Musicians Who Were Injured On Stage

Being a famous singer is a pretty enviable gig. From going on tours around the world and playing for thousands of adoring fans to going home to multimillion-dollar mansions, there sure seem to be a lot of perks involved. But did you know this dreamy rock star lifestyle comes with some danger? 

Performing can spell disaster. And despite famous musicians being larger than life to us, they aren't infallible. Some of your favorite music stars have ended up injured in a pretty unlikely place — the stage. Many famous faces have gotten hurt while under the spotlights, and you might be surprised who has fallen victim while performing. From young pop stars like Harry Styles to older rock legends like Mick Jagger, there seems to be no rhyme or reason to these freak accidents ... and sometimes they're at the hands of their own beloved fans. 

In June 2023, Bebe Rexha made headlines when she suffered a gnarly injury onstage in New York City. While performing in Manhattan, Rexha was hit by a flying cell phone thrown by someone in the audience. And while being hit with a cell phone may not sound particularly dangerous, the cell phone struck her in the forehead, resulting in a split in her eyebrow. After the scary event, a fan posted a video on Twitter of Rexha being removed from the stage with a large entourage to seek medical help. She was then taken to the hospital, where she received stitches. Despite the shocking stage activity, Rexha was a great sport. She took to Instagram to show off her injury, even taking the chance to capture it with a lyric from one of her famous songs — "Im good" — after her song "I'm Good (Blue)." She'd later reference her injury during a stop in Philadelphia, requesting to fans, "Just no phones on my face tonight please, I beg of you." 

As for the phone thrower, he was later identified as Nicolas Malvagna, a man from New Jersey, and he was arrested by NYPD and charged with assault after the incident. His attorney, Todd A. Spodek, released a statement to TMZ, attempting to explain the throw, sharing, "As a fan, Mr. Malvagna's sole intention was to have Ms. Rexha take photos with his phone, and return it as a keepsake. It was never his intention to injure Ms. Rehxa."

Ava Max had a scary run-in with a fan onstage in Los Angeles in June 2023. The incident took place while Max was mid-performance when an individual rushed the stage and slapped her across the face. It was caught on camera by fans, and the video shows that the individual was instantly removed by security. The video also shows that following the assault, the singer was ever the professional who continued dancing for a time before leaving the stage. 

Following the shocking slap, Max took to Twitter to speak to her fans, explaining, "He slapped me so hard that he scratched the inside of my eye. He's never coming to a show again [two angry face emojis] thank you to the fans for being spectacular tonight in LA though!!" Unlike Bebe Rexha's incident, it doesn't appear that the man who slapped Max was caught or apprehended.  

Even Justin Bieber has fallen victim to an onstage injury. Back in 2013, the pop star was on a stop during his mega-popular "Believe" tour when a rowdy fan in Sao Paulo, Brazil, chucked a water bottle at him. Bieber dropped his microphone during the incident and angrily stormed off the stage. The encounter was captured by many of the fans in attendance and posted to social media, showing that it took place while the superstar was singing one of his biggest hits, "Boyfriend." Bieber took to Twitter following the concert — but didn't address the water bottle — tweeting, "u all were loud tonight. thanks for the love. it's all love. all the time. Obrigado Brazil! On to the next one. #BelieveTour again tomorrow." 

It wasn't the first time the star had a run-in with a wayward water bottle, either. Back in 2010, Bieber was hit in the face with a water bottle during a performance at a Jingle Ball concert in Sacramento, California. 

It's hard to believe the legions of diehard Beatles fans would ever attempt to harm them, but that's exactly what happened in 1964. It may have been George Harrison's fault, as he said "jelly babies," known stateside as jelly beans, were his favorite candy during a 1963 interview. And fans sure took that anecdote to heart during their first concert in America, when all four members of the popular British band were hit with jelly beans.

The Associated Press at the time wrote (via Beatles Daily), "While they banged out their hit songs, the audience tossed jelly beans at the stage ... Among the jelly beans were peanuts, combs and apparently anything else that came readily to hand." Harrison would later tell a New York reporter of the incident, "... that night we were absolutely pelted by the f***ing things. They don't have soft jelly beans there, they have hard jelly beans." 

Harrison went on the explain that he and the rest of the band were performing on a circular stage, so they were being bombarded on all sides. "Imagine waves of rock-hard little bullets raining down on you from the sky ... Jelly beans are a bit dangerous, you see ... Every now and again, one would hit a string on my guitar and plank off a bad note as I was trying to play," he added. Who knew candy could cause such havoc?

One thing we've learned from rock stars? Water bottles are dangerous weapons. Singer Brendon Urie of Panic! At The Disco was another casualty of the drink back in 2006. His rock group was performing during the Carling Weekend: Reading Festival and was only one song into the set when he was smacked in the face by a flying water bottle. The impact was enough to put Urie on the floor, causing the group to stop the music to check on him. 

The show fortunately got to go on, after Urie was checked on and felt good enough to keep going. To the audience, Urie yelled, "You can't take me out ... Let's see how well you guys do with my left side," before picking up right where they had left off in their song "The Only Difference Between Suicide And Martyrdom Is Press Coverage." Though the incident was prior to cell phones being ubiquitous, a fan managed to capture the footage and put it on YouTube. 

Harry Styles was wrapping up a performance in Los Angeles back in 2022 when he was pelted in the eye by a skittle courtesy of an overzealous fan. Fan videos caught the injury on camera from multiple angles. It happened just as Styles finished his song "As It Was" during the November tour stop. Someone in the audience chucked a piece of the popular candy in the pop star's direction, catching him right in the eye and causing him to double over. 

Ever the professional, the former boy bander continued on after the incident and played his final song, "Kiwi," despite the uncomfortable event. And since they made the news in an unfortunate way, the candy brand weighed in on social media the following day, tweeting, "Didn't think I needed to say this: Please don't throw Skittles."

Though it technically didn't take place on the stage, the lead singer of Aerosmith, Steven Tyler, was seriously injured falling off of a stage (via AP) during a concert in South Dakota in 2009. The rocker was entertaining the crowd with some wild dance moves when he ended up falling backward, resulting in head and neck injuries so severe he was airlifted to a hospital. His bandmate Joe Perry informed the crowd that the show was over, and his injuries led to the band having to cancel the remainder of their summer tour.  

It wouldn't be the last time Tyler fell off of a stage, surprisingly. He would take another tumble in 2019, though this time it was much less severe. He even continued singing after he went down, not even missing one lyric to their hit song "Walk This Way." 

Back in 1992, James Hetfield, the frontman of Metallica, had a very scary encounter on stage. But instead of water bottles or crazy fans, he was faced with fire. The band was performing in Montreal, Canada, amongst a lot of pyrotechnics when the lead singer ran right into a 12-foot flame as they played their song "Fade to Black." The singer reminisced about the scary incident on VH1's "Behind the Music" years later, explaining, "I'm a little confused on where I'm supposed to be ... And then pyro guy doesn't see me, and ... a big colored flamed goes right up under me. I'm burnt. My arm, my hand, completely down to the bone. The side of my face. Hair's gone ... I watched the skin just rising, all these things going wrong." 

His bandmate, bassist James Newsted, also reflected on the near-tragedy on stage, explaining to People (via Louder), "If he had been breathing in, he would have been dead."

Back in 2017, Marilyn Manson had a terrifying incident on stage at a concert in New York City. The shock rocker was performing one of his hit songs, "Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)," which is actually a cover of a Eurythmics song, when he interacted with a giant prop of two pistols linked together that then tipped over and fell on top of him. The falling prop caused some very serious injuries. The rocker required a plate and 10 screws in his fibula and a screw through his ankle bone in the wake of the incident. 

Of the crazy event, Manson told Yahoo! News over a week later, "I only recently watched the video of it. I can see how it could look terrifying. It was terrifying for me, because the truss was not secured properly." And despite the results, Manson was grateful it wasn't worse, sharing, "It definitely could have crushed my skull and my ribs ... I have some minor bruising in that area, but it took six guys to pull it off of me. It was like wrestling a giant iron monster."

When someone says "break a leg" before an artist takes the stage, they don't really mean it. But that's exactly what Dave Grohl did during a 2015 concert that took place in Gothenburg, Sweden. The frontman was performing with his group the Foo Fighters when he fell off the stage and ended up breaking his leg. Despite the painful injury that occurred only two songs into the band's set, Grohl made a surprising promise to the audience, according to the BBC, telling fans, "I think I just broke my leg ... I'm going to go to the hospital. I'm going to fix my leg. And then I'm going to come back." 

Members of the crowd reported to BBC that the band played covers while Grohl was seeking medical attention, with fan Keiron Brennan explaining to the outlet what happened next. "He appeared after an hour to continue the concert, sitting in a chair with his leg bandaged ... It was surreal to see him perform on stage with a medic holding his leg ... He was just phenomenal." Later that night, the band tweeted a picture of the x-ray of Grohl's broken leg, writing, "Thank you Gothernburg. That was amazing."

Did you know Mick Jagger was almost blinded in the midst of a concert? The injury took place on stage back in 1966, when The Rolling Stones were performing in Marseille, France. They hadn't quite reached the level of fame known today, and the venue they were playing at had them performing back-to-back shows. When crowds from the first concert didn't disperse and ended up being joined by a whole new crowd, things got a little crazy. In the chaos, someone threw a wooden chair that hit Jagger right in the face. 

The rock star received stitches in his brow bone after the incident. Jean Sarrus, a bassist in the band Les Problemes, who were touring with The Rolling Stones at the time, reminisced about the incident to French outlet, Radio France Internationale, explaining that the injuries were able to be hidden: "The next day, we were in Lyon, and Mick Jagger came on stage with big clown glasses to hide the scar." As for the French fans, though they originally worried The Rolling Stones would never return, the band ended up playing in Marseille three more times — in 1990, 2003, and again in 2018.

In 1977, Patti Smith was performing her song "Ain't It Strange" in Tampa, Florida, when she learned just how dangerous a fall from stage could be. The musician, who was known for her wild dancing, opened up about that night in a 2012 issue of Uncut magazine (per Ultimate Classic Rock). Though she was known for wild stage dancing, she shared, "I didn't whirl around as much as usual, but when I hit the monitor with my foot, it was half hanging over the lip of the stage ... We needed more space and light, and we didn't get it, and I had an accident. Those are the practical aspects of it." The drop was a massive 14 feet, and Smith was met by unforgiving concrete, resulting in multiple breaks and one of the most serious injuries on the list. 

"It was a bad fall. I fractured my skull, several vertebrae in my neck, my back, my tailbone. I broke some teeth. It was serious. And I still have certain repercussions — I never got my full eyesight back. I don't have the range of movement that I used to," Smith told The Guardian in 2016. 

Lady Gaga experienced on-stage pain when she was accidentally hit on the head by a pole back in 2012. The injury happened while the pop star was performing in Auckland, New Zealand, taking place while she sang her tune "Judas." One of Gaga's performers was removing a prop from the stage when it struck the star right on the head. Despite the injury, she soldiered on and continued with the performance. 

Rolling Stone reported, via a now-defunct fan site Gagamedia.net, that Gaga addressed the crowd after suffering the blow, saying, "I want to apologize. I did hit my head and I think I may have a concussion but don't you worry I will finish this show." She reportedly went on to sing 16 more songs. It wasn't until after the show that her concussion was confirmed. The star's makeup artist, Tara Savelo, took to Twitter to update fans, sharing (via EW), "Gaga has a concussion but she is going to be okay. She wants u to know she loves u. I'm taking care of her. can't believe she finished the show."

Kelsea Ballerini had a scary incident take place at a concert in June 2023. The country darling was performing in Boise, Idaho, when she was struck in the face by an object (via KTVB). Following the hit, the singer ultimately left the stage before returning and giving a speech, as per Yahoo: "Can we just talk about what happened? ... All I care about is keeping everyone safe. If you ever don't feel safe, please let someone around you know. If anyone's pushing too much or you just have that gut feeling, just always flag it. Don't throw things. You know?"

The item thrown was later identified as a bracelet, and Ballerini took to Instagram Story (via Yahoo) to address the incident, writing, "Hi. I'm fine. Someone threw a bracelet, it hit me in the eye, and it more so just scared me than hurt me. We all have triggers and layers of fears way deeper than what is shown, and that's why I walked offstage to calm down and make sure myself, the band and crew, and the crowd all felt safe to continue. That's all I ever want, is for shows to feel like a safe place for us all." She also added to the end of an Instagram post's caption about the tour, "ps- i'm fine, let's just do a better job of keeping each other safe at shows. ily."