Mental Floss

The Quick 10: 10 Celebrities Injured on Stage

I like Bret Michaels. Not compete-on-Rock-of-Love like, but like in the sense that I think he would be a fun guy to have a beer with. I think he has a pretty good sense of humor about himself. Which is probably why I can't stop laughing every time I see the video of him getting his feet swept right out from under him when he got floored by the scenery at the Tony Awards on Sunday night "“ you know he probably had a pretty good laugh about it himself once he got over the embarrassment (and the pain). But Bret is far from the only person to get injured at a show "“ here are 10 names you know who have hurt or otherwise humiliated themselves in front of a captive audience of thousands. And although it says my name in the byline, pretty much all of the writers and researchers here at the _floss threw in a story or two! Thanks for the quick research, guys!

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3. It's not just the rockers that hurt themselves on stage "“ in 2007, Beyonce was giving a concert in Orlando and was walking down some stairs when her heel got caught in the long coat she was wearing. She pitched head-first down 12 stairs, then jumped right up and continued the song like nothing had happened. She joked with her audience not to put it on YouTube, but you know they did:

4. In 1978, poor Meat Loaf fell off of a stage in Canada and broke his leg. Between that and his injured vocal cords "“ he had been touring far too much - he was unable to work for a while after that. He fell into a deep depression, getting heavily into cocaine and threatening to kill himself by jumping off of a building in New York. Let this be a cautionary tale, Bret"¦

5. In the "˜80s, sultry singer Peggy Lee, then in her late 60s, fell onstage while performing at Caesar's Palace in Las Vegas. She fractured her pelvis.

6. Even the young kids have mishaps "“ last year, Demi Lovato fell on stage and later chipped a tooth on her microphone. "This singing stuff is dangerous!" she Tweeted. Here's the video of her falling, but you're probably going to want to watch it on mute "“ the screaming teens (tweens?) are deafening.

7. At the beginning of his tour last year, Kenny Chesney got his foot caught between the stage and the lift that was supposed to bring him up to it. While he struggled, the band played an extended introduction of the song he was coming out to. He pried himself loose and continued the show, even though he was limping around the stage and holding his knee. By the time they got to the hospital post-show, his boot had to be cut off.

8. At the end of Nirvana's "Lithium" during their 1992 VMAs performance, bassist Krist Novoselic threw his bass up in the air, then caught it... with his face. It's been speculated that maybe he exaggerated the aftereffects a little bit "“ he staggered off of the stage in an apparent daze "“ but the paramedics were called and he did have to be bandaged up. But he was more interested in a different type of doctoring: In an interview with Rolling Stone last year, he told them that Brian May from Queen was standing behind the paramedics with a glass of champagne. "I signed the release just to get the medics away from me so I could take a sip of Mr. May's wonderful medicine," he said. Here's the bass toss - it's around 3:57.

9. Through no real fault of his own, Frank Zappa was thrown off stage during a London concert in 1971 at the Rainbow Theater. He doesn't remember what happened, but apparently a disgruntled man from the audience had rushed the stage and thrown Frank down into the orchestra pit 15 feet below the stage. His band thought he was dead from the strange angle his neck was bent at. He ended up with a crushed larynx, head trauma, pretty serious head and neck injuries, a broken leg and a fractured rib.

10. Finally, since this whole post started at the Tony Awards, it's fitting that we end with a Broadway show. In 2005, Idina Menzel was playing the role of Elphaba in Wicked - in fact, she had been for 16 months and this particular performance was scheduled to be one of her last. During one scene, a trap door is supposed to open and then an elevator should have lowered her beneath the floor, except when the door opened, the elevator had already descended, sending her crashing down and fracturing her rib. The show was stopped to explain to theater-goers what happened and Menzel's understudy stepped in to finish up the show.

And, of course, there's the video that started with this post. Nothing but a good time indeed"¦