Rockstars like Ozzy Osbourne and Tommy Lee have done some pretty grotesque stunts and pranks in their time, but Eddie Vedder and Chris Cornell’s on-stage antics at Lollapalooza 1992 might just have them beat. After all, Osbourne might have lapped up his own urine off the sidewalk while on tour with Mötley Crüe, but at least it was his urine.
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Sensitive-stomached readers, beware.
Eddie Vedder and Chris Cornell Join The Fun At Lollapalooza
The main stage of Lollapalooza 1992 featured a star-studded lineup of notable acts, including Soundgarden, Pearl Jam, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Lush, and Ice Cube. The side stage featured popular, if not slightly lesser-known, acts like Cypress Hill, Stone Temple Pilots, Rage Against the Machine, and, perhaps most notably, the Jim Rose Circus Sideshow. The side stage sideshow boasted a wide variety of stomach-turning, eye-popping performers that swallowed swords, hung weights from their nipples, and other freaky talents. But none had a greater impact on the Lolla culture as a whole than Matt “The Tube” Crowley.
The former pharmacist from Montana would ingest seven feet of plastic tubing, through which Rose would pour various liquids, such as raw eggs, ketchup, and beer. The tube had a hand pump that Rose would use to suck the liquid back up, now blended with Crowley’s stomach contents. As if this stunt wasn’t disgusting enough on its own, Rose would then offer the vile concoction for audience members (or fellow Lollapalooza musicians) to drink. And in true shock rock fashion, plenty of musicians volunteered for the challenge when they weren’t performing, including Eddie Vedder of Pearl Jam, Chris Cornell of Soundgarden, and Flea from the Red Hot Chili Peppers. Flea got sick after trying it once.
Vedder came back for seconds, thirds, and fourths. The Pearl Jam frontman posited he was “just looking for attention, I guess. Every city, there’d be some old friend, or my wife’s parents, and I’d get to gross everyone out,” he explained in Lollapalooza: The Uncensored History of Alternative Rock’s Wildest Festival, per Louder Sound. For whatever it’s worth, Cornell was the first rockstar to drink out of “The Tube.” But Vedder certainly gets the not-so-coveted award of drinking the most.
The Musicians Sparked A New, Stomach-Turning Trend
If there’s any way to make drinking stomach bile mixed with raw eggs and beer appealing, it would be to get a famous rockstar to do it first. Such was the case during the Lollapalooza tour of 1992, thanks to musical giants like Pearl Jam’s Eddie Vedder and Soundgarden’s Chris Cornell. As the titular leader of the Jim Rose Circus Sideshow explained in Lollapalooza: The Uncensored History, “Once Eddie showed up and does it, well, that makes it on MTV. Now, when I offer it to the audience, f***ing half the crowd comes up. They all want to drink vomit.”
“That was becoming a security problem,” Rose continued. “I had to stop offering it. I mean, hell, one time they just basically knocked the stage over trying to get to our vomit. We started the whole thing where everybody’s trying to outdo each other and be the freakiest they can be.”
We’d say they certainly accomplished that. Blagh.
Photo by Andre Csillag/Shutterstock
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