Top 10 Most Shocking Rock Band Tour Stories Ever
#10: Billy Idol’s Thai Misadventure
Steve Stevens on 40 years with Billy Idol
Hotel rooms and rock stars seem to be intrinsically linked when it comes to tales of debauchery. As such, you can expect to be spending a fair amount of time in hotel rooms as we go through this list. Starting things off in style is eighties icon, Billy Idol. The former Generation X front man and "Rebel Yell" singer indulged in both flesh AND fantasy during an epic three week Bangkok bender. He allegedly racked up a hotel damage bill to the tune of nearly a hundred and fifty thousand dollars. So insistent was Idol when it came to having a good time, that Thai military personnel reportedly needed to tranquilize Billy and remove him forcibly from the hotel premises on a stretcher.
#9: Led Zep & the TV Sets
Top 10 Controversial Band Member Replacements in Rock
There's no getting around Led Zeppelin's ridiculous reputation for the rock and roll lifestyle. From guitarist Jimmy Page's controversial affair with groupie Lori Maddox to the very "not safe for this list" "mud shark" incident, the band was, for a time, hedonism personified. The particular incident making this spot though involved the band's return to the Edgewater Hotel in Seattle, from where they'd been previously banned. They somehow booked five rooms while on a U.S. tour and decided to do something a bit different with the Edgewater's famous "fish from your hotel window" selling point. They decided to chuck every single T.V. they could find into the Puget Sound -just for kicks. Because, that's what rock bands are just supposed to do, right?
#8: The Demon's Scrapbook
Aerosmith: History of the Rock Band
Have you ever kept some personal reminder of a prior relationship that ended prematurely? How about a scrapbook containing every illicit encounter in your life? That’s exactly what KISS bassist Gene Simmons did during the band's 1970s and '80s heyday: documenting, documenting, documenting! The Demon is said to have kept Polaroid pictures from the nearly five thousand reported groupie sessions over the years… that is, until Gene's wife Shannon Tweed reportedly asked for them to finally be burned. According to The Sun in 2016, he and Tweed got together and "had a ritual" with the burned pics, kissing them off for good.
#7: Marilyn Manson Foots the Bill
Marilyn Manson Biography: Life and Career of the Antichrist Superstar
Have you ever had an accident in a hotel and had to pay a fine for something you broke? We're guessing it was something like a hundred bucks or so. Now, imagine what kind of mess one would have to make to be charged a whopping twenty five GRAND? Shock rocker Marilyn Manson and his bandmates supposedly did some serious damage in 1998 when they went on a multi-stop rampage. First, they trashed the dressing rooms at the Mid-Hudson Civic Center in Poughkeepsie where they were playing, prompting the fire department to be called. Later, they moved the destruction to their hotel suites at the Sheraton, setting fires and staining their bathrooms with hair dye. Manson eventually did offer to pay for the damage, however...so there's that.
#6: All in the Family with Avenged Sevenfold
Top 10 Avenged Sevenfold Songs
If you’ve ever wondered why parents and touring rock stars shouldn't mix, here's a pretty compelling argument. Avenged Sevenfold were riding high in 2005 while promoting their breakthrough "City of Evil" LP on the Warped Tour. The band's guitarist, Synyster Gates, told Loudwire a story in 2018 about this particular tour and how his dad decided to come along for the ride. Syn's pop began fraternizing with the band's bassist, Johnny Christ, and couldn't, for the life of him, figure out why the rest of the group always made Johnny the butt of their jokes. Well, Daddy Gates found out first hand: because Johnny Christ gets drunk and pees where he shouldn’t, specifically on the shoes and face of his new friends. Gross.
#5: Moon the Loon
Moon Landscape - All Those Nightmares (Audio)
The Who drummer Keith Moon didn't earn the moniker of "Moon the Loon" for nothing. This talented skinsman was an absolute wildcard, with a resume of offenses that perhaps earns him a top ten list of his own. For starters, Moon's penchant for hotel craziness reportedly got The Who banned from every Holiday Inn. Maybe it was that time he allegedly drove a Rolls Royce into the pool? Furthermore, Moon infamously passed out during a California stop on the "Quadrophenia" tour, after imbibing an unwise mixture of horse tranquilizers and brandy. The Who actually ended the night with an impromptu guest on drums, Scot Halpin, a fan from the crowd who was invited on stage to finish the set.
#4: ZZ Top Loses a Buffalo
The Black Keys: History of the Rock Band
Picture this: an epic, crisscrossing American tour for blues rockers ZZ Top with a mission of bringing Texas to the masses. Sounds like a good ol' time, right? Maybe, but it also has the makings of a perfect storm, a whole lot of chaos...and one lost buffalo. You see, The Top were determined to make the "Worldwide Texas" tour as authentic as possible, to the point where live animals were transported from venue to venue. Buzzards, dogs, rattlesnakes...the works. It was the sort of hot mess that could've only taken place during the 1970s, and sure enough, at a stadium show in Pennsylvania, their buffalo apparently got loose and damaged the field where the Pittsburgh Pirates play.
#3: Led Zeppelin & Their Fans Enjoying Ancient Greek Tragedy
Guns N Roses 2023 Tour | Led Zeppelin's Houses of the Holy at 50: An In-Depth Look at a Rock Classic
Led Zeppelin's here again, this time with a little...class? Well, maybe you could call it that, if the idea of mixing Sophocles with your sex-capades makes you randy. We're not sure if Jimmy Page was just being cheeky or if there's any truth behind this tale, but given Led Zep's ridiculous reputation...we're not putting it past them for a minute. A 2015 post from Buzzfeed featured a quote from Page documenting the time when, surrounded by groupies, the band decided to instigate an off-the-cuff reading from Sophocles' Greek tragedy "Antigone." You know ...as one does. According to Page, "for a bunch of half-naked amateurs, we knocked it out of the park."
#2: No Brown M&Ms for Van Halen
Van Halen: History of the Hard Rock Band
Next up, it's a double dose of Van Halen. We were tempted to include David Lee Roth's reported “game” with crew members; apparently, he gave a hundred bucks to whoever brought him the groupie he spent the night with. Instead, we're going with something even more infamous: the Brown M&Ms. The band specified on their rider that absolutely NO brown iterations of these candies were to appear backstage. But this wasn't just an example of a band behaving badly. This was there to make sure each promoter read the rider carefully, because Van Halen's equipment was heavy, and could cause injury or destruction if not properly secured. Unfortunately, this actually happened at a tour stop in Colorado, with a stage collapse reportedly resulting in over eighty thousand dollars in damage.
#1: Where’s Ozzy?
Top 10 Most Shocking Music Myths
Hey, are you looking for a crazy Ozzy Osbourne story? Take your pick! There was that time when he supposedly snorted a line of ants while on tour with Mötley Crüe - though ex-Osbourne guitarist Jake E. Lee claims it was only 1 spider and not ants - or that infamous time he relieved himself on the Alamo - or rather, on a moment across from the building. Of course, there's the infamous bat-biting incident, but perhaps less well known is the time Ozzy missed a gig with Black Sabbath while on tour in 1978. Well, it turns out that Oz actually missed a couple of DAYS, never even making it into his booked room at the hotel. The singer ended up passing out in a room that wasn't his, sleeping for over 24 hours before waking up and asking when they were leaving for the gig. Better luck next time, Oz.
0
0
report