Entertainment

Keith Moon’s Top 5 Wildest Moments

Rock legend Keith Moon passed away Sept. 7, 1978 at just 32-years-old. Remembered and missed, the famous percussionist for The Who is immortalized in his music. But, Moon is also immortalized in his spectacular history of wild moments. Here are five of the rock legend’s most famous, or infamous, lasting memories.

1. Keith Moon’s public service announcements

Keith Moon grew a reputation for pranking. The famous drummer would visit small British towns in his cars specially modified with additional speakers and amplifiers. Moon would then deliver fake public service announcements to oncoming walkers, inciting fear over nonexistent tidal waves or swarms of snakes.

2. His first show with The Who

When Keith Moon performed with The Who for the first time, the drummer held nothing back. Moon first appeared at the show with yards of rope. The drummer used the rope to anchor his kit to the nearby pillars within the venue. During the set, the venue’s PA system ultimately blew out. It was then up to Moon to close the show with a drum solo. Moon’s performance reportedly knocked seven shades out of the kit, leaving the drum set bulging out and held together only by the ropes the drummer anchored early in the night.

3. The drummer passing out on stage

Back in 1973, Keith Moon decided to drink some Brandy and partake in some animal tranquillizers. Consequently, the drummer passed out in front of 14,000 fans right in the middle of a performance with The Who. The band was nearly ready to back it up and leave when a teenager bravely stepped onto the stage and offered to replace Keith Moon for the night. It was an unforgettable moment for all involved.

4. Keith Moon’s Lincoln Continental underwater adventure

Rock stars trashing hotel rooms is an old adage now, but Keith Moon was doing incredibly shocking things to hotel rooms during the height of The Who. For his 21st birthday, during a stay at The Holiday Inn in Flint, Michigan, Moon reportedly pocketed a pair of keys to a Lincoln Continental and proceeded to drive the expensive vehicle into the hotel’s swimming pool.

“Half-a-dozen cars were parked around this swimming pool.” Moon said. “I ran out, jumped into the first car I came to, which was a brand new Lincoln Continental.” “It was parked on a slight hill, and when I took the handbrake off it started to roll, and it smashed straight through this pool-surround fence, and the whole Lincoln Continental went into the swimming pool – with me in it.”

5. The exploding drum kit

It is hard to consider the most famous moments in Keith Moon’s history without remembering the infamous drum kit explosion. Back in 1967, The Who played for the Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour TV show. Moon was already in the habit of hiding cherry bomb fireworks in his drum kit, leading to wonderous explosions at the end of the band’s sets. This time, however, Moon decided to use a significantly larger dose of cherry bombs. Rather than put an exclamatory punctuation on the end of their performance, the explosion signed Pete Townshend’s hair, shocked the entire studio and possibly caused Keith Moon’s deafness.