DTE Energy Music Theatre - History

History

The amphitheater held its grand opening in June 1972 with an Andy Williams concert. However, on June 25, 1972, a few days before Williams' appearance, there was a "pre-opening" concert featuring teen idol David Cassidy. The original sound system was novel in its day, a huge theatrical performance system designed for an outdoor theater with a custom console and large-array distributed speaker system.

Since those concerts, many of the biggest stars in music have performed there. Chicago has appeared at this venue almost every year since 1972, and Eddie Money typically opens the concert season each spring. Linda Ronstadt also performed there nearly every summer throughout the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s. Bob Dylan played Pine Knob nine times between 1981 and 2000. Detroit's own Diana Ross often made it her hometown stop during the summer shed schedules. In May 2006, Eddie Money sang the U.S. national anthem in front of 22,076 fans at a Detroit Pistons playoff game at The Palace Of Auburn Hills. This was widely believed to be a cross-promotion for his show the following day at DTE.

DTE is the usual Detroit-area stop for some of the biggest tours of the summer concert season, including The Area:One and Area2 Festival, Crüe Fest, Ozzfest, Curiosa, Projekt Revolution, The Gigantour, Lilith Fair, Reggae Sunsplash and The Family Values Tour and was the Detroit area stop for Lollapalooza (in all years it played there but one) before that tour signed an exclusive deal with the city of Chicago. The venue also hosts the Lake Orion High School and Clarkston High School graduation ceremonies, typically held at the end of May or beginning of June.

Members of Canadian band Rush have said they regard Pine Knob/DTE as one of their favorite venues to play in the U.S. as does American trop-rock musician, Jimmy Buffett.

One of the iconic features of the first years of Pine Knob was the dramatic entrance way to the amphitheater. Long cement retaining walls (that cut through the hill/lawn) were professionally hand-painted with the logos of every band that had played there. The walls were removed and filled in during the mid-1980s to provide more lawn seating area and were replaced by stairs.