They say that rock 'n' roll will never die,
but playing it on stage could very well leave
you with lots of aches and pains that will
nag you for the rest of your life.
The same goes for other genres as well.
Just ask these legendary rockers, pop stars,
and other performers.
The music biz is dangerous.
Prince's bad hips
"The Artist" was well known for his amazing
live shows, but in his younger years he really
cut loose.
Prince often wore high-heeled shoes while
performing and, despite his choice of impractical
footwear, he often jumped around, causing
undue stress to his joints.
In the mid-'80s, his protege Sheila E. joined
him during his Purple Rain tour as an opening
act and later told the press that, even back
then, Prince was in constant pain.
In the years that followed, he was sometimes
spotted limping or even riding a motorized
scooter to get around while out on tour.
He was reportedly using opioids to manage
his chronic pain during his later years, and
his reliance on drugs got so bad that he turned
to addiction specialists to beat his habit,
mere days before his body was found on April
21st, 2016.
Frank Zappa and the wheelchair
Frank Zappa, one of rock's greatest and most
prolific eccentrics, suffered from chronic
back pain after a bizarre incident during
a performance at London's Rainbow Theater
on December 10th, 1971.
As he and his band began a jokey cover of
The Beatles "I Wanna Hold Your Hand," a man
in the crowd turned violent, jumping on stage
after flying into a rage, then shoved Zappa
into the theater's orchestra pit.
The man attempted to flee but was apprehended
by members of the crowd.
As he later explained, the man wasn't angry
that Zappa was mocking one of Britain's most
beloved rock groups but rather that his girlfriend
had admitted she had a crush on Zappa.
The incident landed Zappa in a wheelchair
for almost a year, and reportedly, his crushed
larynx cause his voice to drop an octave.
Patti Smith's pain in the neck
Many performers have fallen off stages over
the years, but luckily most escape with nothing
more than a bruised ego.
Unfortunately, that isn't the case for everyone.
"I think I really broke my leg!"
Just ask Patti Smith, who teamed up with Bob
Seger and the Silver Bullet Band for a show
in Tampa in 1977.
Smith was known for her wild performances
back then, which often included lots of twirling,
but for this show the stage crew didn't leave
her with much space to work with.
So She made do with what little room she had,
but when her foot hit a stage monitor during
the show, she was sent tumbling over the side
of the dimly-lit stage.
Smith fell 15 feet into the orchestra pit,
broke vertebrae in her neck, and fractured
her spine.
She still suffers from neck pain but, as she
told the Houston Chronicle in 2012:
"It's nothing I can't live with."
Adele's delicate vocal chords
In 2017, after the second of four shows in
front of audiences of nearly 100,000 fans
at London's Wembley Stadium, Adele realized
something wasn't quite right.
She had struggled during the first two nights
and kept having to clear her throat.
She saw her doctor, who told her she'd badly
damaged her vocal cords and should cancel
the last two shows at Wembley, which were
meant to serve as the finale of her record-setting
tour.
Sadly, she'd experienced a similar problem
when she suffered a hemorrhage after singing
live on a French radio show in 2011 and underwent
a very risky vocal cord microsurgery.
As a result of this latest unfortunate incident,
it's uncertain what the future holds for Adele's
touring career, which she had already considered
permanently retiring anyhow.
"I just thought the more successful I get, the more pressure there is."
MJ's migraines and back problems
The King of Pop was a legendary performer,
but two on-stage incidents left him long-lasting
injuries and pain.
In January 1984 while performing on stage
at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles for
a Pepsi commercial, he was dancing along to
his hit single "Billie Jean" when he got too
close to a pyrotechnic display, setting his
jacket and hair on fire.
Someone ran onto the stage, threw him to the
floor, and extinguished the blaze, but not
before he sustained second- and third-degree
burns on his face and scalp.
He was also left with a series of painful
migraines that persisted long after his treatment
was completed.
Jackson suffered another injury in 1999 after
falling over 30 feet while performing "Earth
Song" at a concert in Munich.
He was raised into the air on a bridge that
then unexpectedly dropped back to the stage.
Jackson managed to get back on his feet and
finish the show, but he reportedly collapsed
backstage afterward.
The incident reportedly left him with chronic
back pain that often flared up when he was
suffering from mental or physical stress.
Sid Wilson's foot woes
Sid Wilson, the turntablist for Slipknot,
was once known for his crazy on-stage behavior,
which included being set on fire and doing
impressive jumps off the stage and other structures.
On July 9, 2008, the band was performing at
the Rockstar Energy Mayhem Festival in Auburn,
Washington, playing their newest single, "Psychosocial,"
for the first time in front of an audience.
Wilson jumped off a platform on the back of
the stage while wearing a 40-pound costume
and landed wrong, shattering both heels.
It put him a wheelchair, but that didn't stop
him from continuing to play.
"Now I've been continuing the tour with broken
heels"
He continues to have occasional foot trouble,
though, most recently in 2015, putting an
end to many of his on-stage antics.
Enrique Iglesias vs. the drone
Grabbing drones while they're in mid-flight
is dangerous.
Spanish heartthrob Enrique Iglesias learned
this lesson the hard way when he grabbed one
equipped with a camera during a performance
in Tijuana, Mexico, on May 30th, 2015.
It was a big mistake, even though he'd done
this during prior shows.
That night, his hand got a little too close
to the drone's spinning blades.
They sliced open one of his palms, fracturing
his hand in the process.
Iglesias wrapped his hand in a T-shirt and
left the stage.
He later had reconstructive surgery, but told
Univision that he no longer has any feeling
in one of his fingers.
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