Pick a Day

Music History Events: Injuries

January 24, 1981 Aerosmith's Steven Tyler gets in a nasty motorcycle accident with his 17-year-old babysitter riding on the back. He spends the remainder of the year recovering, which delays the band's next album, Rock In A Hard Place.

October 12, 1979 Jethro Tull lead singer Ian Anderson has his right eye torn open by a thorn, situated on a rose an adoring fan threw on stage at the band's Madison Square Garden concert.

March 4, 1979 Randy Jackson (of The Jackson 5) is involved in a serious car crash near Los Angeles, breaking both legs and nearly dying when a nurse at the hospital nearby injects him with methadone.

August 18, 1978 The Temptations' Melvin "Blue" Franklin is shot four times in the hand and leg during an attempted carjacking in Los Angeles, but survives.

June 29, 1978 Peter Frampton gets in a bad car accident in the Bahamas, breaking his arm and suffering internal injuries. On the bright side, he gets to miss the premiere of the film he starred in, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, which is derided by critics and anyone unfortunate enough to see it.

January 26, 1977 Opening for Bob Seger at a show in Tampa, Florida, Patti Smith falls off the stage, tumbling into the orchestra pit 15 feet below. She suffers a head injury and breaks her back, leaving her in traction. During her extensive rehab, she starts working on her next album, Easter.

December 3, 1976 Bob Marley is shot in the upper arm when intruders storm his house in Kingston, Jamaica, attempting to assassinate the singer. The attack was motivated by politics, as elections in Jamaica were days away and Marley was seen as supporting the ruling party. Marley made a full recovery and never had the bullet removed, as he was told that the operation could cause him to lose movement in his fingers.

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.

April 16, 1976 Boz Scaggs goes to visit friend Bobby "Blue" Bland backstage at the famed Antone's in Austin, Texas, and is beaten unconscious by two bouncers.

January 1, 1976 Led Zeppelin lead singer Robert Plant walks for the first time following his horrible car accident in Greece the previous year.

June 23, 1975 At a stop in Vancouver on his Welcome To My Nightmare tour, Alice Cooper falls from the stage and breaks six ribs.

February 10, 1974 Phil Spector is seriously burned in a mysterious car crash while en route from Los Angeles to Phoenix, Arizona, leading to extensive plastic surgery that furthers his reclusiveness.

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.

February 2, 1973 Emerson, Lake and Palmer keyboard player Keith Emerson injures his hands when a rigged piano explodes prematurely during a San Francisco gig, leaving him with minor cuts and a broken fingernail.

December 10, 1972 Roberta Flack and two members of her backup band are injured when her bass player totals her new Citroen near Manhattan.

December 10, 1971 During a concert in London, Frank Zappa is thrown into the orchestra pit by a fan's jealous boyfriend, breaking his leg and ankle and fracturing his skull. Zappa takes months to recover.

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.

April 14, 1970 Stephen Stills breaks his wrist when he drives into a parked car. He heads to Hawaii to heal, furthering divisions within his band, Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young.

October 11, 1969 Muddy Waters is severely injured in a car crash just outside Chicago that leaves three other passengers dead. Waters will remain absent from music for about a year, and will rarely stand up on stage again.

August 18, 1969 While filming the violent gangster movie Ned Kelly in Australia, Mick Jagger is hit in the hand by a stray bullet from an old gun being used as a prop.

July 1, 1969 John Lennon receives 17 facial stitches, and Yoko Ono gets 14 of her own, after a car crash in Scotland.

June 3, 1968 Valerie Solanas shoots Andy Warhol and art critic and curator Mario Amaya at Warhol's studio in New York City. Solanas had been to see Warhol after asking for the return of a script which had apparently been misplaced. Warhol is seriously wounded in the attack and barely survives.

August 5, 1965 Production is halted on the Jan & Dean movie, Easy Come, Easy Go when 17 crew members are injured in an on-set railroad accident, with Jan Berry suffering a broken leg. The film is shelved.

May 25, 1965 Dave Davies of The Kinks falls and injures himself on stage in Cardiff, Wales, forcing cancellation of the group's tour.

October 23, 1964 J. Frank Wilson of the Cavaliers, who scored a huge teen-tragedy hit three years earlier with "Last Kiss," is badly injured in his own car crash near Lima, Ohio, one that unfortunately takes the life of the song's producer, Sonley Roush.

September 13, 1963 Graham Nash of The Hollies falls out of their touring van after a Scottish gig, leaning on an unlocked door and tumbling out at 40 mph. Thirty-six years later to the day, he breaks both legs in a boat accident off the coast of Hawaii.

June 12, 1962 Brenda Lee dislocates her neck while performing at the Latin Casino in Cherry Hill, New Jersey, and is hospitalized.

June 14, 1961 After a performance at the Majestic Theatre in Newcastle, England, Gene Vincent is mobbed by admirers who accidentally push him down a flight of stairs, where he is knocked out.

November 2, 1956 A riot breaks out at Fats Domino's show in Fayetteville, North Carolina, with police resorting to tear gas to break up the unruly crowd. Fats jumps out of a window to avoid the melee; he and two other band members are slightly injured.

July 4, 1955 Gene Vincent's leg is crushed when his motorcycle is struck by a car in Franklin, Virginia.