From the Poison guitarist who kept playing the wrong song at an awards show to the classic rock drummer who had to get replaced by an audience member mid-show, let’s take a look at some times musicians were too wasted to perform live. (Grunge)
GRACE SLICK
In 1978, the band formerly known as Jefferson Airplane had become Jefferson Starship, and vocalist Grace Slick was certainly spending her share of time in space. She was known to enjoy a cocktail or 14, usually having no problem holding it together. But during a tour of Europe in support of their album Earth, the band decided to make a few stops in Germany. This was a questionable decision, because — as author Jeff Tamarkin remarked in the band's biography — Slick "always had a thing about Germany. ... All things Deutsche brought out the worst in her."
Slick warmed up by drinking literally all the alcohol she could get her hands on, throwing a giant tantrum, and refusing to get ready for the show. By the time she was dragged onstage, she was so well-lubricated that she decided she'd rather berate the locals than sing, mockingly asking them "Who won the war?" while slinging around the four-letter N-word (hint: rhymes with "Yahtzee") and performing the accompanying salutes. Starship publicist Cynthia Bowman called it a "horrible, empty, bad, dark night," and it resulted in Slick's dismissal from the band. She rejoined several years later in time to participate in perhaps the worst song ever, proving that you don't need alcohol to make terrible decisions.
KEITH MOON
As many of you already know, in a San Francisco gig in November 1973. According to Rolling Stone, Moon had popped some of what he assumed were run-of-the-mill tranquilizers to calm his nerves, chasing them with brandy — but they may instead have been tranquilizers of the horse variety. In the middle of performing "Won't Get Fooled Again,"
Moon began to wind down like a cheap clock. He was dragged off stage and thrown in a cold shower (or injected with cortisone, depending on whom you ask) and brought back out to attempt "Magic Bus" — only to wind down yet again, actually passing out on his kit. In a last-ditch effort to finish the show, guitarist Pete Townsend asked if anyone could play drums — leading 19-year-old fan Scott Halpin to join his favorite band onstage for the last few songs. Halpin performed admirably, considering the insane pressure and the contact high he must have gotten just from sitting behind Moon's drum kit.
David Lee Roth
We want to remember David Lee Roth as someone with seemingly limitless energy as he karate kicks his way on stage. But like any other rocker who had too much to drink, his antics are pretty embarrassing. When Van Halen showed up for the 1983 U.S. Festival, they were exhausted from touring for three months. They couldn’t turn down the offer to headline Heavy Metal Day because well, they’d be paid $1.5million for that.
According to Apple Computers co-founder Steve Wozniak who also co-founded the event, Diamond Dave was “practically falling down onstage. He was so drunk, slurring and forgetting lyrics and everything.” Even MTV VJ Mark Goodman claimed that David was “laughing at every joke he made.” And to top it all off, he talked crap about The Clash as if they weren’t present in the same festival. Lucky for him, they still got paid.
Even EVH had some mortifying drunken moments too. Remember back in 2004 when they embarked on a reunion tour with Sammy Hagar? Almost everyone knew it was bound to be a disaster. At the time, Hagar said Eddie was already drinking wine straight from the bottle. And so for their final stop in Tucson, all hell broke loose because not only did Eddie play so bad, he also smashed his guitar to pieces sending some shrapnel into the audience. He ended up tearfully yelling “You don’t understand!” to them.
