15 of Rock’s Funniest Pranks and Jokes

Rock ‘n’ rollers are often mischievous people, down for a laugh.

This ranges in consequence from light-hearted pranks to full blown practical jokes that can include everything from pyrotechnics to bodily fluids to crashed cars. Dangerous? Sure, but awfully fun. Perhaps the best way to sum it up is in the words of Viv Savage from This Is Spinal Tap: “Have a good time, all the time.”

In honor of April Fool’s Day, we’ve compiled a list of 15 of Rock’s Funniest Pranks and Jokes, proudly achieved by some of your favorites.

1. Elton John Crashes Iggy Pop’s Gig in a Gorilla Suit

In October of 1973, the Stooges played a show at a small club in Atlanta where, apparently encouraged by staff members of Creem magazine, Elton John decided to crash the stage dressed as a gorilla. Iggy Pop was reportedly stunned, to put it mildly. “I was really out of it,” he later recalled to Mojo, admitting that he was quite high at the time. “I’d done too much on the downside the night before, so I had to be injected madly to get to the point where I could just barely stand up straight and hold the mic. And then I saw this gorilla. I realized it wasn’t a real gorilla, but anyone who puts on a gorilla suit looks huge.” After a bit of running about the stage, John removed his costume’s headpiece to reveal his true identity.

2. Johnny Cash Releases 500 Baby Chickens Into a Hotel

At some point in the late ’50s, Johnny Cash and his two Tennessee Three bandmates, Marshall Grant and Luther Perkins, hatched an idea to purchase 500 baby chickens and then release them into the halls of a hotel they were staying at in Omaha, Nebraska. Pun fully intended.

3. Joe Walsh and His Chainsaw

There is a long and storied history between rock stars and hotel rooms. Joe Walsh, for example, used to bring a chainsaw with him on tour in the ’70s and ’80s, using it to dismantle furniture, take out walls, etc., not to mention for general intimidation purposes. (At one point, Eagles manager Irving Azoff apparently had the furniture in Walsh’s room nailed to the ceiling as a sort of counter prank.)

Walsh would later tell Classic Rock in 2012 that he learned a lot about this from Keith Moon when the James Gang spent some time opening up for the Who. “He taught me the basics of hotel damage, blowing stuff up and anarchic chaos in general,” Walsh said. “But I found that you didn’t have to really use [the chainsaw] that much. Walking up to the front desk with one usually got a lot accomplished.”

4. Black Sabbath’s Ghostly Recording Experience

Really, what other choice is there when you spend several weeks in an 18th century medieval castle in the countryside? Obviously you have to spook your friends. This is what happened with Black Sabbath in the fall of 1973 when they briefly moved into a place called Clearwell Castle where they crafted what became their fifth album, Sabbath Bloody Sabbath.

Tony Iommi has said on more than one occasion that he’s pretty certain they saw real ghosts, but there was also a healthy amount of fooling around by the band members. Ozzy Osbourne, for example, placed an eight-track cassette machine with creepy sounds under Iommi’s bed one night. On another occasion, Iommi and Osbourne placed a mirror in front of drummer Bill Ward while he was sleeping so that he’d wake up startled by his own reflection inches from his face. In the end it reached a point where the band chose to leave the castle altogether

“We weren’t so much the Lords of Darkness as the Lords of Chickenshit when it came to that kind of thing,” Osbourne would recall in his autobiography. “We wound each other up so much none of us got any sleep. You’d just lie there with your eyes wide open, expecting an empty suit of armour to walk into your bedroom at any second to shove a dagger up your arse.”

Watch Black Sabbath’s Music Video for ‘Sabbath Bloody Sabbath’

5. Johnny Rotten Served an Unsavory Beverage by the Ramones

As the story goes, the Ramones had a habit of playing little pranks on unsuspecting people around them. “The Ramones always put a few drops of piss in anything they give to their guests as a little joke,” Dee Dee Ramone said for the 1996 oral history book, Please Kill Me. And this included a certain guest by the name of Johnny Rotten, who went to see the Ramones when they played their very first U.K. concert on July 4th, 1976.

“Johnny Ramone was very friendly to Johnny Rotten when they met,” Dee Dee continued. “He shook his hand, patted him on the back and asked him if he wanted a beer. Ha ha ha.”

6.  Kiss v. Rush, The Ultimate Food Fight

Kiss and Rush went on the road together in 1975 where, naturally, a prank war went on for weeks. This included everything from silly string to a wheelbarrow full of marbles to suction cup arrows shot from bows. Everything came to a grand conclusion on the very last night of the tour on June 7, 1975 in San Diego, where the war finally ended with an elaborate cream pie fight on stage.

7. George Harrison Pulls a Fast One on Phil Collins

George Harrison might have earned himself the nickname “quiet Beatle” at one point, but that didn’t mean he didn’t know how to have fun.

Back in 1970, a pre-Genesis Phil Collins was asked to play some congas for Harrison’s album All Things Must Pass, but his parts ended up not making the final mix. Decades later, Harrison sent a “new mix” to Collins, claiming it contained his conga parts.

“Suddenly the congas come in — too loud and just awful,” Collins recalled to Classic Rock in 2016. “And at the end of the tape you hear George Harrison saying: ‘Hey, Phil, can we try another without the conga player?'”

Collins was crushed, but then came a phone call from the Beatle himself: “And he says: ‘Don’t worry, it was a piss-take. I got [session percussionist] Ray Cooper to play really badly and we dubbed it on. Thought you’d like it!’ I said: ‘You f—ing bastard!'”

8. Tool Claims Their Music Was Leaked

Tool has something of a running tradition of playing April Fool’s jokes on their fans.

In 2015, for example, they posted a statement to social media claiming that unfinished music of theirs had been leaked, and that someone else was taking credit for it.

“This music leak is unsettling on many levels,” the post read. “First off, it truly sucks to have your unfinished music available on the interweb without your consent. And second, to have it immediately picked up by someone and released as their own work is infuriating. We don’t encourage anyone to listen to this leaked clip because it’s far from finished and it will spoil what’s to come. But if you absolutely must, then listen to both clips. These are practically identical. It’s a clear cut case of copyright infringement and plagiarism.”

Turns out, there was no leak, But for Tool fans, who at that point had gone nearly a full decade without a new Tool album, the prank hit hard.

9. A Timbaland-Produced Nine Inch Nails Album?

Tool, however, does not own the April Fool’s joke space. In 2009, Nine Inch Nails played their own prank, announcing online that they’d be releasing a Timbaland-produced album called Strobe Light.

They elaborated: Strobe Light would feature collaborations with Coldplay‘s Chris Martin, Jay-Z and Bono, plus a song called “Pussygrinder” featuring Sheryl Crow. Photos of the alleged album cover accompanied the announcement, showing Trent Reznor in large slotted shades.

“To download NIN’s new full-length album Strobe Light, PRODUCED BY TIMBALAND, enter a valid email address in the fields below,” their statement went on (via NME). “A download link will be sent to you immediately. Your credit card will be charged $18.98 plus a $10 digital delivery convenience fee. Your files will arrive as windows media files playable on quite a few players with your name embedded all over them just in case you lose them. You will also receive an exclusive photo and a free email account with our partner Google’s Gmail service.”

Obviously, none of that was true.

10. John Mayer’s Bear Costume

Back in 2006, Sheryl Crow and John Mayer went on a joint tour together. On the second to last night of the trek, Mayer appeared on stage in a bear costume as an unsuspecting Crow was performing “My Favorite Mistake.” Because of course.

Watch John Mayer Perform in a Bear Suit With Sheryl Crow

11. Metallica Blows Up Their Own Stage

If you’ve seen Metallica‘s Cunning Stunts concert DVD, then you know exactly what prank we’re referring to here.

At one point in the film, during “Enter Sandman,” Metallica’s stage collapses in a huge pyrotechnical explosion and a man on fire (credited in the film as “Burning Dude”) can be seen crossing the stage, while another stage hand dangles from the trusses. It happened in 1997 at the first show of an eight-night run at Palacio de los Deportes in Mexico City.

It was all one big piece of rock theater, but did it terrify those in attendance? Yep.

Watch Metallica’s ‘Cunning Stunts’ Explosion

12. The 1991 Feud Between the Joe Walsh Band and the Doobie Brothers

Kiss and Rush were not the only bands to engage in a prank war while on tour together. It also happened between the Joe Walsh Band and the Doobie Brothers in 1991.

Things started out relatively tame — the Joe Walsh Band’s two drummers had a bit where they’d throw their sticks at one another and catch them, so members of the Doobie Brothers started throwing things at the drummers themselves to mess them up. Then things escalated to literal strippers on stage in trench coats and nothing else.

But the grand finale came in Cincinnati, Ohio.

“When we arrived in the next town, Joe went down and made a large cash contribution to the local zoo,” Al Kooper, who was then touring in Walsh’s band, later recalled. “In return for his contribution, a dispatch of zoo residents were delivered backstage to that night’s show just in time for ‘Jesus Is Just Alright With Me’ by the Doobies. Our band — all dressed in sheets, Arab style — walked out onstage with a llama and many exotic birds in the middle of their song. It was so good, it actually looked like part of the show. This was considered un-toppable, and ended the one-upsmanship joust for the duration.”

13. Led Zeppelin’s New Singer: Bjork

Who among us rock fans hasn’t hoped for some kind of Led Zeppelin reunion at one point or another? In late 2008, there were rumors of something like this in the form of a tour featuring Jimmy Page, John Paul Jones and Jason Bonham. But who would sing?

Plenty of names circulated around, and one person made the most of the speculation: Bjork. The Icelandic singer posted a statement to her website on April 1, 2009, saying that she’d accepted the position of Led Zeppelin’s new singer, with the stipulation that the new lineup only play songs from albums I and IV. It was all a joke, but many fans believed it at the time.

14. Ritchie Blackmore and Cozy Powell’s Brick Trick

Tony Carey wasn’t a member of Rainbow for all that long but in the time that he was, his bandmates made sure he was the subject of at least a few practical jokes. The most prominent of them all happened shortly before Carey left the band, an incident in which Ritchie Blackmore and Cozy Powell attempted to trap Carey inside his room at the French chateau where Rainbow was recording Long Live Rock ‘n’ Roll by bricking up the entrance.

Listen to the Title Track to Rainbow’s ‘Long Live Rock ‘n’ Roll’

15. Keith Moon’s Public Service Announcements

We could write an entire list of its own for the many, many jokes and pranks Keith Moon pulled over the years. We’d like to note one of his recurring favorites, which was to very loudly blare false public service announcements while driving through small British villages. These announcements could range from impending natural disasters to police raids, or imminent invasion by poisonous snakes — none of it true.

Sometimes Moon would use a police bullhorn, but his car was even purportedly rigged with hidden speakers so that he could blast such announcements with his windows rolled up.