When animals attack - musician edition

We're all familiar with Ozzy Osbourne's infamous unprovoked attack on a bat in the early '80s, but rarely do you hear stories about animals attacking musicians. Until now, that is. Earlier this week, Bloc Party and Ash guitarist Russell Lissack was reportedly attacked by a lion cub while visiting an...

By Thorin Klosowski

October 1, 2010

[
        {
          "name": "Air - MediumRectangle - Inline Content - Mobile Display Size",
          "component": "12017618",
          "insertPoint": "2",
          "requiredCountToDisplay": "2"
        },{
          "name": "Editor Picks",
          "component": "17242653",
          "insertPoint": "4",
          "requiredCountToDisplay": "1"
        },{
          "name": "Inline Links",
          "component": "18838239",
          "insertPoint": "8th",
          "startingPoint": 8,
          "requiredCountToDisplay": "7",
          "maxInsertions": 25
        },{
          "name": "Air - MediumRectangle - Combo - Inline Content",
          "component": "17261320",
          "insertPoint": "8th",
          "startingPoint": 8,
          "requiredCountToDisplay": "7",
          "maxInsertions": 25
        },{
          "name": "Inline Links",
          "component": "18838239",
          "insertPoint": "8th",
          "startingPoint": 12,
          "requiredCountToDisplay": "11",
          "maxInsertions": 25
        },{
          "name": "Air - Leaderboard Tower - Combo - Inline Content",
          "component": "17261321",
          "insertPoint": "8th",
          "startingPoint": 12,
          "requiredCountToDisplay": "11",
          "maxInsertions": 25
        }
      ]

We're all familiar with Ozzy Osbourne's infamous unprovoked attack on a bat in the early '80s, but rarely do you hear stories about animals attacking musicians. Until now, that is. Earlier this week, Bloc Party and Ash guitarist Russell Lissack was reportedly attacked by a lion cub while visiting an animal sanctuary in South Africa. This news got us thinking about other animal attacks -- or rather, attacks that we presume happened based on a few album covers. Posing for a record cover with animals can be a dangerous game, as evidenced by the following pictures.

5. Nas - Stillmatic

The pigeon on this album cover might seem harmless enough, but after one of them dropped a little white load in Kings of Leon bassist Jared Followill's mouth earlier this year, we don't trust those flying-rats one bit. It might look like the pigeon is just giving Nas the ole' stink-eye, but we're almost positive it pooped all over his velour tracksuit after this picture was taken.

4. Swamp Dogg - Rat On!

Holy smokes! That's a gigantic rat! There is no way in hell Swamp Dogg was able to walk away from this photo shoot unharmed. The smile on the rats face is a clear sign he's plotting to bite Swamp's face off.

3. Yngwie Malmsteen - Trilogy

Okay, this one clearly isn't a photograph because Yngwie was seriously injured when they originally shot this album cover. As it turns out, guitars can't block a dragon's fire-breathe. Thankfully he survived, but they decided on using an artist's rendering of the event instead of the still-photo.

2. Michael Jackson - Thriller

Sure, it looks like Michael and this tiger are getting along swimmingly inside the gatefold of Thriller, but little do you know this tiger attacked Michael and bit his face off. Did you think they were using make-up in the music video for "Thriller?" Of course not -- that was the real deal.

1. Pink Floyd - Animals

Little known fact about this album cover: After this picture was taken, the flying pig terrorized England for thirteen weeks, killing hundreds of people. Or the thing just drifted off and startled a few planes -- whatever.

Become A Member

BEFORE YOU GO...
Can you help us continue to share our stories? Since the beginning, Westword has been defined as the free, independent voice of Denver — and we'd like to keep it that way. Our members allow us to continue offering readers access to our incisive coverage of local news, food, and culture with no paywalls.