A profanity-laced tirade, an embarrassing flee from the stage, and a breakdown in the
middle of a performance.
Whose on-stage meltdown is the most bizarre?
Keep watching to find out.
Axl Rose of Guns N' Roses has a long history of causing controversy and a thing for punching
people in the face.
From punching a fan who compared him to Jon Bon Jovi to laying one out on David Bowie,
it was clear that the rock star had a short fuse.
While the band was known for their outlandish behavior, one of their messiest concert appearances
took place on June 2, 1991, while performing in the Riverport Amphitheater in St. Louis,
Missouri.
Axl Rose spotted someone in the audience with a camera and blew his top.
The lead singer dove into the audience to confiscate the equipment himself.
He later told the Los Angeles Times,
"I felt completely uncomfortable with the way [security staff] was responding [...] There
was no respect for the band.
I didn't plan on jumping off the stage to grab a biker and his camera [...] The security
guys in the front knew exactly what was happening and they were doing everything they could
to let that guy go — which fueled my fire to make sure that didn't happen."
He grabbed the camera, shouting,
"I'll take it, g--dammit!"
Then, Rose managed to get back on stage, dropped his microphone, and left with his band following
suit.
A riot ensued, with several fans getting injured.
Rolling Stone stated that the band was banned from the city, and Rose was charged with four
counts of misdemeanor assault, one count of property damage, and he was fined $50,000.
While he was later found not guilty by a judge, the band did hit back at the city on their
"Use Your Illusion" album with the hidden message, quote, "F--- you, St. Louis."
The Doors frontman Jim Morrison was known for being a groundbreaking artist, but throughout
his career, he found himself in a few legal troubles, with one arrest during a live show.
It was 1967, and The Doors were set to play in New Haven, Connecticut.
The New Haven Register recalled,
"As legend has it, Morrison was surprised and maced by a police officer who happened
upon him making out with a fan backstage."
Morrison and the officer reportedly exchanged apologies, and the singer still took the stage.
But he lashed out, beginning with this retort to the audience:
"I want to tell you about something that happened a few minutes ago right here in New Haven.
This is New Haven, isn't it?
New Haven, Connecticut, United States of America?"
The police walked up and arrested the singer in front of his angered fans.
Pandemonium ensued, and Morrison was charged with incitement of a riot and obscenity.
Charges were dropped, but two years later, Morrison would get arrested again during a
show in Miami for exposing himself in front of thousands of fans.
This time, the rockstar was found guilty for open profanity and indecent exposure.
Morrison was free to go, but unfortunately, his appeal was never settled after he was
found dead in Paris, France, in 1971.
According to NPR, 41 years after his death, Florida pardoned Morrison of the charges from
that Miami night.
His bandmates, including Ray Manzarek, had always believed that Morrison never exposed
himself to his fans.
Fiona Apple tries to really live her truth.
Taking a look back at her successful career in the '90s, the singer told NPR that she
wouldn't have changed a thing if she could talk to her teenage self, sharing in 2020,
"I've always wanted to live facing the truth, taking the truth and turning it into something
beautiful."
However, when she won best new artist at the MTV VMAs in 1997 after the release of her
hit album "Tidal," most people didn't quite understand Apple.
Known for doing her own thing and not conforming to society, Apple took the stage, and instead
of giving the repetitive thank you speech like so many other artists, she addressed
the world, saying,
"I didn't prepare a speech, and I'm sorry, but I'm glad that I didn't because I'm not
gonna do this like everybody else does it.
[...] I'm going to use this opportunity the way that I want to use it.
[...] This world is bulls---.
And you shouldn't model your life about what you think that we think is cool, what we're
wearing, and what we're saying and everything.
Go with yourself.
Go with yourself."
Apple was instantly criticized for her bizarre speech.
MTV recalled that she became the, quote, "butt of jokes."
NYRock said that she was a pretentious and, on occasion, excruciatingly silly human being.
Although Apple seems to have been trying to take a stand for what she believed in, what
she had to say came out a bit harsh, confusing and unready.
Sometimes it’s good to come a little prepared.
Ruthless fans can always be a cause for concern.
But rapper A$AP Rocky and his A$AP Mob crew took matters into their own hands in what
escalated into a nasty brawl between the artists and fans during a SXSW show in 2012.
According to Spinner, it all started when a do-rag was taken from an A$AP Mob member.
After the band asked for it to be returned, someone from the crowd threw a beer can on
stage, hitting one of the crew members.
More objects were thrown toward the stage, with A$AP Rocky and the other men leaping
into the crowd as a, quote, "full-blown brawl” ensued for several minutes.
Rolling Stone reported that while the brawl only lasted a few minutes, one person was
seen with a bloodied head.
Police eventually made their way to quell the riot.
Ozone Magazine shared that this wasn't the first time A$AP Rocky and his crew got physical
at a show.
In 2011, the rapper had issues with the size of his stage while going to perform at Fader
Fort in New York City.
His crew reportedly turned over drum sets, and when a stage technician tried to remove
the equipment, he was jumped by members of A$AP Rocky's crew and departed in an ambulance.
At a concert in Nashville's Sommet Center, now Bridgestone Arena, in 2010, a fan captured
a video of John Mayer apologizing to his bandmates after he used a racial slur in his infamous
Playboy article.
In his interview, Mayer was quoted as saying,
"Black people love me."
He then used the n-word while discussing having a, quote, "hood pass."
Mayer went on to say that he could not date Black women, explaining that his private parts
were, quote, "sort of like a white supremacist."
More specifically, he compared them to "David Duke," the former grand wizard of the Knights
of the Ku Klux Klan.
Mayer was heard in the fan's concert video stating,
"In a quest to be clever, I completely forgot about the people that I love and that love
me [...] everybody on this stage is here playing with me not because they condone what I say
in any given interview, and certainly not in the interview that's made the rounds today.
[...] They're on this stage because they support myself as a possible future grown-up."
Appearing to be crying mid-apology, he also stated,
"Maybe I need to take a break from trying to be clever and spend a little time looking
at what they see [...] I just want to play my guitar."
“I always wanted to be a stand-up, and it didn’t work well for me.”
American Songwriter pointed out that one of his background singers, who is Black, was
seen crying during his apology, and added that five out of his eight bandmates were
Black.
Mayer had also apologized on social media for using the n-word, tweeting,
"It was arrogant of me to think I could intellectualize using it because I realize that there's no
intellectualizing a word that is so emotionally charged."
Green Day's lead singer Billie Joe Armstrong is not to be messed with, especially when
he's on stage playing in front of his many fans.
During a 2012 iHeartRadio Music Festival show, the band was given 45 minutes to perform and
kicked things off with their hit "American Idiot."
Far Out reported that during the performance, Armstrong noticed a screen signaling that
they only had one more minute left on stage.
He thought that they had 20 minutes left.
Supposedly, Green Day was never informed that their set was being cut short from 45 minutes
to 25 in order to make more time for Usher.
Being the rockstar that he is, Armstrong expressed his frustrations in front of the entire crowd
and was heard yelling,
"I'm not f---ing Justin Bieber you motherf---er [...] one minute left.
Oh, now I got nothing left [...] Let me show you what one f---ing minute f---ing means!"
Armstrong proceeded to smash his guitar on stage with his band member Mike Dint following
suit.
The Guardian reported that Armstrong entered rehab for substance abuse just days after
the incident.
He later looked back on the meltdown and shared with Q,
"I thought it was more negative than it was.
Now, I think it was one of the most punk rock moments of the last 10 years.
I should have taken it as that instead of a nervous breakdown.
I know it gets pretty dark for other people that were involved, like my wife and kids,
but as a piece of theatre, it was pretty amazing."
Pop duo Milli Vanilli had us all fooled.
They were dubbed the biggest lip-syncing scandal in pop culture history by Biography.
Dancers Rob Pilatus and Fab Morvan thought they would get away with becoming one of the
most celebrated pop groups of the late '80s and early '90s, only to be finally caught
lip-syncing during a 1989 "Club MTV" performance.
Their hit song "Girl You Know It's True" became stuck on a loop — and simply wouldn't stop.
Milli Vanilli had dominated the Billboard charts before the performance, and even after
the lip-syncing scandal, their success continued for a time.
They won the Grammy for best new artist in 1990.
According to Totally80s, it wasn't long before the truth behind Milli Vanilli began to come
out.
When the duo and their producer, Frank Farian, admitted that they hadn't sung a tune for
their record, Pilatus and Morvan were forced to return their Grammy Awards.
They were fired by Farian when they insisted they be allowed to sing on their second album.
During an interview with Oprah Winfrey in 2013, Morvan looked back at the scandal and
how much it had affected him.
He shared that they had lost everything, and it was publicly harsh.
“You don't know where to turn to because there's nobody around you.
You're left alone.”
Michael Jackson has been a huge inspiration for Chris Brown, so it became an emotional
moment for the rapper when he got the chance to perform a tribute to the late King of Pop
at the 2010 BET Awards.
Brown's performance was the year after he was charged for assaulting then-girlfriend
Rihanna the night before the 2009 Grammys, and he had not been invited to pay tribute
to Jackson that year.
Brown perfected Jackson's signature moves from songs like "Remember the Time" and "Billie
Jean."
But it was when he was singing "Man in the Mirror" that the audience witnessed the rapper
breaking down by falling on his knees and crying on stage.
Mary J. Blige applauded Brown's performance by tweeting,
"Chris Brown made me cry.
We all must start with the man in the mirror."
However, MTV reported that the performance left many viewers divided, with some believing
it was a phony attempt at trying to win back the hearts of his fans.
Chris Brown has since released dozens of songs and several albums with three of his records
landing on Billboard 200's No.1 spot.
Despite making a comeback, his violence against women is still alarming.
He allegedly attacked a woman in 2021, per NBC News.
If you or someone you know is dealing with domestic abuse, you can call the National
Domestic Violence Hotline at 1−800−799−7233.
You can also find more information, resources, and support at their website.