Pick a Day

Music History Events: Incidents

May 17, 1966 Bob Dylan, who had recently "gone electric" and added rock and roll instruments to his folk music, appears at the Free Trade Hall in Manchester, England. Just before he begins a version of his latest hit, "Like A Rolling Stone," a member of the audience, a folk purist angry at the move to rock, shouts out, "Judas!" Dylan responds with, "I don't believe you," adding, "You're a liar!" He then proceeds to tell the band to play the song "f--king loud."

April 12, 1966 In an eerie recreation of the duo's single from the year before, Jan Berry of Jan & Dean crashes his Corvette into a parked truck on Beverly Hills' Whittier Drive, near a stretch of road in Los Angeles known as Dead Man's Curve. Berry suffers paralysis and extensive brain damage, and will require four years of rehabilitation to be able to talk and a full decade in order to perform live again.

March 18, 1965 On Moosic Street in Scranton, Pennsylvania, a tractor-trailer carrying 15 tons of bananas loses control and crashes into cars, telephone poles, and houses on its way down the hill, injuring many people and killing the driver. Singer-songwriter Harry Chapin tells the story of the tragic event in his song "30,000 Pounds Of Bananas."

December 23, 1964 After appearing on the TV show Shindig! where they perform their Christmas hit "Little Saint Nick," The Beach Boys' Brian Wilson has a nervous breakdown on a flight to Houston, where they begin a two-week tour. Wilson decides to stop performing, and Glen Campbell replaces him on the tour.

December 8, 1963 Frank Sinatra Jr. is kidnapped in Lake Tahoe, Nevada, and freed three days later after his famous father pays the $240,000 ransom. The three men responsible are eventually caught and incarcerated.

June 14, 1961 Patsy Cline gets in a nasty car accident in Nashville, when she is thrown through the windshield. She is hospitalized for about a month, during which time she is visited by the woman who will become her protégé: Loretta Lynn.

May 3, 1958 The popular disc jockey Alan Freed hosts a rock concert at the Boston Arena (a hockey rink) that does not go well. The city doesn't host another rock concert until 1964.More

April 10, 1956 Performing to an all-white audience at a segregated show in Birmingham, Alabama, Nat King Cole is attacked by four members of the Ku Klux Klan who rush the stage to assault him. Cole suffers a back injury and is treated at the hospital, but returns that night to play his second show, this time to an all-black audience. The attackers receive the maximum sentence of 180 days in jail.

July 12, 2020 Megan Thee Stallion is shot in the foot after a party at Kylie Jenner's house. She later identifies the shooter as rapper Tory Lanez, who is convicted and sentenced to 10 years in prison.

July 4, 2015 Ariana Grande licks some donuts on a display counter at Wolfee Donuts in Lake Elsinore, California.More

April 4, 2015 Marilyn Manson is sucker punched by a fellow patron at a Denny's in Alberta, Canada. The rocker, who stopped by the restaurant for a late-night meal after a show promoting his Pale Emperor album, denies claims that he insulted the assailant's girlfriend and spurred the incident.

May 27, 2012 Lady Gaga is forced to cancel a scheduled concert performance in Jakarta, Indonesia, after Islamic protesters threaten to stop the show themselves. Bearing banners saying "Go to hell, Lady Gaga," the protesters cite the singer's loose morals and revealing costumes as evidence that she is corrupting the youth. The island of Bali remains a predominantly Hindu enclave within Indonesia, with much of the rest of the population Islam, Christian, or Sikh.

September 1, 2011 While boarding a Southwest flight from Oakland to Burbank, Green Day's Billie Joe Armstrong is forced off the flight after giving some lip to a flight attendant who asked him to pull up his sagging pants. Armstrong doesn't take kindly to the request, and eventually he and his traveling companion are booted from the flight. Armstrong takes to Twitter, writing, "Just got kicked off a southwest flight because my pants sagged too low!" The tweet is quickly re-tweeted by his followers, forcing Southwest to release a statement apologizing for the incident.

September 29, 2009 After throwing wads of cash ("making it rain") on Pitbull at his gig in Aspen, Colorado, a fan receives a haymaker punch to the jaw from the singer.More

July 22, 2009 At Trae Day, an event commemorating the second anniversary of the day Houston rapper Trae was presented with a proclamation by the city of Houston, and featuring performances by Rick Ross, Trae, Rich Boy, Rocko, GS Boyson, six people get shot on the campus of Texas Southern University as a gang-related shooting starts raining in the parking lot, leading to a stampede of people who are mostly running for safety.

April 27, 2009 Pearl Jam bass player Jeff Ament is robbed outside the Atlanta studio where the band is recording. Thieves steal cash and equipment in the attack, which is reported by Rolling Stone.

July 1, 2008 Gym Class Heroes' lead singer Travie McCoy assaults a fan who shouts out a racial slur just as their set finishes during the Warped Tour in St. Louis.

May 4, 2008 Martha Reeves' (of Martha & the Vandellas) home in Detroit is burglarized and one million dollars' worth of recording equipment is stolen. In just a few hours, the perpetrator is caught while attempting to hock the merchandise for $400.

January 17, 2008 After stopping off at a local shop in London on her way home from visiting her husband, who remains in prison, Amy Winehouse blows off some steam and attacks a photographer, which leads to the singer being escorted away by the police.

August 25, 2007 While singing his 1968 hit "Fire" on stage in Lewes, England, Arthur Brown catches on fire after wearing his customary tinfoil hat with a small fire burning in the center.

June 28, 2007 Rod Stewart receives ten stitches in his leg after slipping onstage in Manchester, England.

December 30, 2006 R&B superstar Brandy is involved in a car accident on the 405 freeway in Los Angeles that kills a 38-year-old woman who is struck by her Land Rover. No criminal charges are files, and a civil suit is later settled.

November 25, 2006 Mexican banda music singer Valentin Elizalde is gunned down in his car after a concert performance, presumably by a gang of drug traffickers, at age 27. Elizalde often sang narcocorridos, "drug ballads" that have been compared to gangster rap.

May 1, 2006 Rapper Big Hawk (of Screwed Up Click) dies at age 36 when he's shot by an unidentified assailant outside of a friend's house in Houston, Texas.

April 27, 2006 62-year-old Keith Richards of The Rolling Stones falls out of a palm tree while vacationing in Fiji and goes to the hospital with a concussion, creating a rare news event on the island.

April 11, 2006 Eminem's good friend and D12 bandmate DeShaun "Proof" Holton is shot and killed at age 32 in an altercation at a sketchy nightclub in Detroit.

February 5, 2006 A 29-year-old man is shot to death near a video shoot for rapper Busta Rhymes in the Greenpoint section of Brooklyn, New York. The man worked as a bodyguard at Kiss the Cactus Productions, where the video for Rhymes's "Touch It" was being filmed.

October 23, 2005 Rapper Cam'ron is shot during an early morning carjacking attempt in Washington, D.C. Two men pull alongside Cam'ron's 2006 Lamborghini and open fire while the artist is stopped at a traffic light at New York and New Jersey avenues. He is hit by one bullet, which travels through one of his arms and into the other. He drives himself to Howard University Hospital for treatment.

November 1, 2004 Terry Knight, original manager and producer for Grand Funk Railroad, is murdered by his teenage daughter's boyfriend, Donald A. Fair. Knight, age 61, was stabbed to death when he tried to breakup an argument over Fair's drug use.

July 17, 2004 At the end of her show at the Aladdin Hotel in Vegas, Linda Ronstadt dedicates her encore, a cover of the Eagles' "Desperado," to filmmaker Michael Moore, urging fans to go see his current movie, Fahrenheit 9/11. A shocked audience reacts mostly with boos; approximately half walk out on the spot.