7. Queensryche Folks Out: Queensryche was the first heavy metal band to score an Unplugged session, and they weren't a half-bad choice. In 1992, the group was riding high on the success of Empire, which included tracks like "Silent Lucidity" that seemed tailor-made for the stripped-down acoustic treatment.
What not a lot of headbangers likely foresaw was the group's choice to cover a Simon & Garfunkel classic, the British folk song "Scarborough Fair." The decidedly un-metal tune was a bit of a surprise coming from a group best known for a concept album written about a junkie assassin and his hooker-nun girlfriend, but hey, it worked. Thanks in large part to the inimitable voice of Geoff Tate, the group did a good enough job with the song that they weren't laughed out of the building.
6. Lauryn Hill Might Have Some Issues: Lauryn Hill's solo debut, The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill blew up real, real big in 1998. Maybe too big. In 2000, she largely disappeared, retreating entirely from her star persona and doing very little in the way of recording and performing. That's why her Unplugged session was such a big deal. Hill would be debuting new material that had never been heard before.
Put kindly, the show was fucking weird. Performing alone with a ragged voice and an acoustic guitar, the former superstar refused to get gussied up for the taping and railed against the music-industry machine between songs. The new tunes were spare and sounded unfinished. There were some tears shed by the artist.
Far from the triumphant return many fans were praying for, it was a confusing, disappointing set from a performer who had earned worldwide acclaim and five Grammys only four years earlier. Rolling Stone called it the performance "a public breakdown." It wasn't that, exactly, but it damn sure wasn't the return many expected, either.
5. Friends Don't Let Friends Scribble on Guitars: Alice in Chains' episode of Unplugged was a poignant affair. Late singer Layne Staley looked gaunt and near death from his crippling heroin addiction, but his voice retained its power. It was the first concert the group had performed in three years, and it wouldn't be another nine until the remaining members reformed.
What was initially confusing was the semi-cryptic phrase written in Sharpie on bassist Mike Inez's guitar: "Friends don't let friends get haircuts." What kind of obscure drug reference was this supposed to be? Later, fans realized that it was a message to members of Metallica --some of whom were in the audience -- who had infamously just cut their hair short ahead of the band's Load album. Why Inez couldn't have simply told them he hated their haircuts remains unclear; life was odd before texting.
