As Holiday Inn forgives room wrecker Rod Stewart… we take a look other at notorious rockers who caused far worse hotel mayhem
From Keith Moon's naked cop dash to the army using a tranquilliser gun on Billy Idol — we reveal some of rock'n'rolls greatest hellraising fables
ROCKER Rod Stewart can now stay at the Holiday Inn after the chain lifted his 40-year ban. But party-loving Rod was far from the worst behaved guest.
GRANT ROLLINGS recalls stars from the heyday of rock ’n’ roll hotel mayhem.
The Who
LATE drummer Keith Moon was known for causing mayhem.
On his 20th birthday in 1967, “Moon the Loon” started a food fight then ran naked from police and nicked a car in a bid to get away.
Instead, the vehicle ended up in the pool of the Holiday Inn, in Flint, Michigan. The Who were later banned from the chain for life.
The Rolling Stones
GUITARIST Keith Richards was the first rocker to throw a TV out of a hotel window.
In 1972, at the Continental Hyatt House in LA, Richards’ telly went over his tenth-storey balcony.
The moment was captured on camera and went down in rock history.
The Faces
THE reason Rod Stewart played up at Holiday Inn hotels was staff wouldn’t serve The Faces.
Rod said: “We’d empty rooms, stick furniture in the lift and send it to the lobby. I once got a £7,000 bill.”
The band’s late keyboardist Ian McLagan also said it was impossible “to walk into the identical room in 20 different cities without wanting to hurt it, just a little”.
Led Zeppelin
LEGENDARY drummer – and drinker – John Bonham was renowned for riding his motorbike down hotel corridors.
Not only did the late musician do it at LA’s Chateau Marmont, but “Bonzo” also got revved up at a few other US hotels and the band left a trail of broken TVs and lifetime bans in their wake.
Bonzo allegedly drank 40 shots of vodka the night he died in 1980.
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Alice Cooper
DRUMMERS seem to have a thing about damaging digs, and Alice Cooper’s sticksman Neal Smith was a pro.
Journalist Bob Greene recalled seeing him topple a 7ft vending machine at a motel near New York.
Cooper himself got into trouble in 1979 when he let his pet snake sleep in the bath at London’s Portobello Hotel.
Billy Idol
PUNK rocker Billy Idol let out a Rebel Yell in one Thailand hotel and cried more, more, more for three weeks.
In 1989, a drug-fuelled party at the Oriental Hotel in Bangkok caused £200,000 of damage.
Idol also trashed two other hotels in his three-week stay.
Eventually the army was called in to shoot him with tranquilliser guns and get the star out of the country.
Sex Pistols
NOT only did the punk legends lose thousands trashing hotels, they also lost a record deal with EMI.
Days after signing to the label, Johnny Rotten and co were fired for bad behaviour.
Photographer Dennis Morris took pictures of bassist Sid Vicious’s room after the band had been on a wrecking spree.
He said: “It was like a bomb had hit it.”