Stars Who Shocked Fans With Performance Stunts

With the entertainment world being flooded with countless people and big personalities, it can be hard for one to separate themselves from the pack. That could be why many celebs post videos on social media, hoping for them to go viral. But even before Twitter and Instagram were born, entertainers did all kinds of things to stand out. Like Jimi Hendrix, for example, who set his Fender Stratocaster guitar on fire in 1967 at the Monterey International Pop Festival. For many, that photo of the Seattle-born rock legend kneeling over his flaming guitar with his hands up and mouth open may be hard to get out of their mind. So evidently, his stunt worked based on the popularity of the image.

Of course, publicity stunts don't always work out well for celebs. But what other entertainers have done things that have either shocked, intrigued, or even pleased fans? There are many, whether it was a legendary rock band who stunned locals by performing high in the sky or a pop singer who introduced her alter ego to millions of TV viewers. To dig a little deeper, we've gathered a list of celebrities who've shocked their fans with performance stunts that many are still talking about today.

Lead singers of rock bands tend to be an interesting breed, and many have built huge fan bases for their memorable stage antics — which brings us to Pearl Jam's lead singer Eddie Vedder, known to climb ridiculously tall structures during shows and swing from them. He did so in multiple cities, whether it was climbing to the ceiling of San Diego's Del Mar Pavillion in 1991 or getting himself to a rooftop while performing on Jones Beach, N.Y. the following year.

But some might say that Vedder outdid himself while Pearl Jam played at Seattle's Magnuson Park in 1992, because he used a rail to climb a scaffolding that seemed tall enough to brush the clouds. He then went across it like a 9-year-old on monkey bars, seemingly oblivious to the potential long drop below. 

"I'd be at the Metro in Chicago or you'd be in one of those theaters that had kind of an ornate [décor] and king and queen booths on either side and curtains and all that stuff," said Vedder on The Howard Stern Show in 2020, according to Showbiz CheatSheet. "While I'm waiting for the band, I used to look at that stuff and go, 'It would be fun to climb that curtain and then jump into that red velvet king and queen booth.'"

Most have probably heard of method actors — those who stay in character in between filming scenes — but the term method singer hasn't caught on yet. But that may change thanks to The Weeknd, who portrayed a man who had a severely bad night in Las Vegas that left him with facial wounds and bandages. The Canadian singer introduced the character in 2019 when rolling out his After Hours album. He'd then keep the look for videos like "Blinding Lights" and his performance at the November 2020 American Music Awards. 

During that televised performance, The Weeknd appeared in full facial bandages and the same red blazer and black leather gloves that he wore when first introducing the character. At one point, there was talk online about whether the pop star would bring out the wounded man during his halftime show performance at Super Bowl LV, but only his background dancers sported the look.  

"The significance of the entire head bandages is reflecting on the absurd culture of Hollywood celebrity and people manipulating themselves for superficial reasons to please and be validated," the singer finally explained to Variety in February 2021. When The Weeknd was asked if he had any worries about altering his appearance while promoting his After Hours project, he said that "being attractive isn't [as] important" to him as relaying a "compelling" storyline. Now, that's an artist who's committed.

Clothes are often a major part of a rocker's act regardless of what they wear. Take Elton John, for example. His eye-catching outfits, which could easily come with colorful feathered wings, were a major part of his stage show. Meanwhile, New York band The Strokes became known for their style of thrift store chic in the early aughts and got plenty of attention for it. 

But the Red Hot Chili Peppers didn't build a reputation for their fashion sense — in fact, the group got a name for practically wearing nothing at all, which they did for the first time in 1983 during a performance at Hollywood's Kit Kat Club. The band, whose members at the time included singer Anthony Kiedis, guitarist Hillel Slovak, bassist Flea, and drummer Jack Irons, wore a white tube sock over their manhood to avoid being totally naked, according to Far Out magazine. But it was far from the last time they'd play that way: once word got out about the band's nearly naked act, this led to more shows in the Los Angeles area.

"I grew up running around naked," Flea told The Guardian in 2019. "There's a freedom inherent in it, a rebelliousness, that I find beautiful." But in an interview with GQ that same year (via Yahoo! Finance), the legendary bassist said there were some assumptions made about him and his musicianship because the band had played naked, saying, "We're never going to outrun it."

It was The Beatles' last performance as a group, and they took their final bows five stories off the ground. It happened on Jan. 30, 1969, with John Lennon, George Harrison, Paul McCartney, and Ringo Starr playing on the rooftop of their company, Apple Corps, in London without announcing it to the public, according to Rolling Stone. The show was part of footage being filmed as The Beatles recorded and rehearsed their album, Get Back, which would later be called Let It Be. During the sky-high concert, the beloved quartet played various versions of five songs as people were coming outside on their lunch break, including "I've Got a Feeling" and "Don't Let Me Down," and crowds soon gathered. 

A portion of the concert, which lasted 42 minutes, was released in their 1970 film, Let It Be. Per Rolling Stone, late musician Billy Preston, who played keyboards for The Beatles during the performance, later revealed that playing on a rooftop was Lennon's idea. The full version of the show would be featured in director Peter Jackson's 2021 documentary, The Beatles: Get Back, which Beatles fans seemed over the moon about.

Usually, when music guests played on The Late Show with David Letterman, they performed their song, shook hands with the host, and made their exit with no harm or foul. But Craig Nicholls, lead singer of Australian rock band The Vines, had an entirely different game plan: during their 2002 performance of "Get Free," his behavior left an entertained Letterman asking his bandleader, Paul Shaffer, if Nicholls was "alright." Shaffer responded, "Can't say for sure."

Signs that Nicholls would deliver an antics-filled performance came about halfway through the song, when he hurled himself onto the floor, staggered back to the microphone, and screamed the rest of his lyrics incoherently. Nicholls later wrecked bandmate Hamish Rosser's drums and ended the song by dragging himself across the floor on his head. "The entire Craig Nicholls value proposition was there's no telling what this guy will do!" The Ringer later noted. "... He broke all the rules rock stars are supposed to break."

By 2004, Nicholls' penchant for "erratic" behavior onstage was linked to his Asperger's syndrome diagnosis, per The Guardian, a mild form of Autism characterized by "deficits in social interaction and unusual responses to the environment" — and exacerbated by Nicholls' unpredictable rock star lifestyle. After receiving treatment and undergoing therapy, he told Rolling Stone Australia in 2014, "I have been out of my mind a couple of times in my life ... To me, that's just what I'm like." Nicholls added, "What's important to me is my family and making the albums."