Top 10 Most bizarre excesses of rock stars on stage

Any clip from the MTV reality series 'The Osbournes' is enough to realize that Ozzy Osbourne is crazy. Drink and drugs do crazy things to a person. And Ozzy Osbourne took truckloads of both during his long-running career. But look, 'The Prince of Darkness' is still standing. Whatever the man does next, he will forever be mentioned in the same breath as the bat story. During his 'Diary of a Madman' tour, Ozzy's substance abuse skyrocketed. On January 20, 1982, 17-year-old Mark Neal threw a dead bat at his idol on stage at the Veterans Memorial Auditorium in Des Moines. The heavy metal singer mistook the animal for a toy and promptly bit off its head. According to Ozzy, the bat was still alive, and the bitch even bit him back. After the performance, Ozzy's crew rushed their boss to the Broadlawns Medical Center for rabies treatment. For the rest of his career, music journalists stalked the singer ad nauseam with questions about the incident. “And then they'll dig me up and ask me again!”, Ozzy once wailed in 2001. He shouldn't complain. The shrewd businessman is more than happy to capitalize on the incident by selling the 'Plush Bat': a bat cuddly toy decorated with the Ozzy Osbourne logo and with a removable Velcro head. Price tag? $40. Ozzy was not ready for his test piece. A year earlier, he bit off the head of a pigeon during a meeting with some top executives from CBS Records in L.A.. The intention was actually to release the bird in honor of his new record deal, but the artist did not understand that very well.

The nickname 'The Godfather of Shock Rock'? You have to earn that. And with his exuberant stage acts, Alice Cooper earned it with verve. The black eyeliner main shareholder still carries a guillotine and other morbid set pieces such as electric chairs, axes, swords and baby dolls bathed in pools of blood on tour. He casually walks the planks with a boa constrictor (which he named after horror actor Christopher Lee). Of course it's all fake and Cooper's crew meticulously monitors safety. But once it went wrong. During a performance at Toronto Rock and Roll Revival on September 13, 1969 at Varsity Stadium, someone threw a chicken on stage. Alice Cooper threw the chicken back... after which the swirling mob tore the animal to pieces. According to other sources, the unfortunate animal fell under the wheels of a group of wheelchair users in the front row. Some newspapers even reported that the singer bit off the chicken's head and then drank its blood. In any case, the 'Chicken Incident' immediately established Alice Cooper's illustrious live reputation. In 2015, bassist Dennis Dunaway debunked the myth. In his memoirs 'Guillotines! Electric Chairs! My Adventures in the Alice Cooper Group,” Dunaway said that in the early days the band toured with two chickens (Larry and Pecker) as mascots. Alice Cooper had little experience with poultry and assumed that chickens could fly. After all, they have wings, right? When Pecker stumbled onto the stage on that unfortunate September day, the singer launched the poor feather ball into the air. To avoid a lot of hassle with militant animal rights organizations, the band wisely blamed the fans.

In 1967, The Who decided to conquer the US after the UK. The London band already enjoyed a solid live reputation in its home country. As a thrilling finale, string picker Pete Townshend invariably smashed his guitar to pieces, while Keith Moon raged like crazy on his drum kit. 'Moon the Loon' did not steal his nickname. The then 21-year-old drummer had already driven a Cadillac into a swimming pool, demolished hotel rooms and threw explosives into toilet bowls with devilish pleasure. After their destructive Montmerey concert, The Who had their first overseas top 10 hit with 'I Can See for Miles'. That was good for an American TV debut in 'The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour' on September 16, 1967. The mod rockers of course ended with an explosive version of 'My Generation'. Literal. The ever unpredictable Keith Moon had packed his bass drum full of explosives. He did that before, but now he opted for a tenfold dose. Halfway through Pete Townshend's obligatory demolition work, a deafening explosion of fireworks suddenly sounded. A camera and studio monitor were destroyed. Singer Roger Daltrey stood at a safe distance. Keith Moon was struck by a cymbal shard and quickly fled the stage. Pete Townshend's hair was singed and the foundation for the man's later hearing problems was laid. And bassist John Entwistle? As always, he looked stoically at his idiot band members, shaking his head.

The Monterey Pop Festival convincingly kicked off the sultry 'Summer of Love' of 1967. The three-day music event attracted several established names such as The Byrds and The Mammas & the Papa's, and up-and-coming young talent such as Janis Joplin to California. But the unforgettable passage at the Monterey County Fairgrounds? That was for Jimi Hendrix. Jimi Hendrix's reputation as a guitar god was already widely spread in England. In 1966, Eric Clapton was shocked to acknowledge his superiority in the new prodigy. Now America also had to change tack. Problem: The Who just played for Jimi that Sunday, June 18, 1967. Naturally, the quartet closed their Blitzkrieg with 'My Generation' and the better demolition work, in which Pete Townshend perforated an amplifier with his guitar neck. How could Jimi top that? Sure, he had his tricks. Playing the guitar behind his back, or with his teeth, for example. But still. Jimi needed something extra. And so it happened. During 'Wild Thing' the guitarist poured a can of lighter fluid over his Fender Stratocaster. The wood burst into flames as Jimi knelt and fanned the fire like a mad shaman. Then he hit the instrument in all directions. To top it off, he threw the remains into the frenzied crowd. From now on, every American knew who Jimi Hendrix was.

According to people who were there, Iggy Pop invented the stage dive on June 13, 1970. At the Cincinnati Summer Pop Festival, the 23-year-old singer suddenly dived into the audience. A historic act that was widely followed in the coming decades. 'The Godfather of Punk' then smeared himself with peanut butter and spread the rest of the stuff on his fans. The peanut butter act at Crosley Field is just one of Iggy Pop's numerous antics from his alcohol- and cocaine-soaked 1970s. In his early years with The Stooges, the proto-punk sometimes rolled through shards of glass and regularly emptied his stomach contents onto the stage. Another time, the singer searched the audience in vain for a candidate to stab him (and ended up carving a bloody 'X' into his chest due to a lack of volunteers). During his last performance with The Stooges on February 9, 1974 at Michigan Palace, the frontman jumped into the front row where a bunch of angry bikers and the floor turned out to be his superior. Half knocked out, Iggy crawled back onto the stage and continued singing. It was only after an unfortunate fall in 2010 that Iggy Pop gave up stage diving for good. Writhing around obsessively with a bare torso, on the other hand. 's Man's performances remain a frenzied sensation. His sinewy torso has now become quite wrinkled, but still reveals the many scars of his youth.

By mid-1969, Jim Morrison's demise had finally begun. Copious amounts of drink and drugs did not leave the physical and mental health of the beautiful young supreme god untouched. During a performance in Miami on March 1, 1969, Morrison repeatedly incited the audience with lyrics such as “You wanna see my cock?” and other smut, after which he showed the entire Dinner Key Auditorium his sexual organ. According to several attendees, the singer also masturbated in front of thousands of underage fans. Jim Morrison's stage behavior resulted in a fiercely media lawsuit. His bandmates claimed at all times that their frontman had at most opened his zipper. The jury found Morrison guilty on September 20, 1970. However, the erratic singer escaped 6 months in prison thanks to a bail of 50,000 dollars. After the verdict, the word artist entered the Sunset Sound Recorders studio with The Doors for the recording of 'L.A. Woman'. That sublime, bluesy 6th album immediately became their swan song. 'The Lizard King' died on July 3, 1971 in his bathtub in Paris. 39 years later, the state of Florida pardoned Jim Morrison. Read more about Jim Morrison in our list of the Club of 27 he is part of.

As a starting band you have to stand out a bit if you want to make it. When the Red Hot Chili Peppers took their first funky steps onto the stage at the Kit Kat Club in L.A. in 1983, the audience paid more attention to the strippers present than to the band. Anthony Kiedis and co knew something about that. During their encore, the quartet suddenly jumped on stage completely naked with only a sock around their cock. Behold the birth of the famous 'Socks on Cocks' act. Over the years, the Peppers traded their bouncing funk for stadium-friendly rock. Bassist Flea kept the nudist torch high and was arrested for obscenity. The hyperkinetic slacker is still regularly spotted naked. His appearance at Woodstock 1999 is iconic, where he even left out the white sports sock and only covered his glockenspiel with a Modulus bass guitar.

Tool is an enigmatic band. And that includes an enigmatic singer. Maynard James Keenan reveals his darkest feelings on stage. He prefers to do this undisturbed, but an enthusiastic fan did not understand that during Tool's tour of The London Astoria on February 23, 1997. The fan climbed onto the stage for a hug. He got that. After which Maynard floored the unsuspecting admirer, put him in a chokehold and then sat on him for 10 minutes while he calmly sang the song 'Pushit'. Interesting detail: the Tool singer was only wearing boxer shorts at that moment. Oh, and Maynard is an ex-military and an avid practitioner of Brazilian jiu-jitsu. That's something you should know as a fan, right?

For one person, Marilyn Manson is the rightful successor to Alice Cooper, for the other, a pale imitation that has not yet reached the ankles of his great role model. Anyway: the pale scarecrow knows how to put on a show. During one of Marilyn Manson's first performances, the shock rocker had a pregnant actress iron a Nazi flag, after which the woman simulated an abortion on the ironing board. In terms of a business card, that could count. Nine Inch Nails' leader Trent Reznor immediately signed Manson to his newly founded label 'Nothing Records'. After his debut 'Portrait of an American Family', the self-proclaimed 'Antichrist Superstar' promised more spectacle. During the accompanying tour, he stirred up the crowd by, among other things, grating a broken beer bottle live over his skinny ribcage, urinating on fans and masturbating with a black strap-on dildo. Still, if you believe the local Jacksonville police. They treated Marilyn Manson to a night in jail after his performance at Club 5 on March 27, 1994. His violation of the 'Adult Entertainment Code' was followed up by a mandatory psychiatric examination. The singer later stated that he was not holding a black strap-on dildo at all: it was a pair of rubber underpants with a strategically placed opening.

Of all the unhinged lunatics who ever stormed the stage, GG Allin definitely takes the cake. The man was born with – really – the name “Jesus Christ Allin” on his birth certificate. On stage, however, he proved to be the opposite of his holy namesake. Eager to make rock music dangerous again, GG Allin farted on stage, smeared himself with his own feces and promised the audience to beat up his drummer if they thought of anything even dirtier. A fan took a bite of GG Allin's feces, after which the singer kept his word. From self-mutilation to pleas for oral gratification: nothing went too far for the dirty punk rocker. GG Allin's long-heralded 'pièce de résistance' was suicide on stage. It didn't get that far. 'The most spectacular degenerate in rock & roll history' died of an overdose on June 28, 1993. As requested in advance, GG Allin went into the coffin unwashed and unembalmed, accompanied by his favorite leather jacket, his jock strap and a bottle of Jim Beam.