10 Close Calls In Rock History

There's a common belief in the music industry that everything comes down to luck. While the universe might have to be on your side for certain things to go your way, it's just a matter of putting the time and effort into your instrument to become something exceptional. Then again, things can turn a corner in a matter of seconds if you're not careful...just ask these bands.

Across every iteration of music history, there have been those subtle little nuances that nearly derailed some of our favorite acts, from members being replaced by the wrong guy to last minute changes added to the mix. Hell, even the classic versions of these bands and songs feel like they're done almost by accident, as if someone just happened to document the moment in real time. Granted, that also meant we missed out on what could have been coming down the pipeline later.

As much as time has been kind to most of these bands, it would have also been interesting to see how their careers would have worked if they had the odds stacked against them even more. Still, considering the kind of material that we have to work with today, we managed to do pretty damn well regardless. ...Or did we?

As the focus on rock music started to turn towards the Sunset Strip, Motley Crue were really turning into the ringleaders of glam rock. Though you could argue that Van Halen got the ball rolling for hair metal in the early days, the Crue were the first to make it truly a spectacle, almost like they took the theatrics of KISS and combined them with the harsher assault of punk rock. Just before they got to their chart topping Dr. Feelgood though, they almost had to persevere without their main songwriter.

While Nikki Sixx always had a bigger plan for what the Crue were going to be, that didn't stop his insatiable heroin habit, which had reached its low point after the tour for Theatre of Pain. Looking for any fix he could find, Nikki had someone inject him with heroin, only to collapse dead of cardiac arrest shortly afterward. After being officially pronounced dead at the scene, Nikki was resurrected when he was given two adrenaline needles a la Pulp Fiction directly into his chest.

That didn't stop the thirst for destructive behavior though, with Nikki leaving the hospital shortly after coming to and getting hooked on his drug of choice once again. Despite eventually cleaning up and writing a kickass song about it in with Kickstart My Heart, the future of glam rock's poster children seemed dead in the water for a few hours.