Rock Legend, 75, Recalls Kicking Madonna Out of His Camp 40 Years Ago at Live Aid
Nowadays, there's no room that can't get in. Be it the Met Gala, a sold-out Broadway show, or front row at Fashion Week, the "Material Girl" can always get access. But that wasn't the case forty years ago during Live Aid.
The series of epic concerts took place on July 13, 1985, with some of music's biggest stars performing at London, Philadelphia and other locations around the world. Orchestrated by Bob Geldof, the event benefited Band Aid Charitable Foundation's efforts to combat famine in Africa. It featured now-iconic performances from Queen, , Mick Jagger with Tina Turner, and more—including a then 26-year-old Madonna.
Madonna was an established star by the time Live Aid took place. She'd already gone No. 1 in the U.S. with "Like a Virgin" and "Crazy For You," and she had hits with "Lucky Star," "Into the Groove," and "Dress You Up." So it wasn't like she was nobody when backstage at the Philadelphia location. But according to Mike Campbell, famed guitarist for Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, she didn't have enough clout to camp out with the legends on hand.
"Backstage there was this tent with (Bob) Dylan and Keith Richards and Ronnie Wood, and this tent over here was Jimmy Page and his entourage," Campell told Billboard in a feature about Live Aid's 40th anniversary. "And then Madonna had a tent in another area, and she came marching over and wanted to be in our camp, but there was no room for her, so she had to go back to her area."
"But we had all cool people in our spot," he added.
Graham Nash also had a bizarre Madonna encounter. He was standing backstage with emcee Jack Nicholson when Madonna and her then-husband Sean Penn came walking up. "This roadie says, 'Look the other way, look the other way.' And me and Jack said, 'What?!' (laughs) Yeah, look the other way. Sure," said Nash.
That wasn't the only awkward encounter at Live Aid. Rob Halford of Judas Priest covered Joan Baez's "Diamonds & Rust" in 1977. The two of them bumped into each other at the Philadelphia show. Halford thought that Baez was going to "kick me in the [explicative] for wrecking her song," but what she really did surprised the heavy metal god.Rock Legend, 75, Recalls Kicking Madonna Out of His Camp 40 Years Ago at Live Aid first appeared on Parade on Jul 11, 2025
This story was originally reported by Parade on Jul 11, 2025, where it first appeared.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
CNN
an hour ago
- CNN
Phil Collins jetted across the ocean to perform in two Live Aid concerts, but it wasn't without drama
With the help of helicopters and a supersonic turbo jet, Phil Collins pulled off a series of performances worthy of a 'Mission Impossible' movie at Live Aid forty years ago. The singer and drummer participated in the benefit concerts organized by musicians Bob Geldof and Midge Ure to draw attention to a famine in Ethopia and raise money for relief efforts. Collins didn't perform on just one stage, but two – on two different continents. The Genesis frontman initially took to the stage in London at Wembley Stadium, where he performed 'Against All Odds (Take a Look at Me Now)' and 'In the Air Tonight.' He also played played drums for Branford Marsalis and Sting. That would have been enough for most artists, but not Collins. Instead, he hopped on a helicopter to Heathrow Airport in London, boarded The Concorde to New York City, then took another helicopter to Philadelphia, where he joined superstar Eric Clapton for his set and performed three songs with Led Zeppelin's Robert Plant, Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones. (The Concorde was a supersonic airliner that allowed passengers to cross the Atlantic in under three and a half hours. It made its first test flight in 1969 and was officially retired in 2003.) Backstage after the London performance, Collins gave an interview in which he said he thought the first performance had 'gone very well, considering' and expressed his pride in participating. 'I'm very proud to be asked to do it because everybody's involved and it's just great to be a part of something like this,' he said. 'It's just too obvious to say it's for a good cause.' There was, however, some drama in regards to the second show, and how the multiple performances came about. Collins explained that both Plant and Sting had separately asked him to participate in Live Aid, with a UK-based promoter suggesting he take The Concorde in order to play both shows. But Collins explained to Classic Rock in 2021 that the second show with Led Zeppelin was less than smooth, in part because he neglected to rehearse with the band beforehand, and also due to the bandmates' strained relationships. 'By the time I got there, me and Robert and Jimmy playing together had become The Second Coming Of Led Zeppelin – (bassist and keyboardist) John Paul Jones was there too. Jimmy says: 'We need to rehearse.' And I said: 'Can't we just go on stage and have a play?'' Collins recalled. 'So I didn't rehearse when I got there, but I listened to 'Stairway To Heaven' on Concorde.' He said the end result was messy, partially due to the fact that co-drummer Tony Thompson 'had rehearsed for a week, and I'm about to steal his thunder – the famous drummer's arrived! – and he kind of did what he wanted to do. Robert wasn't match-fit. And if I could have walked off, I would have done, cause I wasn't needed and I felt like a spare part.' 'Anyway, we came off, and we got interviewed by MTV. And Robert is a diamond, but when those guys get together a black cloud appears,' Collins continued. 'Then Page says: 'One drummer was halfway across the Atlantic and didn't know the stuff.' And I got pissed off. Maybe I didn't know it as well as he'd like me to have done, but… I became the flagship, and it looked like I was showing off.' It ended up becoming a Led Zepplin reunion that Collins wrote about not wanting to be a part of in his 2016 autobiography, 'Not Dead Yet.' 'I didn't come here to play with Led Zeppelin, I came here to play with a friend of mine who has morphed back into being the singer of Led Zeppelin – a very different animal to the one that invited me,' Collins wrote. 'Now I'm caught up in the ceaselessly toxic, dysfunctional web of Led Zeppelin interpersonal relationships.' While his second performance perhaps did not go quite as Collins had hoped, Live Aid raised more than $125 million for famine relief. His transatlantic flight also included a very famous fellow passenger. 'When I got on Concorde, Cher was on it,' Collins recalled in the CNN original series 'Live Aid: When Rock 'n' Roll Took On the World.' Cher asked Collins what he was up to. 'There's a live gig in London today and in Philadelphia,' Collins said he told Cher. 'She said, 'Oh, could you get me on it?'' Hours later, Cher joined a star-studded group of artists on stage to close out Live Aid with a performance of 'We Are the World.' Mission accomplished.
Yahoo
2 hours ago
- Yahoo
Fact Check: Serving up the truth about Wimbledon donating balls as new homes for threatened harvest mice
Claim: Some of the 55,000 balls used during the Wimbledon tennis tournament are annually upcycled into homes for threatened harvest mice. Rating: As the annual Wimbledon tennis championships played out from June to July in 2025, social media users claimed that the thousands of tennis balls used at the tournament get second lives as homes for tiny mice facing habitat loss. For example, one Instagram user shared an image (archived) with text that read: "55,000 tennis balls are turned into homes for harvest mice after Wimbledon." The caption of the post, which had amassed nearly 20,000 likes as of this writing, claimed that the balls "are donated to conservation groups" that cut out small entrances for the mice to enter in "grassy meadows and hedgerows." Similar iterations of the rumor appeared on Facebook (archived) and Reddit (archived). In short, while Wimbledon has previously donated some of its tennis balls for conservation groups to use as homes for harvest mice, these donations appear to have been one-offs. For this reason, we have rated this claim as outdated. The oldest source for the alleged donation appeared to come from a 2001 BBC article, which at the time stated that some of the tournament's 36,000 tennis balls were donated to The Wildlife Trusts — a British federation of wildlife conservation charities — to be recycled as homes for harvest mice. A 2003 BBC article featured a small follow-up note to that story, stating that Wimbledon had donated 350 tennis balls to The Wildlife Trusts two years earlier. Snopes contacted The Wildlife Trusts and Wimbledon to confirm if the tournament has continued to make such donations and, if so, for details about what is included in them. A spokesperson for The Wildlife Trusts said: "Unfortunately, the tennis ball story is very out of date as we haven't worked with Wimbledon in this way for some time." Similarly, a Wimbledon spokesperson confirmed that the story about harvest mice was an old one. In 2011, The Guardian newspaper reported that Wimbledon again donated tennis balls to house mice, this time at the request of an aquarium in northern England. The Guardian did not say how many tennis balls were donated at the time. It was not possible to find more recent articles about the tournament making such donations, although other tennis clubs in the U.K. have reportedly gifted tennis balls for the same purpose. While not endangered globally, harvest mice are considered "Near Threatened" in the U.K., according to the Mammal Society, a British charity. Harvest mice are Britain's smallest rodent, which means a tennis ball with a hole cut into it can be a place for the mice to rest safe from their predators. During the tournament, Wimbledon sells its used tennis balls on-site, and the proceeds go to the Wimbledon Foundation, its charity organization. Wimbledon has been selling its used tennis balls for the last several years, according to the tournament's spokesperson. Wimbledon's website did not include any information on the fate of unused and unsold tennis balls, but Keith Prowse, a sports hospitality company that partners with Wimbledon, said they are donated or recycled in the weeks and months after the tournament finishes. Keith Prowse's website added: "Previously, some of the balls have been donated to the UK Wildlife Trust who cut them up and used them to make homes for harvest mice!" "Harvest Mouse." Mammal Society, Accessed 16 July 2025. "Having a Ball at Wimbledon!" BBC, 2003, Accessed 16 July 2025. "'New Balls, Please' for Mice Homes." BBC, 25 June 2001, Accessed 16 July 2025. "The Championships, Wimbledon Facts and Figures." Accessed 16 July 2025. Wainwright, Martin. "What Happens to Wimbledon's Used Balls? Ask Cumbria's Mice." The Guardian, 29 June 2011, Accessed 16 July 2025. "Watermead County Park Mice to Live in Tennis Balls." BBC, 26 Apr. 2013, Accessed 16 July 2025. "What Happens Post Wimbledon | Tennis | Keith Prowse." 16 Aug. 2022, Accessed 16 July 2025. Solve the daily Crossword
Yahoo
3 hours ago
- Yahoo
Mr and Mrs XCX: Brat star weds drummer of The 1975
Pop star Charli XCX has confirmed her marriage to George Daniel, drummer of band The 1975, after a video snapped by a passer-by sparked online speculation of a wedding. The pair were spotted posing on the steps of Hackney Town Hall on Saturday afternoon - Daniel in suit and tie and the 'brat' idol in white. A TikTok post from the singer several hours later confirmed the nuptials, racking up 3.9m views and thousands of congratulatory comments for "Mr and Mrs XCX". Charli XCX's album, Brat, became a global cultural phenomenon on its release last year. Filling social media feeds with viral videos and receiving critical acclaim, its success saw her perform a headline slot at Glastonbury in June. The singer confirmed the news while dressed in an off-the-shoulder white dress and her signature dark wraparound sunglasses. She stomped away from the camera – pretending to be annoyed – on a video beneath text that read, "When George isn't crying when he sees me walking down the aisle." But "Luckily he did xx" was the accompanying caption. A later post, which included shots of Daniel wearing Charli's veil, gave "bridal party energy", according to XCX. The footage from outside Hackney Town Hall suggests the couple had an intimate ceremony. The two have been public about their relationship for several years and shared engagement photos in 2023. They have also worked together multiple times, first collaborating on Charli's song Spinning and then on Brat, with Daniel named as co-producer and co-writer of two songs. He also took part in the viral "Apple dance" at one of Charli's London shows, appearing on the concert's screens in front of thousands of fans. His band The 1975 is fronted by singer Matty Healy and are well known for their song Chocolate. Daniel has released several tracks as a solo artist in recent years. Lorde: 'Working with Charli XCX kicked me into opening up' Charli XCX, Neil Young and Scissor Sisters give Glastonbury goosebumps Charli XCX: 'My parents drove me to raves aged 15'
