Stars That Walked Off

[Gothampc]

Posted: 9/7/11 at 12:42pm

I was watching the Rosemary Clooney Story starring Sondra Locke (remember her?) During one of her concerts, Rosemary started a concert, then started yelling at the audience, then walked off.

What other stars have walked off in the middle of a performance?

[madbrian]

Posted: 9/7/11 at 12:46pm

Ricky Nelson famously walked off after getting booed at a concert at Madison Square Garden, prompting him to write the song Garden Party.

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Posted: 9/7/11 at 12:49pm

Fiona Apple

[Calvin]

Posted: 9/7/11 at 12:54pm

Redd Foxx, in the famous "I ain't doing no show for 10 white people" story.

[Mister Matt]

Posted: 9/7/11 at 1:04pm

Gallagher was basically booed off the stage in Vegas in the early 90s. I remember because I was reading about it in the newspaper the next morning while staying at the Sands and he happened to be having breakfast at the table next to me. He looked like defrosted death.

[StockardFan]

Posted: 9/7/11 at 1:40pm

I thought I'd heard that Axl Rose had walked off at least one GnR concert.

[Eris0303]

Posted: 9/7/11 at 1:46pm

According to the TV movie about the Monkees Jimi Hendrix walked off stage when opening for them because he was tired of the fans drowning out his music with their screams "We want the Monkees" and such.

[Q]

Posted: 9/7/11 at 1:47pm

Nina Simone was infamously finicky about performing. On more than one occasion, she'd come out onstage, sit at the piano silently while occasionally glancing at the audience - sometimes for up to ten minutes! - then just get up and walk off. These occasions, along with other concerts abrubtly halted, were also frequently accompanied by the admonition, "You're not worthy."

But she almost always sold out (especially in Europe,) and it became a kind of ritual to convince her that the audience was 'worthy' of her attention.

[Gothampc]

Posted: 9/7/11 at 2:29pm

"According to the TV movie about the Monkees Jimi Hendrix walked off"

Who would have Jimi Hendrix open for the Monkees? They seem like two completely different styles of music.

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 9/7/11 at 2:48pm

Sarah palin walked off the job as Governer, does that count Goth? I mean she is a "star" now, right?

[Bettyboy72]

Posted: 9/7/11 at 3:39pm

I saw Sandra Bernhard essentially walk off the stage. I was a freshman at a Catholic College and they booked her (what were they thinking??!!??) She was hot on Letterman at the time so college kids knew her. Well she got onstage and just no one was "getting her". She was riffing on topics and tried to sing a song and the audience was just crickets. She then berated the audience a la Sandra's schtick and they just didn't get it. She finally had enough, criticized the hall, "is this a f@#cking chapel, where the f@#k am I?" and proceeded to say, "this place sucks, you kids suck, good luck with everything! You all can just move the chairs outta here and do the f@#ckin' mashed potato or whatever you kids do. Im outta here."

I loved it. The Student Association was not happy. I guess she got paid if she lasted 20 minutes.

[morosco]

Posted: 9/7/11 at 7:26pm

Roberto Alagna getting booed at La Scala. He waved his fist and walked off the stage. Replacement tenor Antonello Palombi was pushed onto the stage wearing street clothes to finish the opera.
Roberto Alagna Booed at La Scala

[AEA AGMA SM]

Posted: 9/7/11 at 8:08pm

I don't know if she's ever actually invoked the clause, but part of Dionne Warwick's rider, at least back in the late 90s, did include a clause that she could cancel the gig without penalty if any of the staff or crew brought up the Psychic Network around her.

[best12bars]

Posted: 9/7/11 at 8:10pm

Ooooh, that's kinda like saying "Betelgeuse" three times. You just really want to see if it will happen.

Updated On: 9/7/11 at 08:10 PM

[GlindatheGood22]

Posted: 9/7/11 at 8:23pm

Wasn't there some sort of issue a few years ago at Forbidden Broadway when an actress (I wanna say Valerie Fagin?) started yelling at the audience?

[Gothampc]

Posted: 9/8/11 at 10:29am

Wow, morosco what an interesting clip. Was his performance that bad that they booed? Imagine if that was done on Broadway.

[AC126748]

Posted: 9/8/11 at 10:38am

Re: the Alagna incident. Morosco and Goth, you should read the linked blog post. Palombi (the tenor who replaced Alagna in street clothes) wasn't "pushed on stage"; he went out on stage and started singing while the actual cover, Walter Fraccaro, was backstage, in costume, getting ready to go out there.
"We Saw What You Did There"

[Wilmingtom]

Posted: 9/8/11 at 10:42am

Charlie Sheen! Anyone remember him?

[Reginald Tresilian]

Posted: 9/8/11 at 11:03am

That whole Alagna thing is fascinating (thanks for the link, AC).

No wonder the mezzo looked surprised.

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 9/8/11 at 3:27pm

Jimi Hendrix did open for The Monkees on their tour in the summer of '67. Dolenz, Tork and Nesmith wanted to see him play live because his legend had grown in musician circles (he hadn't charted a single in the States yet). That was their major reason for booking him, they wanted to watch him every night. On the seventh date of the tour, he couldn't take the chanting for the Monkees, flipped the little girls off and walked off stage in Forest Hills.

[uncageg]

Posted: 9/9/11 at 1:59pm

I was a a performance of "The Wiz" after it moved to the Broadway Theater where Stephanie Mills walked off the stage after a patron took a flash picture about a minute into "Be A Lion". She didn't just step off of the side of the stage she was on, she walked clear across the stage to the other side. The house staff came down the aisle, escorted the person out and Ms. Mills walked back across the stage and picked up exactly where she left off. The orchestra continued playing while this was going on. The whole incident took about 4 minutes.