Who were the drunkest performers you saw on stage?

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by spencer1, Sep 26, 2019.

  1. painted8

    painted8 Forum Resident

    Ben Nichols of Lucero has been staggeringly drunk the last couple of times I’ve seen him in Indy.
     
  2. MarcS

    MarcS Forum Resident

    Location:
    New Jersey
    I saw him do something similar at the lone star road house; he spun around and knocked over all the horn section mikes.
     
    elaterium likes this.
  3. musicfan37

    musicfan37 Senior Member

    The lead singer of the Marshall Tucker Band. The band performed only eight songs during the 90 minute show. He was too busy slurring lengthy stories no one could understand and inviting a large group of women onto the stage to flirt and dance with. This was about five years ago at our local casino.
     
    Plexiclone likes this.
  4. TGH7

    TGH7 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Cleveland
    Warren Zevon. Playing in a small bar-Peabody’s- on a really hot night. Warren was sweating up a storm and getting more drunk with each song. He just kept getting more intense as the show went on. It was one of the most fierce concerts I ever saw. It was a good drunken show. Lou Reed on the other hand was a bad drunken or whatever show. Joe Perry barely played at an Aerosmith show. Pretty much just stood with his back to the crowd by the amps.
    Wouldn’t be rock and roll without a few such stories.
     
    hiterss, squittolo and Joti Cover like this.
  5. audiotom

    audiotom I can not hear a single sound as you scream

    Location:
    New Orleans La USA
    For your viewing displeasure

     
    squittolo and Ghost of Ziggy like this.
  6. ranasakawa

    ranasakawa Forum Resident

    Bob Dylan Melbourne 1992 drunk terrible performance

    Hole (Big Day Out) Melbourne 1990s - The singer Courtney Love was either very drunk or on something else. Abusive on stage, horrible show. I was not impressed.
     
    squittolo likes this.
  7. Price.pittsburgh

    Price.pittsburgh Forum Resident

    Location:
    Florida
  8. joefont

    joefont Senior Member

    Rickie Lee Jones at Berkeley's Zellerbach Auditorium, '82 or'83
     
    Joti Cover likes this.
  9. Kassonica

    Kassonica Forum Resident

    I remember seeing a extremely well known 80's/90's band down here live in 85, the bass player and co lead singer, had a rack of VB cans stacked on top of his bass amp, at the finish of every song, he walk back to the amp, down a can in 1 go throw it behind the amp then walk back to the front of stage, when the last can was gulped, one of the roadies would place another rack of beer cans all opened btw on top of the amp :biglaugh:and it would continue till the set finished, whatever was left on the top of the amp the roadies would finish...
     
  10. screechmartin

    screechmartin Senior Member

    Location:
    British Columbia
    And, of course, Page at Live Aid was embarassingly hammered. I seem to remember Phil Collins in his autobiography---and who was sharing drum duties for the Zep reunion---describing Page as a "drunken, drooling mess jerking around like a baby giraffe." That may not be exactly right but it's a reasonable paraphrase.
     
    hiterss and squittolo like this.
  11. TheMovieRad

    TheMovieRad If you want to count me, count me out

    Location:
    Los Angeles, CA
    Poor Scott Weiland a few weeks before he passed... I was on side stage with a photo pass and took some really sad shots of him. I left thinking he had a year and maybe three weeks later he died. A shell of his former self...
     
  12. gazatthebop

    gazatthebop Forum Resident

    Location:
    manchester
    John Cale 1977-1985 pick any show, he was intoxicated.
    Also Roy Harper York UK 1981, struggled to sit on a stool and once he had he couldn't plug his guitar in
     
  13. Anno

    Anno Forum Resident

    Location:
    Penketh
    Is the answer Phil Mogg?
     
  14. Spencer R

    Spencer R Forum Resident

    Location:
    Oxford, MS
    Bob Dylan in the late 80s. Not sure he knew what songs he was playing. The Replacements when Bob Stinson was still in the band.
     
    FuturisticWorkshop and squittolo like this.
  15. JediJoker

    JediJoker Audio Engineer/Enthusiast

    Location:
    Portland, OR, USA
    Tom Petty, Greek Theatre, Berkeley, CA in 2006. Slurring his spoken words. Really noticeable when the lights went out and he said something like, "Someone forgot to pay their electric bill." A really disappointing concert made slightly better by guest appearances from Stevie Nicks.
     
  16. ABBDutchFan

    ABBDutchFan Forum Resident

    Location:
    Netherlands
    Shane Macgowan and the Popes @ Pinkpop 1995

    In 1995 Shane Macgowan and the Popes played a gig at the Pinkpop festival in the Netherlands. It was clear from the beginning that Shane was not on top form. During Dark Streets of London he's even taken off Stage by Charlie Maclennan, leaving the rest of the Popes on stage.



    Fortunally i saw an excellent Pogues concert many years later.
     
    squittolo likes this.
  17. qwerty

    qwerty A resident of the SH_Forums.

    I wonder if he fined himself for his lack of professionalism. :)
     
  18. scoutbb

    scoutbb Senior Member

    Location:
    LA
    Rolling Stone magazine had a story about it back in the day.
     
  19. Guy E

    Guy E Senior Member

    Location:
    Antalya, Turkey
    Yeah, I watched the biopic on Netflix recently. It sounds like he was overwhelmed by the pressures of fame in the early years, and Leon Russell's band leadership relegated him to being an "extra" in his own concerts, but he just couldn't say "No" to anything. He married a down-to-earth (and very tolerant) woman, eventually quit drinking and had great success as a concert draw in later years. I didn't know that he enjoyed such great success later in life. He lived on a big estate in Colorado, he enjoyed his family, his friends, his dogs. He really did get it together. It was a rather heartening story about a very ordinary 'bloke' with an extraordinary voice.
     
  20. Deek57

    Deek57 Forum Resident

    Faces UK winter tour 73 support was Long John Baldry.
     
    Last edited: Sep 28, 2019
  21. Sneaky Pete

    Sneaky Pete Flat the 5 and That’s No Jive

    Location:
    NYC USA
    I read his autobiography. He owned up to his alcoholism and said he did things like go swimming with a check for $35,000 pound in his pocket. The check disintegrated and was never recut. He was a mess and nearly destroyed himself.

    I’ve never bought into allegations that Leon was somehow to blame. A&M put Leon in charge of making a tour out of a bunch of drugged out hippies. It was like herding cats. They got a film and a huge hit record out of the tour and that really put Joe on the map. Leon expressed incredulity at where the anger came from, and said Joe was polite when they crossed paths but distant. Allegedly Rita Coolidge had just broken up with Leon and she was sitting next to Joe for most of the tour spewing venom about Leon. That may have poisoned his mind and he misplaced his anger and frustration about being out of control to his bandleader. Somebody had to be in control tons of money was being spent. Leon was the “boss.”

    They also produced the first hit rock album put out by A&M, which had previously been a vehicle for the Tijuana brass.
     
    Last edited: Sep 28, 2019
  22. johnny q

    johnny q Forum Resident

    Location:
    Bergen County, NJ
    Drunk, stoned or perhaps just plain confused....Ian Astbury. The Cult opened for Metallica in 1989, I saw a few shows. I love The Cult but they were consistantly terrible on this tour. At the Allentown, Pa show, Ian couldn't find his way off the stage, prompting roadies to come out and escort him off. As if he couldn't find his way!
     
    squittolo likes this.
  23. Derek Slazenger

    Derek Slazenger Specs, rugs & rock n roll

    Beth Ditto fronting her band at Glastonbury in the late 2000s. She was demolished.
     
    squittolo likes this.
  24. Wally Swift

    Wally Swift Yo-Yoing where I will...

    Location:
    Brooklyn New York
    Dave Pegg - Bottom Line NYC. Singing filthy sea shanties about Allan Pepper's mother between sets. We sent him more beer and got dirty looks from Simon Nichol for encouraging him.

    Ace Frehley. L'Amours, first Frehley's Comet show. Well, that's Ace.

    These are the only two performers I recall being drunk on stage. I met Debbie Harry once at a party and she was soused.
     
  25. jaxpads

    jaxpads Friendly Listener

    Location:
    Baltimore
    Quite a few years ( uh ... make that decades!) back, but Jerry Jeff was a mess.
     
    phillyal1 likes this.

Share This Page

molar-endocrine