Updated November 10, 2020 2.9K votes 648 voters 171.3K views
What kinds of items are thrown at musicians during concerts? Some odd, strange, and just plain gross things are tossed at performers putting on shows. Whether you're Bowie, Bieber, or just some random band, you risk taking a lollipop, a live animal, or an adult toy to the face every time you're onstage.
Strange objects hurled at the stage are nothing new. Throwing bottles is so common that it has its own verb; it's called "bottling" and, these days, it's pretty tame. The stakes have been raised and haters or even fans trying to catch a star's attention can't count on random trash or rotten vegetables doing the trick.
So we've listed the weirdest items ever tossed onstage and the musicians who had to deal with them. From being pierced in the eyeball with candy to being pelted with tampons, these bands have suffered injuries to both their bodies and their pride. What's in it for the fans? Perhaps a tiny little bit of their favorite rapper or singer's fame, or at least the knowledge that they've trolled someone famous.
Whether you're delighted or disgusted, be sure to vote for the strangest thing ever lobbed onstage during a show.
A legend was born at the 1969 Toronto Peace Festival. You may have heard that Alice Cooper killed a chicken in the middle a performance, but Cooper himself has explained, "While we were on, somebody from the audience threw a chicken on stage. I'm from Detroit, I'm not a farm kid. I figured a chicken had wings, it'll fly away. So I took the chicken and threw it and it didn't fly. It went into the audience. Blood everywhere."
David Bowie was once hit in the eye with a lollipop while playing a show in Oslo, Norway. As the candy dart stuck out of his (bulls)eye, Bowie joked that at least it had been his bad eye. Yes, his look has changed dramatically in the past, but even as Ziggy Stardust, he never went so far as to claim to be King Kandy of Candy Land.
To be fair, someone threw a can at Akon during a 2007 show in upstate New York. The rapper apparently considered this a teachable moment, asking the can-tosser to come onstage. The 15-year-old attendee appeared stoked as he emerged from the crowd. That changed when he was promptly slung over Akon's shoulder and hurled off the stage. Akon ended up paying a $350 fine and performing 65 hours of community service thanks to his etiquette lesson.
Loaves of bread were handed out to music lovers at the Taste of Fort Collins Festival in Colorado, and some of those loaves ended up flying onstage during Smash Mouth's set. Lead singer Steve Harwell then revealed that, where bread's concerned, he's the opposite of a duck: the lead singer went on a furious, expletive-filled tirade and had to be physically restrained from entering the crowd and punishing any bread-throwers. Needless to say, the set was canceled.
Bottling is common at concerts and musicians generally know how to deal with it, but when a bottle is glass, things can get dangerous. And when a glass bottle is full of urine, things can get dangerously disgusting. That's why British singer Cheryl Lloyd hit the brakes during a festival performance, abandoning her initial attempt to play through a hail pee bottles.
One Direction heartthrob Harry Styles received a little more love than he hoped for when pelted with tampons while onstage in 2012. The message this fan was trying to get across is a little cryptic... "I want you inside me," maybe? Whatever the cause, it didn't work. Turns out feminine hygiene products aren't the way to Harry's heart. The bright side? The tampons were unused.
