Top 10 Onstage Freakouts By Musicians

Josh Homme of Queens of the Stone Age is well-known for his short fuse and irritable personality. One only needs to watch his profanity-filled tirade against an audience member at Norwegian Wood to know that. Another shocking moment came at the KROQ’s Almost Acoustic Christmas concert, when Homme kicked a photographer, seemingly without reason. According to the photographer, Chelsea Lauren, Homme violently kicked her camera, which was driven into her face. She was forced her to seek medical treatment at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. Homme later apologized, saying that he was “lost in performance.”

Well, evidently not. After an irritated Chad Kroeger asks the audience if there are any Nickelback fans in Portugal, he is met with tame cheers. He then asks if they want to “hear some rock and roll” or “go home” before petulantly raising his hands in bewilderment. He is then smacked in the head by a thrown item, which results in Chad defiantly saying goodbye to the crowd before walking offstage and flipping them off. If there were any Nickelback fans in Portugal that night, the band likely lost them with this performance.

He may go by the stage name Father John Misty, but chances are most fans didn’t shell out music festival cash for a sermon about the numbed collective consciousness, political beliefs or philosophical musings. Tillman was set to perform at WXPN’s XPoNential Festival, but rather than grabbing his guitar and putting on a show, he decided to smoke a cigarette and lecture about the numbing effect of the entertainment industry, the nature of evil, and the stupidity of the world. He then improvised a winding piece before covering Leonard Cohen and prematurely walking offstage. We don’t know if he was on something, but it sure killed the audience’s buzz.

Axl Rose, vocalist of Guns N’ Roses, certainly has a flair for the dramatic. He is infamous for his tirades and meltdowns, but the best of the bunch has to be this one, which sees him literally jumping into the crowd. After telling security to take away a man’s camera, Axl proceeds to jump into the crowd and take action into his own hands. He then blames the “lame ass security” before slamming the microphone down and storming offstage.It’s not every day you see an entertainer leaving the stage to literally attack their own fans, but hey, Axl Rose has always been one of a kind. You never know what you’re going to get with him.

OK, this is one we can actually understand. While playing in Brazil, Love stopped the show to deride a fan who was constantly throwing up a picture of Kurt Cobain, frontman of Nirvana and husband to Love for two years before he committed suicide. She called the fan “rude,” explaining that she has to live with the memory of Kurt every day and that throwing up pictures of him is disrespectful and “stupid.” The man apparently does it again, because she curses him out, flips him off, and leaves the stage. Most onstage freakouts are childish, but this one, while still unpleasant, feels heavier and more personal.

Speaking of Kurt Cobain, here he is in action doing very…Kurt Cobain things. Kurt was seemingly hammered for this performance, as he randomly stops performing in the middle of the song, staggers backwards, and slams his guitar into the ground. He then goes on a rampage of destruction, which includes destroying the drum kit, knocking over and viciously headbutting the amps, and using the drum’s cymbal as a blunt instrument. Like his similarly weird freakout at the Hollywood Rock Festival, it’s hard to tell if this is just a drunken escapade, or an unwell man desperately crying out for help.

While they were performing at Taste of Fort Collins (yes, Smash Mouth has resorted to playing at food festivals), fans began to playfully throw bread on stage. Vocalist Steve Harwell then went on an insane tirade, inviting the bread-throwing “badass” on stage, threatening to beat them up, and calling them names, all in the presence of children. Meanwhile, the band is hilariously trying to start “All Star” to no avail. The image of the band trying to play “All Star” while Harwell hurling insults at the audience for throwing bread on stage is just surreal.

No, we take that back: THIS is surreal. Sparks, co-founder and vocalist of metal band L7, was truly not feeling up to facing the wrath of the crowd on this day. While playing at England’s Reading Festival, the band experienced technical difficulties, and the irate crowd began to fling mud at the stage in frustration. In retaliation, Sparks took out her tampon, said “Eat my used tampon” followed by an expletive, and flung it at the crowd. It’s hard to know where to begin with this. We’re used to vocalists yelling at people, jumping into crowds, and destroying equipment, but this…this is something else.

This is one of the most well-known meltdowns in internet history - musical or otherwise. Green Day was performing at the iHeartRadio Festival in Las Vegas when vocalist Billie Joe Armstrong noticed that they only had one minute of stage time remaining. Rather than bowing out gracefully and putting on a hell of a final minute, Armstrong abruptly stopped the song and went on a slurred, profanity-filled tirade, complete with declarations of how long he’s been around and that he isn’t Justin Bieber (whatever that’s supposed to mean). He then destroys his guitar, flips off the officials, and saunters offstage. We’ve seen angry people before, but this is a full-on meltdown for the ages.

Kanye West has always been a controversial and dramatic figure, but he elevates his game here and delivers what is surely the greatest meltdown in music history. After showing up ninety minutes late to the show, West performed very briefly before randomly exploding into a diatribe which touched on many topics, including fellow celebrities like Beyoncé and Jay-Z, the politics of Hillary Clinton, and pop radio playlists. He then dropped the mic and stormed offstage. To make matters worse, he then cancelled the remaining dates of the tour, citing stress and exhaustion. Now THAT is a meltdown.