From the mortifying to the obscene—anything can happen!
Live music can feel like a roll of the dice—with stage routing, musicians, dancers and more all bustling to play their part. Clothing disasters, falling over, punch ups, drunken patter, wrong or forgotten lyrics, greeting the wrong city… these are some embarrassing moments for musicians. Here are 21 stand outs.
BILLY RAY CYRUS’ GUITAR GENTLY SLEEPS
At Trump’s inauguration ceremony and concert on January 20 2025, it wasn’t just Carrie Underwood who had dead air while singing the US national anthem.
Billy Ray’s axe frizzled. After “Old Town Road”, he yelped to the crew, “Is my guitar still on? I think they cut me off. I don’t hear my guitar anymore.” A guitar tech came on to fix it but failed. “It’s dead!” Cyrus declared, giving him the guitar.
Clicking Fingers
Forced into an acapella rendition of “Achy Breaky Heart” he encouraged the audience to click along with their fingers.
With zero vibe from from the crowd, he asked, “Do y’all want me to sing more, or do you just want me to get the hell off the stage? I don’t give a damn.”
Finally the lights went on but he kept wandering around the stage until someone guided him off.
“An epic disaster”, fans described the train wreck on social media.
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LED ZEPPELIN: MORE DEAD THAN LIVE AID
Led Zeppelin’s first show since they broke up in 1980 after the John Bonham’s death had all the indication it was going to be a disaster.
Jimmy Page, Robert Plant and John Paul Jones were joined by two drummers, Tony Thompson and Phil Collins, and a second bassplayer, Paul Martinez.
Philadelphia
Zeppelin were playing the Philadelphia leg of the July 13, 1985 show, before an audience of 89, 484 at the John F. Kennedy Stadium, and a global TV audience of 1.9 billion in 150 nations.
They had a 20-minute set, with “Rock And Roll”, “Whole Lotta Love” and “Stairway To Heaven”.
Intoxicated
Page was intoxicated as he stumbled onto the stage. His Gibson EDS-1275 was tuned, but the Gibson Les Paul he was handed as he walked on was not.
Among other hiccups were poorly functioning monitors. Plant had done three solo shows days before, and his voice was hoarse. Jones flew in on the day from London, and only had a one-hour rehearsal.
Rehearsals
Collins who did both the London and Philadelphia shows, didn’t want to rehearse, and was floundering.
Of their set Page agreed, “It sounds like a bit of a kamikaze stunt, really, when you think of how well everyone else was rehearsed.”
WYCLEF JEAN GETS BURNED BY JIMI
At the Woodstock ’99 festival, Wyclef Jean paid tribute to Jimi Hendrix’s two iconic appearances at 1967’s Monterey Pop and 1969’s Woodstock.
In between playing the guitar behind his head, he did the electric rendition of “The Star Spangled Banner and finished it off by setting his guitar on fire … and burned his fingers.
Flag Alight
Fire was a constant theme at the festival. Rage Against The Machine set the US flag alight.
Red Hot Chili Peppers finished their set with Hendrix’s “Fire”… leading to the audience going on a rampage, setting tents on fire, stealing from cash registers and invading the VIP area.
ANGUS YOUNG WINKS THE PINK
While powering in Belfast, Ireland, Angus Young wondered why a police sergeant was pointing and laughing.
The penny soon dropped. “My shorts had opened at the front and here was my wedding tackle waving at the audience,” Ang recalled to Classic Rock,
“Anywhere else, I would probably have been arrested. But being Belfast, they’ve got enough stuff to deal with, so they took pity on me!”
QUEENS OF THE STONE AGE NAME A DATE
Question: why did Queens of the Stone Age’s Joshua Homme, Nick Oliveri, Mark Lanegan and their sound guy Hutch tattoo themselves Freitag 4:15?
Answer: it stands for Friday 4.15 pm, the time they started their set at Germany’s Rock Am Ring festival on June 1, 2001.
By inking on their ribcages, a very painful spot, they had a permanent reminder never to put themselves or their audience through something as wretched again.
Broken Foot
As it is, Josh had a broken foot, and Mark had fallen down the backstage stairs, and weren’t in the best shape, physically and emotionally.
The technical snafus included mics not switched on leading to dead air instead of singing, and a smoke machine unexpectedly blowing.
Hands Down
It was hands down the worst show I have ever had,” remembers Oliveri. “I mean, *nothing* went right.
“I never gave up and kept trying, but never got there. Just kept playing and looking for the end of the set, which seemed to take a lifetime.”
AMY SHARK LEARNS GEOGRAPHY
As part of her Australia-wide Cry Forever tour in 2021, Amy Shark started a show greeting the people, “Hey Gold Coast!”
The crowd shouted she was in fact in Brisbane. She responded: “Brisbane! … F**k (the) Gold Coast.”
After it went viral on TikTok, Shark shot an Instagram video: “Gold Coast I’m sorry for swearing at you I was just having a slight panic attack.
“I threw you under the bus and I shouldn’t have done that because you are my home town and I love you, please forgive me.”
THE WHO BLOW UP US TV
In 1967, The Who finished their set with the anthem “My Generation”, and smash up their gear.
Keith Moon put some explosives in one of his two bass drums for additional effect.
More Powder
But before they appeared on US TV show The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour on September 17, Moon put in three times more powder.
Result: as the smoke cleared, Moon was lying on the floor with shrapnel in his arm, Pete Townshend’s hair was singed and started his permanent hearing loss, and actress Bette Davis, waiting to go on fainted.
JIMMY BARNES GOES FULL MONTY
In his book Killing Time, Jimmy Barnes recalled clearing up the mess after a a-three-day party, when he got a call from actress Rachel Ward.
She asked him to do a charity Aussies Without Cossies show appearing nude, alongside Jack Thompson, Bryan Brown, Ernie Dingo, Angry Anderson, Graeme Blundell, John Jarrett, Peter Phelps, Mike Carlton, George Negus, Jack Thompson, Hugo Weaving and Bob Ellis.
Hope
It was at Sydney’s Overseas Passenger Terminal to raise money for Hope For The Children Foundation.
The audience would include the world press and Nicole Kidman, James Packer, Collette Dinnigan, Noni Hazlehurst, Andrew Denton, Jennifer Byrne and Thomas Keneally.
“I answered a lot of things without understanding what was required in those days,” Barnes wrote.
“Plus, I was a smartarse and Rachel was a very beautiful woman. So I didn’t think twice.”
Panic
But closer to the date, Barnes started to panic and tried to weasel out of it, but to no avail.
“Of all the people in the world, I would probably be the last person to want to strip off in public.
“You couldn’t offer me enough money to do it. I’m a prude. I’m shy. So I just wasn’t doing it.”
Dance Moves
Even worse, of the five rehearsals for the dance moves to “You Can Leave Your Hat On”, Barnes could only make one.
“We’d decided that we’d end up with only our hats covering us, and then on cue, we would throw the hats in the air. And the lights would go out.
“That short time between holding the hat in place and the stage going dark seemed like a lifetime.”
The night raised $500,000. Barnes never again answered the phone when he was drunk.
KINGS OF LEON GET THE POO(P)
When Kings Of Leon started their set at the Verizon Amphitheatre in St. Louis, pigeons in the rafters started shitting with great gusto on them.
They kept going for the sake of the fans. But on the third song, bassist Jared Followill was hit on his cheek… and some of it went into his mouth.
After that, they had to abandon the show. A management spokesperson explained, “They couldn’t deal any longer. It’s not only disgusting it’s a toxic health hazard. They really tried to hang in there.”
RONDELS DO FOUR ENCORES… MIDSET
Fans of ‘60s Australian acts The Rondels and headliners Bobby & Laurie at a Sydney show were left bewildered and irritated when The Rondells trooped off and the headliners due in half an hour.
But within minutes The Rondels came out and did “Gloria”. They went off, only to return a few minutes later for another run-through of “Gloria”. They came back four times to do the same song.
The crowd didn’t know backstage there was a guy with a gun belling their manager to get them out there to play his favourite song, or else.
BON SCOTT GOES LOOKALIKE
A week after telling this writer, “The great thing about being in AC/DC is we look like the crowd and they look like us”, Bon Scott discovered how it could work against him.
Bounding around Melbourne Festival Hall, he fell off the stage. It was too high to jump back on, so he streaked across to the stage door to re-enter.
Only to be refused entry by venue security which mistook him for a gatecrashing fan.
FIFTH HARMONY TAKE THE PISS
When US girl band Fifth Harmony returned to perform on The X Factor – they’d auditioned in 2012 as solo names and went on to form the band which has sold 15 million records – Dinah Jane told the production manager just before they went on that she had to pee.
But the schedule was too tight, and she was told to hang on for five minutes.
Twenty Minutes
“Twenty minutes tick by and I was like, “I need to pee.” Right before the doors open, I’m waiting.
“I’m waiting for my pee to go away, and it started dripping down my leg, and I performed live with pee on my legs. No one noticed!”
MADONNA DON’T PREACH
Madonna has a reputation for embarrassing herself with pointless interactions with fans.
In Los Angeles, she ticked one off for sitting down during the show. Then she realised she was in a wheelchair.
“Oh, okay. Politically incorrect. Sorry about that. I’m glad you’re here.”
Fan’s Top
In Brisbane in 2016, she yanked a fan’s top down and exposed her boob after saying, “She’s the kind of girl that you just want to slap on the ass and pull…”
She then cackled something about sexual discrimination and continued with the show.
WAS KYLIE LIP-SYNCHING?
Kylie Minogue’s return to the Logies in 2014 after 25 years was trumpeted by Nine Network as something akin to the Second Coming.
But she got scathing reviews from critics, celebrities and viewers on social media, who accused her of lip-synching her new single “I Was Gonna Cancel”.
Not Great Idea
Dancing With the Stars judge Todd McKenney was among those tweeting “not sure that was a great idea for her. #mimingbadly.”
Media identity (Spicks and Specks, Eurovision) Myf Warhurst thought Kyle’s dance routine “looked like it was performed at my school camp back in 1989.”
Minogue responded: “We did something different and YES, I was singing live.”
ERIC CLAPTON: BEERS IN HEAVEN
How did Eric Clapton overnight change his status from “God” (as was scribbled on brick walls around London during the Cream days in the ‘60s) to anti-immigrant racist yob?
On August 5, 1976, the very drunk guitarist staggered on to the stage of The Odeon in Birmingham, England, and between songs, tore off a torrent of abuse with all the subtlety of a communal bedpan.
Foreigners
He asked “foreigners” at the show to raise their hands and told them they “should all leave… not just the hall, leave our country… I don’t want you here, in the room or in my country.”
“The Black w**s and c**s and Arabs and f***ng Jamaicans don’t belong here, we don’t want them here.”
England, he yapped, is “a white country” made “for white people.”
Backlash
The backlash was swift and angry. The Guardian called him a hypocrite as “Clapton’s career was based on appropriating (B)lack music, and he had recently had a hit with Bob Marley’s ‘I Shot the Sheriff’.”
Already alarmed by racially motivated murders sweeping Britain, and the growing popularity in some cities of the far-right National Front, the music industry put together Rock Against Racism.
Between 1976 and 1982, black and white acts would symbolically play concerts together, also inspiring anti-fascism political activism in the UK and Europe.
NIRVANA GIVE A TOSS
The 1992 MTV Awards on September 9 was memorable to Nirvana for various reasons.
But for Krist Novoselic it was how he ended up bloody after an ill-fated bass guitar throw.
Nirvana’s new found popularity status was confirmed when they won the New Artist and Alternative Video categories for “Smells Like Teen Spirit”.
Toxic
The mood backstage was toxic, after a fracas between Nirvana and Guns N’Roses.
When Courtney Hole teased Axl Rose by asking if he would be godfather to Frances Bean, her child with Kurt Cobain, the Gunner took it the wrong way.
He barged over to Cobain and screamed, “Keep your b***h on a leash!”
Punch Up
A lot of shouting resulted, and Krist Novoselic and Duff McKagan almost got into a punch-up.
The mood extended on to the stage. Nirvana had wanted to play “Rape Me” but sulkily settled for “Lithium” after a week of angry phone calls with the show’s producer.
Freak Out
Nirvana did play “Lithium” but only after the opening of “Rape Me” to freak out the producers.
During their performance, Krist’s amp cut out, so the lanky musician (standing 6ft 7 or 200.7 cm) decided to throw his axe 25 feet (his estimate) in the air and walk off.
“Well, the bass got caught in the TV lights, and then boom! It fell on my head,” he recalled.
Bleeding
His forehead bleeding heavily, he stumbled off stage, and paramedics quickly bandaged him.
“I had to sign all these release forms so I’m not gonna sue anybody. It was in front of 200 million people, right!?”
GINA GLEASON TAKES A TUMBLE
Gina Gleason of Baroness is very specific about the time she lost her cool during a show.
It was during my time playing guitar for Michael Jackson: ONE by Cirque du Soleil, she related to Premier Guitars.
“I remember feeling very confident as I ran across the stage to reach the top of a large multi-tiered light-up set piece.”
Tripped
“I jumped to the first step fine and then tripped over my own feet, sending myself (and worse yet, my guitar) flying face and fretboard-first into the next two huge steps.”
“I’ll never forget the sound of my open strings clanging and feeding back.”
“As I crawled my way to the top of my destination to finish the song, I felt a cold, oily surge rushing down the front of my shin.”
Peel Pieces
“At the end of the show, I had to peel my costume pieces away from the river of then-dried blood that encased my leg.
“I jumped in my car to head to urgent care and received 17 stitches to the front of my shin. I guess I was running a little too hard that night!”
SPORTS GO JAZZ!
After a triumphant tour through the UK which set Aussie band The Sports as the “next big thing”, they went on to America.
They opened their US tour at the Bottom Line in New York where they were told Mick Jagger, Iggy Pop, Billy Joel and legendary record executive Clive Davis were attending.
Nerves
Nerves got the better of them. By this stage the relationship between singer Stephen Cummings and guitarist Martin Armiger was not great.
They scribbled out a setlist but there was no actual mdiscussion as to which of three songs to start with.
As a result, the rhythm section started with “Strangers On A Train” and the guitars with “Don’t Throw Stones”.
Free Jazz
“It sounded like free jazz!” chuckled guitarist Andrew Pendlebury. “We had to stop of course, and start again, we never recovered really.
“We finished the gig but the vibe was gone, we couldn’t get it back again.”
BLACK EYED PEES?
Heavy traffic delayed the Black Eyed Peas’ arrival at a 2005 show in San Diego.
Fergie had a full bladder, but there was no time to get to the loo. She ran on to the high adrenalin “Let’s Get It Started”.
Jump And Run
She remembered: “I get crazy and I jump and I run across the stage and my adrenaline was going and then it happened!”
The yellow stream flowed down her knee-length khaki shorts and, super-trouper, she finished off the show with wet patch showing.
KNEE DOWN FOR DRAKE
Following a severe knee injury in 2009, Drake’s doctors told him not to go on tour with the star-studded America’s Most Wanted tour because it needed a year to heal.
But the up and comer didn’t want to let the crowds down.
Duet
But during a show in Camden, New Jersey, while duetting with his mentor Lil’ Wayne, Drake tried a spin while moving across the stage. He immediately collapsed to the floor and was carried off stage.
Wheelchair
He quipped that Drake had played a wheelchair-bound character on Degrassi: The Next Generation.
Weezy’s problem was to finish the song, bringing a girl up from the audience to do Drake’s part. By the next show, they got in Chris Brown to step in.
ROD STEWART GETS HUNG UP
Rod Stewart had raucous moments onstage, especially during the boozy Faces who even had a full stocked bar on stage with them.
But he told People that his biggest blunder involved his microphone.
“I’m well known for throwing the microphone and standing around, and I threw it up one night and it didn’t come down because it got stuck in the lighting rig, so I felt really stupid.”
Air Supply
An onstage embarrassment was served out by Stewart to Australian band Air Supply when they toured America together in the ‘70s.
Stewart told the 30,000-strong crowd that the after-party was in their Holiday Inn hotel, across the road.
Rushed
This was unexpected, and Air Supply’s entourage rushed over to the hotel to warn security of an impending invasion of thousands of fans.
There was panic, first when the hotel told them it only had two security guys on duty.
Checked Out
Secondly, Rod and his entourage had already checked out of the hotel before the show, planning to catch a private jet out to watch a UK soccer match in the air.
Air Supply spent the rest of the night hiding in their rooms, beds and cupboards pushed against the doors, as excited fans roamed the corridors for the party.
