Pick a Day

Music History Events: Injuries

June 12, 2015 Dave Grohl falls off the stage and breaks his leg during a Foo Fighters show in Gothenburg, Sweden. He gets medical attention but returns to finish the show, propped up while someone holds his leg. The rest of their European tour is cancelled while he gets surgery, but the tour resumes on July 4 in Washington, DC, with Grohl performing from a custom-made guitar throne.

June 7, 2009 After performing the Poison hit "Nothin' but a Good Time" at the Tony Awards, Bret Michaels has a run-in with the set, and the set wins. He cuts his lip and fractures his nose in the incident.More

October 23, 2002 Kanye West, recently signed to Roc-a-Fella Records, falls asleep at the wheel and crashes his car into an oncoming vehicle. His jaw is shattered, inspiring his song "Through The Wire," which he records with his jaw wired shut. The song appears on his debut album, The College Dropout, in 2004.

May 24, 2000 50 Cent is shot nine times while in the backseat of a parked car. He lives, but is dropped by his label, Columbia. Moving to G-Unit, he becomes a superstar a few years later, with the shooting front and center on his bio.

December 30, 1999 George Harrison is nearly killed when the mentally disturbed Michael Abram breaks into his home and stabs him in the chest. Harrison's wife, Olivia, saves her husband by attacking Abram with a poker and a table lamp. George suffers a collapsed lung, but survives.

October 28, 1999 Performing at the Adams Mark hotel in Dallas, Kenny Rogers throws a frisbee that hits a chandelier. The broken glass hits audience member Kevin O'Toole, who claims that it leaves his face scarred and ruins his sex life. Both he and his wife sue Rogers, claiming the singer "deprived her of the services, love and guidance of her husband."

March 6, 1998 Liam Gallagher of Oasis headbutts 19-year-old British fan Benjamin Jones, breaking his nose. The incident takes place in Brisbane outside of the singer's hotel. Gallagher is charged with assault, but Jones later drops the case and pursues civil charges.

September 7, 1996 Rap star Tupac Shakur is shot five times in a drive-by following a boxing match in Las Vegas. He dies six days later at age 25.More

August 14, 1994 Bob Dylan, who refused an invitation to the original 1969 festival, performs on the last day of Woodstock '94, singing "It Ain't Me Babe," "It's All Over Now, Baby Blue," "Masters Of War," "Just Like A Woman," and "Highway 61 Revisited" on the main North Stage. Over on the South Stage, Green Day frontman Billie Joe Armstrong wallops fistfuls of mud at fans and incites an all-out mudfight. Bassist Mike Dirnt gets his front teeth knocked out by a security guard in the chaos.

August 8, 1992 Opening for Guns N' Roses at a show in Montreal, James Hetfield of Metallica is injured by the pyrotechnics, which burn the entire left side of his body. Metallica can't continue, and Guns N' Roses cut their set short after just 15 minutes when Axl Rose leaves the stage, upset over monitor problems. A near riot ensues at Olympic Stadium as fans are not pleased.

May 10, 1991 Bushwick Bill of the Geto Boys gets a signature look when he loses his right eye after being shot by his girlfriend.

August 13, 1990 While warming up for an outdoor concert at Wingate Field in Flatbush, Brooklyn, Curtis Mayfield is paralyzed when a lighting tower falls from the stage and onto his back. He remains a quadriplegic for the next nine years until his death in 1999.

March 20, 1990 Near Scranton and heading for a show in Syracuse, Miami Sound Machine's tour bus is hit by a tractor trailer on a snowy highway. Gloria Estefan suffers a serious spinal injury requiring four hours of surgery.More

October 7, 1986 The Police release their final single, "Don't Stand So Close To Me '86," and then call it a career. They had hoped to reunite and record another album but injury and conflict lead to Stewart Copeland declaring they can no longer work together.More

October 8, 1985 Little Richard crashes a rented Nissan 300SX into a telephone pole in West Hollywood. The accident nearly kills him, and his right leg is so badly broken it requires two operations to repair. He credits God with saving his life and continues to preach.

December 31, 1984 Def Leppard drummer Rick Allen loses an arm when he crashes his Corvette. He continues with the band, using computer aids and relying more on his feet.More

January 27, 1984 At the peak of his popularity, Michael Jackson films an ad for Pepsi that goes horribly wrong when some stray pyro sets his hair on fire.More

October 10, 1977 An audience member throws an M-80 firecracker on stage at an Aerosmith show at The Spectrum in Philadelphia. The explosion injures lead singer Steven Tyler's cornea and guitarist Joe Perry's hand. The next year, Tyler is hit in the face with a bottle when they play the arena.

August 8, 1975 Hank Williams Jr. nearly meets his doom when he falls 500 feet down Ajax Mountain in Montana. He survives, but with some facial scars he will often cover with a hat, beard, and sunglasses.

August 4, 1975 While vacationing on the Greek Island of Rhodes, Led Zeppelin lead singer Robert Plant and his family are badly injured in a car accident, forcing the cancellation of an upcoming US tour. Doctors tell Plant he may never walk again, but he makes a full recovery.

October 18, 1974 Al Green's "Grits Incident": When a stewardess friend of Green's shows up to meet the singer, he ends up at his Memphis home with her and his companion, Mary Woodson, who is dangerously obsessed with the singer. When Green goes into the bathroom to brush his teeth, Woodson bursts in and pours a pot of boiling grits on him, burning him badly before going in the next room and killing herself with his gun. Green takes these disturbing events as a sign from God and focuses his career on gospel music and preaching.More

August 6, 1973 A devastating car accident drops Stevie Wonder down to two senses, as he temporarily loses smell and taste after the vehicle he's riding in runs into the back of a logging truck, and a log hits him in the face. He is in a coma for four days, but makes a strong recovery and returns to the studio in a few weeks.

March 24, 1973 A fan shouting "Leather!" jumps on stage and bites Lou Reed in the butt during a concert in Buffalo. The fan is ejected and Reed is left with a sore posterior.

March 31, 1967 At the Astoria Theatre in London, Jimi Hendrix sets fire to his guitar for the first time, and goes to the hospital after the show with minor burns. During the rest of the tour, Hendrix makes a habit of playing his guitar with his teeth, and he ignites his axe a few more times.More

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.

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.

July 11, 2022 On just the second date on their Public Service Announcement tour, their first in 11 years, Rage Against The Machine frontman Zack de la Rocha tears his Achilles tendon jumping on stage. They finish the North American portion of the tour but are forced to cancel the rest of it, which is planned for 2023.

February 16, 2015 Red Hot Chili Peppers bass player Flea breaks his arm in five places in a gnarly snowboarding accident.More

May 24, 2010 At a Lamb of God concert in Prague, lead singer Randy Blythe pushes an encroaching fan off the stage. The man falls backward, hits his head, and dies two weeks later from the injury. Blythe doesn't know that the fan is seriously injured, and isn't aware of it when Czech authorities issue a warrant for his arrest. When the band returns to play a show in 2012, police detain Blythe and hold him in prison for five weeks. He later stands trail and is cleared of the charges.

September 19, 2008 Blink-182 drummer Travis Barker and DJ AM are seriously injured when the plane they are riding in hurtles off the end of a runway in South Carolina and hits a highway embankment.More