This Day in Rock History: October 11

Breakthrough Hits and Milestones

• 1983: As part of a strategic move to revitalize the band's image, KISS performed without their famous face paint for the first time, in the opening show of their Lick It Up tour in Cascais Hall in Lisbon, Portugal. Their first-ever makeup-free appearance had taken place a few weeks earlier, on Sept. 18, during an MTV special.
• 1990: Dave Grohl played his first show with his new band, Nirvana, at the North Shore Surf Club in Olympia, Washington. He went on to have a successful four-year career with the band and then founded his own group, the Foo Fighters.
• 2016: Rod Stewart was knighted by Prince William in recognition of his significant services to music and charity work. Stewart, whose music career began in 1962, is a two-time Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductee, both as a solo artist and with the Faces, and has sold over 120 million albums worldwide.

Industry Changes and Challenges

• 2006: The Darkness frontman and lead guitarist Justin Hawkins announced that he was leaving the band due to his battle with substance addiction. They reunited a few years later and released several albums, with the most recent one coming out earlier this year.
• 2018: The Music Modernization Act was signed into law. It clarified many copyright-related issues that prevented older recordings from being properly monetized via streaming services.