When has rock music ever been safe, relaxed, and, well, normal? Rebellion is at the heart of the genre and all of its evolutions and iterations through the years, after all. Still, some fans think the following three rock stars were a little bit too aggressive when they committed these classic rock crimes in front of a live audience. Let’s take a walk through the past, shall we?
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Axl Rose Started a Fight, Then a Riot
In 1991, Axl Rose was performing in St. Louis when he spotted someone in the crowd with a camera. Not happy about flash photography, Rose demanded that security escort the concertgoer out. Security wasn’t quick enough, and Rose decided to take matters into his own hands. He dove into the crowd, tackling the camera-wielding individual, and also antagonized a few others in the crowd. Security had to grab Rose and lift him back on stage.
Angered, Rose ended up trotting off and ending the set, followed by the other members of Guns N’ Roses. After the band left, a riot broke out among the angry concert-goers, and several fans were injured in the madness. A lot of property was damaged, too. Rose was later arrested for “starting” the riot, though he was later cleared of those charges.
Sid Vicious Used To Hit Audience Members With His Bass
What’s more punk rock than beating people with your heavy bass guitar? Well, some would say Sid Vicious, wielding his axe like a weapon, was a step too far. In 1978, the famed Sex Pistols bassist retaliated after a Texas audience member threw a beer at him while the band was on stage. Apparently, Vicious hit the audience member as hard as he could in the head with his bass. Naturally, things got out of hand from there.
“Sid went ballistic, mowing his bass recklessly through the audience like a scythe,” said concert attendee Margaret Moser of the event. “After the show, there was this feeling of survival, as if we’d been through a significant joint experience. I guess we had.”
Jim Morrison’s (Alleged) Indecent Exposure in Front of a Crowd
This story about Jim Morrison is a bit murky, as there’s a chance he didn’t actually expose himself in front of an audience. The evidence isn’t super convincing. Though, something similar did happen in New Haven several years prior.
Cops arrested The Doors’ frontman in 1969 after allegedly exposing himself at the Dinner Key Auditorium in Miami, Florida. Morrison was in a bad way at the time with drug addiction, and he was allegedly very drunk by the time the band hit the stage. He was sentenced to six months in jail. In the process of appealing the ruling, he tragically died in 1971.
Photo by Jack Rosen/Getty Images
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