24 Shocking Onstage Events In Music History That Actually Happened
Fiyin Olowokandi
24 Shocking Onstage Events In Music History That Actually Happened
WARNING: Some the below examples include discussions of injuries. There are no deaths, and photos deemed graphic will have an overlay (so you can click to reveal it), but the descriptions may be graphic.
1. One of the most famous examples is probably Justin Timberlake and Janet Jackson’s Super Bowl Halftime show in 2004. Timberlake ripped away Jackson’s top, exposing her breast in what was later dubbed “Nipplegate.”
Surprisingly, they continued to find success after the incident, but were eventually exposed as frauds who hadn’t, in fact, sang on any of their hit records. One half of the duo, Rob Pilatus, even admitted that the concert “was the beginning of the end for Milli Vanilli.”
You can watch the clip here:
When the wrong track began to play (the same one she’d already performed), Simpson did not sing, and instead did a strange dance. She later blamed the band before saying she’d lost her voice due to acid reflux and was ordered by doctors not to sing. The singer’s career was definitely affected, though it continued.
Watch the incident here:
Jackson kept dancing, and the fire was extinguished by crew members. He was later rushed to the hospital, having suffered second-degree burns.
Watch the video here:
Hetfield later described the incident: “I’m a little confused on where I’m supposed to be, and then pyro guy doesn’t see me, and ‘whoosh!’, a big colored flame goes right up under me. I’m burnt. My arm, my hand, completely down to the bone. The side of my face. Hair’s gone. Part of my back.” He suffered second and third-degree burns — but was back onstage about two weeks later.
6. One of the more awkward stage mishaps came during a 1969 Rolling Stones concert in Hyde Park. The band planned to unleash thousands of butterflies in honor of bandmate Brian Jones, who had died two days earlier. However, the butterflies were asleep from the cold and looked dead, and many of them lay still in their cage.
Before the show, to get the sleeping butterflies to fly over the crowd as planned, roadies tried to warm them up, and at least one of the butterflies caught fire. When they were released during the show, many of the sleeping butterflies simply fell out onto the ground and were stepped on and killed by band members and fans.
7. But the Rolling Stones’ most serious entry on this list is the time lead guitarist Keith Richards nearly died onstage. The incident occurred in Sacramento in 1965, when Richards’ guitar touched the mic stand, causing an electric surge to shock him badly. He flew back and landed on the ground, unconscious — many audience members thought he had been assassinated. However, Richards made a full recovery, and was even back to perform the next night.
8. At a 2015 concert in Tijuana, Enrique Iglesias reached out to grab a drone flying through the air. This was a common action during his shows, as it gave the drone camera a better view — but he grabbed it wrong, and the propellers injured his fingers.
He went offstage and was treated, then came back to finish his show. However, a year afterwards, he still couldn’t feel anything in one of his fingers.
You can watch what happened here:
Michaels suffered a busted lip and a fractured nose, and said that his near-fatal brain hemorrhage 10 months later was related.
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Lee finishes out the song as crew members begin to climb up to get the platform moving away. Lee shouts “What the fuck?” and jokes that the crowd looks funny upside down.
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Besides being “seriously sore,” Pink was luckily uninjured and resumed her tour the next night.
You can watch the clip here:
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15. At a 2005 concert at the St. Pete Times Forum in Florida, a 63-year-old Paul McCartney fell in a stage hole where a piano was supposed to appear from. Luckily, McCartney got up right away and joked about the incident, with only bruises to show for it.
Watch him talking about the fall — along with the clip — here:
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Watch some video footage here:
You can watch the video here:
You can see one such incident during the trick here:
The incident reportedly permanently damaged Pete Townshend’s hearing. Bette Davis, who was a guest on the show, reportedly fainted in the wings.
You can watch what happened here:
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The band caused a reported $200,000 of damage that night, and the broadcast was cut off before their last song, after one of the fans they brought screamed, “New York sucks!” into the mic.
Watch the performance here:
You can see some of their performance here:
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24. And finally, here’s one example that actually worked out well — during Paramore’s headline set at Reading Festival 2014, the power went out completely for 10 minutes. Someone was able to find a microphone for Hayley, and the band played an acoustic version of “The Only Exception” with the crowd singing along, which Cosmopolitan called “bloody brilliant.”