Yikes

Which notable bands have been upstaged by their opening band?

One of my favorite rock stories of all time. Fucking epic!!🤘

Imagine this guy.

He’s 6’4, well over 300 pounds, and an ex professional wrestler. Not who you want to get on the bad side of especially during the 1970s, pre internet, pre being able to sue for everything, when you were on your own most of the time and the police could give two shits as long as you were still breathing.

Peter Grant, the original Suge Knight, was literally and figuratively the biggest Zep fan in history. He loved them and it was his life’s ambition for them to succeed.

Now imagine you’re a manager of a new hot band who you were able to score the opening act for the great Led Zeppelin. Only you’re band is doing a little too well and the crowd is going ape shit as they upstage the mighty lead blimp. Then he appears. Grabs you by your throat, lifts you off the ground, and says get them off, NOW! What are you going to do? Well this happened to Terry Knight the manager for Grand Funk Railroad.

From the book “American Band.”

“We blew Led Zeppelin off stage!

In late summer of ‘69, Grand Funk continued to play more shows, receiving similar enthusiastic responses to the one at the Atlanta Pop Festival. The band were booked as the opening group for Led Zeppelin at Detroit’s Olympia Stadium. The audience’s reaction was so intense that Peter Grant, Led Zeppelin’s manager, pulled the plug on the group in the middle of “Inside Looking Out”. Grant, a six-foot-four-inch ex-wrestler, in furious rage grabbed Terry Knight by the throat and lifted him off the ground. Holding Knight eye-to-eye, Grant roared, “You’ll take the group off stage… immediately!” A visibel shaken Terry Knight proceeded to go on-stage and stop the group, exclaiming to the crowd, “Led Zeppelin are afraid to follow Grand Funk!” At that point the audience began to boo and hiss as Grand Funk left the stage. Sometime later, Lee Michaels took the stage and performed his set. By the time Led Zeppelin started their show the stadium was half full. “We blew Led Zeppelin off stage!”, Schacher remembers.”

Edit: Some folk are having a hard time believing this happened. Here’s Knight talking on VH1s behind the music. Same story 17 minutes in

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7mfPYpOLcL4&t=3s

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