Hands Down The Most Bizarre Encounters Rock Stars Have Had With Each Other

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When famous people meet other famous people, those stories occasionally become public, and when they do, they almost always make news. The public has a never-ending fascination with celebrities and how they interact with each other, and that's certainly been the case with rock stars over the years. 

Such meetings can really run the gamut. For example, the truth about Bob Dylan's relationship with The Beatles goes back to the fall of 1964, when the on-the-rise folk singer and the Liverpool foursome met in a New York Hotel. There, Dylan reportedly introduced the original "Fab Four" to their first collective puff of marijuana, which arguably set the stage for the band's transition from beloved mop-top hitmakers to the psychedelia-infused musical explorations that followed. That was a markedly different experience from when they met Elvis Presley at Graceland, which reportedly began awkwardly and grew even more awkward, until they finally all grabbed some guitars and broke the ice musically. 

There have been plenty of other occasions when rockers met other rockers and things took a turn for the weird. Here is a rundown of what are hands down the most bizarre encounters rock stars have had with each other.

The death of The Beach Boys' Brian Wilson at age 82 closed one of rock music's most colorful chapters. Wilson is renowned as the sonic visionary behind the band's trailblazing "Pet Sounds" album, but was also prone to wild eccentricities, due to his lifelong mental health issues. His quirkiness was on full display in the bizarre occasion when Wilson met Elvis Presley for the first time. 

As it happened, Wilson and Presley were both recording in the same studio facility. Wilson was thrilled with the opportunity to meet the King of Rock 'n' Roll, and invited Presley to visit his studio to hear some new music he'd been working on. When Presley arrived, Wilson jokingly threw a mock karate chop in his direction; Presley, who'd become a serious devotee of martial arts, quickly unleashed a karate chop of his own to block Wilson's. 

While relating the anecdote on "The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon," Wilson recalled that Presley became so weirded out by what Wilson had done that he up and left. "He chopped my arm so hard, and then he goes, 'I'm leaving!' I'm leaving!' And he split," said Wilson. "And that was it."

In the photographer Andrew Bennett's book, "Eruption in the Canyon: 212 Days & Nights With the Genius of Eddie Van Halen," he wrote of Eddie Van Halen jamming with Limp Bizkit in 2001. When frontman Fred Durst and the rest of the band all lit up reefers, Van Halen — who is not fond of marijuana and those who smoke it — decided to bolt, leaving all his equipment behind. As Bennett wrote (via Ultimate Classic Rock), the guitarist described the jam as "like being a scholar amongst kindergartners."

The following day, Van Halen called Durst about getting his gear back. When that call and subsequent others went unanswered, Van Halen hopped into the military assault vehicle he'd recently purchased at auction and drove it to Durst's house, parking it on his lawn. "He got out wearing no shirt, his hair in a Samurai bun on top of his head, his jeans held up with a strand of rope and combat boots held together by duct tape. And he had a gun in his hand," wrote Bennett.

When Durst answered the door, Van Halen pulled out the gun and held it to Durst's head. "Eddie Van Halen stood on the front lawn of a residential home in Beverly Hills in broad daylight, smoking a cigarette while holding a gun on Fred Durst as he went back and forth from the house to the assault vehicle, lugging amps and guitars," Bennett recalled.

Back in 1984, Mötley Crüe had already earned a reputation for rock star debauchery when the band was selected to open for Ozzy Osbourne on his tour. When the members of Crüe met the former Black Sabbath frontman, it became quickly apparent they weren't even in the same league as the Blizzard of Ozz.

According to the group's autobiography, "The Dirt," they were hanging poolside in a Florida hotel when Osbourne approached, asking if any of them had any cocaine. They did not, yet that didn't stop Osbourne from asking guitarist Nikki Sixx for a straw. 

"I handed him the straw, and he walked over to a crack in the sidewalk and bent over it," Sixx said in an interview for the book. "I saw a long column of ants, marching to a little sand dugout where the pavement met the dirt. And as I thought, 'No, he wouldn't,' he did." According to Sixx, Osbourne snorted every single ant up his nose. While Osbourne claimed to have no recollection of that incident (to be fair, given the many crazy stories people have about meeting Ozzy Osbourne, there are probably a lot of things from that period he doesn't remember), Sixx has maintained it absolutely did happen. "We were a wild young band and he kinda took us under his wing, and we thought we could compete with that, but you can't with Ozzy," Sixx told Page Six. "He won."

One night during the 1970s, Elton John took in an Atlanta performance of proto-punk legend Iggy Pop. The "Tiny Dancer" singer thought it would be hilarious to play a prank by showing up costumed as a gorilla — which is precisely what he did. Pop, however, had imbibed a variety of chemicals before showtime, and was admittedly not at his sharpest. John proceeded to jump onstage and playfully grabbed Pop, picking him up and briefly carrying him around. "I could barely stand up, and that night Elton John came out onstage in a gorilla costume," Pop said when interviewed for "Please Kill Me: The Uncensored Oral History of Punk." "I was like, 'Oh my god! What do I do?' I couldn't fight him." 

In that same book, photographer Jim Marshall recalled being in the audience and watching the whole bizarre thing play out. "Iggy was really shrinking in terror like he didn't know it wasn't a real gorilla," Marshall recalled.

Pop admitted he was taken aback when the gorilla-costumed rock star accosted him onstage, but refuted Marshall's contention, insisting he wasn't that out of it to the extent he believed he was being attacked by an actual primate. "I realized it wasn't a real gorilla," he told Mojo (via NME), but panicked because he had no idea who was inside the suit. "You don't know who's in there," he continued. "It could be Billy Bob and he's going to kill me."

When delving into the truth about the feud between Michael Jackson and Prince, it turns out that their legendary musical rivalry also extended to their personal relationship. Appearing on Drink Champs, Black Eyed Peas' will.i.am — who'd worked with both musicians — recalled running into Jackson in Vegas, and invited him to watch him perform with Prince. Jackson initially turned him down, and when asked why declared, "Prince is a meanie!" 

Jackson, will.i.am recalled, told him, "One time he tried to run me and my mama over with a car." That was actually corroborated by Jackson's longtime producer, Quincy Jones, who explained that Prince was infuriated after they'd both joined James Brown onstage, with Prince believing Jackson sabotaged his performance. 

Their oddest encounter, however, took place in a soundstage when Prince was working with sound engineer David Z on the soundtrack for "Under the Cherry Moon." The soundstage had a ping-pong table, and when Jackson dropped by, Prince invited him to play a game; Jackson accepted, but also explained he'd never played before. "You want me to slam it?" Prince asked (via The Minneapolis Star Tribune), which led Jackson to drop his paddle and cover his face with his hands. Prince proceeded to spike the ping-pong ball right into Jackson's most private of areas. After Jackson left, Prince jokingly declared, "Did you see that? He played like Helen Keller."

When Mötley Crüe drummer Tommy Lee and Kid Rock wound up attending the 2007 edition of the MTV Video Music Awards, they had but one thing in common: "Baywatch" alum and Playboy record-holder Pamela Anderson, who was the ex-wife of both men (Anderson was married to Lee from 1995 to 1998, and to Kid Rock for about six months in 2006). According to eyewitness Carson Daly, Lee walked over to seemingly greet P. Diddy while Kid Rock (seated nearby) was out of his seat. Lee's timing, however, was a bit off. "Kid Rock came back to his seat and all hell broke loose," Daly told "Access Hollywood" (via Today.com). 

Suddenly, a scuffle broke out. The truth about Kid Rock and Tommy Lee's fight, however, was that just one punch was thrown. "I can't say who started it. Tommy Lee took a blow," rapper Sway told "Access Hollywood," indicating the fracas didn't last long. "It was [over] so quickly. If you blinked you would have missed it." Kid Rock, a cigar in his mouth, was held back while Lee was likewise restrained. At one point, Kid Rock picked up a chair, presumably to use as a weapon WWE-style, although it never came to that. 

Initial reports indicated that Kid Rock could have faced up to six months in the slammer. Ultimately, though, no charges were filed.

Rocker Rob Zombie and Ozzy Osbourne have been friends for many years, and have even toured together. According to Zombie, his initial encounter with the Prince of Darkness was downright unforgettable. "The first time I met Ozzy was really weird," said Zombie while appearing on Zane Lowe's "Apple Music" podcast. Paying a visit to Osbourne's home, Zombie was expecting others to be there as well, but on arrival he discovered it was just the two of them. 

"I just met him. He's like, 'Oh, Rob, I want to play you my new record.' So he puts on his new record, I think he's going to play one song, maybe," Zombie recalled. Instead, Osbourne played the whole album, in its entirety, singing along to his own vocals while staring Zombie right in the eye. "And I'm simultaneously thinking, 'This is awesome, and this is so uncomfortable, I don't know what to do,'" he continued. 

Even weirder, though, was the time that he and Osbourne were at the home of late funk-rocker Rick James, legendary for his status as one of the musicians who partied way too hard. According to Zombie, all three men wound up smoking crack. "And then someone caught the couch on fire, and I think [James] had his girlfriend tied up in the corner ... it was good times," he joked during an interview with Fuse.

Life's been good for rock musician Joe Walsh as he's juggled his role as guitarist for the Eagles with his solo career. While these days Walsh has embraced sobriety, that wasn't always a word associated with the rock 'n' roll wild man known for his skill at trashing hotel rooms. As he explained in an interview with David Gans (via Medium), he'd learned from the best: Keith Moon, who landed a bad reputation in the music world while drumming for The Who. "Keith Moon really taught me how to do that — he was a master at it," said Walsh of Moon. 

During an onstage chat at famed L.A. club the Troubador, Walsh recalled how Moon took him under his wing when his band, The James Gang, opened for The Who on a tour. "One of the most terrifying things that ever happened to me was that Keith Moon decided he liked me," said Walsh, revealing Moon insisted neither would sleep until the tour was over. "And during those days he taught me a lot about the finer arts of anarchy, chaos, damage, destruction ..." Walsh added.

Walsh was no slouch when it came to rock star excess, but he quickly realized that Moon was on a whole other level — perhaps a whole other universe. "All those Keith Moon stories are true," Walsh recalled in a television interview. "This guy was full-blown nuts, and you never knew what was coming next." 

When Nirvana played the Los Angeles Forum in 1993, among the many fans in attendance was Eddie Van Halen. Before the show, frontman Kurt Cobain met the Van Halen guitarist backstage, although what actually happened is a matter of some dispute. Speaking with Rolling Stone, Sonic Youth's Thurston Moore recalled being backstage when he encountered Cobain. "Kurt was walking down the hall, and I said, 'Dude, Eddie Van Halen's in your dressing room holding court.' And Kurt goes, 'No way!' He was real excited," Moore said. "Kurt went into the dressing room, walked right up to Eddie and kissed him on the mouth. He had to do that."

However, Pat Smear — who was playing guitar with Nirvana at the time, and would later join drummer Dave Grohl in the Foo Fighters — shared a conflicting memory of that meeting when interviewed by Dimension Seven. In Smear's account, Van Halen was heavily inebriated and asked Cobain if he could play on a few songs; Cobain refused the offer. "Eddie Van Halen comes backstage drunk out of his f***ing mind, and he started begging Kurt to let him play with us," Smear claimed. "It was so disgusting. He was like, 'I'm all washed up; you are what's happening now.' It was horrible!"

While those two accounts appear to contradict each other, Van Halen was far from "washed up" at that time. In fact, the band's 1991 album "For Unlawful Carnage debuted at No. 1. 

Most encounters between famous musicians take place when they've already established themselves as stars. That wasn't the case for Slash, who wound up meeting David Bowie years before he skyrocketed to rock glory as guitarist for Guns N' Roses. Back then, he was just a kid named Saul Hudson, and his mother, Ola Hudson, was a costume designer whose clientele included the likes of Janis Joplin, Ringo Starr, and Bowie.

In his memoir, "Slash," he revealed that his mother's relationship with Bowie veered from professional to romantic when she was hired to work on Bowie's costumes for his movie, "The Man Who Fell to Earth." "Along the way, she and Bowie embarked on a semi-intense affair," he wrote. "Looking back on it now, it might not have been that big of a deal, but at the time, it was like watching an alien land in your backyard." When he was 8 years old, Slash walked into his mother's bedroom and saw an unexpected sight. "I caught them naked once," Slash said in an interview with Australian radio station Triple M (via Rolling Stone). "They had a lot of stuff going on, but my perspective at 8 was limited. Looking back on it I knew exactly what was going on."

After his revelation made headlines, Slash regretted making it. "I'm embarrassed because I'm sure David didn't appreciate it ..." he said in another radio interview, with San Francisco's 107.7 (via Rolling Stone).

One evening in 1970, Alice Cooper was in Las Vegas when he received a call informing him that Elvis Presley wanted to meet him, and so he was summoned to the King's hotel room. When the elevator doors opened, Cooper did a double take upon seeing the eclectic group of celebrities who were also heading up to the suite with him: Chubby Checker (originator of "The Twist"), "Cabaret" star Liza Minnelli, and adult film actor Linda Lovelace of "Deep Throat" fame.

Sharing his account on British game show "Never Mind the Buzzcocks," Cooper recalled being ushered in and immediately felt awed to be in the presence of Presley, who greeted him by saying, "Hey man, you're the cat with the snake, ain't you?" When Cooper confirmed he was, Presley insisted that working with a live, writhing boa constrictor onstage was "cool," and wished that he'd thought of the idea.

Presley then ushered Cooper into the kitchen, where he opened a drawer and pulled out a loaded .38 revolver and placed it in Cooper's hand. He then told Cooper he was about to show him how to disarm someone with a gun. "Little devil here on my shoulder says, 'Shoot him,'" Cooper joked. "Little angel over here says, 'Don't kill him, just wound him.'" Neither devil nor angel, however, had a chance to win out. "Before I could decide what to do I was on the floor, and he's got his boot on my throat," Cooper added.

'Weird Al' Yankovic became an unlikely star when his accordion-driven parody of Queen's "Another Bites the Dust" — "Another One Rides the Bus" — became a surprise novelty hit. He built on that by creating memorable parodies of Michael Jackson's "Beat It" and "Bad" (the food-centric "Eat It" and "Fat"), along with others, creating outrageous music videos that played endlessly on MTV.

After the success of Nirvana's "Nevermind" album, Yankovic wanted to parody "Smells Like Teen Spirit," but first required Cobain's permission. Obtaining it, however, was easier said than done due to Cobain's elusiveness. Interviewed by Neil Brennan's "The Blocks" podcast, Yankovic revealed that a friend in the "Saturday Night Live" cast helped him track down Cobain while he was rehearsing for Nirvana's first appearance on the show. Speaking with Cobain over the phone, Yankovic explained his desire to parody Cobain's hit. "And he said, 'Oh, is it going to be a song about food?' and I said, 'No, it's going to be a song about how nobody can understand your lyrics.' And he said, 'Okay, yeah, great, that's funny,'" Yankovic said.

As Yankovic told Loudwire, at the time he was coming off the box-office failure of his film, "UHF," and hadn't had a hit single in some time. "And when I came back with Nirvana, that brought me right back into heavy rotation on MTV, and it brought me back into the top 20 on the Billboard charts," he shared. 

It's fair to say that Southern rock was a heavy influence for The Black Crowes. Not surprisingly, when the band was just breaking out in 1990, frontman Chris Robinson and his brother, guitarist Rich Robinson, wound up backstage at an Allman Brothers show in New York City. Recalling that night during an appearance on "The Howard Stern Show," Robinson explained that they were initially greeted by guitarist Warren Haynes, who praised their recently released debut album. 

"As we're talking, there's like a little room and Gregg Allman is in there, like, combing his hair for, like, eight hours, and blow drying it — a lot of hair," Robinson said. "Inevitably he gets up," Robinson continued, explaining there was a long hallway that Allman had to walk through, its trajectory placing him directly in the path of where the Robinson brothers were chatting with Haynes. "We're standing there, and as he walks past us, Warren goes, 'Greg! Greg! These are The Black Crowes, the two brothers from Georgia I told you about,'" Robinson continued. "And he looks at me out of the corner of his eye, and goes, 'Who gives a s***?' And he walked past us." 

While Robinson could have felt insulted by the snub, he instead found Allman's response to be nothing short of amazing. "I loved it!" he gushed. "I mean, if he had stopped and said, 'Hey, great to meet you,' I wouldn't have a cool story."

Cher and Madonna have had a complicated history over the years. It all came to the forefront during a 1991 interview with Steve Kmetko, in which she conceded there were things about Madonna that she admired — and others she didn't. "There's something about her that I don't like. She's mean, and I don't like that," Cher said. "I remember having her over to my house a couple of times because [Madonna's then-husband] Sean [Penn] and I were friends, and she just was so rude to everybody. It seems to me that she's got so much that she doesn't have to act the way that she acts, like a spoiled brat all the time. It seems to me that when you've reached the kind of acclaim that she's reached, and can do whatever you want to do, you should be a little more magnanimous."

Interestingly, Cher's opinion of Madonna has changed markedly in the years since then. While appearing on "Watch What Happens Live" in 2012, she told host Andy Cohen that they'd long since buried the hatchet. "I'm totally good with Madonna!" she declared. "Madge and I have gone through our thing, but no, I'm totally good with her." Five years later, the two were photographed together while attending the 2017 Women's March, where each spoke out in opposition to Donald Trump.

As frontman for Nirvana, Kurt Cobain had some interesting relationships with some of his contemporaries, not all of which were positive. In that category was the band fronted by Axl Rose, and the real reason Cobain hated Guns N' Roses is complicated. Rose was instantly captivated by Nirvana and became a huge fan of the band. That fandom, however, was not mutual — something that Cobain made abundantly clear when Metallica's Kirk Hammett was enlisted to convince Nirvana to open for Metallica's joint tour with Guns N' Roses — and Cobain took a pass. 

"And then fast forward to the MTV Music Awards ..." Hammett told Revolver. According to Hammett, he was sitting backstage speaking with Cobain when Rose stormed over. "I'm like, 'Oh no!' And he goes right up to Kurt and says, "What's your problem..." And so Kurt's like, 'Whatever, dude.'" When Rose's girlfriend, model Stephanie Seymour, attempted to calm him down, Rose instead erupted in a string of expletives, threatening violence on Cobain. "And Kurt's like, 'Whatever.' ... Axl stormed off and ... and Kurt's like, 'Man, I don't know. That guy's nuts ... That was just weird.'"

Later in the evening, Nirvana performed "Lithium" on the show, ending the song by smashing their equipment in a orgy of feedback and anarchy. In footage from the show, drummer Dave Grohl can be seen coming up to Cobain's microphone, and tauntingly crying out, "Hi Axl! Where's Axl?" 

When the Sex Pistols hit it big with their "Anarchy in the U.K." album, they were riding on the coattails of the original punk rock outfit, The Ramones. Interviewed by Classic Rock, bassist Dee Dee Ramone recalled being backstage at one of their gigs when frontman Joey Ramone was holed up in the bathroom. "He wouldn't come out," Dee Dee said, explaining that the other members of the band got creative when nature called, urinating into bottles while the bathroom was occupied. 

Johnny Ramone continued the story, recalling how they did their business into an empty Miller beer bottle, with the yellow liquid very much resembling the beer it had formerly contained. "Then Johnny Rotten picked it up and started to drink some and said, "Boy, this stuff tastes like [urine!'" he recalled. In his estimation, that error was entirely on Rotten. "Nobody's supposed to pick up strange bottles lying around and drink out of 'em!" he observed.

Years later, it was clear there was no love lost between the former Sex Pistols singer — now using his real name, John Lydon — when he and Marky Ramone appeared onstage together as part of a panel promoting Epix docuseries "Punk." "If not for the [expletive bleeped] Ramones you'd be doing [expletive bleeped] fishing trips somewhere," Marky declared. Lydon responded by slamming Marky for being more interested in drugs than political upheaval, with Marky firing back: "You talked the talk, but you didn't do the walk!"

No guitarist influenced Keith Richards more than Chuck Berry, who inherited the latter's gift for catchy rock riffs that built hit songs. Appearing on "The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon," Richards recalled a time he was hanging out with his idol — which did not go well at all.

According to Richards, he was backstage during one of Berry's shows. "He was doing a gig, he'd run off to collect the money — he was a tightwad, bless you, Chuck — and his guitar was laid out in its case." Standing over that fabled Gibson, Richards couldn't resist the temptation of picking up one of the most famous guitars in rock history. "C'mon Keith, just a touch," he recalled thinking to himself. Just then, Berry walked in and yelled, "Nobody touches my guitar," a remark punctuated with a punch to Richards' face. "That's one of Chuck's biggest hits, baby," Richards quipped. Reflecting on the incident, Richards admitted he'd had it coming. "If I walked into my dressing room and saw somebody fiddling with my ax, it would be perfectly all right to sock 'em, you know?" he told Rolling Stone. "I just got caught."

While Berry had a well-earned reputation for stubborn cantankerousness, Richards explained that Berry's thorny exterior concealed a softer core. "He was a little prickly, but at the same time there was a very warm guy underneath that he wasn't that willing to display," Richards observed.

In his early days, guitarist Peter Frampton's band, The Herd, landed a slot as the opening act for The Who. Thanks to the anarchic antics of drummer Keith Moon, that opportunity proved nearly fatal for Frampton. "At one theatre, Keith Moon stuck his head out of the dressing room window and the girls outside started screaming. He said to me, 'Here Pete, shove your head out.' The next thing I knew I was dangling out the fourth-floor window," Frampton told The Express, revealing bassist John Entwistle was also in on the hijinks. "Keith had one leg and John Entwistle had the other," he recounted. "There I was full dangle." That wasn't the only torture The Who's rhythm section meted out to Frampton, who revealed that the two also tied him to a radiator. 

Frampton also recalled another encounter with Moon, years later, when they were both staying in the same hotel. Frampton happened to be in the lobby when Moon felt the front desk clerk had been acting snooty. Frampton watched in stunned silence as Moon exited the lobby, and then drove a car through the hotel's glass entrance. "He smashed into the front desk and demanded his room key ..." recalled Frampton.

Back in the 1980s, Freddie Mercury and Michael Jackson teamed up in the studio to record three songs. Those songs were never officially released; in 2013, Brian May announced that the songs would be released later that year, but that plan never came to fruition. 

Meanwhile, after the deaths of both artists, the reasons behind why their collaboration stopped dead in its tracks eventually came to light. According to Jo Burt, who played bass on the sessions, Mercury became unsettled when Jackson began bringing his pet llama into the studio. "I think Freddie sort of took umbrage to that," Burt told the New York Post. Queen's manager, Jim "Miami" Beach, confirmed that account in an interview for the 2012 documentary, "Freddie Mercury: The Great Pretender" (via the New York Post). "Mercury rang me and said, 'Miami, dear, can you get over here? You've got to get me out of here, I'm recording with a llama.'" Beach recalled.

Journalist David Wigg, a friend of Mercury's, had a slightly different story to tell (via the Daily Mail), insisting the culprit behind scuttling the sessions was another of Jackson's pets, Bubbles the chimp. "Freddie got very angry because Michael made Bubbles sit between them and would turn to the chimp between takes and ask, 'Don't you think that was lovely?' or, 'Do you think we should do that again?'" Wigg said. "After a few days of this, Freddie just exploded."

If you or anyone you know needs help with addiction and/or mental health issues, contact the relevant resources below:

• The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration website or contact SAMHSA's National Helpline at 1-800-662-HELP (4357).

• The Crisis Text Line by texting HOME to 741741, call the National Alliance on Mental Illness helpline at 1-800-950-NAMI (6264), or visit the National Institute of Mental Health website.