You're here for crazy Black Sabbath stories, but before getting to that, take a moment to hail the almighty power of the riff, as manifested in human form by doom priest Tony Iommi, and brought to life by Iommi, Bill Ward (drums), Geezer Butler (bass), and vocalist Ozzy Osborne. Many of the stories on this list revolve around Ozzy Osbourne's insane behavior and the drug-fueled hijinx of epic '70s metal superstars; don't let that distract you too much from the potent majesty of the band's music, because the two are inextricably linked in the psychedelic nebula in which insanity meets genius. 

Sabbath emerged from the thicket of blues-based British bands in the late '60s, around the same time as Led Zeppelin and, like Zep, pioneered a form of riff-heavy, psychedelic, drug-fueled thunder that forever changed the face of heavy guitar music. Also like Led Zeppelin, the members of Sabbath lived life to the hilt at a time when musicians were availed of a near-endless supply of illegal substances. For Sabbath, the drug of choice was cocaine. It inspired their music and madness, leading to bizarre, occasionally disturbing, consequences, as evidenced by these true stories about Black Sabbath. 

Behind the scenes Black Sabbath stories go as far back as the formation of the band, in 1968, when it was known first as Polka Tulk Blues Band, then Earth. Re-christened Black Sabbath after a film of the same name staring Boris Karloff, the band moved away from free-loving blues to invent heavy metal. Sabbath was the anti-hippie band, with songs drawing heavily on religious themes, including "demonic subject matter" such as the supernatural, the afterlife, and the co-dependent relationship of good and evil. Among the many icons gracing the band's artwork was an upside down cross which, along with the occult name and themes, earned the band an association with Satan. 

According to Sabbath, the band was a reaction to the drastic social and political change that happened as the hippie movement fell apart in the face of the Vietnam War, a strong conservative backlash to liberal ideals, heavy drug use, and formerly groovy violent cults such as the Manson family. According to Butler, who wrote most of the band's lyrics:

"War was the main theme [of our songs]. My brothers were all in the army and I thought I'd have to go and fight in Vietnam. Then there was the atomic bomb and the feeling that we were all going to get blown up."

When Ozzy left in 1979, dynamics changed drastically, as did the culture surrounding Sabbath; the hedonistic chaos of the 1970s gave way to the business-oriented and coke-fueled madness of the 1980s. Don't forget: cocaine. Lots and lots and lots of cocaine. 

During a 1992 interview with Guitar World, Tony Iommi was asked to tell a crazy story about Ozzy. The guitarist revealed the following, from the band's heyday in the 1970s:

"I don't know - there' s so many. [chuckles] Wait, here's one. Actually, it's quite funny. We were all in an elevator in this real plush hotel, and Ozzy decides to take a crap. As he's doing it, the elevator is going down to the reception floor. The door opens suddenly - and there's Ozzy with his pants around his knees. And all these people in fur coats are just staring at him with their mouths open."

When Sabbath came to the US on tour in the 1970s, they fornicated like wild beasts in heat, shoving their digits and dongs in every honey pot they could get their paws on. Though unable to control their bestial urges, the members of the band lived in constant fear of STDS; more specifically, of catching something American and giving it to their girlfriends or wives at home. 

As Ozzy wrote in his autobiography:

"When it was time to go back to England, were were all terrified of taking home an STD from one of the groupies and giving it to our other half. Catching some exotic diseases was always a big worry when we were in America. I remember one time during a particularly wild night at a hotel somewhere, Tony came running out of his room going, 'Aargh! My knob!My knob!' I asked him what was wrong, and he told me that he'd been messing around with this groupie when he looked down and saw all this yellow pus coming out of her. He thought he was about to die.

'Did the pus smell funny?' I asked him.

'Yeah,' he said, white in the face. 'I almost puked.'"

Drummer Bill Ward was instrumental in developing Sabbath's unique sound, and played some very interesting roles in the band. Ozzy Osbourne referred to him as his fellow "drug commando," while Tony Iommi once said "[Bill] was our outlet, the one everybody picked on. I used to do terrible things to him. I actually set him on fire once - honest to God." *record scratch* What?

According to Iommi, during the recording of Heaven and Hell in late 1979 and early 1980, he set Ward on fire. He doesn't say why, only that he asked, "Can I set you on fire, Bill?" to which Ward responded, "Well, not now, not now."

Iommi didn't push the issue, and forgot about it. An hour later, Ward said, "Well, I'm going home now. Do you still want to burn me, or what?" Iommi told Guitar World in 1992:

"So I got this bottle of petrol, tipped it on Bill, set fire to him and -- voomph. I couldn't believe it! He went up like a Christmas tree. Well, he knew I was going to burn him, but he didn't know to what extent. He screamed and started rolling around on the floor. His clothes started burning and his socks melted -- the nylon socks stuck to his leg. I wasn't able to help him because I couldn't stop laughing.

It was actually pretty serious; he had to go to the hospital. I felt really bad. He had third-degree burns on his arms and legs and everywhere. The next day his mother phoned me up and said, 'You balmy bastard. It's about time you grew up. Our Bill is going to have to have his leg off.' She exaggerated a bit. But things like that were a regular occurrence with Bill."

The title track from Black Sabbath's 1973 masterpiece Sabbath Bloody Sabbath has one of the heaviest damn riffs you'll ever hear, so it shouldn't surprise you to learn the album was recorded in part in the dungeon of a haunted Welsh castle. As Ozzy and Iommi revealed in an interview:

"Iommi: So we rented a castle in Wales, which, yes, was supposedly haunted. Bill saw this ghost jump out the window in his room, so he started taking this big dagger to bed with him. He said if he saw the ghost, he was going to stab it. As if you can stab a ghost! 

Osbourne: I was the ghost! 

Iommi: We set up our gear in the dungeons, and it was a great vibe for coming up with ideas. When we wrote Sabbath Bloody Sabbath, all these riffs started coming out. We started using synthesizers, too - musically, we went to another level. 

Osbourne: That, to me, was the pinnacle of Black Sabbath. I also discovered, as a singer, the best person to harmonize with is yourself -- there's no one that sounds more like you than you." 

As you can see from the transcript, Iommi seems completely unfazed to learn (or maybe already knew?) Ozzy was, or at least believed himself to be, the ghost terrorizing Ward. While Ozzy was haunting Ward and learning to harmonize with himself, he almost died.

"Iommi: We almost lost Ozzy. We had a room with a big fireplace. Ozzy had a big fire going but had fallen asleep when a piece of coal tumbled onto the carpet. We forced our way in, and the room was ablaze! 

Osbourne: I'd set my foot on fire. We were so hellbent on frightening each other, we frightened ourselves! We then made a collective decision to f*cking stop this coke thing - it was destroying us."

And how did that go? As Ozzy tells it, "I started sniffing it behind the amps, where they couldn't see me."

Black Sabbbath's cocaine habits were out of control, especially in the early-to-mid 1970s. Ozzy Osbourne was so high, so drunk, and having so much sex with so many groupies during the recording of Vol. 4 in Los Angeles in 1972, he didn't even know what was going on around him. 

As Ozzy remembers of the band's days staying at 773 Stradella Road in Bel Air:

"We never left the house. Booze, drugs, food, groupies - everything was delivered. On a good day, there'd be bowls of white powder and crates of booze in every room, and all these random rock 'n' rollers and chicks in bikinis hanging around in the place...

It would be impossible to exaggerate the amount of coke we did in that house... At one point we were getting through so much of the stuff, we had to have it delivered twice a day. Don't ask me who was organizing it all - the only thing I can remember is this shady-looking bloke on the telephone the whole time. 

I once asked him 'What the f*ck do you do, man?'

He just laughed and fiddled nervously with his aviator shades. At that stage I didn't care, as long as the coke kept coming."

According to guitarist Tony Iommi, nobody in Black Sabbath could control anyone else, they were all so far gone on drugs. In September 1972, Iommi almost overdosed at the Hollywood Bowl: "I was doing coke left, right and center, and quaaludes, and God knows what else. We used to have [cocaine] flown in by private plane."

In order to hide the drugs in the planes, Sabbath had fake guitar amps built and filled with bags of cocaine. 

In 1972, while living in a Bel Air mansion and recording Vol. 4, Sabbath plowed through mountains of blow faster than Paula Deen churns out fried cheesecake. One night, drug commandos Ozzy and Bill Ward, soused out of their gourds, were sharing a fraternal piss side-by-side when the Prince of Darkness decided it was a good idea to spray Ward's war pig with an aerosol can he found lying around.

Ozzy told Rolling Stone:

"I see this aerosol can and squirt his dick with it. He starts screaming and falls down. I look at the can and it says, WARNING: DO NOT SPRAY ON SKIN - HIGHLY TOXIC. I poisoned Bill through his d*ck!"

Interestingly, and perhaps symptomatic of years of cocaine abuse, Ozzy remembered the story very differently while writing his autobiography, I Am Ozzy:

"[O]ne day, Tony gets this can of blue spray paint and sneaks around the other side of the railing, and when Bill starts pissing over the railing, he sprays his d*ck with it. You should have heard the scream, man. It was priceless. But then, two seconds later, Bill blacks out, falls headfirst over the railing, and starts rolling down the hillside...

'Ah, he'll be all right,' I said.

And he was, eventually.

Although he did have a blue d*ck for a while."

In the Rolling Stone interview, Iommi chimed in with another incident of Ward being seriously harmed by spray cans. 

"Iommi: We sprayed Bill gold once. He was pissed drunk, so we painted and lacquered him. We never realized we could've killed him. 

Osbourne: The coke was good when it was working. We used to sniff and jam for days, recording everything on big spools of tape. But it was the beginning of the end. Cocaine was the cancer of the band."

As the poet Rick James once said, "Cocaine is a hell of a drug."

Black Sabbath was so enraptured with cocaine they included a paean to blow, entitled "Snowblind," on 1972's Vol. 4, a record that cost less to make than the band's coke habit while recording it. According to bassist Geezer Butler, the record came with a price tag of $60,000, while the snowstorm in which the band recorded cost $75,000. In fact, the band wanted to call the album Snowblind, in honor of their paean to coke, but the record label wouldn't let them. 

As Ozzy explains:

"For me, Snowblind was one of Black Sabbath's best-ever albums - although, the record company wouldn't let us keep the title, 'cos in those days cocaine was a big deal, and they didn't' want the hassle of a controversy."

Discussing Black Sabbath's first US tour, Osbourne had fond memories of the band trying to screw as many groupies as possible, to make the most of the opportunity:

"It's every British band's dream to play the States. When we got there finally, we f*cked as many groupies as we could. In San Francisco, they even had a Black Sabbath parade! Coming from Birmingham, England, where the f*ckin' sun never shines, it was magic to us." 

As Ozzy relates in his autobiography, I Am Ozzy:

"Eventually we started to wonder where the f*ck all the coke was coming from. All we knew was that it arrived in the back of unmarked vans, packed inside cardboard boxes. In each box there were about thirty vials - ten across, three deep - and each one had a screw-on top, sealed with wax."

"War Pigs" is the lead off track from Paranoid, Sabbath's second record, which many consider to be the band's ultimate masterpiece (and even the best metal album of all time). Before the album was released, the band intended to call the record War Pigs, in reference to the Vietnam War, but the record label prevented them from doing so. 

As it turns out, Ozzy had no idea this was the case. The following exchange is from an interview with Rolling Stone:

"Osbourne: We originally called the album War Pigs, after some black-magic party we read about in an Aleister Crowley book. That's why the guy on the cover is wearing a pink suit with a shield and sword: He's dressed like a pig. 

Iommi: They wouldn't let us use War Pigs as a title. It was basically about Vietnam. 

Osbourne: I didn't know about Vietnam. I was a dim bulb when it came to world events. I was always loaded."

Shocking stories from Whole Foods include more than just the price of the items they sell. The health food grocery giant is a major player in the industry, appearing in numerous locations across the United States as well as the occasional "things white people like" meme. Whole Foods is a favorite food shopping place for many and was a big catalyst in making organic, health-focused food a new way of life for plenty of consumers. Even Walmart has taken a cue from their model.

But Whole Foods behind the scenes is a bit different from the fresh cut flowers and colorful salad bar that greet customers inside. Led by CEO John Mackey, the company has a reputation for using questionable methods to get ahead and stay ahead in business. Stories from Whole Foods employees make the company's views on labor seem a little unsettling as well.

Grocery stores have changed a lot through the years, and the health food retail industry has become a lot more saturated. While Whole Foods does deserve credit for boosting the trend, these dark Whole Foods tales might make you think twice about where you purchase your kale.

Most customers who shop at Whole Foods are loyal to the chain for their selection of organic produce, grown without pesticides. But in 2016, one customer decided he'd rather have chemicals along with his kale. The FBI got involved with the case after customers reported a man pouring hazardous liquid on salad and hot food bar items at several Ann Arbor grocery stores, including a Whole Foods. His hazardous concoction contained a mixture of mice poison and hand sanitizer. The man was arrested, but no motive was found.

Whole Foods' in-store marketing campaigns often feature photographs of real-life farmers and signs encouraging shoppers to support their small farms. Unfortunately, the onions and spinach you're buying may not actually be from there. The majority of produce Whole Foods carries comes from corporate farms, and much of their private label frozen vegetables and fruits comes from China, where the "organic" stamp isn't regulated. One small farmer commented, "Almost all the organic food in this country comes out of California. And five or six big California farms dominate the whole industry."

Using the profiles and images of small farmers is one way Whole Foods appeals to its customers. Like shopping at a farmer's market, if a shopper can relate what they're buying with the face of the person who actually grew it, they feel good about purchase. But one journalist found the produce didn't match what they were selling, and one farmer even claimed Whole Foods never sold his products, but said they had.

Employees of Whole Foods watch corporate training videos that teach them about the company and its values, as well as general knowledge about the products the chain carries. But these employees may not always be as informed as they seem. One former Whole Foods employee commented, "Part of the problem with Whole Foods is they tend to hire enthusiastic, naive people who are more willing to tell customers what they want to hear than the truth. Training at all levels is abysmal, and the focus on indoctrination into the Whole Foods family, such as it is, over accuracy and service is killing the brand."

A group calling themselves Organic Spies also discovered through talking with former employees that they were lied to about the presence of GMOs in Whole Foods' products. They claim employees in training were falsely told no GMO products were carried by the chain, information they then passed on to customers.

Part of Whole Foods' success is due to its business tactics. Instead of focusing on providing their customers with lower prices and better products, the company decided to just buy out its competition. Fresh Fields, Food For Thought, and Wild Oats were among some of the competitors that Whole Foods found a significant threat. Although the Federal Trade Commission tried to stop them from taking over Wild Oats and a federal appeals court eventually realized there were antitrust problems with the deal, Whole Foods had already sold off or closed most of the Wild Oats locations.

Due to its size, Whole Foods was also able to bully smaller competitors and steal some of their customers. But now that more consumers are interested in organic and health food, Whole Foods has significantly more competition and sales are being affected. In an effort to keep their standing in the health food world, Whole Foods has had to take some new steps, including opening a chain of lower priced stores called 365 by Whole Foods Market and selling the entire company to Amazon.

Although the image Whole Foods projects is almost a polar opposite of Walmart, in some ways they aren't that much different. CEO John Mackey is against employee unions, believing his company provides such a satisfying work environment, they are unnecessary. He is even quoted as saying, "The union is like having herpes. It doesn't kill you, but it's unpleasant and inconvenient, and it stops a lot of people from becoming your lover."

When employees are hired, they are given a pamphlet entitled "Beyond Unions," and the chain has kept employees forming unions in all but one of its stores. Some Whole Foods critics have pointed out that the chain outwardly appears to be very concerned about its own employees, but not so much the workers who grow, harvest, and deliver the items they sell.

While Whole Foods was trying to buy out one of its closest competitors, Wild Oats, Whole Foods CEO John Mackey had some odd ideas about encouraging the sale. For several years after his offer was rejected, Mackey used a Yahoo Finance message board to praise his company but mock Wild Oats in order to keep their market share from going up. Being a responsible CEO of a major grocery chain, he used the screen name Rahodeb to do so. 

Although forum participants tried to call him on his true identity, he refused to give himself up, even telling other users he was actually George W. Bush. He wasn't shy about posting flattering comments about himself, either – for instance, "I think he looks cute!" The truth finally came out in a 2007 Federal Trade Commission report trying to block the merger, but Mackey was not at all ashamed of his actions.

There's a reason why people call it "Whole Paycheck." In 2014, several stores in southern California were sued for their prices. Whole Foods settled the case after being charged with pricing violations which included selling prepared deli foods by the piece instead of by weight, mislabeling pre-packed foods with a weight and price higher than the actual cost of the contents, and charging customers for the weight of the to-go containers used in the hot food and salad bars.

In 2015, Whole Foods in New York state underwent the same investigation and were again found guilty of overcharging customers.

Shoppers in New Jersey sued their local Whole Foods in 2015 for advertising their baked goods as something they were not. According to the customers' claims, the store fraudulently used terms like "made in house" and "store baked." Bakery items that are not packaged by an outside company, and thus labeled as Whole Foods products, are not technically baked in house. Items like muffins, cookies, and bagels were actually baked off-premise, frozen, delivered to the store, re-baked, and then sold.

One former Whole Foods employee noted, "None of the cakes where I used to work were baked in house at all. Decorated sure, but not baked there. The only items baked in house were the hearth breads. The cookies were baked, but not made in house. The dough came already made in a five-gallon pail. They have no issue slapping on the 'baked fresh here' label."

In addition to at least one Whole Foods store being cited for health violations, not all the deli selection may be as labeled. One former employee commented, "The deli you fare a bit better, but there is still a good chunk of made off site product called Chef Made. Lasagnas, spanakopita, veggie burgers, fritters, cakes, salads, and sauces. Mind you, you are paying anywhere between 8-10 bucks per pound or 4-6 bucks per each for these Chef Made items. The labeling is dishonest for sure. FYI, not one actual chef worked in the WF kitchen I came from, so there's that dishonesty as well."

Another disgruntled employee had a similar experience, saying," Almost all of the prepared foods come from Sysco, not the sales floor. The only time you'll be eating anything even remotely similar to organic romaine in your $9 caesar salad is if they had bunch of it spoil in the produce department."

Until 2016, Whole Foods customers may have purchased certain items distributed by companies who used prisoners in their workforces. That may seem strange, but companies sometimes utilize prisoners for labor because they can pay them a lower wage. At one time, Whole Foods sold tilapia grown by a company who used Colorado Correctional Industries as a source of labor, paying their workers $1.50 per hour. Haystack Mountain Goat Dairy provided cheese products for Whole Foods, and was found to pay their prison workers 60 cents per hour.

Even though CEO John Mackey is a supporter of "conscious capitalism," the belief that business can make money and do good at the same time, Whole Foods sold these cheaply produced items at a large markup. After a lot of concern from customers, the company decided to stop selling these products.

Gnarly nipple piercing stories aren't easy reads, but they are some of the wildest cautionary tales on the Internet. Whether the rings were unexpectedly pulled out or the piercing process went wrong, these anecdotes about the horrible side effects of piercing aren't for the squeamish.

These nipple piercing horror stories all happened to real people, and should be taken into account whenever you're thinking, "Should I have my nipples pierced?" Bad nipple piercings can happen to anyone, even someone who does their research and goes to a reputable place. The most careful expert can't save a person from a later freak accident.

There are lot of reasons to seek body modifications like pierced noses or gauged ears, but these stories are all about the downsides to nipple piercing. Are nipple piercings dangerous? All cosmetic procedures have risks, but these stories can offer you some insight into the cons of taking needles to flesh.

Redditor SnippyTheDeliveryFox told a short, but brutal, story:

"On a related topic, a guy I know found out the hard way not to stand near a bonfire with nipple rings. It was just as hilarious as you think it might have been."

One person shared a cautionary tale about doing activities while under the influence:

"When I was 18 I got shitfaced and got my nipple pierced whilst living abroad. Was all fun and games until I got home and drunkenly brushed my hair. I ripped it clean out, like, four hours after getting it done. My nipple has looked like a half-chewed wine gum ever since."

One woman shared her terrifying piercing story on Tumblr:

"In April I got my nipples pierced at a quality shop in my area... I had normal, if not faster than typical, healing and I cleaned my piercing twice daily with sea salt and then mild unscented soap in the shower. I had no problems with the piercings other than increased sensitivity, which is normal.

Then a month ago, I woke up suddenly one morning with a 103.3 fever and found my left breast to be about three times its normal size with red streaks radiating from my nipple, not to mention excruciating pain in that breast and armpit. All that day, I was experiencing extreme fatigue and I spent the entire night vomiting while my fever peaked to 104.7 and I became delusional and unconscious for periods of time.

I went to the doctor the next day and they immediately sent me to the emergency room to be admitted to the hospital for what was apparently a severe infection. After lots of blood tests, I found out that I had developed a resistant form of staph infection in my left nipple by NO FAULT OF MINE OR MY PIERCER’S. It had caused cellulitis in that entire breast, moving to my neck and armpit. Thankfully I had known to NOT take the barbell out until I got the okay from a doctor, or I would have had a nasty abscess on top of everything else that would have needed surgery. At the time I entered the hospital, my blood was .4% away from being septic, and at the rate my infection was progressing, I could have been dead within 48 hours...

I really want to stress to people that even if you go somewhere spotless with a good reputation and take care of your piercing, it is still an open wound in your body, and every time you get a piercing or tattoo, you are taking a huge risk with your health. if this can happen at a reputable parlor with almost perfect care, imagine what can happen with a DIY piercing or tattoo and no aftercare."

One Facebook user has a harrowing tale:

"About 3.5 years ago I got both my nipples pierced. It also should be noted I like to sleep 'freely,' i.e., in the nude, totally normal, and an important fact of this story. Flash forward a little bit later: My boyfriend and I got a puppy, who slept with us most of the time on the bed. He usually laid on the bed till we turned off the light, stayed with us another 15 minutes and then went onto the floor.

One night before bed, our dog was on the bed on my boyfriend's side, all very normal. Boyfriend went to turn off the light. I was under the covers but my chest was exposed beside him. The next thing I know as the light gets turned off, our dog lunges at my tit, and the worst pain imaginable happens. I start screaming and crying that the dog has ruined my nipple and get him off the bed. Boyfriend doesn't know what is happening, so I keep yelling about my ruined nipple, clutching it with my hand feeling blood. My nipple piercing was ripped clean out, blood everywhere.

To this day my nipple still looks wonky and my boyfriend always teases me about the dog ruining my nipple, since that's all I could cry out in shock bleeding on the bed."

One woman was left with just one breast after a nipple piercing led to a potentially deadly infection. Nikki Belza had surgically augmented breasts as well as pierced nipples. One night, she suddenly woke up in agony after accidentally ripping out one of her piercings. The pain became so unbearable that she collapsed at work. She quickly went to the hospital, but the doctors thought she was having a complication from her last breast-enhancement surgery, and sent her home.

Belza's symptoms got worse. She came back to the hospital, and this time a specialist looked at her. Belza discovered she had an infection from her husband's sore throat, which triggered sepsis that was "ravaging" her breast tissue. Surgeons had to remove her left breast implant to save her life.

She said, "I am now completely flat chested on one side, but I know how lucky I am to be alive... I can't believe having a simple procedure like a piercing can lead to a deadly infection like sepsis."

In 2016, a Texas state trooper pulled over two women, ages 18 and 19, for speeding, and found a pill in the driver's door. The women claimed that the pill wasn't theirs, but the trooper arrested them for drug possession.

Before being admitted to the county jail, the trooper asked them to remove their body piercings. When one of the women asked where to go to take out their nipple rings, the trooper told them to do it "in the open." But one of the women struggled to remove a piercing, and that's when the state trooper "became impatient" and went to his car to get his pair of pliers. After staring at the woman's breast, the trooper decided to take action, as the woman described: 

"So then, without gloves or anything – and I could see dirt under his nails, it was extremely disgusting – he gets on there and he tries to twist it and he starts shaking from trying so hard and he ends up pulling it and ripping it and it starts bleeding."

A Redditor posting under JestForLaughs shared a piercer's perspective on one over-the-top client:

"I was piercing a girl's nipples and she started speaking in tongues and moving her body all over the damn place. I told her she needed to sit still while a needle was in her nipple, but she didn't stop. Like two seconds later, she looks super pale and gets woozy. I get her a popsicle and water and subsequently held the trashcan nearby. The chick then started throwing up a philly cheesesteak she'd eaten like 30 minutes earlier. Everything about that piercing was absurd."

Redditor mctumey went through an ordeal after getting a piercing on a whim:

"A local tattoo shop posted information about a promotional party, yesterday. So my boyfriend and I decided to stop in and check it out. It seems pretty redundant to say that I ended up with pierced nipples, but I ended up with pierced nipples. (Which is actually the most painful thing I've ever experienced, so don't f*cking do it.)

Cut to Olive Garden about 4 hours later... my boyfriend, my sweater-clad bleeding nipples, myself, and 20+ of my boyfriend's step relatives. They're all somewhat churchy in a really odd way, so naturally we kept it between us... The birthday girl nearly tackled us with hugs. I almost fainted, it hurt so bad.

The longest dinner ever... complete with every nipple, pierced, bleeding, painful, hole, comment my boyfriend could think of...

They're taped up now. Dear god, worst decision ever."

There's a woman who took to Blogspot to recall one of the worst experiences of her life: having a nipple piercing. She quit smoking, and decided to reward herself by getting her nipples pierced, because she'd always wanted to do it. She went to a well-known piercer and they did a great job. The actual piercings didn't hurt her much and she cleaned them as directed. 

Then, a doctor found a "pea-sized" lump on her right breast. After getting a mammogram, getting an ultrasound, and talking to a radiologist, she was sent home. The size of her lump grew to the size of a golf ball. After being sent home twice with different medications, she had to call her doctor for more appointments, then checked herself into the local ER because the pain was "unbearable." At the ER they aspirated the abscess, gave her more antibiotics, then made her an appointment with the local breast care center. That's when it gets a little gory: 

"The aspiration was very painful and didn't work. They pulled yellow lumpy puss out of the abscess and sent it off to have it tested to see what bacteria was growing. A few days later I notice lumps in my left breast just above my nipple... I know that the piercings are to blame and am hating myself for getting them. I have since removed my piercings.

By the 20th of June I am seeing the breast surgeon. He decides that I need to have a drainage procedure on my right breast. Which I might ad that he does this in his office with a scalpel and lidacane. The lidacane doesn't last very long and I can feel the whole thing. There is so much blood and the pain is horrible... The breast surgeon also tells me that none of the labs have come back with anything growing. He can't understand why."

She was given more antibiotics, had to wait about a month, and was then told she should get surgery. After more invasive procedures, the woman wrote the blog hoping that anybody who wants to get their nipples pierced reads her cautionary tale:

"My medical bills are well into the thousands almost into the 10's of thousands. All for $60 piercings. So not worth it. And who knows how long I will have to deal with this. Will be posting as I have more information as to how my treatment is going."

This was in 2010. She never posted again.

One woman was enjoying "innocently day drinking and window shopping" when her friend jokingly dared her to get her nipples pierced:

"Dustin pointed out a tattoo shop with a large '25% OFF PIERCINGS' sign... I’m not one to pass up a challenge, especially if it is something stupid and done completely on impulse...

'So, um, how much is this going to hurt?' I asked the guy behind the counter, trying my best to sound nonchalant.

'Do you have your navel pierced?'

'Yes.'

'Much, much worse than that.' My face dropped and he began to laugh. He explained that the piercing itself doesn’t hurt, but they would be very sore after and suggested taking Midol for a day or two. Simple enough right? Wrong...

Unfortunately, no drunk f*ck up had prepared me for my tits to be impaled. I screamed. I was wet with blood, sweat, and tears...

'Are you ready to do the other one?' The piercer asked.

Now, not many people can say that they’ve had their tits stabbed by Satan himself, but in this moment, I was sure that I had. I sat on my hands to keep myself from slapping him on reflex, squeezed my eyes shut and nodded. I felt a terrible pain on my left nipple but I breathed out a sigh of relief. It was finally over. It wasn’t that bad. It was... it was just the clamp. The f*cker hadn’t even pierced me yet. I’ll spare you the constant stream of obscenities that flew out of my mouth at the poor guy. But I swear I must have broken some record.

All I can say is this – the piercing itself was absolutely horrid, but the soreness that followed was so, so much worse. Midol my ass. That is the equivalent of tossing a Band-Aid at someone who just broke their leg."

Many children grew up reading Shel Silverstein's poetry, but stories about the poet's darker side depict him in a completely different light. Hints to his creative yet twisted mind appear in some of Silverstein's creepy poems, but the real Shel Silverstein personality emerged through his work for adults, including songs, plays, and cartoons. Silverstein was a private man who never gave many interviews. Instead, he threw himself into almost every area of creative expression.

Born in 1930, Silverstein began drawing at a young age, but was quickly seen as a rebel with controversial ideas and the lifestyle of a drifter. Some of Silverstein's best books, like The Giving Tree, Where the Sidewalk Ends, and A Light in the Attic, harbor creepy insights into the genius's mind. Although these are the titles that brought him the most fame, they also created some controversy by appearing on banned book lists. So, what was Shel Silverstein like? What really lurked in the mind of a man who possessed tremendous amounts of imagination, creative passion, and a twisted sense of humor? These dark Shel Silverstein stories may help shine a little light in that attic. 

As can be seen from Shel Silverstein's wild imagination, he has nothing against fantasy. However, he believed fantasy should be purely that, and not something that could possibly interact with real life. For him as a parent, that included the Tooth Fairy.

Silverstein was divorced and his daughter from that marriage sometimes came to stay with him. But when she lost a tooth, he refused to play along, making her extremely upset and unable to understand why the Tooth Fairy had not appeared. Silverstein realized his stubbornness was making the situation worse. "Faced with a screaming six-year-old, for my own comfort I continue the legend of the tooth fairy."

Silverstein spent a few years living at the Playboy Mansion and was a devoted fan of ladies throughout his life. However, he didn't have much luck when he was younger. When talking about his college experience, he remembered, "I didn't get laid much. I didn't learn much. Those are the two worst things that can happen to a guy."

As he became more successful and women became more interested in him, he always made sure they were aware he did not want a relationship. The 1966 Playmate of the Year, Diane Chandler, noted, "He instantly saw the signs and would say something like, 'Well, let's see, where shall I put you on my list?' to let the girls know that they shouldn't expect anything from him." 

Silverstein once said in an interview, "By the time I got to where I was attracting girls, I was already into work, and it was more important to me. Not that I wouldn't rather make love, but the work has become a habit."

As a child, Shel Silverstein was always drawing. Growing up, he was able to translate his childhood love for art into a few paying gigs for magazines like Sports Illustrated and Look. Eventually, he landed the job that would launch his career - creating cartoons for Playboy. The magazine had started only a few years earlier and Hugh Hefner was excited by Silverstein's work, buying several of his cartoons immediately upon meeting him.

In addition to gaining a larger audience for his cartoons, the new gig at Playboy meant Silverstein was finally able to make a living as an artist. Eventually, he took on more of a writer role at the magazine, creating a series of travelogues, complete with photographs and illustrations. 

Shel Silverstein had two children (at least), including a daughter named Shoshanna who stayed with her mother (his wife) until she passed away from cancer. Since Silverstein had no intention of being a father, he sent Shoshanna to live with an aunt and uncle. At the age of 11, she had a cerebral aneurysm and passed away without Silverstein really getting to know her. He was said to have always felt guilty for not spending more time with his daughter and dedicated A Light In The Attic to her memory.

In a obituary written by David Mamet, the playwright noted of his good friend's feelings about his wife and daughter's death, "And he told me that the terrible thing was not that they were dead, but that they stayed dead." 

Shel Silverstein expressed how people read too much into his works sometimes. For example, take his most famous cartoon where two men are chained in a prison cell. Their tattered clothing and unshaven faces show they've been stuck there for some time. The caption of the cartoon, as one man speaks to the other, reads, "Now, here's my plan." Silverstein thought this image was funny, but many people saw a deeper meaning in it and the cartoon was even used in psychological testing to observe people's reactions to it. Silverstein expressed that people were reading too much into the drawing:  

"You ask about the story behind it because everyone was, you know, trying to figure out the psychological and philosophical connotations of this, which is a lot of sh*t, because I don't do stuff that has any deeper meaning than what the stuff shows. Yeah, it's been used in psychological testing; it's been used by Alcoholics Anonymous to describe courage. You do something, you make it simple, and everybody else starts loading it up with deeper meanings."

Like many American men, Silverstein was drafted into the US Army in the early 1950s. He was sent to serve in the Korean War, but was luckily able to hold onto his love of art, becoming a cartoonist and writer for a military newspaper called Stars and Stripes. He quickly became known as a sort of rebel and some of his humorous illustrations received complaints from offended soldiers and officers.

In fact, a few of his cartoons almost got him court-martialed. Luckily, the controversy was caused by military officials not completely understanding Silverstein's message in the questionable pieces, and he was let off the hook. Misunderstanding or not, it quickly became evident that Shel Silverstein was not afraid of taboos, even in cartoon form. 

In addition to being a cartoonist, children's author, and playwright, Shel Silverstein was also a musician. During his career, he created nine albums, as well as one unreleased album with more adult content. He also wrote songs for other artists including Dr. Hook, Jerry Lee Lewis, and Johnny Cash, since his fans were unimpressed with his own voice. He once claimed, "I don't see anyone running out and buying my records, but I like the way I sing."

In addition to songs about drugs, Silverstein also penned songs about venereal disease, masturbation, nude beaches, and sexuality. Clearly, he didn't want his career to focus on one art form or one audience, stating, "I run into difficulty because people want to find a nice clean handle for everyone, and you can't do that for any creative person. Nobody has only one side. You want people to allow for all of you."

Considering Shel Silverstein has become one of the most beloved children's book authors of the world, it's funny to think the thing that led him to write stories and poems for kids was his hatred of the genre. He was offended not only by the condescending writing style many children's authors used, but also the artwork. During an interview, he once ranted, "They have modern-type illustrations - some girl does a series of silly-*ss illustrations; she tries to imagine how a six-year-old would draw, and no godd*mn six-year-old wants to look at illustrations that look like they're done by a six-year-old. So they come up with a modern type of children's book that is a real atrocity."

After writing Uncle Shelby's ABZ Book: A Primer for Tender Young Minds, a children's style book that was definitely not for children, a few friends finally convinced Silverstein to give writing a real children's book a shot. Lo and behold, the books were a global hit. 

Shel Silverstein's college career included getting kicked out of University of Illinois at Urbana, dropping out of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and finally attending Roosevelt University in Chicago. There, he started making a name for himself as a writer and cartoonist. He managed to secure a position on the student newspaper, The Torch, and publish his very first cartoon. It featured a naked student smoking a cigarette, explaining to an angry professor, "What do you mean, 'No Smoking?' I thought this was a liberal school." His career was off to a great start. 

Johnny Cash once threw a party and invited some of his musician friends to share the latest pieces they'd been working on. Among offerings from Joni Mitchell, Bob Dylan, and Kris Kristofferson, Shel Silverstein sang, "A Boy Named Sue." At the urging of his wife, Cash sang the song at a performance at San Quentin prison and knew it would be a hit. Silverstein later decided to write a sequel to the song where the father was the main character.

But "The Father of a Boy Named Sue" reveals a side of Silverstein that's a whole lot darker. Sue's father likes to drink and gets in a violent, physical fight with his drag queen son. Then, the father essentially makes the kid his slave and caretaker. He ends his tale with, "And on nights that I can't score/Well, I can't tell you any more," implying that the father manipulates his son to sleep with him. 

Unless they're competing in some kind of climactic martial arts tournament, if someone is gearing up for a fight they should probably be drunk. It'll hurt less, look funnier, and if someone's on hand with a smartphone, it'll probably go viral. There are plenty of videos of drunk people looking for a fight, but the cream of the crop are usually the true stories of drunks fighting inanimate objects.

This is a short Internet history of drunk people fighting non-humans of all shapes and sizes, from the guy who tried to ski while smashed to anyone who's thrown a punch at a street lamp. There are plenty of things you shouldn't do while drunk, and even more situations you should avoid, but these intoxicated run-ins are undeniably entertaining. Just don't overdo it – you never know when your friends are recording you, or how they're going to pose you once you pass out. Think of this as a roundup of cautionary tales for people who just don't know when to call it quits when they've had one too many. 

A drunk man picked an unlikely sparring partner: a traffic light. The man practiced a series of well-calculated moves, but the traffic light post didn't fight back. After the street light chickened out completely, the man gently kissed it, and went on his way to the next battle.

The drunk man wins.

Warning: this video contains strong language.

A cardboard box had a man in a vicious hold, and it refused to let go. The man's pleading only increased the hilarity of his sad attempts to get free. How did the man get into the box to begin with? Only the people in that room will ever know. 

Point box.

This inebriated young lady took a run at a bus stop, arms outstretched as if to hug it – and ran straight through its glass side. She was visibly dazed. The bus stop never saw it coming.

The bus stop wins, though at a terrible price.

This blurry classic chronicles the journey of a man who was out to best a tree. The man flew at one tree, trying to kick it down with what was undoubtedly decades of practice, but the tree must have moved to the side because the man completely missed it. The tree dodged a few more attacks, and claimed one of the man's shoes. 

The trees celebrated a victory, if just for that day.

Warning: this video contains strong language and terrible friends.

This drunk warrior decided to take a bet from his horrible, horrible friends who convinced him to climb a bicycle display. He did it, although people tried to get him to stop. Naturally, he fell, and in such a spectacular fashion that a passerby wondered if he was still alive.

The man apparently went back to the store the next day, and explained what happened to the store clerk. He offered to pay for the damages.

The bicycle shop decoration wins.

Warning: this video contains adult language and shattered furniture.

A group of drunk college students surrounded a table. It was horribly outnumbered, and stood no chance against a violent headbutt from one young man. The table tried one grappling move, but was unable to make a comeback.

The win goes to the man.

A series of parked cars were no match for a drunken man who was later apprehended by the police. The man covered a lot of ground while punching the vehicles. But eventually, the alarms notified the police, who came to the cars' aid.

Who won this bout? The cars, legally. But in the hearts of viewers everywhere, the victory goes to the bald guy in the black shirt and baggy jeans.

This very, very drunk man was no match for the 45 degree angle of the street he was trying to climb. He made it most of the way up the street by employing the zig-zag method. But the street came back with not having a parked car to lean on, incapacitating the man, who then tried the road. Ultimately, the man ended up right back where he started.

Victory goes to the 45 degree angle street.

A drunk man was attacked, out of nowhere, by a violent bush as he was trying to rise to his feet. The man hit back with a right hook, but the bush saw it coming and remained perfectly still. The man then decided to lean into the bush, but the bush felt no remorse and bounced him straight back to the ground.

A triumphant victory for the bush.

A man was sitting in his living room, minding his own business, and decided to stand up. Then, bam! Out of nowhere, a door knob hit him in the forehead.

The man lived, but the door knob's sucker punch won the day.

Faked pregnancies may seem like the stuff of Hollywood melodramas and beach reads, but they happen in real life more often than you might think. There are plenty of women who have faked being pregnant, whether they wanted to get back at an ex or were looking for money.

These crazy fake pregnancy stories have to be read to be believed. These women don't seem to know what pregnancy is really like – if they did, surely they wouldn't be pretending to carry triplets for 10 months, or disembowling a pet dog to fake a miscarriage. The craziest faked pregnancies even extended into fake childbirth. 

Prepare yourself: these extreme fake pregnancies were motivated by everything from sheer pettiness to downright derangement. None of them are likely to inspire much sympathy for the people who pretended to have – or lose – a baby.

Anita Parker committed a despicable act in May 2016. She had pretended to be pregnant in an attempt to get her estranged husband back, but soon realized there was no way she could stretch the ruse out forever. Parker disemboweled her pet chihuahua, Dolly, and smeared the dog's guts around in her bedroom to fake a miscarriage.

Parker was taken to the hospital, where the staff told her husband that she had never been pregnant. Soon after, he discovered the dog's body in the garage. Parker was charged with felony cruelty.

Rebecca Freeman contacted a Florida adoption agency in October 2016, claiming she was pregnant and saying she wanted to give the baby up for adoption. She even provided them with a urine sample that tested positive for pregnancy. Freeman stretched the whole scam out for five months, over which she got checks for her rent and health. But the jig was up when she failed to get an ultrasound. Freeman was later arrested for adoption fraud.

Writing for XO Jane, an anonymous author recalled how she figured out that her friend was lying about having a baby. The author noted how "Leigh" grew a big belly suspiciously fast, and left the hospital quickly after supposedly giving birth. Then, there were the pictures: Leigh only posted photos of the infant alone, never of her and the baby together. One especially professional shot seemed suspect, so the author ran a reverse Google image search:

"Within .3 seconds, my search turned up professional photos of a popular blogger and her newborn daughter. On the blogger’s Instagram account, I found all the rest of the photos Leigh had passed off as her own. In many cases, she’d simply cropped the real mother out of the photo.

There was no pregnancy. There was no baby. Just as I’d suspected, Leigh made it all up."

The concerned author contacted the police to do a wellness check on Leigh. She responded by deleting the author on all her social media accounts.

It seems especially petty to fake a pregnancy to get at your ex, but that's just what Angela Smith did. Her elaborate faux-pregnancy lasted a whole nine months. Besides pictures and supposed ultrasounds, Smith threw not one, but two baby showers, and had her family and significant other fooled. When she said her c-section was "postponed," someone questioned her about the pregnancy, and she came clean about the whole thing.

"I wasn’t trying to keep a man by doing it, just wanted him to hurt as much as I did," she wrote on Facebook, shortly before deleting her account.

A Texas woman named Yesenia Sesmas faked a pregnancy for several months before November 2016. That's when she traveled to Kansas, murdered a friend named Laura Abarca-Nogueda, and stole her newborn daughter. Thankfully, all the crime caught up with her very quickly; Sesmas was arrested a few days later, and the baby was returned to the victim's relatives.

On July 8, 2017, an Ohio named Cheyanne Willis was hosting a gender-reveal party for her baby – though unbeknownst to her guests, the pregnancy was faked. But the event was overshadowed by gun shots. Willis was shot in the thigh, and a number of party guests were also injured. Seizing the opportunity to end her fake pregnancy, Willis claimed the violence had caused a miscarriage.

The police found out that Willis was faking her pregnancy. Her hoax reportedly delayed the investigation into the shooting, which really did happen.

On November 10, 2008, Leslie Wilfred called her family from the hospital she was supposedly giving birth in to tell them the twins she was carrying had died. She said they had "taken one breath" before dying, and returned home with a pair of urns.

The whole family mourned the loss, but the babies had never existed at all. Wilfred's tubes had been tied prior to her marriage to her current husband. Experts later determined that the woman had Munchausen syndrome, a condition in which someone invents medical problems to gain attention and sympathy.

In April 2017, an Italian woman decided to purchase another woman's baby, while simultaneously faking her own pregnancy with a false belly she bought online. There was one small hitch in her plan: the baby was biracial. Realizing that she would be unable to explain the baby's ethnicity to her family and friends, the woman handed the infant back after three days.

She wound up getting arrested. The baby's mother and a man who helped put together the baby-buying deal were also brought in.

Sometimes, a fake pregnancy ploy can go from petty to downright frightening. In February 2017, a story broke about a British woman named Jade Morgan. She claimed her ex-boyfriend had gotten her pregnant, and began harassing him by sending him upwards of 60 text messages a day. Even after he was required to leave England to work in another country, she continued her pregnancy-based harassment campaign. Eventually, Morgan pled guilty to harassment and was slapped with a restraining order.

One Michigan teen used the power of the web to fake a pregnancy for a staggering ten months. With the aid of FakeABaby.com, the girl convinced her boyfriend that they were expecting triplets. She had ultrasounds and everything. Their families and the community were supportive, giving gifts and donating money to the couple.

But after 10 months, the boyfriend became understandably suspicious. Then, woman in a Facebook group called "Moms of Triplets" alerted the boyfriend to the fact that the ultrasound pictures were from a website dedicated to faking pregnancies. The girl's story unraveled, though she maintained she had been pregnant; she said she lost the baby at six weeks.

You have probably seen these little spinning nuggets of fun, and chances are, you probably own one. Fidget spinners are addicting, easy to use, and perfectly weighted to give you that satisfying feeling you so desperately need during just about anything! From focusing in class to watching TV, there's an odd contentment in twirling this weird toy. But is it all too good to be true? Are fidget spinners dangerous?

Fidget spinners may not be scary like those creepy talking toys, but they definitely have the potential to draw blood. As of August 2017, the world hasn't seen any reports of fidget spinner deaths yet, but they have caused some pretty crazy ER visits. You can't help but wonder, are fidget spinners safe with these new designs boasting matches and razor blades (yes, razor blades - who wouldn't want razor blades on their fidget spinners)? You may be curious about what these fidget spinner injuries look like. Well, look no further! Compiled here are the absolute worst fidget spinner horror stories. They are fully loaded with cuts, bruises, realllly bad stomach aches, stitches, and surgeries. Read below to hear the gruesome tales.

Kelly Rose Joniec from Houston, Texas, had to pull over on her way home to dislodge a piece of a fidget spinner from her 10-year-old daughter's throat. She heard Britton retching in the back seat of her car in May 2017 and immediately tried to help, reported CNN. After administering the Heimlich maneuver with no success, Joniec rushed poor Britton to their local urgent care center where doctors eventually ran an x-ray of the child's esophagus. A piece of the toy - one of the metal bearings - had gotten stuck. Britton was rushed to surgery. 

"Britton was taken to surgery to endoscopically locate and remove the object," wrote Joniec in a Facebook post. "It was pretty scary there for a while, [...] not only because of the initial ingestion, but then the concern about the composition and structure of the object."

Nine-year-old Alexa Sleight of Syracuse, New York, chipped her tooth in May 2017 on her favorite fidget spinner. Michelle, Alexa's mother, told Syracuse reporters that she was behind the wheel when all of a sudden, she heard Alexa scream, "My tooth!" When she turned around, Alexa was holding a piece of her tooth, which she then handed to her mother.

Sleight hopes her story will help parents understand the dangers of fidget spinners. These little things can cause a lot of damage and cost a lot of money. Her daughter had to see an endodontist for a root canal and a possible cap, all of which costs roughly over $2,000. 

Fidget spinners used as bait by pedophiles? You betcha! On June 29, 2017, a thin, white man in his late 20s or early 30s attempted to lure two kids, ages 8 and 11, to his car outside of a store located in Laurence Harbor, NJ. The man was wearing a red Nike shirt, a gold Yankees hat, and sunglasses when he approached the children. After attempting to buy treats for the kids, he told them to come to his white Toyota, promising them fidget spinners and hats.

One of the children felt uncomfortable and told the staff member on duty. The man was then asked to leave, reported the New York Post. The creeper drove away and may still be at large. 

This story smells a lot like Jean Shepherd's 1983 film, A Christmas Story, when little Ralphie is denied the new Red Ryder Air Rifle for Christmas because he'll shoot his eye out. Here, 11-year-old Isaac from Shepparton (a city in Victoria, Australia) can no longer have his fidget spinner after sustaining a serious injury. The young boy was throwing the fidget spinner up into the air in May 2017 and missed the mark, causing the toy to damage the corner of his eye.

"It came down and clipped the corner of his eye and crunch," his mother told Kidspot. "He was very lucky not to lose his eyesight, let alone his eyeball.” The spinner caught the corner of Isaac's eye where he now “suffers from scarring [...] which prevents him from seeing out of corner of his eye.” Meanwhile, in the States, kids are sticking spinning fidget spinners in their eyes on purpose. Oh, the horror!

Ayoola Smart, an Irish 22-year-old girl, was struck in the head in May 2017 by a rouge fidget spinner in Wilton Shopping Centre in Cork, Ireland. The Irish Examiner reports that while she was standing in a shop, a child lost control of the device, causing it to hit the actress behind the ear. Smart sought medical help and was diagnosed with a concussion shortly thereafter.

The young actress, famous for her role in Shakepeare's The Taming of the Shrew, has made appearances in BBC's Holby City and ITV's Vera. Smart had to back out of her role as Serena the Mermaid in the award-winning play Futureproof, which premiered in June 2017, due to the injury. 

This next story occured down under in Sydney, Australia, where Jade Gervin, mother to Angus Gervin, had to take her son to the emergency department of the Royal North Shore Hospital after he swallowed one of the metal bearings. He got the toy just 48 hours prior to the incident in June 2017.

Little Angus was lying in bed when one of the bearings popped out of the toy and shot down his throat. "He had begged for a fidget spinner for weeks," the report says, "until he finally got one." Looks like little Angus got a bit more than he'd bargained for, as one of the metal bearings decided to escape its plastic shell due to a crack in the frame. It made its way into Angus's stomach, where it sat until he painfully passed it. 

Okay, so the fidget spinners can't actually eat fingers, but they can refuse to let go. In May 2017, three-year-old Charlie from Missouri found himself in a painful situation where a fidget spinner was clamped onto a finger. He had shoved his little finger through one of the metal bearings and couldn't get it off. "We tried everything and it began to bend and cut into his skin the more we messed with it," mother Carol Woods told BuzzFeed News. 

After trying unsuccessfully to pull the spinner off her son's finger, it was time to consult a professional. Woods rushed her son to their local urgent care center where they couldn't get the thing off, either. They then went to the emergency room where it took “two to three different tools before [the bearing] was cut off," said Woods. 

This fidget spinner didn't start smoking - it just burst into flames. At least, that's what Kimberly Allums claims her son told her. During the last week of June, the family was just about to leave the house when her son noticed the toy was burning on their rug. This particular fidget spinner model plays music through Bluetooth. It had only been charging for 45 minutes before it caught on fire. “He noticed that it burst into flames," says Allums. "He just started screaming. I was downstairs and all I heard was, ‘Fire, fire,’ and the fidget spinner had literally, it was smoking, it was in flames.” 

Allums's son used a nearby sink to put the fire out. The fire department was not called, but it could have been much worse as the family was just "five to ten minutes from leaving the house for the day before this happened," says Allums. 

In this fidget spinner horror story, John Harris of Flowood, Mississippi, and his son, Ian, wanted to see just how fast they could get their fidget spinner to go. Using an air hose to spray compressed air across the toy (something they'd seen online), they tested the toy's durability and ended up in the emergency room.

The plastic on the toy had suddenly exploded, causing a piece to hit little Ian in the face. After rushing Ian to the hospital, he was given 30 stitches to put his upper lip back together again. In a Facebook post dated June 14, 2017, Harris shared his story as a warning for all parents - fidget spinners can be dangerous. 

This horror story takes place in the Karlsborg Municipality in Sweden, where 25-year-old Alexander Dögl sliced his thumb with his fidget spinner in June 2017. Dögl, a machine repairer, decided to have a competition with some friends one night. The challenge? Whoever could spin the fidget spinner the longest wins. So, Dögl did what any man would do with access to fun toys - he used his air compressor gun.

The toy held up at first, but not for long. "I held it in my hand and sprayed it," he told Omtalat. "It went so fast that it began to churn out," and then it exploded. The friends laughed it off at first, but soon realized the gash in his thumb was deeper than they'd thought. Dögl's friends drove him to the emergency room where he got an x-ray and stitches. Doctors found the fidget spinner damaged the tendons in his thumb and may have caused a slight fracture to the bone. The worst part about it? His summer plans were ruined.  

Most people have heard about live-streamed deaths and accidental death by hanging cases, but they're commonly believed to be nothing more than an urban legend. After all, how many stories about people who died trying to hang themselves for a prank could actually be true? Surprisingly, the stories you've heard about people accidentally killing themselves aren't just a myth. In fact, there have been several instances involving people trying to do a stunt or pull a prank with a noose that ended in death. 

Accidental hanging deaths are completely avoidable, which makes these tragedies even worse. Put simply, there is no such thing as a safe way to pretend that you're being hanged, especially when you're utilizing a thick rope and noose. Sadly, most of the people on this list who hung themselves as a prank were teenagers. One thing that can be learned from all of these cases is the importance of never letting a prank or stunt get in the way of safety and common sense. 

Only one week after haunted hayride worker Brian Jewell lost his life in a hanging stunt gone wrong, William Anthony Odom faced a similar fate. In October 2000, the 15-year-old built a makeshift haunted house in his aunt's Charlotte, NC, basement. Odom, who was joined by several friends, built a gallows scene and also decorated the basement with plastic bats and fake spider webs. It's unknown how the noose tightened around Odom's neck. His friends noticed something had gone wrong, but they were too late to save his life.  

In September 2016, an 11-year-old boy decided to imitate a YouTube video he had recently seen. The video depicted someone pretending to hang himself in order to scare his mother. Shockingly, the video is still available, although it has been edited to include a warning at the beginning, telling people not to try the stunt at home. Sadly, this warning came too late for the Georgia boy. The family's other children had observed the 11-year-old as he attempted the stunt, but by the time they realized he was not breathing, the damage had been done. He spent four days in a coma before passing away. 

Abigail Brown and her boyfriend, James Brum, got into an argument on January 7, 2017. Brum left for a few hours to give both of them some space to cool down. However, when he returned, he found his girlfriend hanging from a rope in their Thailand home. An investigation into Brown's death discovered that the 26-year-old was trying to get back at her boyfriend by scaring him. There is no indication that she was attempting to actually take her own life.  

On October 19, 2011, Tyler James Wade was looking for a way to scare his friends. While they were indoors, he took a scarf and hung himself from a tree in an apparent Halloween prank. Sadly, the 9-year-old did too good of a job when securing the makeshift noose, which cost him his life. The Washington boy frequently pulled pranks on people and was described by his school principal as having "a twinkle in his eyes."  

A haunted hayride in Sparta, MI, became the scene of a gruesome accident in 2001. Caleb Charles Rebh was a huge fan of Halloween and haunted houses, and he volunteered to work for free at a local hayride. During his first shift, he made the unfortunate decision to switch places with a skeleton that was hanging from a tree. Because the 14-year-old didn't weigh enough, the tree whipped the rope back. This instantly caused the noose to tighten and Rebh reportedly thrashed around in an attempt to save himself.

Sadly, having this type of accident at a haunted attraction means that customers and staff may think someone who is in serious trouble is only acting. That appears to be the case as people watched Rebh hang to death without trying to intervene. 

William Smith's family faced two tragedies within five months of each other between 2014 and 2015. The 14-year-old British boy had been grieving the loss of his mother, who passed away from cancer. However, he was also reportedly moving forward and wasn't showing any signs of depression or suicidal ideation. When Smith's grandmother and two siblings went out to lunch, he apparently decided to stage a stunt.

He was known to be a prankster who loved to make his family laugh. Therefore, it's quite likely Smith thought the initial scare of seeing him "hanging" would lead to a comical performance. Unfortunately, something went wrong with the prank and his grandmother found his dead hanging body instead. 

Coworkers found Jovylyn La Torre Rue's hanging body on December 11, 2016. An investigation into the Filipino woman's death uncovered a history of pulling hanging pranks on boyfriends. In fact, she had done the same thing just two years prior to someone else, threatening suicide until her then-boyfriend had been reduced to tears. 

Because of this, a close friend advised Rue's latest beau that he had nothing to worry about when she claimed she was going to commit suicide during one of their fights. In a tragic twist, the prank failed and Rue accidentally hung herself. Investigators concluded that no foul play was involved, citing reasons such as how the rope had not been taut and had been positioned very low. 

The Morlan family had a noose as part of their Halloween decor in 2013. Kentucky teenager Jordan Morlan reportedly saw this as a great way to pull a prank on his little sister. After getting in position, the 16-year-old accidentally allowed the noose to pull too tightly around his neck. By the time his distraught sister had gotten their mom's attention, Morlan had already passed out. They called 911 and the ambulance rushed Morlan to the hospital. He remained in a comatose state until organ failure claimed his life approximately 12 hours after the accident. 

Brian Jewell was only 17 and working at a haunted hayride in Toms River, NJ, when tragedy struck. Jewell was part of a scene with a gallows, and it was his job to pretend to be hung after giving a speech. The noose did go around the teenager's neck, but it wasn't supposed to tighten at all. Additionally, instead of being truly hung, the haunted hayride actor would merely step down about one foot.

This part of the hayride had worked without a hitch on several other occasions, so no one knew what went wrong on that October night in 1990. The oddest part is that Jewell's feet were touching the ground when workers discovered the accidental death. 

Is it really any kind of surprise that some crazy sh*t goes down at Disney World? The most common complaint of cast members is the low pay, which is a bummer, but there are plenty of more interesting facts about Disney employees's experiences. Aside from awesome stories of celebrities who have worked at Disney, tales of what happens behind the scenes are shocking and often scandalous. For example, low pay is nothing compared to being trapped in a vomit-laden Tigger suit, or getting relieved of your Goofy duty for growing a badonkadonk. That Goofy booty. Mm! 

And then there are the sex stories. So many sex stories. Not only do the cast members give each other crabs, but they catch guests doing the dirty dirty all the time. It's not remotely surprising, really, but it's fun to hear about. Compiled here are a bunch of behind-the-scenes Disney World stories that are sure to make you look at the magical world in a different light. 

Redditor demipearl wins for most nightmarish story:

"I briefly trained for Kilimanjaro Safaris at Disney World. At one point on the ride, you go over a bridge with crocodiles underneath. As I was riding with no one in the truck other than my trainer, she felt free to tell me that if anyone were to stand up and fall into the crocodile pit, I was to drive away immediately so that others wouldn't have to see the carnage or try to rescue the person. The crocodiles are apparently fed from that bridge and anything that drops from there is food to them, and they are surprisingly fast."

Reddit user broken_long_thumbkey gives a chilling account of humanity:

"My brother-in-law worked there in the student program. Two things he told me were the worst.

1) This couple were trying to ride Space Mountain and had a black duffelbag. He heard something come from the bag, so he asked them to open it. They refused. Security comes, forces them to open it. It was their 6 month old baby. ಠ_ಠ

2) I don't remember what attraction it was for, but he said a little boy from Make-a-Wish got to go to the front of every line. This one lady saw it, and b*tched so loud about how this little trash kid didn't deserve to cut in lines and a bunch of other bullsh*t. He described the look on the boy's parent's faces as nothing but nightmarish heartbreaking sh*t. ಠ_ಠ 

He told the lady to get out of line and stop being such a b*tch, explained that the kid was with Make-A-Wish. She apparently didn't care and asked for a manager. B*tches to manager. She is banned from WDW. My brother-in-law almost lost his job right there due to all of the commotion that was caused. Luckily, he didn't."

If only fans could see the magic through Redditor erinamin's eyes. On her first day as an intern, she got to witness the true nature of cast members:

"I'm waiting for the bus and Cinderella and Snow White are FULL ON SH*T TALKING some SLUT who slept with one of their boyfriends... While chain smoking. Turns out, they were talking about a girl who played Ariel. SERIOUSLY!? 

...Or the time a different Cinderella got really pissed because Paris Hilton was visiting the park that day and didn't go to see her. On the bus back to the lot, she was like "I'M F*CKING CINDERELLA! WHY WOULDN'T SHE COME FIND ME!?" Oh man, good times, good times." 

erinamin also recounts a time when she saw "Aladdin and Peter Pan making out on one of the tables in the Mousketeeria." Sounds like Peter Pan finally became a man. 

DorothyGaleEsq's TL;DR is brilliant in its simplicity, but the whole story is definitely worth the short read:

"I was a safari driver at the Kilimanjaro Safari attraction in Animal Kingdom. We had this elephant named Willy. Willy was an exhibitionist. I was driving a safari one day, spewing out facts about elephants when I hear a tiny voice from the back of the truck yell, "MOOOOM! HE HAS FIVE LEGS!!!" I turn, and sure enough, there's Willy, standing with his five-foot long d*ck just swaying in the Florida breeze. I had to turn my mic off, I was laughing so hard. 

Tl;dr elephant penis."

Redditor vashthechibi saw some stuff go down in the dark while working the "Sounds Dangerous: Starring Drew Carey" attraction... 'cause Drew Carey really gets your motor going:

"Anyone who is familiar with the attraction knows that there were eight minutes of complete darkness during the show so that they can play mind games with sounds (buzzing bees, knives whizzing past your head, etc.). What they didn't know is that I had a monitor in the back connected to a night vision camera so I could keep an eye out for children who got scared and I could help escort them out...

One time, as soon as the lights went out, I saw a guy straight up finger bang his girlfriend/wife. It was obvious that he had been on the attraction before because he had it timed perfectly so that no one knew what he was doing. He wasn't even caught when the lights suddenly came on, and he was back at it as soon as the lights went out again.

These kinds of things were not common occurrences, but it was funny to watch those people carry on as if nothing ever happened afterwards."

Because, of course, cast members are bangin'. According to the aptly named Redditor, HUNG_AS_F*CK, the international employees are the freaky-deekiest:

"The things that go on in the housing complexes are astonishing. So. Much. Sex. So many drugs. So much alcohol. Hell, every Monday night us internationals have a happy Monday's event, where we get in our countries teams and go to bars to play other countries teams in drinking games.

I know a guy who was Goofy. He used to do cocaine all the time. It's like a typical college campus, except four complexes of people who all work for Disney."

Redditor elee0228 has no shortage of BTS stories, but this one takes the cake:

"I worked at Club Disney for the brief time it was open. We had codes we used on the radio headsets that were coordinated with character names. For instance, code Baloo meant there was blood that needed to be cleaned up immediately.

One day, I'm taking a stroll around the club to check on things when I spot a small boy about two years old taking a massive dump right in the middle of the play area. He sees me, starts to cry, and runs away with no clothing on the lower half of his body. I get on the radio and can't think of what to say as we hadn't discussed a code for "human feces in the play area and naked kid running around." So I just called, "I have a code Pooh situation in the play area and Piglet's on the loose."

Walt doesn't care if you're freaking dying in that furry costume, DO NOT BREAK CHARACTER! This Redditor's post can give you a little insight on just how seriously they take that rule:

"As a character, you are supposed to throw up in your mask if you are sick. Taking it off is not an option. You cover one eye with your hand and raise the other arm in the air to alert maintenance that you are not well. Also, if there is another character (same as you) you cannot, under ANY circumstances be seen with them. You also must take a course to match signature style for autographs."

Good thing Christian kids aren't super repressed or anything... Although, THUMB5UP from Reddit may have evidence to the contrary:

"Nights Of Joy is hell on earth. The park is open to Christian youth groups and has Christian rock bands preform. During these nights, extra staff is put on and extra security because there is sex and drugs and theft happening around every corner. My managers were preparing us for it. They said if you see a bush rustle, kids ARE having sex behind it. The bathrooms have to be checked every five minutes, and any ride that goes dark for more that three seconds will have randy teenagers whipping their junk out. Those nights... Those terrifying nights."

VulpixVul was a costumer and points out that the costumes are really hard to wash and, sometimes, it's not even possible to clean them, depending on the character:

"Don't get too close to the Beast. Due to the inability to wash most of the costume, we could only spray it with disinfectant and thus he smells the part. I've known some performers to refuse to wear the undergarments provided... Or their own, for that matter. So Jasmine might be enjoying the air down there as she poses with you.

All uniforms that have Disney attributes are burned if beyond repair or if there is no longer a venue for that costume."

Despite the propaganda machine's best efforts, horrifying details about what it's like to be imprisoned in North Korea have come to light. And it's not only North Koreans attempting to flee the oppressive Kim regime and its scary military that are imprisoned; American and Canadian tourists have been detained while visiting the country and sentenced to years of hard labor, too. Accounts of life within the confines of these appalling camps have been shared by former prisoners and prison guards alike, but those terrifying anecdotes come from those lucky enough to have made it out. 

One of the most famous US citizens held in North Korea was Otto Warmbier. In March 2016, the 21-year-old student was sentenced to 15 years in prison for attempting to steal a propaganda sign. The economics major was visiting North Korea as part of a tour group in January 2016, and was convicted and sentenced to his punishment in just one hour. After about a year-and-a-half of imprisonment, Warmbier was released to his family in 2017. He had apparently been in a coma for over a year, and he died days later.

It appears an American tourist could be convicted on a whim, regardless of their occupation or opinion on the Kim regime. Tragically, Warmbier was just one of the many Americans who disappeared in North Korea.

In July 2016, Kim Jong Un was added to the sanctions list for human rights abuses and censorship by Washington, DC. North Korea retaliated by saying they would treat all US detainees under "wartime law." KCNA (Korean Central News Agency for the Democratic People's Republic of Korea) stated, "The Republic will handle all matters arising between us and the United States from now on under our wartime laws, and the matters of Americans detained are no exception to this."

Prisoners in North Korea aren't just subject to physical harm, they're often on the receiving end of psychological torture. Guards verbally abuse prisoners, telling them their family will have forgotten all about them, that they'll never see their children again, and that they'll be old and frail by the time they get out.

It's chillingly easy to get arrested in North Korea if you're a US citizen. You could be detained for offenses including bringing pornography into North Korea, doing anything that might be considered religious or leaving behind any religious items, and having any "unauthorized" interactions with the locals. You're also forbidden from showing disrespect to any North Korean rulers, living or dead, or tampering with any political posters. You can't take any unauthorized photos or shop at any stores that aren't pre-approved by the organized tour.

Not only that, but you could be arrested for committing these crimes "knowingly or unknowingly." You might be completely unaware you've done something the North Korean authorities define as breaking the law before you're imprisoned.

Journalist Euna Lee detailed her experiences of imprisonment in North Korea in her book The World is Bigger Now. In it, she recalls being extensively interrogated by the guards charged with monitoring her. According to Lee, she was interrogated for eight hours a day, Monday through Saturday. The guards would often get angry at her for not being forthcoming: "During the interrogation, they wanted to know every detail and I got in trouble for [with]holding information."

Some American prisoners are transferred to work camps. Kenneth Bae was forced into such a camp, and told CNN about his grueling experience. After being convicted for unclear "hostile acts" in 2012, he was sentenced to 15 years of labor and was made to work outside for hours on end: "I worked from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. at night, working on the field, carrying rock, shoveling coal."

A Canadian pastor sentenced to labor, Reverend Hyeon Soo Lim, was released from North Korea in 2017. He described his experiences digging holes in an orchard for eight hours a day, six days a week, adding, "I wasn't originally a laborer, so the labor was hard at first, but now I've gotten used to it." 

US citizens detained in North Korea are reportedly fed three times a day, which is more than can be said of North Korean prisoners. The quality of the food varies; Jeffrey Fowle was fed rice, broth, and kimchi, while Euna Lee's sister told CNN that Lee was looking forward to finally being able to eat fresh fruit after her imprisonment. Lee's meals had consisted of rice that occasionally contained rocks. Stories from North Korean prisoners, however, say they're fed one meal a day of rotten corn.

Most American prisoners are reportedly treated differently than North Korean prisoners, and some may never step foot in one of the labor camps. An Ohio man named Jeffrey Fowle was arrested in 2014, but was never actually convicted, sentenced, or sent to the work camps. He was confined to a hotel room that was locked and guarded at all times. Fowle was later moved to a guesthouse where he was rarely allowed to leave the bedroom, and could only walk outside the house while accompanied by a guard.  

Journalist Euna Lee had a similar experience after she was arrested and charged with illegally entering North Korea in 2009. She was released after six months, but for the duration of her sentence she was held captive in a guesthouse near Pyongyang.

Most American prisoners are political currency as far as North Korea is concerned. They can be used as leverage by the government to get US politicians to pay a visit to the country. When American citizens are finally released, it's often because an important political figure has made the journey to North Korea to intercede on their behalf. Euna Lee and Laura Ling were released in 2009 because Bill Clinton traveled over to ensure that they were let go. Aijalon Gomes was released in 2010 after a visit from Jimmy Carter, and Kenneth Bae was finally granted freedom in 2014 as a result of Director of National Intelligence James Clapper visiting North Korean soil.

American detainees are not completely cut off from the outside world during their imprisonment. They could receive occasional visits from Swedish officials on behalf of the United States government. Sweden has diplomatic relations with North Korea, so they are able to act on behalf of the US. However, this doesn’t mean North Korea won't attempt to interfere with these interactions. US student Otto Warmbier, for instance, was denied access to Swedish consular officials for over a year by the North Korean government.

Some American detainees may have access to newspapers and television during their sentence. However, they are not able to read or view the news from their home country; instead, they are only able to access North Korean channels that have a somewhat skewed view of the news.

Axl Rose stories are the stuff of rock and roll legend. The lead singer of Guns N' Roses has led such a colorful life even his roadies got in on the action, as evidenced by Axl Rose roadie stories circling the globe. Whether he's starting random fights, walking off stage in the middle of concerts, murdering winged creatures with shotguns, or showing up hours late for commitments, all the crazy Axl Rose stories you're heard are true, and completely insane. 

Guns N' Roses shot to stardom during the spandex-and-glitter nightmare carnival of hair metal, in 1987, and offered a dirty, rough, violent antidote to the empty calories of glam sleeze's nonsense confections. Like many bands of the era, they was known for hard partying, their days and nights saturated with alcohol, drugs, women, and crazy.

Frontman Axl Rose, who was born William Bruce Rose on February 6, 1962 in Lafayette, Indiana, announced himself as a volatile presence as soon as GnR's worldwide dominance began; a new bizarre Axl Rose scandal seemed to emerge every week. The volatility of the band as a whole, and its individual members, added to the excitement of their music and shows. The self-destructive energy Axl channeled into his music led him to the top, and kept him from staying there.

The Axl Rose weird stories on this list demonstrate his unpredictable mood swings; several tales of Axl Rose fights pit him against other celebrities. Even true fans may be surprised at these crazy stories about one very crazy rock star.

A lot went wrong when two of the biggest heavy bands in the world, Metallica and Guns N' Roses, rolled into Montreal on August 8, 1992. During Metallica's set, James Hetfield was seriously burned on stage in a pyrotechnic accident, cutting short Metallica's show. While Hetfield was rushed to the hospital, promoters tried to get GnR onstage, which took two hours and 15 minutes to accomplish. 

Guns N' Roses only played nine songs that night (usual set lists on the tour ran almost 20 songs). The band was off kilter from the start. Axl was having trouble with the monitor speakers and, instead of find someone to fix the issue, broke his microphone, sat down on the monitors, then walked off stage, never to return. Rose's bad performance may have been a self-fulfilling prophecy - he apparently believed "bad juju" befell the band in cities beginning with "M".

Fans rioted when they realized GnR wasn't coming back to the stage. Piles of t-shirts were set on fire, police cars were overturned, and the stadium's souvenir shop was looted. Backstage, Axl drank champagne with groupies while his management spatted with the concert promoters, and the rest of the band partied like it was 1999. 

During a mammoth co-headline Guns N' Roses/Metallica stadium tour in 1992, Axl walked off stage in Colorado after apparently fighting with Slash. Rose got in a car and left the venue while the band continued jamming to "Welcome To The Jungle." When the near-50,000 fans in attendance realized Axl wasn't returning and began getting restless, someone asked Metallica, who had opened the show (the bands alternated slots every other night), if they'd join GnR on stage. Drummer Lars Ulrich said, "You bozos don't have enough money in your collective bank accounts for me to get back on that stage."

According to concert promoter Barry Fey, the process to getting Rose back onstage was a pain in the ass. 

"I'm walking backstage, and this guy comes running out and says, "Barry, Axl just left."

I said, 'The f*ck are you talking about, 'Axl left'?' So I ran backstage, and I found out that he had come down off the stage, got into the limousine and left the site. So I said to... I went up to - his name was Big John; he was the guy who ran the limo company - and I said, 'You don't work for him; you work for me.' I said, 'You ever want to see another f*cking dime of this company's money, you get that car back here.' And he said, "What?" I said, "Yeah. The only way he gets out of that car is if he jumps out. And if he jumps out, you leave him in the street. But you get that car back here."

So he gets on his little telephone...

I left the dressing room, went back out to the parking lot and got my .357 out of my glove box and put it in my back pocket. So I go out there, and I don't know what I'm going to do, because, you know, he had caused a riot in Montreal, I believe, by leaving and not coming back. Well, a few minutes later, the car comes back, and Axl gets out and talks to his manager - his name was Doug Goldstein; he was a glorified security guy; he use to do their security, and he took over their management. But how do you manage, manic depressive heroin addicts? That's a pretty good trick. I don't know how you do that.

So he [Axl] comes and talks to his manager and goes right up on the stage and gets back into it. So I put three of my, what do you want to call 'em, security, goons, thugs -- the toughest ones I have - at the top of the stairs and three Denver cops at the bottom. My instructions are: 'The only way he gets out, if he leaves again, is that way,' and I point to the crowd. Doug Goldstein says, 'Barry, you can't do that. Axl will get so pissed.' I said, 'I don't give a f*ck about him, and I don't give the same about you. I care about them,' and I pointed to the people."

When Stephanie Seymour, one of Axl's former girlfriends, sued him for abuse, another of Rose's ex-lovers, Erin Everly, was inspired to file her own lawsuit, accusing him of physical and sexual abuse. Everly claimed she had to cancel modeling gigs due to bruises incurred by regular beatings from Rose, and that he broke her things, took doors off their hinges so he could monitor her, waved guns around, and threatened to kill himself if she didn't marry him.

Two months after they were married, Everly, who is the daughter of one of the Everly brothers, was hospitalized by Rose. When she got pregnant, Rose threw her out and trashed the house, causing $100,000 worth of damage. Everly suffered a miscarriage and left Axl, who, for the next year, tried to track her down, sending flowers, letters, and caged birds. "One day the phone rings. 'Hello, It's Axl.' I moved the next day," she said.

In his defense, Rose claimed he and Everly had a volatile relationship, in which they often abused one another, and that, more often than not, she was the aggressor. 

According to Craig Duswalt, one of Axl's former assistants, the rock star had unusual ideas about proficient bug extermination. When a moth got trapped in Rose's Malibu home in the early 1990s, after the release of the Use Your Illusion albums, his assistants tried to shoo it out, but were unsuccessful. Axl took matters into his own hands.

Instructing Duswalt to keep a close eye on the moth, Rose went upstairs and returned with a shotgun. He asked Duswalt to trap the moth in a corner so he could get a clean shot, despite his assistant's attempts to convince him he could reach it with a flyswatter. "Not going to happen," said Rose as he pulled the trigger.

On July 2, 1991, Guns N' Roses performed at the Riverport Amphitheater near St. Louis. In the middle of "Rocket Queen", Axl spotted someone in the audience taking pictures, and demanded security personnel take the camera. When his request was denied, Axl leapt, mid-song, into the audience, grabbed the camera, and attacked the photograph-taking fan and various members of the security team.

Climbing back on stage, he yelled, "Well, thanks to the lame-ass security, I'm going home!", threw down the mic, and stormed off. The rest of the band followed him, and thousands of fans stormed the stage, destroyed the band's equipment, and tore down fences and video screens.

Rose was charged inciting a riot, but authorities weren't able to arrest him until almost a year later. In gratitude, GnR added "F*ck you St. Louis!" in the "Thank You" section of Use Your Illusion II's artwork.

In May 2006, Axl found himself on a list of important guests at The Plumm, a recently opened club in New York, for the birthday of Rosario Dawson. While there, he moved a woman's drink so it wouldn't spill, after which a rare thing occurred. According to Axl, instead of him starting a drunken fight, someone else started one with him.

The woman whose drink Rose moved was dating Tommy Hilfiger, who, for some reason, was highly offended Axl had touched her beverage. "He just kept smacking me," Rose said. "It was the most surreal thing, I think, that's ever happened to me in my life."

Unlike most other big-hair '80s hard rock acts, Axl was seriously impressed with Nirvana and, in particular, their 1991 record Nevermind. He invited Kurt Cobain and crew to perform at his birthday party, and join GnR and Metallica on a world wide tour. Cobain turned Rose down, wanting nothing to do with what he considered "corporate rock."

The tension between the bands exploded at the 1992 MTV Video Music Awards. When Courtney Love, Cobain's wife, saw Axl back stage, she sarcastically asked him to be the godfather of their child. Pissed, Axl said to Cobain, "You shut your b*tch up, or I’m taking you down to the pavement." Cobain turned to Love and sarcastically said "Shut up, b*tch!", which got everyone laughing at Rose. Axl stormed off.

Later, GnR bassist Duff McKagan pushed Nirvana bassists Krist Novoselic around, Dave Grohl taunted Rose from the stage, some GnR members tried to tip over Nirvana's trailer, in which Cobain's daughter was napping, and Cobain left a few spitballs on what he though was Rose's keyboard. As it turns out, it was Elton John's.

While shooting the music video for "It's So Easy" in October 1989, Guns N' Roses got a surprise visit from David Bowie. According to an interview with Rose from Kerrang! published in April 1990, Axl wasn't thrilled to have the Thin White Duke as a guest. At one point, Bowie appeared to be getting a little too friendly with Rose's girlfriend, so Axl punched him in the face and had him kicked off set. Rose claims Bowie apologized, and the two went for drinks at the China Club.

The drama between Rose and Bowie was blown out of proportion by a subsequent piece in Rolling Stone. As Rose told Kerrang!:

"And when we left, I was like, 'I wanna thank you for being the first person that’s ever come up to me in person and said how sorry they were about the situation and stuff. It was cool, you know? And then I open up Rolling Stone the next day and there's a story in there saying I’ve got no respect for the Godfather of Glam even though I wear make-up and all this bullsh*t."

A few weeks after Rose punched Bowie, Guns N' Roses opened for The Rolling Stones in Los Angeles. 

"I was out doing a soundcheck one day when we were opening for the Rolling Stones and Mick Jagger and Eric Clapton cornered me. I’m sittin’ on this amp and all of a sudden they’re both right there in front of me. And Jagger doesn’t really talk a lot, right? He’s just real serious about everything, and all of a sudden he’s like (adopts exaggerated Dick Van Dyke-style Cockney): 'So you got in a fight with Bowie, didja?'.

So I told him the story real quick and him and Clapton are going off about Bowie in their own little world, talking about things from years ago. They were saying things like when Bowie gets drunk he turns into the Devil from Bromley.... I mean, I’m not even in this conversation. I’m just sittin’ there. Listening to ‘em bitch like crazy about Bowie. It was funny."

Adriana Smith was a 19-year-old stripper, Guns N' Roses groupie, and girlfriend of drummer Steven Adler in 1987, when she was immortalized on the band's debut album, Appetite for Destruction. Seeking revenge after Adler slept with another woman, Smith had a drunken affair with Axl. When she dropped in on the band while they were recording in New York City, Axl proposed banging her in the vocal booth and recording it for use on the track "Rocket Queen." Smith was hesitant until a bottle of Jack Daniels came into play. 

According to sources close to camp GnR, Adler didn't react as badly as he could have, believing Smith's actions were for the good of the band. 

A roadie named Big Ron got a little bit of fame when he took over lead vocals for Guns N' Roses at the Omni Coliseum in Atlanta on November 20, 1987. During the show, Axl jumped off stage and punched several cops before being arrested and dragged off. According to the head of security on the day, “First strike, he hit an Atlanta police officer. Second strike, he hit a female Atlanta police officer. Third strike, he hit a black female Atlanta police officer. He’s going to jail.” 

Luckily, the concert promoter was on the ball, and convinced security to let Axl go as long as he apologized. Rose signed a written apology, then suddenly changed his mind and said to one of the cops, “F*ck you, you f*cking jag-off cop.” Meanwhile, Big Ron sang a few classic covers, accompanied by several long guitar and drum solos. As promoter Charlie Brusco recalled “I heard this horrible sound. I look up, and one of the guys in the road crew was singing.”

The show was called off once it was certain Axl was going to jail. 

Sean Penn is one of Hollywood's most admired actors when it comes to his talent, but when his personal life is called into question it is quite a different story. Throughout his career, Penn has made news for all of the wrong reasons - particularly for being a total ass. He is known to be an actor and director who can be a nightmare to work with, and some of these true Sean Penn stories are simply terrifying. 

From his infamous run-ins with the law to his history of violent behavior, these nightmarish stories about the infamous Hollywood bad-boy cannot be missed.

For many, this 1988 incident is when Penn went from being a bad boy to just being a bad person.

The story was first brought to the public eye after Penn filed a defamation lawsuit against director Lee Daniels. Daniels mentioned Penn when he was defending actor Terrence Howard, stating, “[Terrence] ain't done nothing different than Marlon Brando or Sean Penn, and all of a sudden he's some f*ckin' demon.”

While Madonna defended her ex-husband saying, “Sean never struck me, ‘tied me up,’ or physically assaulted me, and any report to the contrary is completely outrageous, malicious, reckless, and false,” skeptics point to the fact that reports do in fact exist stating that Madonna called the police on Penn in 1988. Lt. Bill McSweeney of the LAPD even admitted, “I hardly recognized her as Madonna. She was weeping, her lip was bleeding, and she had obviously been struck.”

One person that Penn had a positive relationship with was the former Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez. Chavez was criticized heavily during his two-decade presidency for being a socialist dictator, and while opinions of Chavez vary, Penn was very clear about his support and admiration for the man. In 2010, Penn said, “Every day this elected leader is called a dictator here, and we just accept it, and accept it. And this is mainstream media. There should be a bar by which one goes to prison for these kinds of lies." That’s right, Penn called for the imprisonment of American journalists for criticizing a foreign leader.

Penn’s 2016 interview with Mexican cartel boss, El Chapo, was the subject of a lot of criticism despite the fact that this was far from the first time that Penn had interviewed a controversial person. Still, when you consider the fact that Penn was willing to sit down and speak with someone who has claimed responsibility for thousands of deaths truly shows how out of whack Penn’s sense of morality truly is.

Woody Harrelson and Sean Penn have been engaged in a legendary prank war, but Penn put that to an end when his prank on the set of You're Only as Good as the Next One could have easily left Harrelson dead. According to IMDb:

"After driving 40 miles into the rustic outback of Australia, where their movie was being filmed, Penn pretended to get stuck and Harrelson got out to push. Medavoy says, 'Sean slammed it into four-wheel drive and literally left Woody in the dust, stranded, in the middle of the night, with no food, no water, and no way home except on foot. Woody was eventually picked up by an extra on his way to work.'"

In 1987, Penn was working on the set of Colors when background actor Jeffrey Klein tried to sneak some photographs of Penn and co-star Robert Duvall. Unfortunately for Klein, his attempts did not get past Penn, who proceeded to punch him several times and only stopped when he was physically pulled off of Klein. Penn was sentenced to 60 days in prison, but ended up only serving a little over 30 days for his violent outburst.

Given his violent reputation, it’s no surprise that Penn would overreact when suddenly confronted by a professional celebrity photographer. In 2009, Penn agreed to 36 hours of anger management and 300 hours of community service after pleading no contest to assaulting paparazzo John Dawes.

Dawes also received an undisclosed settlement, to which his lawyer said, "All of the net proceeds of the settlement will be donated to charities that support victims of domestic violence and victims of the earthquake in Haiti." This statement was seen as Dawes thumbing his nose at Penn, who had been an outspoken advocate for the crisis in Haiti.

In 1987, Penn was pulled over while driving erratically and was found to have a blood alcohol content of .11 - that's .03 over the legal limit. And to make matters worse, thanks to Penn’s wealth and fame, his blatant DUI was reduced to reckless driving.

Penn is known to take his roles very seriously, but in his 1989 Vietnam War flick, Penn took his methods a bit too far, almost forcing actor John Leguizamo to quit. As Leguizamo told Hollywood.com:

“[When] my character refuses and Sean’s gotta slap me into submission, and of course, Sean doesn’t believe in stage combat because he’s too method for that sh*t, so he’s slapping me for real… We’re on the 13th take and my face [is] out to here and you can’t even understand the dialogue I’m saying and [director] Brian de Palma’s going, ‘We have to do it one more time, John, it was out of focus.’ So it’s ‘whack’ and ‘whack’ and I’m about to quit and then they cut the scene out of the movie.”

Throughout his career, Penn has been an A-list star who apparently hates the spotlight, which is always a rather strange mindset for a world-renowned celebrity to have. And that state of mind was on full-display when he caught a fan snapping an unapproved pic of him. Apparently, catching Penn off guard is a terrible idea, as this fan learned when Penn turned to him and aggressively exclaimed, "Do we look like f*cking zoo animals?... I'll make you eat the phone... Get the f*ck out of here. Get out of here!" Alright, Sean, message received.

In a 1996 Rolling Stone article titled, “Sean Penn: Cool Jerk,” journalist Chris Mundy describes how he was witness to some very strange behavior when Penn decided it was unnecessary for him to go to the bathroom to, well, go to the bathroom.

Mundy recounts the strange interaction:

“He recites jokes, he tells stories, he finishes urinating. Almost. ‘I need another bottle,’ says Penn. He sets the brimming vessel in front of him, and the room erupts with laughter. He of the enormous bladder grins, and a second bottle is placed in his left hand before it quickly disappears under the tablecloth... Relief.”

The golden arches. The hallowed grounds on which the Big Mac is doled out daily. The sacred haven for 2 AM drunk folk and breakfast-seekers alike. McDonald's sees a fair amount of strange folk passing through the drive-thru. But what about those that work behind the counter? What do the burger-flippers, fry-fryers and order-takers have to say about their place of employment? McDonald's employees have taken to the Internet to share their tales about McDonald's.  

There's no better place to find these first-hand accounts than Reddit. The site is chock full of crazy tales from McDonald's – stories that involve bodily fluids, perverts, physical injuries, thievery, and debauchery as far as the eyes of Ronald McDonald can see. Delve into the behind the scenes stories from McDonald's workers and prepare to wonder if you'll ever be lovin' it again. 

From [deleted]:

"What is the worst employee injury that you have personally witnessed or experienced while working at McD's?

I worked at an Oklahoma McDonald's for 3 years in HS/undergrad, and I witnessed a guy reach into a deep fryer, bare handed, up to his elbow, to retrieve a wayward McNugget. It was the worst scream I've ever heard, and when he yanked his arm out of the fryer, an arc of hot grease shot across the make-line and hit some girl in the face.

It was actually pretty traumatizing."

From lordsidious:

"I wouldn't go as far as to say I've 'defiled' someone's food. Ruined it, yes, defiled, no. There were a few times...

One time some douche came thru [sic] drive thru and ordered a big mac meal, extra sauce. Cool, no problem, I put an extra two squirts of Mac sauce on his burger and we sent him on his merry way. D*ck comes back through drive claiming there was not enough sauce on his burger. and he wasn't cool about it. He had to get a manager come, refund his money and still demanded a replacement big mac. So I made it again, but this time, pretty much unloaded the sauce gun on his sandwich. It honestly looked like a puddle of horse jizz, or some pulsating, bleeding cow heart on a bun. I could barely close the box. The folding part of the box was leaking sauce, there was so much.

Moral of the story, don't f*ck with us."

From Eean1975:

"About 5 years ago, I saw a McDonalds' employee scooping out the piss from a pube plugged urinal with a McDonalds' drink cup. Piss was full to the top. I had to say to him "dude your job sucks" He just looked at me like he was going to cry, took another scoop of piss and emptied it into a five gallon pail with a loud splash and just said "[I] know." I instantly had hate for the manager that was making him do that on what was probably just a slow part of the day. Like hire a f*cking plumber. "

From [deleted]:

"I used to work at McDonalds about 30 years ago.

When a customer ordered a Big Mac with no special sauce, our shorthand term for that was a "Big Mac, no ejac".

Another thing we'd do is: if a hot girl or guy (or even a horrible looking person) was ordering at till 3, someone might yell "Cheese on 3" to get everyone's attention. Cheese on X was something the crew chief would normally say to get cheese on 3 of the 6 hamburgers or 1/4 pounders [sic], for example. I don't know if that's still the process."

From roaddog1:

"I worked at McDonald's as well and learned first hand how that place slowly sucks your soul away...

For example. One day I was working and as I was about to take the order of the next person in line, he just f****** fell over and started having a heart attack. Everyone froze and I ran to the back of the store and told the manager to call an ambulance, which she promptly did. But the sick part is, while this man was lying on the floor turning blue and dying three feet away from me, my other managers told me I was required to keep working. SO here I am just making a f****** millkshake with some guy dying right in front of my face so that the [people] waiting in line at the drive through can get on with their day. It was entirely [effed] up.

meanwhile, the customers seated at the tables continued to eat and converse despite the turmoil surrounding them. Some were even pointing at the guy suffering from the heart attack and laughing to their friends.

McDonald's taught me how callous the world is."

From jaderrade:

"I worked at McDonald's in high school and was almost always the person in the first drive-thru window. At night, since we didn't have a dish washer, it was also my job to do the dishes. One night when it was very busy, a 50-60yr old man pulled up to the window in his very low car to pay for his food. I had my hair in a braided high pony tail. The man flashed me a creepy smile and commented on how nice my hair was and how it's such a good "handle." Being 16 years old, I was very confused and weirded out so I stepped over to do dishes as soon as I could. I thought I saw the cars move so I walked over to help the next customer and when I looked out the window I saw that the cars had not moved and the old man was sitting in his car watching porn on two separate smartphones"

From Xynomiate:

"One of the managers would take two of each type of happy meal toy as part of her collection. One stayed sealed (I presume to sell on eBay someday) and one was displayed. She had worked there for many years and had basically complete sets of every toy offered in the past 15 years or so.

Another manager would drink an orange juice every morning that she ever worked... and she was schedule as an opener about five days a week and had been for six or seven years. One of the other employees figured out the cost of her orange juice over that period and it was thousands of dollars in stolen OJ.

Another guy would steal boxes of food and take them out back as he was taking the trash out. He got away with it for a long, long time but eventually a manager happened to see him load a box into his trunk. When they confronted him and made him open his trunk they found a case of hamburger patties. They stated their inventories had been off for a year and they could never figure out why... this guy was why.

Others just stole food for personal meals or they would take a bunch of the 'free item' types of coupons and then use them at other McDonald's where people didn't know who they were.

It was a small time criminal enterprise. I was simply amazed at how much theft could occur in one small McDonald's."

From [deleted]:

"A snooty lady sent her child to buy some food while she was waiting in the car - lazy cow. A few minutes later she came storming up and went ape shit saying the kid the kid didnt give her back the correct change. She kept insisting the server had stolen a £10 from her child because they thought they could get away with it. After kicking off at everyone, getting the manager over she was still shouting after the till count proved her child hadn't been short changed. The fact that we had no pockets didnt deter her from insisting the server had taken it.

While this was going on I went to empty the bins by the door (yes I was the lobby bitch). Luckily I opened the bag to empty a tray into it and saw on the top a receipt with a £10 note folded next to it. It was with great pleasure I took them over to the hysterical woman and suggested that perhaps her child had thrown the money away. She went beetroot, mumbled some apologies and scuttled out whilst everyone working there tried to suppress their laughter."

From lordsidious: 

"Every few months, the restaurant undergoes an inspection from a McOpCo consultant. This is called an FOR. Before the FOR, the owner gets everyone to clean, paint,, brush up on their skills/habits, etc. On one of these occasions, I was tasked with cleaning behind the vats and the grills. The accumulation of grease, dropped, rotting meat and chicken products that were festering underneath was enough to give me nightmares. The grease was pooled on the floor and there were grease stalagmites on the ground. Trapped in the burnt and encrusted filth were hundreds of flies."

From PatchworkBoy87:

"Former McDonalds crew member. I once had to handscoop the vomit of a five year old out of a urinal."

Sites like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram can be great. Who doesn't love getting back in touch with an old friend, or sharing photographs of their dreamy vacation? But it's not all sunshine in social media land. The oversharing nature of many sites means it's all too easy to be caught lying. In particular, tech-savvy bosses can use social media profiles to nab employees who lied about missing work.

There are countless tales of people skipping work caught lying. Maybe they invented a family emergency, but slipped up by posting an incriminating photo on Facebook. Perhaps they feigned illness, then Snapchatted their day spent drinking in a bar. Or maybe they went as far as to take extra sick days – only to get caught posting photos from a spur-of-the-moment trip.

In most instances, the liar might just face some embarrassment, and perhaps a slap on the wrist. But in extreme cases, people caught skipping work on social media could end up getting fired and ruining their careers. These tales of busted employees are proof that a dumb social media post can cost you more than just an unfollow.

At the end of October 2007, Kevin Colvin asked for some time off work at his banking job to deal with a family emergency. His request was granted – but the pressing issue was actually a Halloween party Colvin wanted to attend. When he posted a picture to Facebook of him wearing a fairy costume at the party, it quickly made its way to his boss, who emailed him saying, "I hope everything is OK. Cool wand." Colvin lost his position soon after.

After spending a night drinking in September 2016, Danny Alexander was hungover and decided to take a day off of work. He sent a text to his boss explaining that he was feeling unwell and thought that would be the end of the matter. What Alexander didn’t realize was that he had met someone who knew his boss the night before, and they had shared a picture on Snapchat showing him in a bar. His boss had seen the picture and knew that he was lying about being genuinely ill.

Fortunately, Alexander got off fairly easy: "To be honest, he wasn't that pissed off and he just gave me loads of sh*t jobs on site for a few weeks."

An insurance worker was fired from her job with National Suisse in April 2009 after her employers lost trust in her. The worker claimed she had a severe migraine that made it impossible for her to work. But then she was spotted logging onto Facebook. The company executives felt that if she was well enough to use her iPhone despite having a migraine, she should have been able to come into work.

Toronto Transit Commission employee Pranav Bedi was fired after it emerged he had skipped work to attend his brother’s bachelor party in Las Vegas. Bedi had taken extra vacation time by saying he was sick, but on December 14, 2013, Bedi posted a message on Facebook that said, “Vegas tonight! Can't wait! Brother's bachelor party is gonna be fun! OMG can't wait! Countdown starts! Another 3 hours to go! Yay!! Yet another place to visit! Life can't get better! Loving it.” As he hadn’t activated privacy settings, the post was available for everyone to see. After receiving an anonymous tip, his bosses were able to verify that he had fraudulently left work.

New York guidance counselor Mindy Robinson wanted to take a vacation in March 2013 to celebrate her birthday. So, she lied about needing dental work in order to get the extra time. But then Robinson posted about her lie on Facebook from the Turks and Caicos Islands – despite warnings from her friends that other teachers had been fired for similar stunts.

After an investigation by the school, Robinson agreed to retire to avoid disciplinary action.

In November 2008, Tesco worker Tom Stones got in trouble after calling in sick for work. He claimed he was too ill to complete his late shift at 11 PM. However, later in the night, he posted several pictures of himself out drinking, along with a status update that read “Tom had a good night xxx.” Colleagues saw the post and passed on the information to managers at the store, who then summoned the shelf-stacker to a disciplinary hearing.

An Australian bartender named Antony Derkort took several days off of work around New Year’s Eve in 2009, claiming to be too ill to come in. He was actually going to a big party, but his plan backfired when his employer found pictures of him at the gathering on Facebook. Derkort was fired, and even an appeal to Fair Work Australia didn't help, as they felt that his actions were inconsistent with his apparent illness.

In August 2008, an Australian call center worker named Kyle Doyle tried to get out of work after a night of drinking. He claimed he was ill, and since his employee contract allowed workers to take a day of sick leave without a medical certificate, he felt that he would be in the clear. What he had forgotten, though, was that he had announced his plans in a status update on Facebook. His manager saw the post and Doyle was busted.

Thinking that he had pulled one over his boss, Josh took to Facebook to reveal how he had managed to turn up late for work without consequences. Using the fact that the clocks had changed during the night, he convinced his employer that the time difference had meant he got up an hour late – despite the fact that the change would have meant he should have been early. While the plan worked initially, a hitch came when his boss's son saw the post online.

When Joel Pavelski told his bosses at Mic that he needed some time off to attend a funeral in November 2015, they readily agreed. But in reality, Pavelski was stressed, burned out, and looking for a break. He went to Wisconsin, where he spent a week building a treehouse.

His supervisor found out about the lie when they stumbled across his Twitter post explaining how he had spent his time. Pavelski wasn't fired, though CEO Chris Altchek said he didn't appreciate being lied to.

Here's one of the most inspiring Gene Simmons stories: KISS was dropped by their first manager in 1973 after he declared their music "The worst crap he ever heard." Simmons took over as the band's manager, and KISS went from earning $50 for two sets in January 1973 to selling 100 million albums, while Gene became one of the most legendary bassists and long-tongued, armor-wearing sex fiends in rock. But boy, it's not easy being a fan.

You can't knock Simmons's chutzpa; he rose to the occasion each time KISS faltered and failed. But there's one key ingredient to that kind of tenacity - a massive ego. The face-painted legend isn't afraid of espousing reams of alpha male bs (which feels like an egregious display of male privilege in 2017). If you had a dime for each of the dumbass things Gene Simmons said over the years, you'd probably have enough money to file as many trademarks as the rock god (182, if anyone's counting). KISS fans aren't the only ones who have trouble reconciling with Simmons's dickish behavior. His son, Nick Simmons, penned a piece for Vice proclaiming Gene "full of sh*t."

Yet the issue of Gene being a jackass is far from cut and dry, because Simmons's acid tongue and unyielding ego are wholly part of his charm. Is an ego unwarranted after having to fight for every ounce of success, and achieving it to a ludicrous degree? Simmons pushed through bad reviews, years of seeing his peers succumb to drug and alcohol addiction, and so many rejections a normal person would've given up long, long before he did. 

For all of the obnoxious Gene Simmons quotes out there, and instances of Gene Simmons being sexist, there's something inspiring in his steadfastness and blunt, unfiltered way of saying what he feels. Despite his many offenses, KISS fans manage to somehow look past Gene Simmons being an ass and champion the man behind the rock God. Here are some of the most douchey things Gene Simmons has ever done. He's only human, after all.

We know Gene Simmons shreds the bass like a glam kabuki god, regardless of the fact that his old manager thought his music was terrible. KISS has amassed an estimated 100 million in record sales, more than enough to know there's plenty of success to go around. Unfortunately, Simmons had to slam Rihanna in a rant that felt as misogynistic as it did untrue. He said: 

"We’re sick and tired of girls getting up there with dancers and karaoke tapes in back of them. No fake bullsh*t. Leave that to the Rihanna, Shimiana and anyone else who ends their name with an 'a'."

For the record, Rihanna does have a live band back her during her shows. Also, Santana ends with an "a," Gene. Where do you land on him? 

KISS proved there's nothing fans won't buy, including literally nothing, which is apparently a highly coveted item among the KISS Army. At the end of 2016, a KISS-themed store in Las Vegas began hawking branded bags of air guitar strings, which, by Christmas of that year, had sold tens of thousands of units.  

In other words, KISS is selling bags of air (i.e., nothing). The tiny, empty plastic bags raked in millions for the band, proving Gene Simmons is either the biggest troll or the most genius businessman of all time. Either way, it's a douche move.

Sometimes it feels as if Gene Simmons fundamentally lacks compassion. Fans definitely turned heads when he completely dismissed depression as a mental disorder and told those who suffer from it to kill themselves. In a 2016 interview with SongFacts.com, Simmons said:

"For a putz 20-year-old kid to say, 'I'm depressed. I live in Seattle.' F*ck you, then kill yourself. I never understand, because I always call them on their bluff. I'm the guy who says 'Jump' when there's a guy on top of a building who says, 'That's it, I can't take it anymore. I'm going to jump.' Are you kidding? Why are you announcing it? Shut the f*ck up, have some dignity and jump! You've got the crowd. By the way, you walk up to the same guy on a ledge who threatens to jump and put a gun to his head, 'I'm going to blow your f*ckin' head off.' He'll go, 'Please don't.' It's true. He's not that insane."

Simmons later apologized for the incident after both Triple M and Power 97 threatened to pull all KISS songs from their lineup in protest. Some fans, however, appreciated the sentiment. As Daddio from STL commented on the interview:

"I see a lot of millennial girlymen in the comments. A real man who says what's on his mind makes you shudder. He's right ! Life is a bitch, it can be hard and sometimes you gotta suck it up and deal with it. Stop whining about it. His analogy of putting a gun to the head of the same guy on the ledge is spot on! Modern psycology has done nothing but give people excuses for bad behavior & for not manning up. And BTW...all you 'musicians' commenting on KISS talent...jealous much ?"

In an interview-gone-wrong on NPR's Fresh Air, Gene Simmons made his views about women very clear to host Terry Gross when she broached the subject of his codpiece:

"It holds in my manhood. Otherwise it would be too much for you to take. You'd have to put the book down and confront life. The notion is that if you want to welcome me with open arms, I'm afraid you're also going to have to welcome me with open legs."

Gross replied by saying Simmons's statement was "an obnoxious thing to say" and asked him if that "shtick" was the only way he could talk to women. Simmons fired back, alleging he's actually quite progressive.

"Is it a shtick when all women have ever wanted ever since we crawled out of caves is, 'Why can't a man just tell me the truth and just speak to me plainly?' You can't have it both ways."

The interview got off to a bad start when Simmons accused Gross of butchering his Israeli name with her "gentile mouth," apparently oblivious of the fact that Gross is also Jewish. He then proceeded to talk like an insecure-but-arrogant high school student intent on proving to the world how clever he is. Simmons refused to let NPR post the interview online, and stated he was unhappy with Gross' perceived "holier-than-thou" attitude. 

Simmons definitely has no sympathy for drug users, but sometimes, when people are morning, maybe he should just stay a bit quiet? The rock star just couldn't help himself when he aired his feelings about Prince's death. In an interview with Newsweek, he said:

"I thought he left [Michael] Jackson in the dust. Prince was way beyond that. But how pathetic that he killed himself. Don’t kid yourself, that’s what he did. Slowly, I’ll grant you… but that’s what drugs and alcohol is: a slow death.”

The comments were so biting that KISS bandmate Paul Stanley took to Twitter to apologize.

"Embarrassed by cold clueless statements re Prince's death. Without all the facts better to say nothing. My apologies."

Gene Simmons isn't just a douche, he's also a condom. The bassist put his face, with a cartoonishly long tongue extended, on a set of KISS-branded condoms (or kondoms, as the packaging says); not so much controversial as it moronic. Think about it like this - unless you're wearing them as a fashion statement, someone is getting entered by Gene Simmons and his wagging tongue when you slap these on. 

Weirdly enough, the band broke down barriers with its kitschy kondoms; they're the first instance of a full-color print on a condom being approved by the FDA.

If you've been to a metal show, you've definitely seen someone making the devil horns hand gesture Gene Simmons apparently thinks he owns. In 2017, Simmons filed an application with the US Patent and Trademark Office claiming he was the first person to popularize devil horns, during his 1974 Hotter Than Hell tour, despite John Lennon very clearly making a similar gesture on the cover of The Beatles' Yellow Submarine/Eleanor Rigby single in 1966, and various places on Coven's debut album, Witchcraft Destroys Minds & Reaps Souls, in 1969.

Simmons wanted to trademark the gesture in the realm of "entertainment, namely, live performances by a musical artist" and "personal appearances by a musical artist." In other words, Avril Lavigne, Katy Perry, Justin Bieber, and the leagues of other musically gifted celebs who throw up horns in an odd fan photo would owe Simmons royalties. Major douche move.

Simmons eventually admitted defeat after being relentlessly teased online, though it should be noted he also said he "regrets nothing" about his trademark attempt. “Wake up every morning and let your conscience be your guide,” he commented. So, does he owe Disney royalties now? 

Simmons frequently talks about the true primal desire of every musician being women. Not sex, not lust, not adulation or adoration, but women. Having orgies with female groupies. Not fame, not pure artistry or song craft, not wealth. Women. This apparently means gay men, straight women, the asexual, and anyone else who has no interest in having sex with women can't be serious musicians.

A few potential counterpoints to this theory: Elton John, Freddie Mercury, George Michael, Melissa Etheridge, Sara Lee, Laura Jane Grace.  

Some female reporters, including Terry Gross of NPR and Radio 1990 host Lisa Robinson, have called Simmons out on this attitude, asking him if it's part of a persona created through his use of make up, armor, blood, tongue wagging, platform boots, pyrotechnics, and myriad other accoutrements to hide his true self and sell music through image. To Gross, Simmons fired back that he didn't think it was different than women wearing make up, once again blaming women for everything. 

It shouldn't be too hard to wrap your head around the fact that extremists aren't representative of an entire culture or religion. Simmons apparently didn't get the memo when he proclaimed Islam a "vile culture" that treated women worse than dogs.

"Muslim women had to walk behind their men and were not allowed to be educated or own houses. Your dog, however, can walk side by side, your dog is allowed to have its own dog house... you can send your dog to school to learn tricks, sit, beg, do all that stuff - none of the women have that advantage."

Not only was that information completely inaccurate (and he was rightly slammed by Australian Muslim of the Year, Susan Carland), but he went on to suggest that Muslims have no business living anywhere but the Middle East.

"This is a vile culture and if you think for a second that it's going to just live in the sands of God's armpit you've got another thing coming. They want to come and live right where you live and they think that you're evil."

Simmons took to his website to clarify he was merely talking about Muslim extremists, but the damage was already done. What's more, he comes across like a bit of an idiot. For starters, owning a dog in Saudi Arabia, a conservative Muslim state, is difficult; in 2008, the capital city, Riyadh, banned men from walking dogs in public. So, you probably won't see dogs walking beside men and women walking behind them there. 

Secondly, Simmons was born in Israel, an conservative religious state where he lived for eight years, and should probably know there are serious concerns about sexism in orthodox Judaism, as have been voiced again and again by non-orthodox Jews. 

Gene Simmons does not like rap. In a 2016 Rolling Stone interview, he aired his grievances with the genre. To some, his sentiment may seem like the innocuous complaints as a middle aged man who doesn't understand what kids are into these days.

"Rap will die. Next year, ten years from now, at some point, and then something else will come along. And all that is good and healthy. 
I am looking forward to the death of rap. I’m looking forward to music coming back to lyrics and melody, instead of just talking. A song, as far as I’m concerned, is by definition lyric and melody… or just melody."

Unfortunately, he had to keep talking, and things got sort of racist.

"[I] don’t have the cultural background to appreciate being a gangster. Of course that’s not what it’s all about, but that’s where it comes from. That’s the heart and soul of it. It came from the streets."

DJ Kool Herc, The Sugar Hill Gang, Grandmaster Flash, Afrika Bambaataa: gangsters from a cultural background Gene Simmons could never understand, despite the fact that he grew up in New York City, just like all of them. 

The contents of an animal’s stomach usually wouldn't pose much of a mystery. In most instances, you would probably expect to find whatever food makes up a particular creature's diet. While that is a sensible position to take, the contents of an animal's stomach are not always clear-cut. Researchers, scientists, and ordinary people have discovered crazy things in animal stomachs over the years, such as items that are completely unexpected and have no reason to be there.

The problem is that animals often don’t have the ability to sort through their food like humans do. Whether it is due to a lack of intelligence or some other physical limitation, a lot of creatures just have to hope for the best when they are munching on their latest meal. With increasing amounts of pollution in the oceans that have even caused strange animal mutations, it should come as no surprise that animals can sometimes swallow things they are not supposed to.

So, if you have ever wondered what the weirdest things found in animal stomachs are, then look no further. This list will guide you through the bizarre objects that people have found inside the creatures that roam the planet. Vote up the most insanely strange things that people have found in the stomachs of animals. 

Jumbo was a famous elephant that was part of a traveling circus in the United States. The animal is commonly thought to have introduced the word "jumbo" into the English language as a synonym for "large." When the giant creature died, it was cut open so that different body parts could be sent around the country to various locations and institutions. Inside the stomach, workers found an entire junkyard’s worth of scrap. This includes English pennies, a police whistle, keys, and screws.

When Hooch, a mixed hound in Florida, wouldn't stop vomiting, his owners took him to a vet. What they discovered was quite gruesome - the dog had swallowed a large pile of staples, nails, and screws that had been lying around the house. The vets and the owner are happy to report that Hooch recovered after a successful surgery. 

When a dead gray whale washed up onto the coast in Seattle in 2012, scientists carried out tests to see what had killed the marine mammal. Upon examining the contents of the stomach as part of this process, they discovered a wide range of items. Chief amongst them were a golf ball, wooden debris, and plastic. The researchers believed these items had probably been dumped into the ocean as trash and then eaten by the whale. 

While gutting an 11-pound cod he had caught near his home in Norway, Bjørn Frilund discovered an unusual item buried in its stomach. As well as a partially digested fish, the stomach contained a rather large sex toy. The fishermen conjectured that the fish may have eaten the vibrating dildo by mistake, thinking it was a cephalopod or another fish due to its bright coloring. "I was astonished," he said in an interview with The Local. "It was totally unexpected. I had never seen anything like this before."

A turtle found in Thailand was discovered to have almost 1,000 coins in its stomach. The creature lived in a pond that was frequently visited by tourists who threw coins into the water for luck. The unwitting turtle had eaten these coins in huge numbers until the collective weight of all the change was so strong that it broke its shell. A successful surgical procedure was able to remove the coins and fix the broken shell in hopes of saving the turtle. However, the toxic effects of the metal eventually caused an infection due to nickel poisoning, which stopped up the intestines. Nearly two weeks after surgery, the turtle died. 

Several tiger sharks that were examined in the '90s contained all manner of surprising objects. The items were on display as part of the "Sharks: Facts and Fantasy" exhibition in 1994 by the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County. One of the craziest things that have been found in a shark's stomach is a whole suit of armor, complete with a helm. How a steel suit ended up in the water, and how a shark even ingested it, remain unclear.

Researchers who were attempting to study the aquatic food chain discovered a shocking item inside a Mako shark’s stomach. According to chief scientist Dr. Antonella Preti, the 12-foot predator had a 200-pound sea lion inside of it. The sea lion, which was around the same size as an adult person, was even intact. Pictured above, Dr. Preti holds up the shark's stomach. On the left is the dead sea lion, which was missing only a flipper and some flesh, but was otherwise completely recognizable and intact.

When an ostrich died at the ZSL London Zoo in the early 20th century, a post-mortem was carried out to discover how it had died. In the process of emptying the stomach, researchers found a whole host of items. This included two handkerchiefs, a glove, rope, coins, stapes, and a hook. The giant bird apparently ate the assortment of junk alongside its food after they had been discarded or dropped by visitors to the zoo.

An exotic frog was discovered to have eaten dozens of rocks. The animal was taken to a clinic in Texas when its owner thought he saw it snacking on the small stones in its cage. An x-ray showed that the frog had a large number of foreign objects in its stomach, though it did not seem to be suffering any consequences. Veteranarians performed surgery to remove the rocks and the amphibian made a full recovery. 

In 1992, a fishermen in Wyoming discovered a severed thumb in the stomach of a trout he had caught. The missing digit was eventually traced to Robert Lindsey. He had been involved in a boating accident the year before where two of his fingers and a thumb had been cut off by a propeller. While the fingers were found, the thumb remained missing and thus, couldn't be reattached. It is hypothesized that the trout ate the thumb after it was severed and loose in the water, and that the thumb had remained undigested in the stomach of the fish for a year.