5 of the Most Memorable On-Stage Meltdowns in Rock History

Rock music is not without its drama, and sometimes that drama manifests into serious on-stage meltdowns. Let’s look at just five times famous rock stars decided to pause their shows to start a fight. Some of these might surprise you, but some definitely won’t.

1. Dave Grohl in 2011

Dave Grohl may be embroiled in drama nowadays, but he was never one to really cause a dramatic scene on stage. However, back in 2011 while performing at iTunes Festival, he decided to pause his performance to give a violent fan a good tongue-lashing from the stage. Allegedly, someone was punching people in the crowd and causing a disturbance, so Grohl called them out directly.

“You don’t f***ing fight at my show, you a**hole!” shouted Grohl before ordering the offender out of the pit.

2. Paul Stanley in 1999

Back in 1999, KISS was performing at a concert when a fan decided it would be hilarious to point a laser pointer directly into Paul Stanley’s eyes. The rock star took to the mic to set things straight.

“Put it in your pocket or I’ll put it in your a**,” said Stanley, which the crowd seemed to love.

Unfortunately, the same thing happened again 10 years later at an Oregon concert, and Stanley had to give the fan a stern talking to yet again.

3. Billy Corgan in 2008

Billy Corgan can be controversial at times, but we can’t help but be on Corgan’s side for this one. In 2008, Corgan was performing a set with Smashing Pumpkins when a “fan” shouted “Last night’s show f***ing sucked!” from the crowd. Why that fan decided to show up to another Smashing Pumpkins concert is beyond us.

Corgan didn’t let the comment slide and sarcastically offered a refund before making a lewd joke about the fan from the stage.

4. Josh Homme in 2008

This frontman of Queens Of The Stone Age had a certified meltdown on stage at Norwegian Wood Festival after an audience member threw either a bottle or a shoe at him, depending on who you ask. Pretty quickly, Homme started hurling threats and insults at the offender, which ended up drawing some controversy in the media for how homophobic the insults started to get.

5. Axl Rose… Multiple Times

This wouldn’t be a list of on-stage rock music meltdowns without mentioning all the times Axl Rose of Guns N’ Roses decided to do something wild on stage. Rose’s volatility was part of his appeal as a rock star, so all the times he decided to punch crowd members and jump off stage weren’t exactly shocking. Though, causing a riot in 1991 was pretty excessive, in our opinion.

Photo by EPA-EFE/Shutterstock

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