10 things named after guitar heroes
1. Lemmy - Cocktail
During his career, the late Motörhead man probably necked a swimming pool of Jack and Coke.
This year, Food & Beverage Magazine, officially renamed the drink in his honour. To make a ‘Lemmy’, take two ounces of Jack, 10 ounces of Coke, plus a dash of bitters. Shake with ice, strain, garnish with lemon peel, drink - and raise hell.
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2. Justin Hawkins - Giraffe
In 2004, Suffolk Wildlife Park named one absurd-looking creature after another.
“It’s wonderful that the Wildlife Park has stuck its neck out,” said Justin Hawkins , predictably.
3. Jerry Garcia - Ice Cream
A request from a Grateful Dead-obsessed customer set the mixers in motion at Ben & Jerry’s, and in 1987, Cherry Garcia debuted. It’s since become one of the firm’s three most popular flavours.
4. Angus Young - Millipede
One of them is a tiny organism that writhes around on the ground. The other is a millipede.
In his 1998 academic paper, palaeontologist Gregory Edgecombe christened a 410 million-year-old fossil, M Angusi, accompanied by its brother, Maldybulakia Malcolmi.
5. John Lennon - Airport
Fly from the Liverpool John Lennon Airport and you’ll find a seven-foot bronze statue of the Beatles legend in the check-in hall. And the airport’s slogan? ‘Above us only sky’…
6. Joe Strummer - Sea snail
Shannon Johnson of the Monterey Bay Research Aquarium named the spiky snail that lives 2,000 metres below sea level, Alviniconcha Strummeri “because they look like punk rockers, and they live in such an extreme environment”.
7. Eric Clapton - Asteroid
Astronomers at the International Astronomical Union at Harvard University named a ‘minor planet’ (the technical term for an asteroid) Planet Clapton in 1990.
They’re clearly closet rockers, too, as he shares this honor with the likes of McCartney, Harrison, Springsteen and Hendrix.
8. Dave Grohl - Street
A campaign led to a dingy alleyway in the Foo Fighter’s hometown of Warren, Ohio, being renamed David Grohl Alley.
In 2009, Grohl attended the naming ceremony, and he occasionally drops by to check out the murals and sculptures hand-carved by local artist Joel Eggert.
9. Mark Knopfler - Dinosaur
In 2001, a team of paleontologists named a fossil with “shrew-like teeth” after the guitarist who’d soundtracked the dig.
“It is a special honour,” said the Dire Straits man of Masiakasaurus Knopfleri. “The fact that it’s a dinosaur is certainly apt…”
10. Les Paul - Guitar
Strange to think that Les Paul was sent packing when he first presented his ‘Log’ guitar prototype to Gibson circa 1941 (“They called it ‘That broomstick with the pickups!’”).
We lost the beloved New York jazzman in 2009, but he lives on through his ubiquitous machine in rock music. “99 per cent of the world thinks of me as a guitar!” the multitrack recording pioneer observed.
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