Everyone has their meltdown moments, no doubt about it. We make mistakes and, most of the time, we try to correct them. We have them because we are all human.
Unfortunately, though, when you are in the spotlight, your hurts, tantrums, mistakes and meltdowns are all magnified for all the world to see. That is exactly what happened to these people.
A teenager fills in on drums for Keith Moon: One night while the band was performing at the Cow Palace just outside of San Francisco, a teenager got the dream chance of a lifetime: To play with his favorite band. During the tour to support the Quadrophenia album, drummer Keith Moon passed out on his drum set no thanks to having some horse tranquilizers and brandy.
Enter Scot Halpin, a 19-year-old drummer who answered the band's audience request for someone to fill in. Halpin played such songs as "Smokestack Lightning" and "Spoonful," among others. Halpin also won the praise of lead singer Roger Daltrey as well as the opportunity to play with one of the greatest rock bands in the world. Sadly Halpin died in 2008 at age 54 of an inoperable non-malignant brain tumor.
Dimebag Darrell's onstage assassination: Thrash-metal band Damageplan, and the extended Pantera family, suffered a tragedy onstage the night of Dec. 8, 2004. While Damageplan was performing in Columbus, Ohio, gunman Nathan Gale walked onto the stage, put a gun to Dimebag's head, and fired off three shots. The apparent motive was that Gale, a paranoid schizophrenic, thought the band could steal his thoughts and that they were laughing at him.
Other band personnel were shot that night as well, including the other band that played that night, Damageplan's drum technician John Brooks and Damageplan's tour manager. Police shot and killed Gale shortly thereafter.
Caleb Followill of Kings of Leon's onstage meltdown in Dallas: Last July, the Kings of Leon were slated to come to Houston to perform at the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion. However, that particular show never happened because of what happened the night before in Dallas.
Lead singer and guitarist Caleb Followill kept complaining that he was feeling ill and that he was "fuckin' hot." He then proceeded ramble on about random things before telling the audience that he was "going to go vomit, drink a beer, and I'm gonna come back out and play three more songs." Shortly thereafter, the tour was canceled and Followill entered rehab for alcoholism.
Scott Stapp's drunken performance in Chicago: At the height of Creed's career, to misquote one of the band's album titles, lead singer Scott Stapp was virtually living in his own prison: He was in the throes of a battle with alcoholism.
One night, things came to a head when Stapp was performing while intoxicated. He could barely sing, passed out and even left the stage for long periods of time. The audience was so disgruntled that they filed a class-action lawsuit against Stapp and his bandmates because they could not get a refund for their tickets.
The suit was dropped in September 2003; shortly thereafter the band called it quits and Stapp even attempted suicide. Luckily, Stapp saw the error of his ways, became sober, and Creed has even reunited. They are slated to return to Houston's Bayou Music Center April 30 and May 1 to perform their albums My Own Prison and Human Clay, respectively.
