A: Ask Jimmy Buffett.
Seriously, how do these musicians fall off stage? It’s not like they’re falling off some matchbox stage at a local club; they’re falling off the enormostages of enormodomes. Steven Tyler quickly to mind. He’s fallen off more than one stage. He’s had to navigate catwalks and hip checks, but most likely he was wasted.
Still, these are big stages and most of these artists who fall off stages aren’t shimmying along catwalks. I bet Mick Jagger‘s never fallen off a stage, a catwalk, or an inflatable penis. That guy’s a real pro.
Patti Smith fell off the stage at CBGB’s, but she’s a dynamo and that old CBGB’s stage was pretty small. What’s Jimmy Buffett even doing near the edge of a stage? I can’t imagine him putting his foot up on a monitor and rocking forward like The Ramones. (I don’t recall stories of Joey ever falling off a stage, and he epitomized the gangly klutz.)
Didn’t Andy Partridge fall off a stage to end XTC’s live performance era? He was having a performance anxiety–related breakdown, so that fall was understandable. Scott Weiland‘s fallen off stages, wagons, you name it. Pink has fallen off a stage, but she was suspended in a harness while wearing a body stocking. A top-heavy Mariah Carey fell onstage, but I don’t think she landed off stage. Jimmy Buffett, according to reports, did.
HOLD THE PRESSES: Reports are now appearing that Buffett was blinded by the light!
Have you ever fallen off a stage or witnessed another musician doing so?
I’ve never seen it happen, but I remember watching a David Letterman show many years ago when Paul Young told a funny story about it. I think he was actually hurt pretty badly, but the story was that he was doing a two-night stand at some theater. The first night he goes out and the stage is sticky. He finds it difficult to move and dance and so he asked the crew at the theater if they can clean the stage.
So the stage gets completely polished and the next night, Young decides to make a big entrance. He gets a running start, falls to his knees and slides dramatically onto the stage. As he slides across the stage, he realizes he can’t stop.He careens to the edge, flies off the stage… and show over.
I came very close, to the point where I kind of had to flap my arms a bit to regain my balance and keep from falling over backwards. It was at a Last Blast show at a college and the stage was in a T formation. I was out on one of the parts that stuck out and I backed up a little too far. It had nothing, I repeat nothing, to do with the massive amount of alcohol, etc that I had consumed at that point.
And I think Patti Smith fell off a large stage in a stadium or theater and ended up in the hospital once, although I didn’t witness it.
Also, Springsteen very well might have slid off the stage at the Superbowl if that quick thinking camera man hadn’t stopped him with his lens.
That’s awesome. I wish I’d have been there. I think I’d have told everyone I saw his best show.
Actually, the stage Patti fell off was in Tampa, Florida. They were opening for Bob Seger, whose crew wouldn’t let them use all their lights. Second song in, Patti twirled to the darkened edge of the stage and fell backwards over a black monitor…10 -12 feet down onto a bunch of nailed together 2 X 4’s which were there as a barrier. She cracked a vertebra in her neck. (See pp. 292-294 of “Please Kill Me” for eyewitness recounting of the incident).
I’ve never fallen *off* a stage, but I’ve gotten *on* a couple I had absolutely no legitimate business being on.
Never fell off of one, but I did accidentaly set my hair on fire on a stage. We had the bright (pun intended) idea of using candles instead of stage lights to play at a big party at a frat house in Athens, GA. Looked really cool and the show went great. As we completed our final song I leaned over to turn off the PA (one of those all-in-one models) that was on top of my bass amp..along with a still lit candle. I turned around and my brother (the singer) looked at me and calmly stated “your hair is on fire” and walked away. Lost about 4 inches of valuable late 80’s rock hair that night but the very drunk crowed loved it.
Nice!
This isn’t quite a good fit for this thread, but I’ll tell this story anyway. A friend of mine went to see the Pixies (in their prime) at the U of Virgina, where he was a student. The crowd was a bit reserved and Black Francis said something, actually, I think he called them pussies. So my friend decides he’s going to liven things up – he jumps onto the stage and proceeds to leap off, stage dive style. Instead of catching him, the crowd opens up a space and the guy slams to the floor, dislocating his shoulder.
I’m pretty sure this scenario is the White Witch of Rock. Everybody I’ve ever met who had any kind of connection to stage-dive-oriented music either saw it happen or knew someone who now walked with a cane due to just such an accident.