aren’t as well-known. Every band has a story, and this is a collection of the best ones, from Jefferson Airplane to U2 to The Beatles.