Pick a Day

Music History Events: Injuries

November 19, 1954 While driving from Vegas to Los Angeles, Sammy Davis, Jr. crashes into another car on Route 66 in San Bernardino, California, and three days later, permanently loses use of his left eye. While in the hospital, friend Eddie Cantor tells Davis about the twin struggles of the Jewish and African-Americans, leading Davis to convert to Judaism. (The accident, paradoxically, increased his popularity.)

August 2, 1953 Skeeter Davis, still a member of the Davis Sisters, breaks both her arms and legs in a car crash near Cincinnati, Ohio, a crash which also kills fellow Davis "sister" Betty Jack Davis.

November 10, 2017 Outsider her home in Nashville, Carrie Underwood takes a nasty fall, breaking her wrist and mangling her face. She doesn't appear in public again until April 15, 2018, when she performs "Cry Pretty" - a song partly inspired by the incident - at the ACM Awards.

October 16, 2017 Ed Sheeran breaks his wrist and elbow in a biking accident, forcing him to cancel dates on his tour of Asia. He calls his time off "the most depressing six weeks of my life."More

September 26, 2015 The day after releasing his debut album, Up Next, rapper Fetty Wap is injured in a motorcycle accident in Paterson, New Jersey, when he collides head-on with an oncoming vehicle. His injuries put him out of action, but thanks to the hit single "Trap Queen," the album climbs the charts and hits #1 while he's still in the hospital. When Fetty returns to the stage on October 22 at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, he does his set from a specially designed throne with his injured leg elevated.

April 12, 2015 Florence Welch of Florence + the Machine breaks her foot leaping off the stage at Coachella. For the next several weeks, she sits during performances, per doctor's orders.

March 11, 2015 Slipknot guitarist Mick Thomson and his brother, Andrew, are both rushed to the hospital after a knife fight with each other. According to police, the injuries are not life-threatening.

January 24, 2015 INXS guitarist Tim Farriss severs the ring finger on his left hand while operating a winch on his boat. Doctors reattach the digit after two surgeries.

May 25, 2014 Two members of the Japanese girl group AKB48, along with a staff member, are attacked by a saw-wielding maniac during a meet-the-fans event. The victims are treated for cuts and fractures while the suspect is arrested for attempted murder.

August 15, 2012 Members of the metal band Baroness are injured when their tour bus falls off the road while traveling in England. Lead singer John Baizley's left arm is shattered and his left leg broken; drummer Allen Blickle and bass player Matt Maggioni each suffer spinal fractures. Baizley manages to keep his arm and resume his duties as frontman/guitarist, but Blickle and Maggioni leave the band.

October 25, 2011 Steven Tyler of Aerosmith falls in a shower during a stay in a Paraguay hotel, knocking out two teeth. A local dentist repairs the famous mouth, and Tyler performs the next day.

August 8, 2011 While on tour with Maroon 5 and Train, Gavin DeGraw is attacked by a group of men on a New York City street. He suffers a broken nose and is taken to Bellevue Hospital for treatment.

June 11, 2011 Jessie J ruptures tendons in her foot while rehearsing for the Capital Radio Summertime Ball. She does her set the next day from a throne; 13 days later she would perform a seated set once again at the Glastonbury Festival.

May 21, 2010 The Go-Go's guitarist Jane Wiedlin falls off a 20-foot cliff while hiking near San Francisco, mangling her knees and forcing the band to cancel their upcoming reunion tour.

April 17, 2010 When Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros frontman Alex Ebert takes the stage at Coachella, he clumsily knocks a microphone stand into the crowd. A guy in the audience catches it with his forehead, and blood spills all over the place. Ebert, horrified, gives the guy his sportcoat and his shirt to staunch the bleeding, and performs the set topless. It proves a breakout performance for the band, whose song "Home" starts showing up everywhere.

December 6, 2009 Weezer's tour bus crashes, forcing them to cancel the rest of their tour. Frontman Rivers Cuomo is injured, but is back in action six weeks later.

August 5, 2009 Steven Tyler of Aerosmith falls off the stage at the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally in South Dakota, suffering injuries to his head and neck, which force the rest of the band's tour to be canceled. Tyler falls when he is entertaining the crowd with a dance while a technical problem is being sorted.

June 5, 2006 Elliot Easton of The Cars breaks his clavicle when the band's tour bus swerves to avoid an accident, and Easton falls out of the bunk. Performing with "The New Cars" fronted by Todd Rundgren, he plays four shows in a brace before getting surgery, which ends the tour.

August 7, 2005 "Walking In Memphis" singer Marc Cohn is shot in the head during an attempted carjacking in Denver, Colorado. Miraculously, he makes a full recovery.More

December 9, 2003 Ozzy Osbourne crashes his quad bike, breaking several bones, including his collarbone, and fracturing vertebrae. The injuries are considerable, but not life-threatening.

August 7, 2002 Ween drummer Claude Coleman, Jr. breaks his back and pelvis in a car accident. The other members of Ween organize benefit shows to help cover Coleman's medical bills, and in December 2002, Coleman returns to his place behind the drum kit.

July 26, 2002 A week before he is due to sign a contract with Universal South Records, Matthew West suffers a serious injury to his arm. Having accidentally locked himself in his house, West attempts to escape through a window, but his arm goes straight through the glass pane. West is rushed to hospital, where he is told he came close to severing a major artery. He will go on to fully recover from the incident.

July 23, 2000 Mike Diamond of Beastie Boys gets mangled in a bike accident while riding in New York City, forcing the group to cancel their planned Rhyme & Reason tour with Rage Against the Machine. Diamond, who took the spill after hitting a dastardly pothole, has surgery to repair a fifth degree joint dislocation in his shoulder.

June 27, 1996 Fugees headline the "Hoodshock" festival in Harlem, which the group organized as a free event to encourage voter registration. The Notorious B.I.G., Sean "Puffy" Combs and Wu-Tang Clan also perform, but the event makes headlines for a panic set off at the end of the festival when a man fires gunshots into the air. In the chaos, about 30 people are injured.

May 7, 1994 Dead Kennedys lead singer Jello Biafra, in the audience for a show by the Fixtures at the 924 Gilman Street club in Berkeley, California, is seriously injured when a mosher lands on his leg and then starts a fight with him. According to Biafra, the mosher and his friends kicked him in the head and called him a "sellout rock star."

August 19, 1991 At CNE Stadium in Toronto on the last date of the Operation Rock & Roll tour, Judas Priest lead singer Rob Halford's motorcycle entrance goes horribly wrong and he hits a metal beam, breaking his nose and spraining his neck. He completes the show up is taken to a hospital immediately afterward.

August 19, 1989 Lou Reed breaks his ankle after a soundcheck in Cleveland, and is forced to cancel the remainder of his tour.

August 25, 1987 Mötley Crüe lead singer Vince Neil suffers a mustard-related injury when he angrily breaks a jar of Gulden's before a show in Rochester, New York (he wanted Frenchie's). The show is cancelled, and Neil is airlifted to Baltimore, where surgeons work to repair nerve and tendon damage in his hand.

May 30, 1987 The Deep Purple House Of Blue Light tour is cancelled when Ritchie Blackmore breaks a finger showboating at a concert in Phoenix, Arizona.

January 26, 1986 Lynyrd Skynyrd guitarist Allen Collins is left paralyzed from a car accident that kills his female companion. He can't play with the re-formed band the next year, but chooses his replacement: Randall Hall.