Rock Stars Share Their Craziest Backstage Stories

These guys know how to party.

Straight from the stars' mouths, here are firsthand accounts of these rockers' wildest nights:

Led Zeppelin

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"We'd just played Atlanta. Backstage there's girls parading around topless. So we round everybody up for an orgy. An orgy of theatrical tragedy, that is. We passed out scripts and had everybody perform Antigone. It's my favorite of Sophocles' Theban cycle and, you know what? For a bunch of half-naked amateurs, we knocked it out of the park." - Jimmy Page

Mumford & Sons

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"New York City is home to the sexiest girls on the planet. And they know how to party. God, do they know how to party! But what they don't know is how to plan out their 401(k) contributions to adequately prepare for retirement. Luckily, Winston is a guru with that stuff. After a show in June, he hooked some groupies up with a sick, tax-advantageous savings plan." - Marcus Mumford

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"We're in Arizona and there's this guy backstage called Ozone. Long hair, crazy eyes, invites us to a firing range he owns. So we hop in our bus, like, 'Let's shoot some guns!' When we get there, we have a change of heart. So we melt down all of his rifles and turn them into trophies for underprivileged kids." - Nate Ruess

The Rolling Stones

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"In 1971 we filled a kiddie pool with Cap'n Crunch and KY Jelly. That took a lot of work. Maybe some groupies rolled around in it. I don't know. I went to sleep." - Keith Richards

Ne-Yo

Christopher Polk

"For me, backstage after a concert is a soulful space. Except for one time, in Orlando, I walked backstage and there were aliens back there. Real aliens. They took me into their spaceship. Nobody believed me. You believe me, don't you? Don't you?" - Ne-Yo

Wu-Tang Clan

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"It was '98, backstage at MSG. Champagne was poppin'. No one parties like the Shaolin. My man Ghostface starts fiddling with some circuit boards. Then Meth shows up with these irradiated aluminum rods. Thirty minutes later, the Wu invented a perpetual motion machine. Free energy for the world, ya feel me? But then, out of nowhere, a bunch of guys in suits burst into the room and destroyed the machine and told us never to talk about it. I think they were from the government." - RZA

John Mayer

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"I usually like to relax with my band after a show - but we never get the chance! You know how it is: As soon as we come off stage, we're confronted by a local fan covered in blood, holding a knife and standing over a dead body. 'I didn't do it!,' he'll say and then it's like, 'Damn, now we gotta solve this murder.' It's happened at least 150 times. But it always feels good to clear a fan's name." - John Mayer

Red Hot Chili Peppers

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"In 1992 we all made a pact to lose our virginity before the end of that summer's Lollapalooza tour. And we did! Later, some studio stole our story and turned it into the movie American Pie but they changed just enough of the details so they didn't have to pay us. Still, it was the best summer of our lives!" - Flea