10 Rock Musicians Who Almost Died On Tour

The rockstar lifestyle isn't always the most user-friendly at the best of times. More often than not, you end up seeing countless artists turning to some sort of substance to help satisfy either the emotional toll put on them to follow up their success or the physical strain that it puts on their body. On the other hand, no one could have possibly imagined that you might be risking your life playing music.

Through the years, there have been countless times when some rockers came close to death while living their life on the road. While many people tend to attribute these to just the typical OD's and casualties, there's a lot more to it than that. As opposed to the typical cautionary tale, a lot of these near-death experiences are often unexpected from the very beginning, with some of the death-defying acts happening right in front of the audience.

Other times artists will have their more risky behaviors in between the shows, either through their own personal excesses or being caught in one sticky situation or another. Either way, these artists lived to tell the tale and are willing to deliver their songs to the masses once more. There's suffering for your art...but this is where it gets pushy.

By the turn of the century, David Bowie had lived approximately 5 different lifetimes compared to most other rock stars. Throughout his run in the '70s, his adopting of different personas along with his massive dependence on drugs and alcohol left him in a sorry state of mind, which seemed to turn for the better once he past his 50's. Once the Reality tour started up though, Bowie was given one of the biggest scares of his life while on tour.

For the most part, the shows seemed to go off without a hitch in the beginning, as the Thin White Duke started to cultivate that glam centric rock style he had always kept under wraps. Though the usual rock and roll vices were gone, time had seemed to takes its toll on Bowie physically, leading him to suffer a heart attack during a show midway through the tour.

After a safe recovery, Bowie decided to cancel the rest of the tour to focus on his health, while still keeping busy making appearances in movies like Zoolander and The Prestige. Along with the occasional new music on albums like the Next Day and his sonic epitaph Blackstar, the years of glam rock strutting had really gone by the wayside. Then again, it was nice to at least nice have a bit of a farewell to our Starman if only for a little while.