Pick a Day

Music History Events: Incidents

February 16, 1998 At the Brit Awards, Chumbawamba drummer Danbert Nobacon dumps a bucket of ice water on UK Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott. Of his stunt, the musician says, "It's a metaphor for the underdog pissing on the steps of Downing Street."

February 15, 1998 Fans of Japanese rock act Glay cause the Tokyo area phone system to break down as they try to reserve tickets for an upcoming concert by the band. Chaos ensues at the Nagano Winter Olympics main pressroom as long distance lines go down during the ski-jumping event.

November 13, 1997 Things get ugly for The Spice Girls in Barcelona at the 44th Premios Ondas Awards. The industry crowd boos throughout the cheeky quintet's lip-synched performance of "Spice Up Your Life," after it is announced that the Girls would not perform while photographers are present.

September 29, 1997 Epic's Sons of the Desert are caught in a hotel fire during the group's first trip to New York City. The group's bassist, Doug Virden, sees smoke and flames and reports the blaze at the front desk.

October 26, 1996 Tragedy strikes at Ozzfest in Devore, California, when police officer Ruben Rios is struck and killed by a motorist while directing traffic.

October 8, 1996 Bonnie Raitt and Jackson Browne play a benefit show for environmental groups at the Britt Pavilion in Jacksonville, Oregon. They are greeted by the roar of chainsaws wielded by loggers upset at their efforts to stifle their livelihood.

October 5, 1996 Egged on by Deftones frontman Chino Moreno, fans at the U-Fest music festival in Phoenix storm the stage and riot during their set. The Jimmy Buffett concert two nights later is far more peaceful.

September 28, 1995 Singer Bobby Brown escapes injury in a gun battle that kills his sister's fiance and riddles Brown's car with bullets in Boston's Roxbury section.

March 31, 1995 23-year-old Lance Cunningham injures four people at a Jimmy Page/Robert Plant concert in Auburn Hills, Michigan, when he tries to rush the stage with a pocketknife. Cunningham claims he was trying to attack Page, accusing him of being "Satanic."

August 25, 1994 Jimmy Buffett swims to safety after crashing his seaplane while trying to take off in Nantucket.

August 21, 1994 John Denver crashes his 1963 Porsche into a tree near his home in Aspen, Colorado, exactly one year after a previous arrest for driving while impaired.

June 9, 1994 After a fight with boyfriend and NFL star Andre Rison, TLC singer Lisa "Left Eye" Lopes douses Rison's tennis shoes with lighter fluid and sets them on fire in a bathtub. The fire quickly melts the plexiglass tub and catches onto the frame of the house. Rison's mansion is burned to the ground and Lopes is charged with first degree arson. She is sentenced to five years probation and ordered to pay a $10,000 fine.

November 4, 1993 At a memorial service for the actor River Phoenix, Adam Horovitz of the Beastie Boys has a run-in with a videographer and is later charged with battery and grand theft (for stealing his tape). He is sentenced to 200 hours of community service.

September 19, 1993 Michelle Phillips of The Mamas & The Papas is robbed at gunpoint outside a West Hollywood restaurant.

April 24, 1992 Problems for Wilson Pickett, who hits 86-year-old Pepe Ruiz with his car, which has open beer and vodka bottles in it.

October 19, 1991 At a gig in Texas, Nirvana's Kurt Cobain gets in a fight with a bouncer. While crowd surfing, the bouncer shoves him back into the crowd by the face, to which Cobain responds by driving the butt of his guitar into the bouncer's own mug. Barely back on his feet, Cobain gets a sucker punch to the back of the head before his bandmates jump in to help him.

October 1, 1991 The world's most valuable golf glove - the original, crystal-studded one Michael Jackson wore - is stolen from the Motown Museum in Detroit. MC Hammer sets up a phone line and offers a $50,000 reward for the glove's return, but it's recovered by police two days later.

April 20, 1991 Steve Marriott (guitarist, vocalist for The Small Faces, Humble Pie) dies in a house fire, possibly caused by a cigarette, at age 44.

March 17, 1991 Seven members of Reba McEntire's band, as well as her road manager and two pilots, are killed when their plane crashes near the Mexican border after a performance in San Diego. McEntire, along with two members of her band and some of her road crew, were on a different plane that took off before the one that crashed.

November 17, 1990 While speeding without a helmet, David Crosby (of Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young) crashes his Harley-Davidson motorcycle in Los Angeles, breaking his shoulder, left leg, and ankle.

November 12, 1990 Ron Wood, formerly of The Faces and currently of The Rolling Stones, is badly injured when hit by a car in London, breaking both legs.

February 26, 1990 Cornell Gunter, former lead tenor for The Coasters, is murdered in Las Vegas, Nevada, at age 53. Gunter, who was in the midst of making a comeback, was shot in his car by an unknown assassin.

September 7, 1988 Barry Sadler is shot while riding in a Guatemala City taxi (he will die from his injuries 14 months later).

August 23, 1987 At a 20th anniversary "Summer Of Love" celebration concert in Calaveras County Fairgrounds in Angel Camp, California, featuring the Grateful Dead, a man who escaped from a drug treatment facility shoots a policeman and is then shot dead.

May 27, 1987 U2's concert in Rome sets off earthquake alarms as a result of the noise level.

March 21, 1987 Dean Martin's son Dean Paul Martin (of Dino, Desi & Billy) dies in a plane crash in California's San Bernardino Mountains at the age of 35 while serving in the Air National Guard.

July 29, 1986 Paul Davis, known for hits like "I Go Crazy" and "Cool Night," is shot in the stomach during an attempted robbery at a Nashville hotel. He eventually recovers.

November 18, 1985 Seven of Jimi Hendrix's gold records are stolen from his father's home during a burglary. A few months later, Warner Bros. Records replaces them in a ceremony with Mo Ostin, who signed Hendrix to the label in 1967.

October 2, 1983 ABBA's Agnetha Faltskog is involved in a car crash in Skane, Sweden, and suffers a concussion but soon recovers.

June 3, 1983 Already undergoing psychiatric treatment and suffering from, among other things, voices in his head, Derek & the Dominos drummer Jim Gordon brutally murders his own mother with a hammer and knife in their home. Gordon, who co-wrote the band's biggest hit, "Layla," is sentenced to life in prison.