It's true that you can't please everybody, but when you can't even win over your own fans, that's when you know you're in trouble. Please refrain from throwing things during this video — these poor musicians have already been through enough.
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00:00It's true that you can't please everybody, but when you can't even win over your own
00:04fans, that's when you know you're in trouble. Please refrain from throwing things during
00:08this video. These poor musicians have already been through enough.
00:12Water is wet, fire is hot, and everyone hates Nickelback. While the latter may not be a
00:17stone-cold fact, it sure feels like any conversation where the band is brought up shifts into a
00:21one-upping contest about how much each person dislikes the Canadian rock group. But the
00:25undisputed winner of the I Hate Nickelback contest has to go to the crowd at the 2002
00:30Elia Duermal Music Festival in Portugal.
00:33Nickelback was barely into their second song when the crowd began chucking bottles and
00:36rocks at the band. Frontman Chad Kruger attempted to connect with the crowd by asking if there
00:41were any Nickelback fans in Portugal, which seems like an odd question to ask someone
00:45who just threw a rock at you.
00:46The talk switched to negotiation, with Kruger asking,
00:49"'Up to you. Do you want to see some rock and roll, or do you want to go home?'
00:53The going home sounded pretty good to the fans, who continued to boo and chuck items
00:57on stage. The members of Nickelback got the hint this time and walked off, leaving behind
01:01a few one-finger salutes for good measure. Members Ryan Peake and Mike Kruger recounted
01:06the incident years later on the Big Rizz podcast, and mentioned they may have been at a disadvantage
01:10since the festival was geared toward more of a heavy metal audience. Not exactly how
01:14one would describe Nickelback's music.
01:16They then got into more conspiratorial theories, claiming that it was one section of the crowd
01:20in particular that was doing the booing and throwing, and it may have even been an inside
01:24job.
01:25It's almost like there was a small group of people that entered the audience, maybe from
01:28the backstage area, and started to throw things at the stage. I'm not going to go any further
01:33than that."
01:34Fans loved Justin Timberlake as a member of NSYNC. They love him as a solo artist as well.
01:38What fans apparently don't like him as is a temporary member of the Rolling Stones.
01:43At the 2003 Molson Canadian Rocks for Toronto charity festival, fans of the legendary British
01:48rock band seemed to take offense to the American invasion of Timberlake performing alongside
01:52the group. Even after cracking a joke about how he wouldn't take up too much of the time
01:56on stage, Timberlake spent his first song dodging water bottles as he sang.
02:00To add insult to almost injury, he realized that frustrated concertgoers had found a way
02:04to let their feelings be known and avoid the long bathroom lines by filling those bottles
02:09with their own urine. As he recalled on The Graham Norton Show, Timberlake refused to
02:13leave the stage and was not only able to dodge the crowd's urine, but he was able to outlast
02:18their fury as well.
02:19And then after that song, either one of two things happened. Either they ran out of nerve,
02:25because they knew I was gonna stay there, or they ran out of urine.
02:28It seems that when Rolling Stones fans go to a show, they don't want to see anyone besides
02:31Mick Jagger and company. Before Justin Timberlake was forced to dodge bodily fluids, Prince
02:36had his turn acting as target practice for angry fans.
02:39As the opening act of the first Night of the Stones' 1981 U.S. tour, Prince stepped out
02:43in front of over 90,000 people at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. Unfortunately,
02:48the concert turned into one of the biggest food fights the world had ever seen. As Prince's
02:52bassist Brown Mark recalled in 2009,
02:54"...imagine 94,000 people throwing food at each other. It was the craziest thing I'd
02:58ever seen in my life. I got hit in the shoulder with a bag of fried chicken. Then my guitar
03:02got knocked out of tune by a large grapefruit that hit the tuning keys."
03:06Prince and company only made it through four songs before hightailing it offstage. And
03:10according to various recollections, the incident drove Prince to tears and sent him flying
03:13home to Minnesota. To his credit, he was right back for the next date on the tour. But when
03:18he was met with a similar response from the crowd, he dropped off the bill.
03:22Have you ever had an experience so bad that you left a bad review? Well, take that 20
03:26steps further and imagine going to an event so horrendous that you decide to take legal
03:30action.
03:31Creed's own fans took the band to court after a December 2002 concert in Rosemont, Illinois,
03:36with much of the ire directed toward vocalist Scott Stapp. According to reports, the performance
03:40could best be described as, wow, that was bad, with Stapp allegedly struggling to remember
03:44the lyrics to his own songs, wandering offstage, and squirming around on the floor. It was
03:49so bad that Creed actually apologized to their fans after the show and said that Stapp would
03:53be resting up for a while.
03:55But four fans decided that the apology just wasn't enough, and they sued the band. The
03:59concertgoers claimed in their lawsuit that Stapp was clearly under the influence and
04:03in no state to perform, while also blaming everyone involved for allowing the show to
04:06go on. The fans were seeking refunds for every audience member to get their money back, but
04:11a judge eventually dismissed the case.
04:13What was supposed to be a triumphant last hurrah for Motley Crue turned into a cringeworthy
04:18performance that had fans feeling everything from rage to pity. In 2014, the band kicked
04:23off what was at the time supposed to be their final tour as a group, with a performance
04:27that was unforgettable for all the wrong reasons. The band had to stop three different times
04:32during their set at the Van Andel Arena. Tommy Lee broke a drumhead to start it off,
04:36and even with guitarist Mick Mars playing a solo to fill the dead air, the fix took
04:40a bit too long for the audience's liking.
04:42The band got through a few more songs without incident, but they were forced to stop again
04:46and reportedly could never get back on the same page. After a final halt in the performance
04:50due to problems with Mars' monitor and guitar, the crowd began to voice their displeasure...
04:55loudly.
04:56Crue continued to play, but remained out of sync, and what was intended to kick their
05:00tour off with a bang ended with a whimper instead.
05:04While the U.K.'s Reading and Leeds Festivals nowadays features a diverse lineup of acts,
05:08festival-goers in 2004 were seemingly only there to rock out. Organizers knew they had
05:13to give the people what they wanted, so they trotted out 50 Cent. According to a retrospective
05:18from Louder, fans were dismayed at the prospect of 50 performing days before he even took
05:22the stage, and when the band before him wrapped up their set, the crowd began arming themselves.
05:27Fans loaded up on cups and bottles and began their air assault as soon as 50 and G-Unit
05:31came out. Seeing the writing on the wall, 50 and his crew took the necessary and responsible
05:36step of getting their own ammunition of half-drank water bottles. After a short battle between
05:41performer and audience, 50 Cent and Crue realized they were fighting a losing battle, though
05:4550 waited until someone threw a camping chair in his direction before admitting defeat and
05:49leaving the stage.
05:51Limp Bizkit's team-up with Metallica and Linkin Park for 2003's Summer Sanitarium Stop in
05:55Chicago was another example of a show being doomed before it even began. According to
06:00reports, fans booed at the mere mention of Fred Durst and the boys before they even hit
06:04the stage. When Limp Bizkit trotted their way out to perform, they found that the crowd
06:08hadn't exactly changed their tune. The band was hit with a combo of boos and pelting of
06:12objects.
06:13But all was not lost. Sensing a hero was needed, Durst busted out his famous diplomatic chops,
06:19telling the crowd,
06:20"'This is why your baseball teams suck. None of you are good pitchers. You can't hit me
06:23with your garbage.'"
06:24Bizkit limped offstage after six songs, and the truncated show resulted in yet another
06:28lawsuit to fans trying to get their money back.
06:32Long before turning off fans with his politics and views on slavery, Kanye West was angering
06:36fans the old-fashioned way, by showing up late to his own performance. Kanye took the
06:41stage at the 2008 Bonnaroo Festival at 4.30 a.m., an hour and a half later than he was
06:46scheduled. Possibly feeling the effects of being up past their bedtime, fans immediately
06:50began booing and tossing glow sticks at the rapper.
06:53While Kanye drew the audience's ire and rave equipment, the event organizer's spokesperson
06:57claimed the delay was actually Pearl Jam's fault. Apparently, the band playing before
07:01Kanye had a set that took much longer to disassemble than anyone could have predicted.
07:05Kanye deserves criticism for many things, but in this case, address your strongly-worded
07:10letters of anger towards Eddie Vedder and company.
07:13In 1977, Sammy Hagar received the mega-career-boosting opportunity of touring with Kiss. There was
07:19one problem, though. People knew who Kiss was. Sammy Hagar? Not so much at the time.
07:25As Hagar wrote in his autobiography, Red, My Uncensored Life in Rock, heckling began
07:29before he even came out on stage. Hagar thought he could win them over by playing a Montrose
07:33song they might be familiar with, but he was met with boos and projectiles, and that's
07:37when he changed his tune. The guitarist insulted the crowd by saying they were flown in from
07:42Los Angeles.
07:43Reportedly, this led to people storming toward him, so Hagar went into defense mode by dropping
07:47his pants, exposing himself to the audience, smashing his guitar to pieces, and walking
07:52off the stage and tour altogether.
07:55Fans of the Killers, who attended their 2023 show at the Black Sea Arena in Batumi, Georgia,
08:00were treated to not just a concert, but a near-international incident. Keep in mind
08:04that the band was playing in the country of Georgia, not the state full of peaches. So
08:08after the band invited a Russian fan on stage to play drums with them, frontman Brandon
08:12Flowers decided to wax poetic and say that Russians and Georgians were all brothers and
08:16sisters. The audience responded with an overwhelming, uh, no, we're not.
08:21"...who they didn't maybe quite know the history of Georgia and Russia."
08:26Whether Flowers knew or not, the relationship between the two countries had been historically
08:30fractured. The predominantly Georgian crowd responded by jeering the Killers, and many
08:35left the arena entirely. Later, the Killers posted an apology on X, chalking up Flowers'
08:39words as being well-intentioned but misconstrued.
08:43Pete Doherty is well-known for not always being on his best behavior, but his actions
08:47at a 2009 concert in Munich, Germany, darn near united a whole country against him. Doherty
08:52made his way onto the stage for the ON3 Music Festival, and decided the best way to win
08:56over the crowd was to begin singing a song closely associated with Nazi Germany.
09:00"...he maintains that he just got mixed up. But, uh, the concert was canceled, he was
09:05told to leave the stage, Germans were not amused at all by this blunder."
09:08The crowd erupted into booze and rage. A radio broadcaster that streamed the concert immediately
09:13cut the coverage, and organizers pulled Doherty off the stage after five songs. No formal
09:18charges were brought against Doherty, but unless his goal was to be hated by all of
09:21Germany, his performance was a complete failure.
09:25While on tour in Australia in 2017, a rare feat took place. Audiences were angered at
09:30a Guns N' Roses concert, and it wasn't Axl Rose's fault. GNR's announcer McBob took the
09:36mic and called out to Sidney before the band took to the stage. One problem, though, they
09:41were in Melbourne. If you allow us to consult our notes for a moment, uh, yes, those are
09:47indeed two different places.
09:49The audience didn't let McBob's mistake slide, as they booed loudly. The band played the
09:54show, but they apologized for the error afterwards and said it's the first time that McBob had
09:58made that mistake in 30 years.