Life sure can be tough being a rock star.
Occasionally audiences can be ungrateful, hostile or just plain bored. Or maybe they don’t agree with your unpalatable politics. And sometimes you even get the wrong colour M&Ms delivered to your dressing room (little nod to Van Halen there). Little wonder you feel the urge to let rip sometimes.
Here are some of the worst onstage meltdowns in rock history. And we've lovingly sought out footage of the relevant moments where we can. You're welcome.
1. Axl Rose loses it at Riverport, 1991
Unpredictable Axl has to come near the top of this list as he’s the King of the Meltdown – or at least he used to be. If something displeased the Guns N’Roses star, he was apt to go off on one or even stop the show altogether.
The most notorious example occurred at the Riverport Amphitheatre in Missouri on July 2, 1991. While they were playing ‘Rocket Queen’, Axl noticed a punter taking photographs and became aggrieved. He stopped the performance and called for security to confiscate the camera. When the strongmen didn’t act quickly enough for the mercurial singer, he dived into the audience intent on seizing the camera himself.
A fracas ensued, after which Axl had be pulled from the melée by his own security crew. He promptly threw his toys out of the pram, grabbing a microphone and announcing: 'Well, thanks to the lame-ass security, I'm going home!' True to his word, he promptly stomped off stage.
A three-hour riot followed, during which dozens of fans were injured. When the long arm of the law eventually caught up with Axl, who’d promptly departed on a world tour, charges were dismissed on the grounds that he hadn’t directly incited the riot.
2. Paul Stanley offers a bum deal, 1999
Rather than ranting and raving and getting confrontational, the best way to deal with an annoying fan is to take the piss out of them, as Kiss frontman Paul Stanley demonstrated when a punter shone a laser pointer in his eyes while the band were playing ‘Love Gun’ in Portland in 1999. Stanley stopped the show and told the miscreant: 'Put it in your pocket or I’ll put it in your ass.' Alas, this seemed to incite further idiots who fancied being sodomised by Stanley and he was plagued by such behaviour at future gigs.
3. The Replacements' final shamble, 1991
The Replacements built a career on being 'beautiful losers', often playing drunk or replacing their hits with sloppy covers. Their final gig, in 1991 at Chicago's Grant Park, was the ultimate extension of this shambolic brand. No victorious last hurrah here: the band simply handed their instruments to the roadies (who carried on as best they could) and trudged off.
This wasn’t a 'meltdown' in the traditional sense; rather, it was a refusal to participate in the professional artifice of a 'farewell show'. For a band that spent a decade sabotaging their own success, leaving the stage to the crew was the most honest way to say goodbye.
4. Ritchie Blackmore turns Purple, 1974
The 1974 California Jam at Ontario Motor Speedway was kind of a big deal, with even the likes of Black Sabbath and the Eagles occupying lowly positions on the bill. The headliners were Emerson, Lake and Palmer and Deep Purple, who played to an audience of 300,000, kicking off the whole stadium rock phenomenon.
Guitarist Ritchie Blackmore believed that it had been agreed that Purple would go on at dusk, but attempts were made to force the band onstage earlier than this. All of which put Ritchie in a foul mood. And a bad-tempered Ritchie Blackmore tends to be bad for everyone. So it proved when, at the end of the band’s set, he threw a guitar and monitor into the audience and attacked a video camera belonging to ABC-TV, who were recording the event.
A mishap with a pyrotechnic also caused an amplifier to explode setting the stage on fire. Rock and roll!
5. Roger Waters hawks, 1977
On Pink Floyd’s 1977 In the Flesh tour, Roger Waters became so annoyed by a fan screaming and shouting at the Montreal Olympic Stadium that he leaned over the side of the stage and spat on the miscreant. Naturally, Waters was disgusted with himself and how the band’s relationship with its audience had been 'utterly perverted by scale, corporate avarice and ego'.
So what’s a prog rocker to do in such circumstances? Why, write a magnificent, mega-selling concept album about the experience, that’s what. And so The Wall was born.
6. Courtney Love unravels in public, 1995
By 1995, Courtney Love was navigating the immense grief of Kurt Cobain’s death alongside her own skyrocketing fame. Her Lollapalooza sets became raw, unscripted confessionals that blurred the line between rock show and public breakdown. Often directed at 'the media' or her perceived enemies, her rants showcased a woman refusing to be the 'perfect widow'. While erratic, these performances solidified her image as a polarizing, unfiltered force who wore her trauma as a punk-rock badge of defiance.
7. Scott Weiland spoils for a fight, 2015
In April 2013, during a performance with his band The Wildabouts in Corpus Christi, Texas, a frustrated Scott Weiland reached a breaking point. Battling technical difficulties and facing a vocal heckler in the front row, the former Stone Temple Pilots frontman paused the show to confront the detractor directly.
Weiland, visibly agitated, leaned over the monitors and challenged the fan to a physical fight, shouting, 'Come on up here!' While the confrontation didn't turn into a full-scale brawl, it remains a poignant reminder of his turbulent final year.
8. Eric Clapton's racist outburst, 1976
One of the ugliest onstage meltdowns in rock history occurred when a drunken Eric Clapton embarked on a racist rant during a performance in Birmingham in 1976. The bloke who owed much of his career to black musicians and had a hit with a cover of Bob Marley’s ‘I Shot the Sheriff’ expressed support for the racist former Conservative MP Enoch Powell and cane over all Alf Garnett as he remarked, 'get the foreigners out,' and then some more offensive terms.
Some good did come of Eric’s disgrace, though. His outburst led directly to the foundation of Rock Against Racism.
9. Ted Nugent fires off a shot, 2007
US rockers tend to be Democrats rather than Republicans. Or they keep very quiet about it. Not Motor City Madman (and one of rock's most controversial figures) Ted Nugent, however. 'Hey, Obama, you might want to suck on one of these, you piece of s**t,' announced rock’s foremost Republican as he brandished a pair of assault rifles on stage at a concert in 2007, during which he also made disparaging comments about Hilary Clinton. Naughty Ted was subsequently investigated by the Secret Service over the nature of his remarks.
10. Bob Dylan goes high voltage, 1966
Bob didn’t have a meltdown exactly during his 1966 UK tour, but he was clearly exasperated by traditionalists in his audience who didn’t appreciate his move into electric music. Famously, at the so-called 'Royal Albert Hall' concert (which actually took place at the Manchester Free Trade Hall), a punter called him 'Judas!'
'I don't believe you ... you're a liar!' snapped his Bobship in response, before calling upon The Band to 'play it f***in’ loud!' A recording of this legendary gig was subsequently released in Bob’s official Bootleg series.
11. Jim Morrison lets it loose, 1969
Jimbo was becoming increasingly jaded by 1969. But did the Lizard King really drunkenly yank out his little lizard on stage in front of 10,000 people in Miami on March 1, 1969? Other members of The Doors say it didn’t happen and no photographic evidence of the unleashed Morrison member has ever emerged, but overweight Jim was unquestionably intoxicated at the time.
Warrants for his arrest on indecent exposure charges were subsequently issued and the band’s touring plans were curtailed. In 2010, the Florida Clemency Board issued am official parson, which must have come as some relief to the long-deceased star.
12. Keith Richards defends his corner, 1981
You wouldn’t want to tussle with Keef at the best of times. But to invade his workplace is a definite no-no, as an over-excited fan discovered to his cost during the Tattoo You tour in Hampton, Virginia. Having invaded the stage during Satisfaction, the over-excited punter was walloped a couple of times by Keith’s guitar.
The guitarist then strapped his instrument back on and carried on playing. He later said he’d acted because security weren’t quick enough in dealing with the invader. The punter was promptly arrested, but kindly Keith paid $200 to bail him out of jail.
13. Billy Corgan gets it from the horse's mouth, 2008
The mercurial Smashing Pumpkins frontman had been stung by unkind reviews of the first of two nights his band played in New York in 2008. So much so that he invited a punter onstage the following night to critique the performance. What he perhaps wasn’t expecting was that the fan would tell him to his face that the show sucked. 'I liked that song you wrote,' quipped Billy, a tad petulantly.
14. The Eagles' 'Long Night at Wrong Beach', 1980
The Eagles' infamous 1980 breakdown in Long Beach, during their was the explosive culmination of years of resentment. The catalyst was a pre-show meet-and-greet with Senator Alan Cranston. When the Senator's wife thanked guitarist Don Felder for putting on the show, the latter issued the surly response, 'You're welcome… I guess'. An incensed Glenn Frey was spoiling for a fight.
The ensuing set became a surreal duel of threats between the two guitarists, caught in every lurid detail by the soundboard. Between verses of 'Best of My Love', Frey hissed, 'I’m gonna kill you', while Felder retorted, 'I can’t wait'. Frey famously counted down the set: 'Only three more songs until I kick your ass, pal.'
As soon as the final note of 'Take It Easy' faded, Felder smashed his guitar and fled. The Eagles 'Long Run' ended in a parking lot confrontation, leading to a bitter 14-year hiatus. Frey later remarked that they didn't break up; they just took a '14-year vacation'.
15. The Who have a blast, 1967
Finally, an incident that was less meltdown, more... blow-up. When The Who appeared on a 1967 episode of American comedy duo Smothers Brothers, they turned a rock cliché into a medical emergency. To ensure a memorable finale for their iconic hit 'My Generation', drummer Keith Moon packed his bass drum with excessive flash powder. The resulting explosion was far more powerful than intended: it singed Pete Townshend’s hair, blew a piece of cymbal shrapnel into Moon’s arm, and caused Bette Davis to faint backstage.
The fallout was permanent: Townshend attributed the onset of his lifelong tinnitus and hearing loss to that specific blast, marking the moment The Who’s 'maximum R&B' became physically dangerous.
Pics Getty Images
