I was at (yet another) Bruce Springsteen show last Friday night, when one of my friends turned to me and asked “So who is on your rock band bucket list?”

All of us have a mental list of the bands we need to see before they (or us!) are gone for good.

They are the bands that we would spend ridiculous amounts of money to see in concert.

That’s the power of the emotional pull between rock bands and their die-hard fans.

Can you think of many businesses that have that kind of powerful devotion?

Apple does. Apple fans will line up for days and spend tons of cash just to get a new iPhone. Core Star Trek fans will plan their vacations around conventions dedicated to the series. Harley owners make pilgrimages to HOG gatherings, stores, museums and restaurants around the world.

I can’t think of too many others.

The list is pretty short.

Rock Star brands inspire their customers fans.

Rock Star brands engage their customers fans.

Rock Star brands delight their customers fans.

Rock Star brands fascinate their customers fans.

Rock Star brands never let their customers fans down.

Rock Star brands don’t have “customers”. They have fans.

(In the next blog post, we will explore what makes fans different from customers.)

Are you spending all of your time, energy, and valuable advertising money chasing new customers? Or are you investing your time, energy, and valuable advertising money in building fans?

Order Brand Like A Rock Star right now and a few pages in you’ll already be on the path to turning your customers into fans. If you don’t believe me, download chapter one now for free and discover how AC/DC used 40 years of amazing consistency to survive through the rise and fall of disco, hair bands, and grunge.

PS – My rock ‘n’ roll bucket list (only among bands who are still together/alive) includes The Who, Jack Johnson, Mumford & Sons, The Police, John Mayer, and Jackson Browne.

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For a far-too-short moment, it looked like it might actually happen. 

Robert Plant, Jimmy Page, John Paul Jones, and Jason Bonham performed as Led Zeppelin for one magical night in December of 2007.  It was one of the rock era’s most anticipated shows, and the post-show buzz about a long-term reunion wouldn’t go away. Even after Robert Plant clearly stated he wouldn’t be part of a reunion tour, Page, Jones, and Bonham continued to jam together with various lead singers.  Eventually, after months of speculation, the project fizzled.

Behind the scenes, Jason Bonham was devasted.  He had come to anticipate being part of a reunion project, and having it fall apart was a major blow to the son of original Zeppelin drummer John Bonham.

Jason spent a few months wondering what to do, and then it hit him.  He isn’t Led Zeppelin, but as the son of one of the band members, he is intimately familiar with the band.  His perspective is unique and intriguing, and it is about to come to the stage in “Jason Bonham’s Led Zeppelin Experience”.

According to Bonham, this will not be a tribute show.  Nobody will be dressed up like Page and Plant.  Instead, Bonham plans to tell personal stories about growing up surrounded by the madness that was Led Zeppelin.  Using technology, he will have a chance to jam with his late father on “Moby Dick” and “When The Levee Breaks”.  The show will include intimate stories, video, and audio from the young life of Jason Bonham and will celebrate the life of his legendary father.

From a branding point of view, I think this is interesting – in a positive way.

“Jason Bonham’s Led Zeppelin Experience” is not being sold to anyone as Led Zeppelin, so nobody is buying fake goods.  Instead, it is a fresh perspective on a band that the world just can’t seem to ever get enough of.

As long as Jason Bonham never tries to pass this off as the “new” Led Zeppelin, this should be an interesting project.

Like last year’s Star Trek movie, which never pretended to be the old Star Trek.

Like pro sports teams who wear special retro-jerseys to pay tribute to old teams, yet never try to be those old teams.

Like ABBA creating the “Mamma Mia” musical, but never trying to capture the same on-stage magic from the 1970′s.

Sadly, some bands fail to respect it.  Creedence Clearwater Revisited tries to pass off CCR without John Fogerty.  Can’t be done.  The Guess Who fraudulently tour around without Burton Cummings and Randy Bachman, who instead play together under their own names.  That’s exactly what Jason Bonham won’t be doing.

Brands that can respect the past, without trying in vain to recreate it, can revive interest and passion.  Brands that attempt to fool us with fake ingredients or replacement parts usually serve to further damage the brand.

This video of Jason and John Bonham shows just how engaging this tour could potentially be.

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That first product launch is exciting, energizing, and spectacular.  Your enthusiasm is contagious.  You’ve spent your whole life, or at the very least a large part of it, getting ready to launch.

And after a few months, you start to wonder “what next”?

Brands that successfully endure for years and decades think beyond the next six or twelve months.  Change is a part of their corporate culture. They thrive on the uncomfortable feeling that change brings. They always ask “what’s next?”

MySpace started losing groud to Facebook.  What’s next?  Myspace evolved into one of the world’s leading sites for musicians and artists.

Apple spent decades with just 10% of the personal computer market.  What’s next?  Apply grew into the world’s biggest music retailer.

Sure some attempts at evolution fail. McPizza, New Coke, and Star Trek “Nemesis” are three examples.  But those are spectacular failures from brands that today remain incredibly strong in large part because they were willing to risk failure in order to evolve.

The McDonald’s pizza experiment failed miserably.  But their recent growth into healthier foods with a wider variety of menu items has rebounded the company in the past few years.  And their adventure into breakfast food gave them the wildly successful Egg McMuffin.

New Coke was a legendary disaster, yet the Coke brand – despite almost ludicrious line extension – remains the #1 cola brand on the planet.

Star Trek “Nemesis” in 2002 was the lowest-grossing and most poorly reviewed movie in the series.  Yet the Star Trek movie from last spring was a massive hit.  It has already made three times more money than any previous Star Trek movie.  But this one wasn’t like the other Trek movies.  William Shatner wasn’t invited.  Niether was Captain Picard.  And director JJ Abrams took a fresh approach to the story.  That’s a risk that paid off.

Winning brands are willing to fail, because failure means you are doing something, and doing something means you are growing.  If you’re smart and calculated, you’ll make more wise moves than mistakes.  And if you’re really wise, you’ll know when to pull the plug on mistakes and cut your losses.

It is the unwise who become stale because they were afraid of change. Change and evolution is too frightening and uncomfortable for some brands.  They don’t understand the warning from Neil Young in 1979, when his career was fading.  He felt his music was becoming irrelevant, and he wrote song about the dangers of recording the same type of music too much.

“My My, Hey Hey… It’s better to burn out, than to fade away.”

Neil was willing to go down in flames.  He took a risk and recorded a song that took his career into punk and grunge music, and recorded a song that influenced the careers of Pearl Jam, Nirvana, and a subsequent generation of musicians.  It turned his sagging career around.

So if you think it is the right thing to do, and you can do it in the name of evolution and greater success, then go ahead… risk burning out. It sure beats fading into obscurity.

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Life itself is just a collection of stories. Live each day with a plan to die at a ripe old age with a bunch of really cool stories, and my guess is that you’ll live a rich and happy life.

The most enduring songs are the ones that tell stories. Storytellers like Dylan and Springsteen create music that will last for generations because they tell stories.

Remember a little story about “Jack and Diane”? Two American kids growin’ up in the heartland.

“Sympathy for the Devil”. Please allow me to introduce myself, I’m a man of wealth and taste.

“Imagine”. You could say I’m a dreamer, but I’m not the only one.

“Sweet Child O’ Mine”. And wait for the thunder and the rain to quietly pass me by.

“Lightning Crashes”. The confusion that was hers, belongs now to the baby down the hall.

“Friends In Low Places”. Where the whiskey drowns and beer chases my blues away.

“In The Air Tonight”. I was there and I saw what you did, saw it with my own two eyes.

Like great songs, great brands tell stories.

Visit the website of Dyson vacuum cleaners, and you can read about the struggle James Dyson went through in order to bring his innovation to market. You’re instantly hooked.

The Apple story is a “David versus Goliath” plot against Microsoft. You can’t avoid it. Buy a Mac and you’re in the club.

Star Trek’s story isn’t just a story of the Starship Enterprise. It is the story of one man’s vision brought to the screen, cancelled, revived by the faithful, made into movies, and kept alive by the fanatical devotion of fans.

Tell your brand’s story. Use your website, your Twitter feed, your Facebook page, and your customer interaction to share your story with your customers. Allow them to be a part of your story, and you’ll build a lasting legacy.

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