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9 Nasty Stage Falls Ranging from Funny to Painful

By Erica Banas // Rock Music Reporter

Stage falls: They happen to even the best rockers out there.

Sometimes, they’re hilarious. However, there are times when a tumble will literally have you scream, “OH, SH*T!” out loud.

Here’s a look back at some of the nastiest stage falls in recent years.

  • Axl Rose (1989)

    Axl Rose has fallen on and off stage a lot. Here’s some grainy footage from a Guns N’ Roses show from 1989, which looks frightening. (Side note: Axl has a long history of just wiping out on stage, period. Seriously, Google it!)

  • Axl Rose (2023)

    Honestly, we should just call Axl Rose “Timex,” because he takes a licking and keeps on ticking. The singer’s latest fall happened during GN’R’s June 30, 2023 show in London. Axl is singing the first verse of “Bad Obsession” while walking backwards toward the drum riser. He falls but quickly recovers. You can even see him smile as he gets back to the verse, almost as if he’s having a laugh about falling on stage…again!

  • Tom Morello

    Morello took a nasty spill from the stage during Rage Against The Machine’s July 23, 2022 show in Toronto, but it wasn’t really his fault. A fan had run up on the stage, and when security tackled the fan, Morello was taken out in the process. Singer Zack de la Rocha briefly stopped the show to make sure his bandmate was okay. Morello popped back up, was clearly not phased and then whipped the crowd up into a frenzy.

  • Vince Neil

    This was a scary one. Neil was performing a solo set in October 2021 when he fell through a small gap between a speaker and the stage that resulted in a four-foot drop onto a cement floor. He was taken to a nearby hospital and fortunately didn’t sustain any serious injuries.

  • James Hetfield

    On September 4, 2017, Papa Het fell into a hole on stage during Metallica’s show in Amsterdam. Thankfully, he was okay, but it certainly could’ve been worse.

    😮😮😮 JAMES turns away from his mic and walks right into the hole...😮😮😮SEP 04 2017AMSTERDAM, NETHERLANDSZIGGO DOME

    Posted by MilanicaChannel on Monday, September 4, 2017

  • Kirk Hammett

    Speaking of Metallica, Hammett took a spill on stage during a May 2019 show in Milan, Italy. Mid-solo on “Moth Into Flame,” Hammett slips on his Wah Wah pedal due to heavy rain that was passing through. He would write in the caption on the Instagram post below, “It rained so much I felt like I was playing guitar in the shower.”

  • The Edge

    Another fall that could’ve been a lot worse was this misstep by The Edge on opening night of U2’s 2015 “Innocence and Experience” tour.

  • Steven Tyler

    Steven Tyler has fallen off the stage A LOT in his storied career. One of the worst times occurred in 2009 when Aerosmith played Sturgis, and Tyler’s fall landed him in the hospital with head, neck and shoulder injuries.

  • Dave Grohl

    Who could forget this moment? Dave Grohl’s major fall off stage during a 2015 show in Sweden may have resulted in a broken leg, but it gave us the Foo Throne, so we’ll just chalk this up to taking the good with the bad. Plus, he had THE BEST reaction to falling off stage, too. Even in tons of pain, Grohl manages to be the most charming mofo in the room!

  • BONUS: Krist Novoselic

    Alright…so this isn’t a proper stage fall, but as far as stage injuries go, Krist Novoselic’s bass toss at the 1992 MTV VMAs is always worth mentioning.

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