We've seen plenty of stage dive fails in recent years, but when Lil Uzi Vert climbed on top of a sound tent at Rolling Loud Festival and pulled off a huge 20-foot jump, he reminded us of legendary moments like Papa Roach's swan dive, Eddie Vedder's climbing antics, and other crazy jumps over the years. Look through the videos below and see how Uzi's leap compares to the wildest stage dives of all time.
Watsky's 40-Foot Warped Tour Jump
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At a 2013 Warped Tour stop in London, rapper George Watsky gave us a lesson on what not to do while attempting one of the most insane (and poorly thought-out) jumps we've ever seen. As his band played a cover of Pink Floyd's "Another Brick in the Wall, Pt. 2," Watsky climbed on top of a 40-foot lighting rig and jumped feet first into a crowd that was clearly unprepared to catch him—landing on two fans and breaking one of their arms.
Watsky was unharmed, but he quickly apologized, calling the incident "a huge overreach in the heat of the moment." He added that he wasn't under the influence of alcohol or drugs and said, "I feel fucking terrible. I made a boneheaded decision that got people hurt, and it's extremely lucky it wasn't worse. Putting your own body on the line is one thing, but putting other people in harm's way is inexcusable."
Boy Hits Car's Massive 68-Foot Leap
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Boy Meets Car arrived at Vernon, New York's K-Rockathon 10 festival in 2005 as a relatively unknown band, but they made a huge impression with an unbelievable stage dive from the height of a seven-story building. In front of over 35,000 people, lead singer Cregg Rondell (who has worked as a stunt man) climbed on top of speakers hanging 68 feet in the air and jumped to the crowd below. Amazingly, he avoided injuring himself or any of the fans who caught him.
"I didn't even plan on jumping," Rondell explained later. "I wanted to get a better vantage point to view the crowd, but once I climbed up and lowered myself onto the speakers, I got a bit of vertigo cause the speakers began to shift and move. I recall not wanting any part of it, but I couldn't pull myself back into the rafters. I was stuck, and the whole crowd was chanting 'Jump, jump jump!' Looking back, it seems my choices were to wait for the fire department and a long enough ladder, or charge it."
Fred Durst's Hammerstein Ballroom Dive
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"At the Hammerstein Ballroom, something happened to me," Fred Durst says of his 1998 jump from the top of a lighting rig at the New York City venue. "Everybody was just screaming to jump, and I was going, 'I can't back down now.' If I get down, they're all gonna be disappointed." The Limp Bizkit frontman had a habit of jumping into crowds, but this stop along the band's wild "Ladies Night in Cambodia Tour" felt different. "It was scary," he told MTV years later. "I could have hit the ground. I would have died for sure."
Eddie Vedder's Climbing Dives
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In the early days of Pearl Jam's career, singer Eddie Vedder climbed anything he could get his hands on—including lighting rigs, stage scaffolding, and even a TV mast. Proving himself as one of the most acrobatic performers of all time, Vedder later explained that he felt the need to increase the risk and outdo himself with each new jump: "We're gonna take this to some level that people aren't going to forget and if that means risking your life, we're going to do it."
Steve Aoki's Broken Neck Lawsuit Jump
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Steve Aoki incorporates stage dives as a nightly part of his DJ sets, but a leap onto an inflatable raft at San Diego's Hard Rock Hotel in 2012 ended up leaving a fan hospitalized. Video footage shows him climbing on top of the stage before jumping on the raft, hitting fan Brittany Hickman on the head, and knocking her unconscious. Hickman left with a broken neck and Aoki was hit with a $10.7 million lawsuit that he settled out of court.
Papa Roach's Swan Dive
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Papa Roach's lead vocalist Jacoby Shaddix finished a set at Jones Beach in Long Island by running off stage and jumping into the ocean, splashing into the water in front of literal swans. Video footage cuts off shortly after he gets in the water, but fans report that Shaddix swam around for awhile before getting out of the water and mooning everyone in attendance. Hell yeah.
Cage The Elephant's Speaker Stack Jump
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"I've broken the fourth metatarsal in my foot, separated my ribs from my sternum, had stitches, cracked a rib, and had some bumps and bruises," Cage The Elephant's lead singer Matt Schultz says of the many injuries he's endured while stage diving over the years. Beginning the habit while playing house shows in Kentucky, Schultz graduated to bigger jumps as the band's profile grew—including a massive two-story dive off of a speaker stack at Chicago's Vic Theater (seen above).
Tyler, The Creator and Hodgy Beats' 2011 Odd Future Dives
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Odd Future brought a punk rock energy to their live shows when they first broke out and started touring back in 2010 and 2011. Tyler, The Creator first showed his acrobatics when he jumped on Jimmy Fallon's couch during their first televised performance and Hodgy Beats joined him when they both jumped off the balcony at NYC's Terminal 5. Other highlights include roof jumps at SXSW, Tyler's huge dive in Toronto during "Radical" (above) and Hodgy's Camden Crawl speaker jump (below) which produced this epic photo.
Sid Wilson's Masked Jumps
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Slipknot's Sid Wilson wins style points for repeatedly jumping off high structures dressed in his signature mask and red jumpsuit. At the end of his long career, he eventually looked back on his antics and said, “I’ll go back to some of these places and see them today and I’m like ‘What the fuck was I thinking? It’s not like I was all hopped up on a bunch of drugs or anything either. This was like coherent Sid Wilson jumping.”
Lil Uzi Vert's Rolling Loud Leap
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After spending hours looking through the biggest jumps we could find, it's clear that Lil Uzi Vert's Rolling Loud leap belongs in the conversation of the most impressive stage dives in music history. This guy's a star.
