There's been a raft of reports recently about pop stars who've received unwelcome attention from members of their audiences.
In late 2023, pop queen Taylor Swift called out an audience in Buenos Aires, pointing out that the amount of incoming ordinance was an actual danger to her dancers.
"I love that you brought presents and that is so nice," she said, displaying a characteristic mix of sweetness and diplomacy. "But just can you please not throw them on the stage? I love you so much." Other pop stars to have things thrown at them that year included Harry Styles, Adele, Cardi B, Bebe Rexha, Drake and Kelsea Ballerini.
Academics have attempted to explain the trend, claiming that relationships between artists and their followers are increasingly 'parasocial' – where fans develop one-sided psychological attachment to their idols via the perceived closeness of social media – and that the act of throwing is an attempt to manufacture a two-way relationship.
Some interactions are just plain weird. In June pop rocker Pink was distressed to be on the receiving end of a bag of human ashes thrown from the crowd (they belonged to a fan's deceased mother) while the same month saw her take onstage delivery of an unexpected, family-sized wheel of brie from an overly keen cheese enthusiast.
There's a very real dark side to this, of course. Sometimes the barrier between audience and artist is breached completely, presenting a clear danger to musicians who, after all, are at their place of work, and have every right to feel safe. And there's no darker example than that of Dimebag Darell, shot and killed by disturbed ex-US Marine Nathan Gale, during a club show in 2004.
Here are six examples of musicians actually injured by paying customers.
Steven Tyler
In October 1977, Aerosmith's Express tour rolled into Philadelphia for a set at the 18,000 capacity Spectrum arena. As the band made their way onstage for their encore, a fan tossed an M-80 firework on stage. The blast burned frontman Steven Tyler's cornea and ruptured an artery in guitarist Joe Perry's hand, necessitating a hasty retreat to the nearest emergency room.
"I have to say we were shaken by it and extremely pissed off," guitarist Brad Whitford told Goldmmine. "We didn’t come back to Philadelphia for quite a while. We had a few offers to come back and we passed on it."
Little more than 12 months later they did return to Philly, and lightning struck a second time when a fan threw a bottle onstage. It shattered, sending shards of glass into Tyler's face, some of it piercing his mouth. The band abandoned ship, just six songs into their set.
"We literally said, ‘Fuck this, we don’t care!’ and we got into the cars and drove out of the building," said Whitford. "We drove out and watched the riot squad pulling up as we were leaving. For us it was much more than a coincidence."
It would be five years before Aerosmith returned to Philadelphia.
David Bowie
In 2004, David Bowie was booked to play alongside Wilco, The Cardigans and Ash at the Norwegian Wood Festival, held at the Frognerbadet pool complex in Norway. During Battle for Britain (The Letter), just three songs in to the set, Bowie was struck by a lollipop thrown from the crowd. The stick end became lodged in his left eye socket, leaving Bowie in very apparent pain.
As the audience booed the culprit, Bowie made his displeasure clear. "Let's do that again, all fucking night," he bellowed. "Where are you, you creep? I guess it's easier to get lost in the crowd, you bastard."
Heroically – after a technician pulled the shrapnel from his boss's eye socket – Bowie went on to complete a 27-song set. And at the climax, as if to prove that he saw a funny side, The Dame tossed his guitar pick into the crowd, remarking that he hoped it didn't strike anyone.
David Bowie, with a fan-thrown lollipop lodged in his eyelid from r/Wellthatsucks
Frank Zappa
Just six days after "some stupid with a flare gun" burned the casino in Montreux to the ground during a Frank Zappa show – an event famously immortalised in Deep Purple's Smoke On The Water – his 1971 European tour went from bad to worse.
Booked at The Rainbow in Finsbury Park, North London, Zappa was charged by a member of the crowd and pushed into the orchestra pit, just as the band struck up a cover of The Beatles' I Wanna Hold Your Hand. The floor was made from concrete.
“My head was over on my shoulder and my neck was bent like it was broken,” Zappa recalled. “I had a gash in my chin, a hole in the back of my head, a broken rib and a fractured shin. One arm was paralysed. The band thought I was dead.”
“And he’d broken his nose,” added wife Gail Zappa, “and smashed the side of his face. There was a line round his neck where it had been twisted. Bust jaw. Broke his leg and a couple of bones in his shoulder.”
The assailant, driven to rage after his girlfriend had become infatuated with Zappa, was eventually jailed for a year. His victim, meanwhile, spent six months in a wheelchair. Zappa's crushed larynx made his voice deeper, and his injured leg left him with one limb shorter than the other, prompting 1979's Dancin’ Fool. It's probably fair to say that Zappa's relationship with the UK also never fully recovered.
Ian Anderson
In October 1979, Jethro Tull played the second of two nights at New York's Madison Square Garden on North American leg of the Stormwatch tour, and was struck in the eye by a rose thrown from the audience. Details are scarce, but it seems that frontman Ian Anderson's eye was scratched by a thorn, and two following shows were cancelled as he sought medical attention and advice. Going forward, Anderson would wear eye protection onstage.
Mick Jagger
In March 1966, 19-year-old promotor Jean-Pierre Foucault booked the Rolling Stones to play two shows at the 1500-capacity Salle Vallie venue in Marseille, France. Both shows sold out, and the first show went to plan before it all started to go downhill. Knowing that a second show was about to begin, the first set of fans refused to leave the venue, and by the time the band hit the stage again, nearly 3000 fans were in the room.
"As they had broken everything in Paris, we were asked to tie the chairs to the floor in the Vallier room," Foucault told Le Parisien. It didn't work. The glass walls of the room shattered, the venue was trashed, and Mick Jagger was smashed in the face by a freshly liberated chair and carted off to hospital. He would later emerge, lifting his sunglasses for the paparazzi to reveal a stunning black eye.
As for Foucault, he got stiffed on the rider. "I was asked to stock their dressing room with Pepsi and Darjeeling tea, as stipulated in their contract," he said. "I went around Marseille looking for this tea, which I ended up finding in a luxury grocery store. Obviously, when they left, they hadn't touched either the Pepsi or the tea."
Noel Gallagher
Playing at Toronto's V Festival in 2008, a fan clambered onstage and shoved Oasis leader Noel Gallagher to the floor during the band's performance of Morning Glory. Gallagher completed the remaining six songs before heading to hospital, where it was discovered he had internal bruising on his ribs (a later examination, in London, showed that he'd actually broken three of them).
Several dates were cancelled, and Gallagher would claim that sales of the band's Dig Out Your Soul suffered as he was unable to promote it. After instigating a $2m civil lawsuit against his attacker for compromising his ability to work, a lesser criminal charge of assault was settled on. The assailant, Daniel Sullivan, pleaded guilty to assault causing bodily harm in court, admitting that he'd been drunk and had no recollection of how he got backstage.
Gallagher didn't appear in court for the verdict, but his victim impact statement was read out, in which he said, "I have been told that I will never really recover from the damage to my ribs and from time to time I still feel painful twinges."
Sullivan was sentenced to 12 months home detention without access to alcohol.
