Rock Stars Who Are Absolute Nightmares On Tour

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Rock 'n' roll isn't about dropping a banger and letting the world decide if it's good enough to be remembered. It's about hitting the road and turning the mildly curious into mega fans through sensational shows. But while it might be the dream to record and perform live, there are rock stars who are absolute nightmares on tour — they make their treks memorable for all the wrong reasons.

Now, this isn't about the odd off day, where someone might really be in a bad mood and the worst comes out. It's about performers who constantly find themselves entrenched in controversy when it comes to their tours. They seemingly can't help themselves, with many coming from rock bands with the worst drama. From setting fire to hotel beds to leaving concerts if an audience doesn't clap in the right rhythm, these are the rock stars who make the headlines not just for their music but also their tour antics. Brace yourself for a few simultaneous laughs and headshakes.

Nowadays, Kid Rock is better known for his strong political views rather than being the guy who dropped radio-friendly hits like "Bawitdaba" and "All Summer Long." Yet he's always had a reputation as being something of a live wire when on tour. Lest we forget, in 2006, him and hip-hop group Boo-Yaa T.R.I.B.E. were allegedly involved in a punch-up with fans after they dared to ask for autographs. A year later, he was involved in another scuffle at Waffle House of all places. In the same year, Kid Rock had a fight with Tommy Lee at the MTV Video Music Awards.

Brawls aside, Rock isn't only fighting with fists on tour — he also uses his words and attitude. In 2025, Rock actually bailed from a concert because the crowd didn't do what he wanted of them. As per AXS TV, Rock performed at a special birthday party held for Bon Jovi's David Bryan in Nashville, Tennessee. Rock started to perform, but he noticed the audience wasn't too involved nor clapping along, so he stopped the set to express his discontent. "If you ain't gonna clap, we ain't gonna sing," he said. "That's how it's gonna go." Reportedly, Rock showed how he wanted them to clap along, but the audience didn't match the same level of enthusiasm and cadence of clapping he wanted, so he swore at the crowd and walked off. Happy birthday to you, David Bryan!

Scandal and Guns N' Roses go together like love and marriage. If the band isn't in the midst of setting off riots, Axl Rose's notoriously bad timekeeping is making everyone wonder if he will show up for a concert or not. Now, this isn't like 15 minutes late — sometimes, he might not show up at all, because he might be too interested in watching "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret of the Ooze" (according to Alternative Nation reporting, that's a true story).

Answering a Q&A for Adelaide Now, Rose admitted that he isn't "punctual" in general. The singer said he's never been a person who sticks to times, which has cost him millions of dollars in his career. However, Rose added that he's never been deliberately late to a concert for asinine reasons. "I can say I haven't been late because I was watching a sporting event or something equally as ridiculous," he said. "The reasons have all been in one way or another show-related or having to do with those involved with the show in some fashion. It's just my reality and I try and work on it."

Rose's timekeeping once even drove concert promoter Barry Fey to the edge. According to reports, he used scare tactics to persuade Rose to perform — though the exact details are debated. Metallica's Lars Ulrich suggested that Fey put a gun to Rose's head to get him on stage, while Fey denied doing so.

Did you know that the correct way to spell Mötley Crüe is C-O-N-T-R-O-V-E-R-S-Y? Widely known as the bad boys of rock, Mötley Crüe's on-tour antics have become the stuff of legend. They've been covered in heinous detail in the autobiography "The Dirt: Confessions of the World's Most Notorious Rock Band" and subsequently turned into a Netflix movie. From taking bets over who can go the longest without a shower to nearly meeting the grim reaper on several occasions, if you can imagine it, the band has probably done and documented it. 

In "The Dirt," Nikki Sixx recalled one story during their Switzerland stop on a European Tour. "Tommy [Lee] and Vince [Neil] bought flare guns and fired one in their room," Sixx stated. "A giant ball of fire shot out and ricocheted off the walls before setting Tommy's mattress on fire." According to Sixx, Lee and Neil were so impressed that they went to find their manager to show him, only to lock themselves out of the room. Reportedly, they didn't get kicked out of the hotel until the following incident the next day, when they broke the elevator's glass windows. It wasn't the only time that Mötley Crüe desecrated a hotel bed — Neil reportedly threw his bed out of a window in Germany. There was collateral damage in the form of a Mercedes-Benz in the street below.

Various reports suggest that Marilyn Manson misbehaves both while performing and offstage. Entire books could be written about Manson stories that have made the rounds in fandom lore and the media for years. Heck, watch his 2002 DVD "Guns, God and Government World Tour" to see some of the shenanigans that he and his band members get up to behind the scenes.

Expectedly, Manson has indulged in the "trashing the hotel room" trope that many rock stars do, but he and his cohorts took it to a whole new level in 1998. According to the New York Post (via MTV News), Manson and his pals got rowdy in a dressing room before a show, tearing it apart (quite literally) and setting a T-shirt on fire. The blaze spread to the carpet and resulted in the fire department being called to put out the flames.

The group wasn't done, though. After the show wrapped, they headed back to their hotel, where they proceeded to destroy four rooms. They burned carpets, put hair dye in the bathtubs and sinks, and made general nuisances of themselves to the cost of $25,000. Reportedly, Manson offered offered to pay for all the damages afterward.

Jane's Addiction is one of those bands who can't seem to get along for too long. There have been more break-ups than make-ups in their history, and the more time they spend together on tour, the less likely they seem to be on the same page. The band has also had two notable onstage fights between the same members decades apart. In 1991, during Lollapalooza, singer Perry Farrell and guitarist Dave Navarro got into a scuffle during a live performance. Even Navarro admitted he didn't know what the incident was about. "We were kids and we were volatile," he told Vanity Fair in 2011. "We had different forms of expression than we do now. I'm sure that some of those altercations were chemically induced in one way or another."

In 2024, history repeated itself as Farrell attacked Navarro during a concert. It proved to be the final straw on the tour — the band cancelled all the remaining concerts and broke up once again, issuing an apology to the fans for what happened. In 2025, Navarro told Guitar Player that Jane's Addiction won't reunite again, even stating that the last show was the worst of his career. But knowing this band, never say never.

In terms of bands who are absolute nightmares when on tour, Aerosmith gave every hotel manager headaches (and major repair bills) when they were in town. It wasn't even a case of them reacting in the heat of the moment after a night of rock 'n' roll debauchery — it was planned way in advance. The group used to pack a chainsaw along with their equipment so they could cut through hotel furniture faster, because why not? That wasn't all: They brought along extension cords for the television sets that they would throw out of the windows and into the swimming pool to blow up.

Another explosive Aerosmith story was covered in Martin Huxley's book "Aerosmith: The Fall and the Rise of Rock's Greatest Band." In Lincoln, Nebraska, vocalist Steven Tyler and drummer Joey Kramer decided to entertain everyone from Tyler's hotel room balcony by letting off a bunch of fireworks. The event resulted in Tyler being arrested for his part in the shenanigans. According to Aerosmith's manager's comments in the "Walk This Way" documentary (via The Guardian), their bad behavior got so bad that a rule had to be instituted. "If we didn't see a band member for 24 hours, we broke down the hotel room door to see if they were still alive," the manager said.

Whether it's with the Misfits or his own solo band, Glenn Danzig isn't afraid of raising a little hell when he's on tour. It's now legend how Danzig and the Misfits abandoned a U.K. tour in 1979 after issues with payment — only to culminate in Danzig and guitarist Bobby Steele spending a night in the slammer after having an altercation with other folks outside of a venue.

Yet this isn't even Danzig's most famous fight while on tour. That title goes to a video-captured squabble that the singer had with North Side Kings' Danny Marianino in 2004. In 2024, Marianino's bandmate Tom Reardon recounted the story to the Phoenix New Times. According to Reardon, there had been a few issues already when his band were set to take to the stage that evening, supposedly because of changes that Danzig had requested. What ended up happening was Danzig played their set, the lights came up, and the stage started to be dismantled, meaning the North Side Kings wouldn't have been able to play. So Marianino decided to approach Danzig to find out what had been the problem.

Judging by the footage captured, the pair engaged in a heated conversation before Danzig swore at Marianino and shoved him. In retaliation, Marianino swung his fist at Danzig and knocked him off his feet. Years later, in 2012, Danzig told LA Weekly that Marianino was trying to instigate a fight so he could sue the Misfits singer.

Oasis' Noel and Liam Gallagher are the living and breathing embodiment of sibling rivalry. On their own, they're capable of extremely volatile behavior, but put them together and there won't ever be a boring day. According to Rolling Stone, the pair have been at each other's throats since childhood, with the issues only flaring up further as Oasis became one of the most successful British bands of all time.

The brothers have aired their dirty laundry and fought in front of journalists and crowds too. Hilariously, Liam hit Noel with a tambourine before storming off stage in 1994, which saw Noel quit the band for a short period of time. Then, there was the time when Liam couldn't perform with Oasis because of voice issues, so he took the opportunity to mercilessly heckle his brother from the sidelines. In the middle of another tour, Noel quit the band again after Liam questioned the parentage of his child. Again, Noel would return to Oasis before the band finally broke up in 2009.

The drama didn't stop there, though, as the brothers continued to throw potshots at each other whenever they could, including on X. Eventually, they mended fences and reunited Oasis in 2024. But with the Gallaghers, it feels like another bust-up is more of an inevitability than just a distinct possibility.

On the surface, the Jesus and Mary Chain don't appear to be rock stars who would be absolute nightmares on tour to the level of, say, Mötley Crüe. However, Jim Reid told The Guardian that he's grateful smartphones weren't around to capture the numerous fights that happened between him and his brother, William, in the '90s. "One night when we were DJing, we ended up rolling around on the floor, fighting, looking up to people's horrified expressions," Jim said.

William also recalled the fateful night in 1998 when the Jesus and Mary Chain headed toward their eventual break-up after Jim arrived drunk for the performance. "I kicked him off stage, tried to be the singer, but didn't know the words," William said. He quit Jesus and the Mary Chain that same evening, and the band tried to continue without him. However, their final show ended on a dramatic note, as the promoter ran away with their money and the group ended up fighting the "Riverdance" cast at a bar. William and Jim would eventually reunite the Jesus and the Mary Chain in 2007, though they don't seem to be as hostile toward each other anymore.

The Doors' Jim Morrison wasn't just a vocalist — he established himself as a rock 'n' roll icon. But Morrison's eccentricity and unpredictability turned him into a liability on tour. His bandmates went through the wringer because of his headline-making behavior. In 1967, Morrison was arrested onstage for inciting a crowd and insulting a police officer. Two years after that, he was arrested and charged for exposing himself on stage.

In 1970, during what proved to be the Doors' final show, Morrison provided yet another example of why he was impossible to deal with at the time. An inebriated Morrison took to the stage but lost his way as he fumbled songs and struggled to even stand up straight. At one point during "Light My Fire," Morrison sat on the drumkit and failed to get up to sing the verse, so drummer John Densmore tapped the frontman with his foot to draw his attention. Morrison didn't take too kindly to this, picking up his mic stand and smashing it before walking offstage. After the show, the Doors decided that it would be their final performance as a band because of Morrison becoming an absolute nightmare on tour. Morrison would die months later in July 1971.

There's no disputing Pete Doherty's talent as a musician. Yet one can't help but think that he would have been a much bigger star now had he managed to curb or avoid some of his past behaviors. One time, for example, he confessed to burgling the apartment of his Libertines bandmate, Carl Barât. Then there was another incident when he was arrested after allegedly robbing a documentary filmmaker. The charges were subsequently dropped.

And there's one on-tour incident from 2009 that German fans won't soon forget. Doherty was in town for the on3 music festival in Munich. According to the Telegraph, the musician went on stage and started to sing "Deutschland, Deutschland über alles" — a phrase that's often linked to Nazi Germany. Expectedly, this drew a strong negative reaction from the crowd and organizers, who promptly removed Doherty from the stage. In addition to this, a radio station broadcasting the show cut the transmission because of the musician's stunt. Doherty didn't face any charges for what he did that day, but he's unlikely to have gained any more German fans.

Want to read more about Doherty? Check out why the Libertines stopped making music.