Born on September 23, 1949, in Long Branch, New Jersey, Bruce Springsteen grew up in nearby Freehold before becoming one of rock's most enduring storytellers. Backed by the E Street Band, he built a catalog rooted in the lives of working class America. His breakthrough came with Born to Run in 1975, followed by Darkness on the Edge of Town, The River, and the stark, stripped down Nebraska. Then came Born in the U.S.A. in 1984, which sold over 30 million copies and produced "Dancing in the Dark," "Born in the U.S.A.," and "Glory Days." He later won an Academy Award for "Streets of Philadelphia" and was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1999. Nicknamed "The Boss," Springsteen remains one of the only artists to land a top five album in six consecutive decades.

Born on September 23, 1947, Neal Smith was the powerhouse drummer behind the original Alice Cooper band, one of the most theatrical and dangerous sounding acts to come out of the shock rock era. Alongside Alice Cooper, Glen Buxton, Michael Bruce, and Dennis Dunaway, Smith helped build the sound behind Love It to Death, Killer, School's Out, and Billion Dollar Babies, a run of albums produced largely by Bob Ezrin that fused garage rock aggression with theatrical flair. Smith co-wrote "School's Out" and "I'm Eighteen" alongside his bandmates and took sole songwriting credit on "Alma Mater." Onstage he played a custom drum kit covered in mirrored mosaic tiles that scattered stage lights across the crowd like a thousand lasers, part of the theatrical chaos that made Alice Cooper's early shows legendary.

On September 23, 2019, Robert Hunter died at his home in San Rafael, California, at age 78, closing out one of rock's most unusual and enduring partnerships. Hunter never played an instrument onstage with The Grateful Dead, yet he was inducted alongside the band into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1994 as the only non-performing member ever to receive that honor. Beginning with a chance friendship with Jerry Garcia in the early 1960s, Hunter became the band's primary lyricist for nearly 25 years, writing the words behind "Truckin'," "Ripple," "Casey Jones," "Friend of the Devil," "Sugar Magnolia," and "Box of Rain." His lyrics gave the Dead's sprawling improvisations a literary backbone drawn from Americana, folklore, and his own poetry. In 2015, he and Garcia were inducted together into the Songwriters Hall of Fame.