This State Gave Rise To The Highest Number Of Hometown Rock Heroes By Far

Not only does California get cool points for producing some of rock's finest musicians (Wrecking Crew, anyone?), but the range of rock 'n' roll styles from that state is as varied as its terrain and climate. From the Beach Boys to Metallica, the Eagles to Red Hot Chili Peppers and so very many others, California has steadily kept hippies twirling and mosh pits swirling with its output of rock music, even as Hollywood gets all the attention for producing entertainment for the masses. When it comes to which state gets bragging rights for having the most bona fide rock 'n' roll hometown heroes, California takes the prize.

When you think of hometown rockers, maybe Bruce Springsteen and Bon Jovi come to mind as famous New Jersey boys. And it wouldn't be a stretch to remember all the acts that came from New York, like the Ramones, Talking Heads, Kiss, or the Strokes. It's true that the Empire State has produced plenty of rockers, but it's also home to lots of other influential genres like hip-hop, kind of like how Detroit is known for Motown's R&B sound, even though beloved rockers like the Stooges, Bob Seger, and Jack White all hail from the Motor City. It's true, plenty of states have reasons to be proud of their famous rock stars, but we're going to take a look at the incredible number of rock legends that have come out of California to make it clear that the Golden State has truly given us gold when it comes to rock heroes over the last decades of the 20th century. 

With rock 'n' roll finding its footing as a new genre in the mid-1950s, California's first significant contribution was with 1960s surf rock from the likes of Dick Dale and the Beach Boys. The mid-'60s saw surf culture make way for the counterculture, especially in the San Francisco Bay area, where legends were born. Obviously, we're talking about the Grateful Dead, who went on to create a massive fan base and stay relevant to new generations for six decades, but California also gave us the Byrds, Jefferson Airplane, Big Brother and the Holding Company, the Doors, and Sly and the Family Stone. In the late '60s, Santana emerged, and Creedence Clearwater Revival came out swinging with its first hit in 1968. Frank Zappa's The Mothers of Invention also found its sound in California.  

The 1970s gave birth to bands as varied as the boogie rockin' Little Feat; teenage rebel rockers the Runaways; and the Doobie Brothers, whose sound classification depended largely on whether the songs were pre-Michael McDonald or post. California also gets to claim those legendary behemoths of rock Van Halen, whose first Billboard hit, "Dance the Night Away," came in 1979, with many to follow throughout the '80s.

Certainly, we can't write a story about California bands without mentioning the band credited with creating the penultimate California sound — the Eagles. As Don Henley described to Rolling Stone in 2016, Eagles songs shared similar themes of an "exploration of the dark underbelly of the American dream," all to the backdrop of mellow, cowboy-tinged rock. But don't worry, California rock 'n' roll didn't roll over and die with the Eagles, whose songs would later feature heavily as overhead music in grocery stores; in fact, it came back stronger than ever. 

While Journey formed in the '70s, its big hits came in the 1980s, with some of those songs becoming mainstays of classic rock radio. Other early-to-mid-'80s radio-friendly hitmakers from Cali were Huey Lewis and the News and the Bangles, but musical light years away, in the same state, Metallica was percolating, and by the mid-'80s it was playing festivals with crowds of 60,000 and 70,000 people, with frontman James Hetfield making a point to differentiate the group from the famed hair bands of LA's Sunset Strip. At 1985's Monsters of Rock Festival, Hetfield said, "If you came here to see spandex, eye makeup, and the words 'Oh baby' in every f*****' song, this ain't the f*****' band" (via Guitar World).

And while Cali bands like Mötley Crüe, Ratt, Dokken, Warrant, and Poison were the likely subjects of his ire, one band that came out of the Sunset Strip in the late '80s transcended hair metal. Guns N' Roses rose from that LA scene to cement its place in the book of rock legends. Heavy music was just as at home in California as the soothing sounds that came out of Laurel Canyon in the late '60s and early '70s, and bands like Korn, Deftones, Tool, and Slayer all hailed from different parts of that vast state. 

And we can't forget all the post-punk and alt-rock bands that honed their awesome weirdness and infectious sounds in Californ-i-a: the Dead Kennedys, Black Flag, Jane's Addiction, Green Day, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Blink-182, Rage Against the Machine, Stone Temple Pilots, Primus, the Offspring, No Doubt, Sublime, System of a Down, Linkin Park, and Queens of the Stone Age, to name a few. We could go on, but we think it's pretty clear that California has given rock fans more rock heroes than any other state, and we're totally here for it.