As winter looms large on the horizon, the odds of coming down with a cold are pretty high. Not only that, but some of your friends or workmates will get what is known as ‘actual flu’ but soldier on regardless. Sure, they’ll be quick to moan about how rotten they feel in-between loud slurps of hot, lemon-flavoured drink and dramatic sighing, but that’s nature’s painkiller.
But these feats of heroism pale into insignificance when you realise that Trap Them frontman Ryan McKenney recently smashed his feet up after jumping from a speaker stack in Holland, yet continued to perform – albeit in planet-sized amounts of pain.
Check out the clip below, filmed moments after the accident.
- “We got pelted with glass bottles and dead rabbits. We stood our ground”: Slipknot’s Corey Taylor and Machine Head’s Robb Flynn’s wild tour stories of bust-ups, injuries and urine-soaked tobacco
- "These eighteen months have been the hardest thing I've ever been through in my life": Jesse Malin on the spinal stroke that left him paralysed from the waist down and the long road to recovery
Give that man a medal. McKenney’s onstage injury got us thinking, which other musicians have damaged themselves in the name of rock?
Matt Bellamy, Muse
The Muse riff wizard split his lip after smashing his guitar into his chops at an Atlanta show in 2004 and required hospital treatment. “Blood was dripping from his face like a gruesome beard,” wrote one fan of the incident. We’re sure Gruesome Beard were playing the following evening.
Sid Wilson, Slipknot
The Slipknot turntablist fractured his heels during the Mayhem Festival in 2008 after jumping from a raised part of the stage. He spent the rest of the tour in a wheelchair.
Brendon Urie, Panic! At The Disco
Until they walked onstage at the Reading Festival in 2006, the Las Vegas quartet’s biggest hit was their single I Write Sins Not Tragedies. But within a minute of set opener The Only Difference Between Martyrdom And Suicide Is Press Coverage, frontman Brendon Urie was knocked out by an object thrown from the crowd. After several minutes, the Panic! At The Disco frontman got up and completed the set.
Matt Caughtran, The Bronx
The Bronx vocalist managed to pop his kneecap mid-set at the Dublin Ambassador in January 2007 and still managed to stagedive into the swirling throng. This writer watched him nurse a cold beer while a paramedic forcefully guided Mr. Patella back into his home without so much as a grimace. They don’t call him ‘Matty Kneecaps’ for nothing. They don’t call him that at all, actually.
Andy Biersack, Black Veil Brides
The Black Veil Brides frontman managed to smack his face into the drum riser during a show in Luxembourg and broke his nose. Sure, he looked like a goth panda for several weeks while he recovered, but still managed to look like one of those handsome men in those magazines that smell nice. Makes you sick, doesn’t it?
Otto Schimmelpenninck, Delain
The Delain bassist won’t want to remember their 2014 tour of the UK in a hurry. Schimmelpenninck ruptured a testicle after standing too close to a streamer cannon. “My scrotum was the size of a big grapefruit and I was in a lot of pain,” he revealed to the surprise of absolutely no-one.
Pete Wentz, Fall Out Boy
The Fall Out Boy bassist damaged his foot during a show at New Orleans Voodoo Fest in October 2007 after jumping from a speaker. “I ended up breaking the bone that connects my shin to my foot,” he revealed. “Currently my foot is the size of a small car.” Ironically, the band headlined the Honda Civic Tour just a few months previously.
James Hetfield, Metallica
The date was August 8, 1992 and Metallica and Guns N’ Roses co-headline tour reached Montreal’s Olympic Stadium. During Fade To Black, Hetfield’s left arm was badly injured by a 12-foot pyrotechnic flame and rushed to hospital with second degree burns. After their set was curtailed by this shocking accident, Guns N’ Roses took their sweet time – code for around two hours – to start their set. They then ended their performance early citing technical problems. Some fans took to the streets to voice and demonstrate their disappointment by rioting until Montreal’s police force showed up.
Dave Grohl, Foo Fighters
Last year, the Foo Fighters frontman took a tumble during a show at the Ullevi stadium in Sweden. Two songs into their set, Grohl appeared to mistime a jump onto a stage ramp and plummeted into the security pit. After receiving medical attention, he returned to complete the two-hour show. His black jeans, however, were beyond repair.
Axl Rose, Guns N’ Roses
The Guns N’ Roses vocalist managed to sustain ‘a fracture on the fifth metatarsal’ during the band’s Los Angeles reunion show earlier this year. He didn’t even mention it onstage, because he’s a pro. Rose ended up borrowing Dave Grohl’s custom seat for GN’R’s subsequent dates and a number of shows fronting that band from Australia. Who’ll be next to sit upon the throne?
