THE BEAST

MEGADETH's Dave Mustaine has weighed in on the troubling behavior trends in younger audiences at live music shows, including throwing things at artists to catch their attention.

"If people don't like you, they're gonna throw shit," Mustaine told Sweden's SVT in a new interview. "Maybe it's graduated from rotten tomatoes to dildos; I don't know. But if you're giving them a great show, they're not gonna do that — they're not gonna do that. So don't get up there acting like a spoiled fucking brat and telling them not to throw stuff."

Several high-profile performers, including Bebe Rexha and Kelsea Ballerini, have been hit by items thrown at them while they have been performing over the summer, in some cases harming the performer in acts that could be deemed assault and may lead to criminal charges or other legal consequences for offenders.

Mustaine added: "I don't have to worry about it. Plus my eyesight is that bad, I probably won't see anything flying through the air until it's too late."

Back in 1989, MOTÖRHEAD leader Ian "Lemmy" Kilmister reportedly received a significant wound after a person who had attended the band's concert in Yugoslavia threw a razor blade, glued between two coins, at the stage, striking the bassist/vocalist. Lemmy then showed his left fist, which was bleeding, to the audience and shouted, "What idiot thinks this is funny? If you're so brave, come onstage and I'll kill you, you bastard!"

Lemmy recounted the incident during an appearance on the Bailey Brothers TV show, saying: "I nearly lost my hand, you understand me? If I lose my hand, my life is over. You realize that? I'd have to shoot myself because I can't stand it.

"I'm not going to put up with people throwing things out of the audience any more… This is never going to happen to me again."

MOTÖRHEAD reportedly cut its 1991 show in Brisbane, Australia short after an incident where cans were thrown on to the stage.

In late June, country singer Kelsea Ballerini was performing her song "If You Go Down (I'm Goin' Down Too)" at Outlaw Field at the Idaho Botanical Garden in Boise, Idaho, when she was hit by an object lobbed from the crowd.

The incident involving Ballerini came after Rexha was struck in the face and injured by a cell phone while performing in New York City. The phone hit the singer on the forehead in the middle of a song, splitting her eyebrow and requiring stitches. The suspect who threw the phone was quickly identified and arrested. The 27-year-old man was charged with assault, aggravated harassment, attempted assault and harassment. He allegedly tossed the phone at Rexha for his own amusement, prosecutors said at his arraignment.

Last week, FOREIGNER singer Kelly Hansen told Fox News about fans throwing things at artists during live shows: "When you're standing on stage and you have a spotlight on you, what it does is it blinds you. You can't see the audience. So you can't see anything that's coming at you. It's very, very dangerous. And over the course of time I've had many things thrown up on stage, including full, unopened cans of beer. And it's tough, because at the best I can see something right at the last minute when it crosses the spotlight.

"Just like everything else, someone sees that and they go, 'Oh, that's a thing, a bandwagon to get on," Kelly added. "Let me do that. It'll be funny and I'll get some kind of TikTok out of it.' But they're not thinking that they're hurting somebody and supposedly somebody that they like, that they're there to see."

Earlier in the month, pop superstar Adele said it was time to stop throwing objects at performers during concerts.

"Have you noticed how people are forgetting fucking show etiquette at the moment," she said during one of her "Weekends With Adele" shows at The Colosseum in Las Vegas. "People are throwing shit on stage. Have you seen that?" asked Adele, 35, according to a fan-filmed video, before joking: "I fucking dare you — I dare you throw something at me. I'll fucking kill you."

Via Blabbermouth