We all have our own interesting travel stories; whether this be a simple train journey, or a long travelling adventure with friends, we’ve all had that one (or several) messy road trip. Travelling abroad and into unknown territory is an adventure in itself. The stories we share that originated from long hours, lack of sleep and 6 people in a 4x2m metal box are ones that fill us with plenty of laughter- with a little bit of shame too… We’ve compiled a list of our favourite stories ‘from the road’ featuring plenty of actors and famous rock stars who have experienced a kerfuffle or two in unfamiliar settings.
A sticky situation
We start with this sweet and sickly conundrum as we hear from Geoff, 55, who travelled through Russia to find himself stuck on a plane….literally!
“It was during Soviet times that I was flying Moscow-Copenhagen. After spending nearly 24 hours at the airport, I finally got in the plane and fell asleep right away. When I woke up, I suddenly discovered that my feet are almost glued to the floor! The woman in front of me had a large jar of honey that had turned over and contents had spilled across the floor. She was sleeping too and had no idea of the mess around her!”
Rock ‘n’ Roll star
No list of road trip stories would be complete without a segment from Liam Gallagher. The Wonderwall rock star has had his fair share of adventures- but we opted for one of the more family-friendly stories (if you can call it that).
“The then Oasis frontman lost his two front teeth in a brawl with alleged Mafiosos (mafia members) in a Bavarian hotel in 2002. Only 17 months later, Munich police released a statement claiming his opponents were estate agents and computer nerds.”
Probably for the best they weren’t actually Mafiosos, eh Liam?
A chocolatey shell of danger
Now this isn’t so much a story from the road, but it happens on tour so we’re gonna count it anyway… American hard-rock band, Van Halen, had a very unusual rider list. Most artists have very weird rider requests for various tours in countries where they can’t get their normal essentials. Britney Spears wanted a photo of Princess Diana, Iggy Pop was desperate for “a copy of USA Today that’s got a story about morbidly obese people in it”. Weird. (Pssst, you can view some more strange rider requests in our article here). Okay we’ve left you hanging for long enough, Van Halen’s rider request was for NO brown M&M’s backstage. They would even go so far as to cancel a full concert if they found one- all at the expense of the promoter!
Now this may seem like some sort of idiotic and egotistical demand, but there is some sense to this somewhere. The reasoning for this was that if the band had found a brown M&M anywhere, then it would be clear that their demands had not been met- therefore some greater, more serious requests may not have been listened to. This could potentially mean putting the band, fans and crew at risk of danger. Fair enough….I guess?
Cumberbatch’s faux pas
When iconic British actor Benedict Cumberbatch ventured across the pond to star in high tech sci-fi film ‘Star Trek: Into Darkness’, we’re sure he didn’t expect to be made the brunt of the jokes. His American counterparts believed it would be good fun to make Cumberbatch wear protective facial shield cream called ‘neuron cream’. That doesn’t seem too implausible for a science fiction film, right? Well, the neuron cream was merely a ruse to make the Sherlock star look a little silly. Still, he was none the wiser and claimed he was simply going along with the idea of this cream due to what he thought were ‘stringent American safety rules’.
Rocket Man
When two of the most powerful men in the world come head-to-head, you don’t really expect a singer-songwriter from Middlesex to be mentioned. Unless this singer is Elton John, of course. Donald Trump infamously labelled North Korean supreme leader, Kim Jong Un, as ‘Rocket Man’ back in 2017 on Twitter (his favourite tool of destruction). The two have a very rocky alliance to say the least; it’s kind of a love/hate relationship, so this comment was never going to go down well in the North Korean camp. Kim referred to the ‘Rocket Man’ reference whilst the two politicians met the next June. Trump discovered that Kim had never even heard the Elton John classic and even send him a copy of the track with a handwritten note on the CD- nice touch, Donnie!
