Though only active for seven years, any fan of grunge rock or Seattle music is familiar with this band. The original members include Kurt Cobain and Krist Novoselic in 1987, and it went through a few drummers before landing on current music legend Dave Grohl. Their intense style garnered them immense fame quickly, though the band had a legendarily sad end.
They went through a few names, such as Fecal Matter, Skid Row, and Ted Ed Fred, but Cobain shook his head at all of them. “[I] wanted a name that was kind of beautiful or nice and pretty instead of a mean, raunchy punk name.”
Steely Dan
The answer to where early rockers Steely Dan got their name is sure to come as a surprise. The band began in 1972 with Donald Fagen and Walter Becker. Both of these founding members were avid readers and fans – Fagen even studied English Literature in college – and they found the kind of name they wanted in a novel by author William S. Burroughs, the 1959 “Naked Lunch.”
What does “Steely Dan” refer to? None other than a steam-powered bedroom toy called “Steely Dan III from Yokohama.” Yes, that's right, it was an adults-only toy the whole time. The entire band thought it was the perfect name.
Twenty-One Pilots
Twenty One Pilots frontman Tyler Joseph (the man so nice they named him twice) got the name of his band from a piece of literature. He and his bandmate Josh Dun hail from Columbus, Ohio, and despite the band dwindled down to two members after starting with five, they continue to create great music.
Joseph took inspiration from the 1947 Arthur Miller play “All My Sons.” In the play, the main character is part of the reason why twenty-one pilots perish. Coming across the play while at school, Joseph couldn't shake the image of twenty-one pilots, and so the name came to mean something to everyone in the music world.
Led Zeppelin
With strong imagery and memorable spelling, the name Led Zeppelin helped propel this band to the heights of fame and music. The name also has a cool beginning: Robert Plant, Jimmy Page, John Paul Jones, and John Bonham formed the band in 1968, but two years earlier Page had an opportunity to play with Keith Moon – the legendary drummer for The Who.
The results were incredible, and someone in the studio mentioned the idea of forming a band together. Moon had no intention of leaving The Who, and said the idea would “go over like a lead balloon.” A few years later, Page formed his own band, taking inspiration from the musical great.
Foo Fighters
It was only because of Kurt Cobain's shocking death, and Nirvana's breakup, that the Foo Fighters exist. The drummer for Nirvana, Dave Grohl, left the band and formed his own outfit.
While attempting to get the band off the ground, he spent time reading about UFOs. Hey, everybody needs a hobby. At one point, he came across the term “foo fighters.” Apparently, during World War II, pilots used the term to describe unidentified flying objects and rogue aircraft, and Grohl liked the name. When his new band started to get some traction, he brought up the name, and the rest was history.