12 Times Audiences Turned Against Musicians

Love hurts, but not as much as when audiences turn against musicians. For an artist, there's nothing worse than conquering the pre-show jitters, hopping up onto the big stage, and having the crowd turn on you for whatever reason. It's the stuff of nightmares — kind of like the music industry equivalent of "being naked at work or school" dreams.

In some instances, it isn't a simple case of the crowd ignoring the performer or even booing them all the way back to Narnia — they often take it further. Whether it be flinging bottles bursting at the brim with pee or even hurling camping chairs like javelin, there have been moments when no one can blame musicians for totally losing their cool onstage because of the hostile environments they found themselves in. Heck, it would be more than enough to make the average person pack in the tunes and embark on a different career path. So let's head to the time machine, turn back the dial, and revisit the 12 times audiences turned against musicians. Don't be surprised if you experience secondhand embarrassment for the artists here, as some of these moments are nothing short of cringe for everyone involved.

At this point, everyone and their grandmother knows how Nickelback became the most hated band in the music industry. It was almost like an Olympic sport to see how far someone could take their dislike of the Canadian rock group. Most people created memes or Facebook groups as an outlet for their disdain, but the crowd at the Ilha do Ermal music festival in Portugal decided to take it one step further in 2002.

Nickelback wasn't even allowed to get too many songs deep into their performance before the crowd hurled bottles and rocks at the group. Frontman Chad Kroeger put his guitar down, grabbed the mic, and addressed the crowd. "Have we got any Nickelback fans in Portugal?" he asked. "Are you sure? Up to you, do you want to see some rock 'n' roll or do you want to go home?" The boos and jeers continued as further items were thrown onto the stage, so Kroeger and his cohorts walked off, flipping the middle finger at the crowd on the way out.

Appearing on "The Big Riz Podcast" years later, Nickelback recounted the incident. First off, the band believed they might have been the odd one out on the lineup, since it was more geared toward a heavy metal audience. In addition, they mentioned how the aggression only came from a certain section of the crowd, and they theorized that it might have been orchestrated by one of the other acts on the bill.

In 2003, Justin Timberlake was on top of the world. After a successful career with NSYNC, he broke out on his own and started to make a name for himself as a solo musician. The ultimate feather in his cap must have been when he was invited to join the Rolling Stones and a number of other major acts for the Molson Canadian Rocks For Toronto charity festival.

However, Timberlake's presence didn't go down well with the people in attendance. He attempted to crack a joke with the hostile audience and let them know that he wouldn't be taking too much of their time on stage. Unfortunately, this didn't stop them from throwing various items, including water bottles, at the singer. Turns out there was something else inside the water bottles, as Timberlake later revealed.

"All of a sudden bottles of urine were thrown on the stage," he said on "The Graham Norton Show" in 2020. "It wasn't always good times for me, you guys." Timberlake explained how he pushed through the performance, adding, "I still have a lot of trauma. Either they ran out of nerve, because they knew I was going to stay there, or they ran out of urine."

It's funny how elitism exists among music fans, even though most artists tend to be supporters of other genres and performers. The Rolling Stones, for example, never shied away from acknowledging and platforming talent that might not fit under the strict definition of rock 'n' roll. Case in point: In 1981, they roped in a young and relatively unknown Prince as a support act on their United States tour.

As the opening act on the first night of the tour at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, Prince stepped out in front of over 90,000 people. Unfortunately, the audience turned against the musician, hurling objects at the stage before an actual food fight broke out among the crowd. "Imagine 94,000 people throwing food at each other," Prince's bassist Brown Mark told Classic Rock. "It was the craziest thing I had ever seen in my life. I got hit in the shoulder with a bag of fried chicken; then my guitar got knocked out of tune by a large grapefruit that hit the tuning keys."

Despite the promoter trying to get the audience to calm down, Prince and his crew departed the stage after only four songs. According to various recollections, the musician was driven to tears by the event and flew home to Minnesota. He returned for the next date on the tour, but similar behavior continued, and he eventually dropped off the bill.

Much like Nickelback, Creed became one of the most hated bands in the music industry, largely due to the antics of vocalist Scott Stapp. Matters took another interesting turn after a December 2002 concert at the Allstate Arena in Rosemont, Illinois. According to reports, the performance could best be described as abysmal, with Stapp allegedly struggling to remember the lyrics to his own songs, wandering offstage, and squirming around on the floor. It was so bad that Creed actually apologized to their fans after the show and said that Stapp would be resting up for a while.

Four fans refused to accept it, though, as they sued the band. According to an MTV report, the concertgoers claimed in their lawsuit that Stapp was clearly under the influence and in no state to perform, while also blaming the other band members, management, and promoter for allowing the show to even take place. These fans wanted to be reimbursed for what they spent on the concert, as well as proposing a class action where everyone would get their money back. In the end, the lawsuit was dismissed by a judge.

Mötley Crüe is no stranger to controversy. In fact, there's an argument to be made that the trashy rockers are more renowned for their outrageous shenanigans than their actual music. While the juicy scandals help to keep them in the headlines, paying concert attendees still expect a certain level of performance when seeing them live.

Unfortunately, on what was supposed to be the first show of their final tour as a group in 2014 (spoiler alert: it wasn't), the Crüe experienced a situation where everything that could go wrong did. According to Metal Sludge, the band stopped three songs into their set at the Van Andel Arena after drummer Tommy Lee broke a drumstick. Guitarist Mick Mars played a solo to pass the time, but eventually the lights came on, much to the audience's chagrin.

The band returned to the stage, played a few more songs, then stopped once again after an awkward transition to another tune. They kicked off again, but Mars struggled with his monitor and guitar, so there was yet another halt in the performance. At this point, the audience started to boo the band. While the Crüe continued to play thereafter, it was clear that they weren't on the same page, and by the end of the night, the audience's ire had turned into pity.

Look, the Reading and Leeds Festivals haven't ever been exclusively reserved for a singular genre of music. Hence it being possible to see the likes of Green Day and Placebo on the same bill, even if one band is pop punk and the other is alternative rock. The audience wasn't in the mood to see 50 Cent slotted in between Placebo and Green Day's performances, though, per Louder's retrospect of the 2004 event.

After Placebo wrapped up their set at Reading, the crowd prepared for the arrival of 50 Cent by collecting the rubbish — such as cups and bottles — around them. Now, this wasn't them being good citizens and cleaning up the festival grounds to look good for the rapper's arrival. No, this was in preparation for when Fiddy and G-Unit hit the stage, as they were met with an onslaught of trash hurled in their direction.

Fiddy and his crew fought back, lobbying their own set of water bottles into the crowd. That said, the numbers game didn't work in their favor here, as there were more attendees than the people onstage. To his credit, Fiddy powered on through the performance as the crowd attempted to hijack the show. He peaced out, though, after someone lobbed a camping chair in his direction, and who can blame him for that?!

Pairing popular bands together isn't always the match-made-in-heaven idea that promoters imagine it to be, especially when it comes to partisan crowds. A classic example is the events that unfolded when Limp Bizkit teamed up with Metallica and Linkin Park for the Summer Sanitarium stop in Chicago in 2003.

According to reports from outlets like Entertainment Weekly, the fans booed at the mention of Fred Durst and the boys before they even hit the stage. Expectedly, when Limp Bizkit trotted their way out to perform, the crowd wasn't exactly in the mood to see them launch into their nu metal shtick. Not only did the band receive a chorus of boos, but they were also pelted with a variety of objects. Durst did what he does best, antagonizing the audience and provoking them further. "This is why your baseball teams suck," he reportedly said. "None of you are good pitchers. You can't hit me with your garbage." Naturally, it didn't help the situation, and the Bizkit hightailed it after six songs.

It didn't end there, though, as 172 fans combined their powers for a class action lawsuit, per the Los Angeles Times. They demanded a portion of their ticket price back because of Bizkit's failure to perform a full set — $25, since the band only performed for a reported 17 minutes. Given the lack of follow-up reports on the suit, it doesn't seem that anything came of it.

When anyone discusses rappers who were really weird people, Kanye West's name cannot be ignored. Ye is a polarizing figure, with many praising him as an eccentric musical genius while others claiming he's an entitled edgelord. One thing's certain, though: He angered a lot of fans after his appearance at the Bonnaroo festival in 2008.

According to The Guardian, West pulled an Axl Rose and showed up for his performance an hour and a half later than scheduled. The audience turned against the musician, booing him and throwing glow sticks in his direction. It also didn't help that he took the stage at 4:30 a.m., when fans were probably feeling the effects of a long night out. While the audience aired their frustration at West for his timekeeping, the event organizer's spokesperson claimed the delay wasn't the rapper's fault. Instead, the blame was laid at the door of Pearl Jam, whose set allegedly took longer to disassemble than anyone could have predicted.

Before Sammy Hagar joined Van Halen, he sang for Montrose and launched his own solo career. In 1977, he received a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity: Touring with KISS. This led to Hagar performing with the group at Madison Square Garden in what should have been a mega-career boost for him. There was one problem, though: No one knew who he was. 

Hagar didn't have a recognizable hit at the time, and his name wasn't even listed on the line-up. Consequently, the audience reacted unpleasantly to his mere presence. As Hagar wrote in his autobiography "Red: My Uncensored Life in Rock," the crowd heckled him before he even came out on stage. The guitarist looked out into the audience and saw everyone dressed up as KISS, so he thought he could try to win them over by doing a Montrose song that they might have been familiar with. Nope, it didn't work, and the boos evolved into people throwing objects at him.

From here, Hagar got personal and insulted the crowd by saying they were flown in from Los Angeles. Reportedly, this led to people storming toward him, presumably not to tickle him or stroke his hair. For his final act, Hagar dropped his pants, exposed himself to the audience, smashed his guitar to pieces, and walked off the stage and tour altogether.

The Killers are arguably one of the most important rock bands of the 2000s and had everyone dancing to the tune of "Somebody Told Me." However, they made a major faux pas in 2023 that resulted in many fans leaving the concert venue in outrage. As reported by Newsweek, the band performed a show at the Black Sea Arena in Batumi, Georgia, where they proceeded to invite a Russian fan onto the stage to play drums with them. Frontman Brandon Flowers decided to wax poetically and say that Russians and Georgians were all "brothers and sisters." Whether Flowers knew or not, the relationship between the two countries had been historically fractured, so the predominantly Georgian crowd responded by jeering the Killers. For some in attendance, Flowers' words proved to be too much and they walked out of the arena.

Later, the Killers posted an apology on X, stating that having an audience member play with them is something of a tradition and addressing Flowers' remarks. "We recognize that a comment, meant to suggest that all of the Killers' audience and fans are 'brothers and sisters' could be misconstrued," the band wrote. "We did not mean to upset anyone and we apologize. We stand with you and hope to return soon."

Pete Doherty isn't averse to being tabloid fodder or finding himself in trouble with the law. However, his behavior at a 2009 concert in Munich, Germany proved to be a step too far, being both unnecessary and abhorrent. As per Telegraph, Doherty made his way onto the stage for the on3 music festival. For some reason only known to him, Doherty began to sing, "Deutschland, Deutschland über alles," which was closely associated with Nazi Germany. 

The crowd wasn't having any of it, erupting into boos and rage at Doherty's audacity to pull such a stunt in the country. A radio broadcaster that streamed the concert immediately cut the coverage, and organizers jumped into action, pulling Doherty off the stage after five songs. While no formal charges were brought against Doherty for what he did, he didn't win over any fans for his actions here.

Guns N' Roses have a history of antagonizing audiences, especially with Axl Rose's notorious tardiness. It's something of a lucky packet surprise where no one knows if a show will start on time or a few hours later. However, there's a notable GNR incident where the audience let the band have it — and it wasn't Rose's fault.

As per Entertainment.ie, while on tour in Australia in 2017, GNR's announcer McBob took the mic and called out to Sydney before the band took to the stage. One problem, though: They were in Melbourne. These are two very different places in the land down under, and the audience didn't let McBob's mistake slide as they booed loudly.

The band played the show, but they addressed the issue afterward. They apologized for the error and said it's the first time that McBob had made that mistake in 30 years. Guitarist Slash found the funny side of it, as he posted on X, "Apologies for the Spinal Tap intro!" Well, hopefully, the group made up for it by turning up the volume to 11 when they performed.

Still in a musical mood? Read all about the musicians dropped by brands following huge controversy.