10 of the Worst Televised Live Performances in Rock History

Live television is the great equalizer for musicians. A great performance can make a fledgling artist’s career, and a disastrous performance can put a stain on their permanent record that they can never live down.

Something about knowing that millions of people around the world will be simultaneously watching you must take a heavy toll on the psyche. This sensation gets exacerbated by the fact that live TV is often way different than an artist’s usual concert environment. Playing on a foreign stage with cameras shoved in their face, monitors not quite tweaked to their liking and an audience that might not be there just for them can result in a sterile or awkward performance. And if things go wrong mid-song, as they so often do, they’ve simply got to grin and bear it.

Some artists rise to the occasion, while others fall apart spectacularly. Our list of 10 of the Worst Televised Live Performances includes mostly the latter, with an occasional silver lining.

Green Day Implodes at 2012 iHeartRadio Music Festival

Green Day frontman Billie Joe Armstrong’s infamous meltdown at the 2012 iHeartRadio Music Festival was partly a case of misreading his audience. Mostly, though, it was a case of being way too drunk. The pop-punk stalwarts struggled to get a rise out of a lethargic audience as Armstrong sang noticeably off-key and slurred his way through several expletive-laden rants. The final straw came during “Basket Case,” when Armstrong muttered, “Fuck this shit,” started grousing about how he had “one minute fucking left” and declared, “I’m not fucking Justin Bieber, you motherfuckers!” Armstrong and bassist Mike Dirnt smashed their instruments and the band walked offstage. Armstrong promptly checked into rehab, forcing Green Day to postpone their tour.

Guns N’ Roses Sound Sour at 2014 Revolver Golden Gods Awards

Forget about Guns N’ Roses’ shambolic 2002 VMAs appearance. That night sounded like 1988 at the Ritz compared to the band’s abysmal performance at the 2014 Revolver Golden Gods Awards, where Axl Rose received the Lifetime Achievement Award. Guitarist DJ Ashba sucked the air out of the room as soon as he launched into a painfully out-of-tune version of “Sweet Child O’ Mine,” and Rose’s squeaky vocals did little to salvage the performance. In hindsight, it’s no wonder Rose felt compelled to bury the hatchet with Slash less than two years after this train wreck.

Led Zeppelin Does Not Rock or Roll at Live Aid

When surviving Led Zeppelin members Jimmy Page, Robert Plant and John Paul Jones were slated to reunite at Live Aid in Philadelphia, anticipation was naturally sky-high. But the excitement quickly deflated as the band — with Phil Collins on drums, fresh off a transatlantic flight from the London Live Aid — kicked into “Rock and Roll,” and their lack of preparation became clear. Page’s tone and playing were a mess, Plant’s voice cracked incessantly and Collins’ performance suggested he had never heard a Led Zeppelin song in his life. It had been a long time since they rocked and rolled, indeed. At least Jones held down his end.

Meat Loaf Gets Cooked at 2011 AFL Grand Final

Meat Loaf had a famously fragile voice ever since his Bat Out of Hell glory days, and it was in terrible shape circa 2011 when he was booked to perform at the Australian Football League Grand Final. The operatic rocker had suffered a heart attack a few weeks before the event and had reportedly been “spitting blood” during shows leading up to the performance. So when the big day came, Meat Loaf was forced to bark and blubber his way through a 13-minute medley rendered unintelligible in spots before a live audience of 100,000 people. “I want to hear some singing!” he yelled at one point. So did the crowd.

Metallica and Lady Gaga Face Busted Mics at 2017 Grammys

Metallica’s performance of “Moth Into Flame” with Lady Gaga at the 2017 Grammy Awards was a hot mess, through no fault of their own. A stagehand reportedly unplugged James Hetfield‘s microphone by accident just before the performance started, and the crew didn’t correct the issue until the song was nearly finished. Gaga compensated by prowling the stage and sharing her mic with Hetfield, but the frontman was notably (and rightfully) pissed by the performance’s end, kicking over his mic stand and throwing his guitar offstage. Both acts later released footage of the dress rehearsal that showed just how great it sounded without technical difficulties.

Milli Vanilli Takes the Blame for Lip Syncing

German R&B duo Milli Vanilli became overnight sensations with their 1989 album Girl You Know It’s True, which sold 6 million copies in the United States and spawned three consecutive No. 1 hits. But their career ended almost as soon as it had begun when, during a 1989 MTV performance, their backing track malfunctioned and caused a lyric from “Girl You Know It’s True” to play on repeat. It was later revealed that Milli Vanilli “members” Fab Morvan and Rob Pilatus were phonies and didn’t sing a note on either of their albums. The Recording Academy revoked their Best New Artist Grammy and the group became a laughingstock and cautionary tale. Although clearly not a rock act, Milli Vanilli’s MTV debacle had reverberations throughout the genre as backing tracks would become increasingly common among rock artists in the decades to follow.

Poison Talks Dirty and Plays Poorly at 1991 VMAs

Three weeks before Nirvana‘s Nevermind hit shelves and drove a stake through the heart of hair metal, Poison hastened its demise with their disastrous performance at the 1991 MTV Video Music Awards. To their credit, three-quarters of the band was lucid. But that still wasn’t enough to rein in chaotic guitarist C.C. DeVille. After a false start, Poison attempted to play their recent single “Unskinny Bop,” but DeVille instead began hacking his way through “Talk Dirty to Me.” He crammed the song with so many unnecessary and sloppy fills that by the time he yanked out his guitar cable, it probably felt like a reprieve to the audience. After the performance, Bret Michaels and DeVille got into a fistfight backstage, and Poison promptly fired the guitarist.

Red Hot Chili Peppers Hung Out to Dry on Saturday Night Live in 1992

Blood Sugar Sex Magik turned Red Hot Chili Peppers into superstars, but guitarist John Frusciante struggled to cope with the band’s meteoric rise, resenting his success and increasingly taking solace in drugs. The band’s 1992 performance of “Under the Bridge” on Saturday Night Live offers a glimpse into Frusciante’s fraught mental state. He alters the song’s iconic guitar intro — seemingly just to spite frontman Anthony Kiedis — and the band lurches through the song, struggling to lock into a groove. During the climactic outro, Frusciante drenches his guitar in distortion and wails tunelessly into the microphone. In his memoir, Scar Tissue, Kiedis described the performance as “getting stabbed in the back and hung out to dry in front of all of America while [Frusciante] was off in a corner in the shadow, playing some dissonant out-of-tune experiment.” Frusciante quit the band for the first time a few months later.

Slash and Black Eyed Peas Fumble at 2011 Super Bowl

If you ask somebody the worst thing they’ve ever done, chances are they’ll immediately have an answer, even if they don’t want to share it. If you were to pose that query to Slash, he’d probably retreat behind his sunglasses and luscious curls and have a Vietnam-style flashback to his 90-second cameo at the Super Bowl XLV halftime show. The Black Eyed Peas headlined and brought the guitarist out for a quick and dirty (like, mop water filthy) rendition of “Sweet Child O’ Mine.” Somehow, the guitar and drums still got out of sync, though it was difficult to tell underneath Fergie’s drunk-at-Applebee’s-karaoke vocals. After interpolating the solo from Velvet Revolver’s “Slither,” Slash disappeared from the stage and hopefully wiped the debacle from memory.

Velvet Revolver “Honors” Van Halen at Their 2007 Rock Hall Induction

Van Halen’s 2007 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction was one of the more awkward moments in the institution’s history. Eddie Van Halen, Alex Van Halen and David Lee Roth all declined to attend, leaving Velvet Revolver to induct the band and perform in their place. Although Scott Weiland was one of rock’s most charismatic frontman at his best, he was woefully unfit to cover “Ain’t Talkin’ ‘Bout Love,” barking through the song in a gruff baritone while dancing like Mick Jagger on amphetamines. Slash, likewise, was simply the wrong player to attempt Van Halen’s nimble riffs and solos. Velvet Revolver ended the performance by hacking their way through the chorus of “Runaround.” As one YouTube viewer commented: “This is what actually killed Eddie.”