No Encore!

Pete Doherty

As frontman for early-aughts breakouts The Libertines, Pete Doherty quickly became tabloid fodder for his excessive drug use and subsequent arrests, along with a notoriously volatile relationship with supermodel Kate Moss (she ended up breaking Pete’s own guitar over his head). 

The Libertines, and later project Babyshambles, live shows became dictated by how out-of-his-head Doherty was on any given night, resulting in stage falls, forgotten lyrics, to completely nodding out on stage. One night at a Babyshambles show in 2006, Doherty brought his heroin dealers on stage mid-set to “rap” to the audience, leading to over an hour of incoherent nonsense. One fan called it, “The most painful two hours of my life.” We love ya, Pete!

Shirley Manson (Garbage)

A stylistic and empowerment icon for over two decades, Shirley Manson will always be the coolest woman in the room, even when she’s holding a cup of her own poo. Fresh off a headlining gig at Wembley in London, the biggest night of her career, Garbage was inexplicably booked at a small, outdoor festival in the German countryside.

With a broken caravan as her dressing room, and no private bathroom, Garbage played dutifully to a smattering of picnicking German families. After the show, desperate for a bathroom, Shirley had no choice but to make #2 in a plastic Solo cup.

Unsure where to dispose of it, she walked out of the caravan holding the cup, and into a small mob of fans and photographers. Not her finest moment.

Ozzy Osbourne

The Oz-Man will turn 70 in 2020, a milestone that no one, most of all the man himself, could possibly have predicted. With Black Sabbath playing their first US show in 1970, for five decades Ozzy has never really stopped. 

While his off-stage antics are legendary—from biting the head off a dove in a business meeting, to snorting ants and drinking his own urine to the disgust of Motley Crue—Ozzy’s on-stage antics are just as legendary. During a 1981 show, a fan threw a dead bat on stage, and Ozzy, mistaking it for a rubber toy, bit the head off, resulting in rabies shots. During a benefit for Ozzy guitarist Randy Rhoades, fans rioted and rushed the stage. What they didn’t know is that Ozzy is a black belt in Jeet Kun Do, and instead of fleeing, Ozzy stood his ground and proceeded to beat at least 10 unlikely metalheads unconscious. All hail the King! 

‘Lil Wayne

Since 1996, when he was first discovered at age 14, Lil Wayne aka Weezy has been a bad boy in a genre full of bad boys. With a dextrous flow, narco-tinged humor and grimy beats, his first solo album went platinum in 1999. For the past two decades, accolades and awards have poured in, along with a heroic amount of “lean” (A drink made with codeine cough syrup, soda, and hard-fruit candy). 

His live shows have been marred by gun violence, lean-induced near comas, and a 2019 short-lived disaster tour with Blink 182, where Weezy could barely be bothered to show up. After performing for a mere 15 minutes, Wayne dissed the entire crowd and unceremoniously quit the high-profile tour. His stories are something we’d love to bring to the screen, assuming Weezy can remember them. 

The Gallagher Brothers (Oasis)

If there was some kind of lifetime achievement award for brotherly turmoil/on-stage mayhem, the Brothers Gallagher of Oasis would be kings of the industry. Liam and Noel have been at each other’s throats since the early ‘90s, before Oasis even broke big across-the-pond. As referenced in the No Encore! book, the Oasis boys accidentally did a ton of speed (they thought it was coke) before a San Francisco gig that led to a days-long binge, ending with Noel quitting the band after being hit with a tambourine by Liam. 

There was the time, during a taping of MTV Unplugged, Liam showed up shit-faced, forcing Noel to front the show. Liam proceeded to heckle Noel and Co. from the rafters for an entire show. Oh, and the time they got deported from the Netherlands, the first date on their first international tour, for a drunken brawl on a boat over football.