Worst Onstage Meltdowns

ONE BAD APPLE
Fiona Apple
The famously sensitive pop waif was in a particularly fractious mood on February 29, 2000, when problems with the sound at New York’s Roseland Ballroom sent her into a lather after a couple of numbers. “You know, I just wanted to do real well in New York … but fuck! I can’t hear myself!” The situation failed to improve, prompting Apple to cut a rendition of “Carrion” short with “This song is dead! Just stop it! This is a nightmare!” Apple warned the assembled press, “Fuck you! Put your notebooks away! If there are any critics here who give me a bad review because of this I’ll fucking kill you.” Following 45 minutes of dissatisfaction, Apple started crying, mumbled something about a short break and stormed off stage.
Shame Scale (5 out of 10):

GIRL, YOU KNOW IT’S FAKE
Milli Vanilli
As part of Club MTV’s 1989 summer tour, buff Europop duo Fab Morvan and Rob Pilatus were performing their big hit “Girl You Know It’s True” at a Connecticut theme park, when the backing tape playing their vocals began skipping before failing altogether. Their lip-syncing exposed, the pair left the stage in shame. Twenty minutes later, the music suddenly started up again — sending Rob and Fab scrambling back to pick up their microphones and continue miming. The following year, their German producer Frank Farian revealed that the boys hadn’t sung a single note on their CDs. The duo were duly stripped of their Best New Artist Grammy, and a court ruling allowed disgruntled record buyers to apply for partial refunds.
Shame Scale (10 out of 10):

STUCK IN A LEMON (YOU CAN’T GET OUT OF)
U2
At the climax of the shows on their Popmart tour, U2 planned to encore from an enormous 40-foot-high lemon. But on the opening night of the tour, in Las Vegas on April 25, 1997, unexpectedly calm weather conditions failed to disperse the vast clouds of smoke that accompanied the entry of the giant fruit. The Edge, unable to see the foot-pedal to activate his guitar, had to crouch down and fumble around for it on the floor. “This voice came into my head,” he later said. “I’m Derek Smalls.” The lemon failed to open altogether later that summer in Oslo. “We pissed ourselves,” recalled The Edge. “It did open about a foot,” said manager Paul McGuinness. Eventually, the band climbed out the back and made their way to their positions by more conventional means.
Shame Scale (6 out of 10):

THE REICH STUFF
Grace Slick
The first German show of Jefferson Starship’s 1978 European tour ended in a riot when mercurial singer Grace Slick couldn’t play due, she insisted, to an upset stomach. The next night, Slick pepped herself up by drinking the entire contents of her hotel minibar before arriving at Hamburg’s Congress Centrum. When not fondling guitarist Craig Chaquico, Slick mimicked a Nazi goose-step, asked the audience “Who won the war?” and gave the “Heil Hitler” salute. Stumbling into the crowd, she reportedly groped several female onlookers before jamming her finger up a man’s nose. “I’m in Germany and I’m gonna get back at them for Dachau,” she later explained. Recorded for German TV, the concert was never broadcast, and Slick left the band immediately afterwards.
Shame Scale (9 out of 10):

FRUIT ’N NUTS
Fred Durst
When Metallica’s 2003 Summer Sanitarium tour arrived in Chicago, few of the 40,000 headbangers gathered at Hawthorne Racecourse were keen to see openers limpbizkit. Possibly incited by a feud between bizkit frontman Fred Durst and local shock-jock Erich “Mancow” Muller, the crowd held up signs reading “Fred Sucks” and pelted him with garbage and coins. Dodging the barrage of detritus, Durst suggested that the audience’s lousy aim explained why the local baseball teams were so bad — ironically, he was then struck squarely in the balls by a lemon. Calling the set to an early end, Durst berated the crowd from the wings, boasting that limpbizkit was the greatest band in the world, until his microphone was taken from him.
Shame Scale (7 out of 10):

BYE BYE LOVE
The Everly Brothers
Don and Phil Everly were five songs into the first of three scheduled sets — planned to be their final performance together — at Los Angeles’s John Wayne Theater on July 14, 1973. A drunk Don began missing notes and botching lyrics, so the venue’s manager stopped the show, later explaining that the “emotionality” of the evening led to Don’s erratic performance. Phil smashed his Gibson and stormed off, vowing to “never get onstage with that man again,” a promise he kept until 1983. Don finished the show alone, eventually telling the audience that “The Everly Brothers died 10 years ago.”
Shame Scale (8 out of 10):

FORGIVE ME, FATHER …
Scott Stapp
Messianic Creed singer Scott Stapp seemed over-refreshed before playing Chicago’s Allstate Arena on December 29, 2002, possibly due to a cocktail of Jack Daniel’s, Xanax and an anti-inflammatory steroid he’d been taking for his throat. After performing five songs, Stapp wandered off stage, and guitarist Mark Tremonti went backstage to look for him. He found the singer resting on a couch, apparently convinced he’d played a full set. Persuaded to return to the stage, Stapp removed his shirt and shoes before falling backwards over a monitor. He then got up and sang the wrong words to crowd favorites “Higher” and “Arms Wide Open.” Four fans later sued the band, demanding the entire audience be refunded.
Shame Scale (8 out of 10):

THE AWARD FOR WORST PRESENTER GOES TO …
Charlie Rich
Poised to present the Entertainer of the Year award at the 1975 Country Music Awards in Nashville, Rich — the previous year’s winner — held up the crucial envelope, took out his lighter and set fire to the results while announcing the winner as “My good buddy John Denver!” Having spent the night guzzling gin and tonics, Rich had apparently fallen victim to mixing alcohol with medication he was taking for either a broken foot or a spider bite. Denver, absent and unaware of Rich’s antics, cheerfully accepted the award via satellite from Australia. Rich attempted to clear the air with Denver by going to visit him soon afterwards in Aspen, Colorado — but Denver wasn’t home.
Shame Scale (5 out of 10):

SPRAYED IN FULL
R. Kelly
The Best of Both Worlds Tour came to an abrupt end for R. Kelly at Madison Square Garden on October 29, 2004. Kelly, co-headlining with Jay-Z, claimed that he had received a threatening phone call prior to the show. Upon seeing two men in the audience make menacing gestures — apparently intimating that they had guns — he informed the crowd that “I can’t do no show like that,” dropped his mic and left. Backstage, Kelly, in tears, tussled with Tyran “Ty Ty” Smith, one of Jay-Z’s crew. The incident ended when Kelly caught a face full of pepper spray and was rushed to the hospital. “R. Kelly is not coming back,” Jay-Z told the crowd. “If y’all waiting to see him, go home.”
Shame Scale (8 out of 10):