Van Halen frontman David Lee Roth is recovering after a decidedly un-rockstar-like moment during his band’s appearance on “Jimmy Kimmel Live.” On Monday night, he was forced to exit the stage mid-song, after injuring his own nose with his microphone stand.
Aside from whatever pain the boo-boo left him with, Roth shouldn’t feel too bad. Fans of aging glam-metal singers will recall that back in 2009, Poison belter Bret Michaels ate it in spectacular fashion at the end of his performance at the Tony Awards, taken down by a descending piece of scenery.
So which music icon had the more impressive onstage wipeout? TheWrap examines the evidence to determine the true hard-rock king of pain, as it pertains to onstage injury.
Presentation: This is a tough call. Roth took himself down while furiously spinning his mic stand like a meth-fueled majorette. Which is very rock ‘n’ roll. However, Michaels also impressed with the cock-of-the-walk strut that only heightened the comic effect as the walls — or at least the next set piece — came crashing in on him. Hmm; let’s call this one a draw.
Damage Tally: Michaels, by a mile. Roth’s mishap earned him 14 stitches, which is an admirable tally. But photos posted by the Poison rocker the day after his Tonys performance displayed a busted-up nose, a badly injured lip and a clear victory in this department.
Rebound: Advantage, Roth. After dashing offstage in the middle of Van Halen’s “Panama,” Roth returned to perform with a bandage stretched across his schnozz that made him look “like fuc*ing Hiawatha,” he joked. Michaels, by contrast, sued the Tony Awards and CBS, claiming that the injury could have caused a hemorrhage that he suffered the following year. Michaels later settled the suit. Bad form — because if there’s anything less rock ‘n’ roll than legal action, it’s dropping that action in the face of anything less than full victory.
Conclusion: It’s a close call, but if there was a trophy for such a thing, we’d have to say that Roth won it by a nose.