Ace Frehley died on October 16, 2025, at age 74, from complications after a fall at his home studio weeks earlier left him with severe head injuries. He answered a classified ad in 1972 to become KISS's original lead guitarist, designing the band's double lightning bolt logo and building the silver and black Spaceman persona that made him instantly recognizable. Frehley co-wrote "Cold Gin" and didn't take a lead vocal on record until "Shock Me" on 1977's Love Gun, while his 1978 solo album outsold the other members' simultaneous solo releases. He left the band in 1982 over a contract dispute, with Vinnie Vincent stepping in for the Creatures of the Night tour, before returning for the band's 1996 reunion. KISS was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2014, with Frehley posthumously honored at the 2025 Kennedy Center Honors.

Born Michael Peter Balzary on October 16, 1962, Flea has anchored Red Hot Chili Peppers on bass since co-founding the band in 1983, the only member to stay through every lineup change alongside singer Anthony Kiedis. His percussive, funk-driven slap style powered breakthroughs like Mother's Milk and 1991's Blood Sugar Sex Magik, which sold over seven million copies in the US, while Californication pushed worldwide sales past fifteen million. Outside the band, he's recorded with Nirvana, Thom Yorke's Atoms for Peace, Jane's Addiction, and The Mars Volta, and co-founded the nonprofit Silverlake Conservatory of Music in 2001 for affordable music education. The Chili Peppers entered the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2012, cementing Flea's place as one of rock's most influential bassists.

On October 16, 1990, ZZ Top released Recycler, their tenth studio album and the last to lean on the heavily synthesized sound they'd built on Eliminator and Afterburner. The band started writing with sequencers in Los Angeles but switched to jamming together once sessions moved to Memphis Sound Productions, giving the record a rougher, bluesier feel. Billy Gibbons has said "My Head's in Mississippi" began as a straight boogie woogie track before drummer Frank Beard layered in gated electronic fills. "Doubleback," "Concrete and Steel," and "My Head's in Mississippi" each topped the Album Rock Tracks chart, and the band later performed an old west version of "Doubleback" on screen in Back to the Future Part III. Recycler reached No. 6 on the Billboard 200 and went platinum. Produced by Bill Ham.