“A band is only as good as their hecklers,” notes journalist, ex-pornographer, and former GG Allin drummer Mike Edison. Allin may be rock’s most infamous provocateur, proclaiming his body a weapon, the audience his enemy, his fluids the ammunition. Allin is also the exception to the rule—turning himself on the crowd rather than the opposite. Heckling has been a favorite pastime of music fans for generations. From the 1913 Paris riot at Stravinski’s maiden performance of “The Rites of Spring” to Britney Spears’ detractors outside an L.A. nightclub imploring her to go home to her kids.
A good heckler cuts to the heart of the matter with tossed off remarks encompassing quick wit with sharp criticism. A good performer has a stable of quick one-liners ready to fire back. Sometimes though they don’t. The world of standup comedy is notorious for heckling incidents gone awry—Pauley Shore and Michael Richards being two of the more notable recent examples.
Here are 10 great moments in rock and roll heckling, compiled by Gibson.com writer Aaron Lefkove:
Iggy Pop’s Metallic K.O. –- Iggy Pop built his career and early reputation on taunts from the crowd. Inciting Stooges fans by cutting himself with glass or smearing peanut butter across his chest, Pop went one step too far at a notorious Stooges gig that’s been immortalized in the live recording Metallic K.O.
As critic Lester Bangs put it: The audience, which consisted largely of bikers, was unusually hostile, and Iggy, as usual, fed on that hostility, soaked it up, and gave it back and absorbed it all over again in an eerie, frightening symbiosis. “All right,” he finally said, stopping a song in the middle, “you assholes wanna hear ‘Louie, Louie,’ we’ll give you ‘Louie, Louie.’” So the Stooges played a forty-five-minute version of “Louie Louie,” including new lyrics improvised by Pop on the spot consisting of “You can suck my ass / You biker f****t sissies,”… Iggy singles out one heckler who has been particularly abusive: “Listen, a*****e, you heckle me one more time and I’m gonna come down there and kick your ass.” “F**k you, you little punk,” responds the biker. So Iggy jumps off the stage, runs through the middle of the crowd, and the guy beats the s**t out of him, ending the evening’s musical festivities by sending the lead singer back to his motel room and a doctor. The entire altercation is included on the Metallic K.O. album. Bangs goes onto comment: “Metallic K.O. is the only rock album I know where you can actually hear hurled beer bottles breaking against guitar strings.”
Axl Rose Sets a New Standard -– Axl set the bar high during Guns N’ Roses’ heyday. The incidents are too numerous to mention but one highlight is a very famous incident where Rose — unhappy with the treatment fans were given from the stage bouncers — accosted a security guard mid-set. Yet Rose’s most famous heckling scuff up happened in St. Louis in 1991. Angry at a fan for taping the show, Rose jumped into the crowd and proceeded to pummel the audience member. The band stormed off, the crowd erupted into a full-scale riot, and Rose was later charged with inciting the event. Though the charges were eventually dropped the band did feel inclined to include the message “F**k You St. Louis” in the artwork of their Use Your Illusion double album. Even more recently Rose and the resurrected GNR lineup have been the object of audience derision but nothing that has made headlines quite like his early-’90s antics.
Watch the videos here and at this location.
Sid Vicious Messes with Texas -– The ill-fated 1978 Sex Pistols American tour was a heckler’s delight. With the band touring heavily throughout the deep South — an area of the country not yet infected with New York and LA’s punk sensibility — the shows resulted in an almost-riot every single night. One particular night stands out. At Randy’s Rodeo in San Antonio, Texas several hundred fans crowded into this converted bowling alley to see the Pistols. Angry fans berated the band non-stop, prompting Sid Vicious to club a fan over the head with his bass during the end of “New York.” Vicious — senses clearly impaired — took a wild swing and missed, clocking one of the record company’s execs in the head instead.
Jack Hits Back –- One of the obvious advantages of being on-stage is that you have a microphone in your arsenal. While unruly fans can hurl insults and bottles all night their voice barely registers compared to the house PA. White Stripes mainman Jack White has seen his fair share of controversy. From scuffles with rival bands to his well-publicized feud with Billy Childish, White has never shied away from letting his anger seethe to the top. So when a crowd member went a little too far White spared no time in making an example of the concert-goer. Let this video be a lesson to you would-be harassers out there.
Watch the video here.
Misfits vs. Mötley Crüe -– Even in their prime the muscle-clad Misfits were no strangers to hecklers. The legend, as recounted in the Misfit box set liner notes by longtime roadie Eerie Von, hold that on one of the band’s early trips to the West Coast they encountered Mötley Crüe frontman Vince Neil at a sound check before a gig at the Whiskey-A-Go-Go. Neil incessantly heckled and insulted the band throughout their sound check. With buddy Henry Rollins in tow, Danzig, Jerry Only, and Doyle chased Neil out of the Whiskey and all the way down the Sunset Strip.
Pete Wentz Goes Berserk -– Singer and bassist Pete Wentz of punk boy band Fallout Boy has found himself on the wrong side of some well-deserved fiery criticism on a number of occasions. And on several of them he has let his temper flare, attacking both fans and security at various times. After a private acoustic set at a party co-sponsored by Spin and Diesel, Wentz made an abrupt exit from the stage. One fan—unaware of Wentz’s propensity towards violence — offered some gentle ribbing regarding his relationship with Ashlee Simpson. Ever the consummate professional, Wentz did the logical thing by attacking the fan with a bottle.
Not All Hunky Dory for David Bowie -– The Thin White Duke has become the elder statesman of three generations of rockers. That still didn’t stop one detractor from nearly blinding Bowie at a recent show in Oslo, Norway. Midway through a set already marred by inclement weather someone hurled a lollipop at the stage. This fan must have had a sharpshooter’s arm as the lollipop stick lodged itself between Bowie’s eyelid and eyeball, temporarily blinding the singer and forcing the performance to come to a halt.
Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young: Not So Peaceful or Loving -– On-stage at the Big Sur Festival in 1969, CSNY were the object of one fan’s ire. The heckler called the band sellouts and derided them for abandoning the Laurel Canyon-infected hippie ideals. Steven Stills became enraged, jumped into the crowd in a full length-fur coat, and pounded the angry hippie something fierce. David Crosby meanwhile tried to placate the situation, pleading for, like, some “peace and love and understanding.” Of the incident Stills was later quoted as saying, “We think about what that guy was saying, and we look at these coats and these pretty guitars and fancy cars and say, ‘Wow man, what am I doing?’”
L7’s Bloody Hell -– 1992 may have been the year that grunge finally broke but at the Reading Festival fans may not have been ready for the all-female L7. During a rather violent set punctuated by taunting from the riled-up festival crowd, Donita Sparks offered the crowd a one-of-a-kind piece of concert memorabilia. Sparks removed her bloody tampon and flung it into the audience. The gesture caused ripples throughout the music world with the clip constantly topping critics’ lists as the grossest concert moment ever.
Watch the video at this location.
Green Day Gets Dookied -– Green Day’s set at Woodstock ’94 may go down as one of the muddiest in rock history. At the height of the success of their album Dookie, the band appeared at the festival touted at “3 More Days of Peace and Love.” What it turned into was a long, wet weekend of rain and mud. Some over-eager fans at the front hurled fistfuls of mud at the band throughout the set. The band playfully fired back at the crowd. All was well until security sensed something amiss. A small-scale riot erupted on-stage with drummer Tre Cool coming away bruised and battered but no worse for the wear.
Watch the video here.
Thanks for the article to Gibson.com.
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