After a year and a half playing rhythm guitar for Frank Zappa's Mothers of Invention, Lowell George recruited Richie Hayward, the drummer in The Factory, a band George had been in pre-Zappa, fellow Zappa musician Roy Estrada, and pianist Billy Payne to form Little Feat. Kenny Gradney replaced Estrada on bass in 1972 and Lowell got his high school friend and guitarist Paul Barrere to join and added Sam Clayton for percussion. Lowell's insistence of maintaining total control of the band drove Barrere and Payne to quit in 1979, by which time George was concentrating on a solo career. He died on this day in 1979 at just 34, four days after starting a tour in support of his album Thanks, I'll Eat It Here. His death was ruled a heart attack related to cocaine use.

 

Other Noteworthy Classic Rock events on June 29 include...

 

1948 Deep Purple’s Ian Paice born. 

1948 Bill Kirchen of Commander Cody and His Lost Planet Airmen born.

1953 Don Dokken born. 

1953 Colin Hay of Men At Work born. 

1967 Mick Jagger and Keith Richards draw jail sentences on drug charges in Tokyo. Both win appeals. 

1968 Pink Floyd does the first  free rock concert in Hyde Park on the day after the group releases A Saucerful  of Secrets. Jethro Tull and T-Rex open.

1969 Denver Pop Festival closes at Mile High Stadium with sets from Joe Cocker, Three Dog Night, and the finals performance by the Jimi Hendrix Experience as Noel Redding announces he is leaving the trio.

1973 Ian Gillan quits Deep Purple following a concert in Japan. 

1973 Scorpions do their first concert with Uli Roth. 

1974 Neil Peart replaces John Rustey as drummer in Rush.

1975 Tim Buckley dies of an overdose in Santa Monica, CA.   

1978 Peter Frampton suffers a broken arm and ribs in a car crash in the Bahamas. 

1978 David Bowie opens his 1978 Low/Heroes tour in London.

1984 Bruce Springsteen's Born in the U.S.A. tour opens in St. Paul, Minnesota.

1985 Mick Jagger and David Bowie record their cover of Dancing in the Streets.

1996 The Who perform Quadrophenia with Eric Clapton and Bob Dylan in Hyde Park. 
1997 Mike McCready of Pearl Jam breaks his collar bone diving for an Eddie Vedder line drive in a softball game.   

1998 George Harrison reveals he is undergoing treatment for throat cancer.

2000 Ron Wood announces he has entered rehab.   

2000 Eight fans killed in a crowd surge during Pearl jam's set at the Roskilde Festival in Denmark.

2005 Bruce Springsteen treats airport employees to an acoustic set at 2am while his tour plane refuels in Iceland. 

2010 Robert Plant joins Los Lobos at Taste of Chicago.

2016 Bass player Rob Wasserman (Neil Young, Ratdog, Van Morrison, Elvis Costello) dies at 64.