Pick a Day

Music History Events: Alcohol Involved

March 4, 1994 Kurt Cobain of Nirvana spends 20 hours in a coma after overdosing on Rohypnol (a prescription sedative) and champagne.

November 26, 1993 U2 play shorthanded for the only time when bass player Adam Clayton misses a show in Sydney after blacking out from a bender (his tech, Stuart Morgan, fills in). When the tour ends two weeks later, Clayton goes to rehab and gives up alcohol.

October 17, 1993 Criss Oliva (lead guitarist for Savatage) is killed by a drunk driver in Zephyrhills, Florida, at age 30.

August 21, 1993 John Denver blows a .14 when his Porsche is pulled over in Aspen, Colorado, where the legal limit is .10. He pleads guilty to driving while impaired and is sentenced to 28 hours of community service, which includes performing a benefit concert for the Tipsy Taxi service.

October 4, 1991 R&B singer J. Frank Wilson dies at age 49, after years of alcohol abuse takes its toll.

November 25, 1988 Having successfully completed their stint in an Arizona rehab clinic for alcoholism, Ringo Starr and his second wife, actress Barbara Bach, return to England.

October 4, 1988 Determined to finally clean his system of the alcohol and drugs he's been abusing for years, Ringo Starr, along with wife Barbara Bach, flies to Tucson, Arizona, to enter the Sierra Tucson Rehabilitation Clinic. He stays six weeks.

February 28, 1985 Uriah Heep lead singer David Byron dies at his Berkshire home from liver disease and seizures caused by excessive consumption of alcohol. He is just 38 years old.

December 8, 1984 Nicholas "Razzle" Dingley (of Hanoi Rocks) dies in a drunk-driving accident in Redondo Beach, California. The 24-year-old drummer is the passenger in a car driven by Motley Crue's inebriated frontman, Vince Neil.

October 28, 1984 Wells Kelly (drummer, keyboardist for Orleans), age 34, dies of asphyxiation after a night of hard partying while on tour with Meat Loaf in London, England.

March 15, 1979 At a party following a Stephen Stills concert, Elvis Costello gets in an argument with Bonnie Bramlett of Delaney and Bonnie, and reportedly refers to Ray Charles as a "blind, ignorant ni--er." Costello pleads inebriation, and says he was just trying to outrage her.

September 29, 1976 At his 41st birthday party, a drunk Jerry Lee Lewis attempts to shoot a soda bottle with his .357 Magnum and instead hits his bass player, Norman Owens, twice in the chest. Owens makes a full recovery.

February 4, 1974 John Lennon begins his "Lost Weekend," which lasts 18 months. Separating from Yoko, he goes on an extended bender, often joined by his friend Nilsson.

February 1, 1974 Guitarist Eric Bell leaves Thin Lizzy due to ill health brought on by alcohol abuse.

June 1, 1973 Former Soft Machine drummer Robert Wyatt breaks his spine after attempting to leave a party by climbing down a drainpipe and falling three stories. It leaves Wyatt permanently crippled and confined to a wheelchair.

June 11, 1971 A drunken Dennis Wilson, drummer for The Beach Boys, accidentally puts his hand through the glass door of his home, severing nerves that keep him from his instrument for the better part of three years.

August 4, 1970 The Doors' Jim Morrison is arrested in Los Angeles for public drunkenness after being found lying unconscious on a resident's doorstep.

November 11, 1969 En route to a to a Rolling Stones concert, Jim Morrison of The Doors is arrested by the FBI for drunk and disorderly behavior and interfering with the flight of an aircraft in Phoenix, Arizona, after a flight attendant on his trip from Los Angeles accuses him of attacking and sexually harassing her. Morrison and his flight companion, American actor Tom Baker, spend the night in the local jail but are released the next day on $2,500 bail. The charges are later dropped.

January 28, 1968 During their tour in Australia, members of The Who and The Small Faces, among others, are escorted off their flight from Adelaide to Essendon for drinking beer on the plane, being rowdy, and using "very bad language." Two of the flight's four attendants are said to be in tears.

March 17, 2018 At their St. Patrick's Day concert in Brussels, The Script buy everyone in the audience of 8,000 a drink, setting a Guinness World Record for "world's biggest round."

September 28, 2016 Lily Allen's wish to have the man of her dreams throw her over his shoulder and carry her off comes true when she drinks herself into a stupor at the Notting Hill Carnival.More

August 14, 2016 Nearing the end of a summer concert season where fans have been tailgating with improvised toilets, police in Mansfield, Massachusetts, warn they will not be tolerated at the upcoming Jimmy Buffett concert.More

October 24, 2012 R&B singer Bobby Brown is arrested in Los Angeles, California, for a DUI ticket - after a similar incident in March of the same year in which he'd pleaded no contest and agreed to attend rehab. This time he is released on bail.

July 29, 2011 At a Dallas concert, Kings Of Leon frontman Caleb Followill leaves the stage after complaining about the heat. He never returns, and the band cancels the rest of their tour. The incident is officially blamed on "dehydration," but Caleb's brother (and bass player) Jared later Tweets: "There are problems in our band bigger than not drinking enough Gatorade."

July 17, 2011 Wolfmother frontman Andrew Stockdale gets wasted at the Archive Bar in Brisbane, where a local Beatles tribute band is performing. After crashing the stage and drunkenly screeching along to "Let It Be," he refuses to leave and is arrested when police arrive. He spends a night in jail and is fined $350.

September 16, 2010 Country singer Justin Townes Earle is arrested in Indianapolis after storming offstage and trashing a green room. Reports say Earle was also intoxicated and he allegedly punched a woman backstage. Earle is forced to pay $200 in damages to the venue but is released from jail on a $150 bond.

January 9, 2005 Neo soul singer D'Angelo is arrested for drunk driving in his Richmond, Virginia, hometown. He is also charged with possession of marijuana and possession of a controlled substance.

January 5, 2003 Green Day lead singer Billie Joe Armstrong is arrested for drunk driving in Berkeley, California, after he is caught speeding in his BMW convertible and blows a .18.More

July 9, 2001 During an appearance on MTV's TRL, four of the Backstreet Boys announce their Black & Blue tour will be put on hold so their fifth member, AJ McLean, can enter rehab to treat alcoholism and depression.

April 21, 2001 Peter Buck of R.E.M. gets unruly on a British Airways flight and is arrested. He is accused of drinking 15 glasses of wine, overturning a service cart and engaging in other bad behavior, but charges are eventually dropped. Buck claimed that ingesting both a sleeping pill and wine caused him to lose it.