A friend from Kentucky turned me on to Southern Rock, I favored classic rock, while a friend in college turned me on to soul and R&B. He was on the basketball team, teammated nicknamed him "White Blood".
The two years I was at Spangdahlem AB, afternoons I listened to the British broadcast on Radio Luxembourg. Had a friend across the Mosel River who was in the Air Force, a pretty decent musician himself. The day after John Lennon was shot, I hung out at his apartment for several hours, mourning and reminiscing. His German wife didn't get it.
Attended two concerts in Frankfurt: Elton John and Billy Joel. BTW, I never played Van Halen. I was more into the Doobie Brothers and Robert Palmer.
ELP opened for Jethro Tull on one of concerts I went to.
Procul Harum on another and I can’t recall the third openers.
All at Merriwether Post Pavilion.
Doobie Brothers are touring now with both Tom Johnston and Michael McDonald, and they sound great.
Back then, rock music was a lot more regionally based. For example, Molly Hatchet was huge in the Deep South but hardly heard of outside that area. J Geils Band was big in Boston for years before finally hitting it big at the tail end of their career (thanks to MTV). You could probably say the same for ZZ Top in Texas and a lot of other bands. Every big city had their home based bands that got a lot of local airplay. I remember WBCN in Boston playing a lot of local Boston music like Til Tuesday, The Neighborhoods and Jon Butcher Axis before they got bought out by a radio conglomerate.
MTV and the radio conglomerates pretty much nationalized rock music and took the local flavor out of it. The consultants took over and playlists got much tighter and more predictable. You either made it with the big boys or you didn't make it at all, sadly.