Performers Who Died in Front of their Audience

French singer Weldens was a star on the rise — only to have her career (and life) end because of a freak stage accident. In 2017, the 35-year-old singer had just released her first album, Le grand H de l'homme and was a big draw to the Léo Ferré Festival, performing at a church in the village of Goudron, France. According to eyewitnesses, Weldens put on a terrific show and earned a standing ovation. She was soaking it all in when she suddenly lurched forward and fell lifeless to the ground. While early reports of what happened could only provide speculation, "electrical malfunctions" were likely to blame for why Weldens' heart stopped. As to how she was electrocuted in the first place, it's notable that Weldens performed barefoot.

On November 30, 1996, Tiny Tim played a benefit show for the Women's Club of Minneapolis. While singing "Tip-Toe Thru' the Tulips with Me," Tiny Tim abruptly stopped playing, then told his wife (Susan Khaury; he and Vicki had divorced years earlier) he didn't feel well. Then the 64-year-old performer collapsed, dying a few hours later at a Minneapolis hospital from what a nursing supervisor attributed to cardiac arrest.

While performing in Karawang, Indonesia, in 2016, the 29-year-old was handling a live cobra "stage prop" she'd used for years. During just her second song, the snake bit Bule on the thigh. She didn't think much of it, assuming that someone had defanged or de-venomed the cobra. No one had. Around 45 minutes later, Bule was still doing her show when she started vomited and seizing. She was pronounced dead at a local hospital.

Comedian Dick Shawn put together a full evening of entertainment for the audience of 500 or so people that paid to see him perform at UC San Diego in April 1987. First, he did a sketch where he played a disembodied head on a dinner table, then he comically danced out of time to some music. Next, Shawn launched into a routine about the end of the world, during which he lay down on the stage and stayed completely still. The audience thought it was part of the bit, that Shawn was pretending to be dead. The end of the world is about people being dead, after all. Tom Wartelle, a guy in that audience, told the LA Times that, "There were comments from the audience like, 'Take his wallet.'" Wartelle said "it all blended in very well" with Shawn's act. But then, after five minutes of Shawn not moving, the heckles and laughter pretty much stopped. A doctor rushed onto the stage, tried to find a pulse, and then flipped Shawn onto his back. The audience was ordered out while Shawn received CPR. An ambulance arrived in short order and took Shawn to the nearby Scripps Memorial Hospital in La Jolla, California. Less than two hours after Shawn first took the stage, he was pronounced dead at age 57.

At Atlanta's historic Fox Theatre in May 2017 for "Hampton 70: A Celebration of Col. Bruce Hampton." Staged the day after Hampton turned 70, the all-star jam session celebrated the man and his music. As a teenage guitar wizard named Taz Niederauer showed off some tasty licks, Hampton fell to his knees, resting his arm on a speaker on stage. Niederauer and members of Blues Traveler and Widespread Panic played "Turn on Your Love Light" while totally unaware that Hampton's light had just gone out. As banjo player and concert participant Rev. Jeff Mosier said in a Facebook post, he thought Hampton had initially fallen to his knees to do a "we're not worthy" to Niederauer. Nor was he taking a little break. Hampton had collapsed, and he died that night in an Atlanta hospital.

While performing at sea in March 2017, Hashian collapsed behind the drums. Hashian was 67.

It was during a gig with OHM in May 2016 that Menza's heart gave out. The 51-year-old collapsed onstage during the third song of the band's set at a show in Studio City, California, and he was pronounced dead upon arrival at a nearby hospital.

On December 8, 2004, the rock band Damageplan took the stage at Alrosa Villa, a club in Columbus, Ohio. After the breakup of the popular metal band Pantera, that band's guitarist, "Dimebag" Darrell Abbott, formed Damageplan. A 25-year-old ex-Marine named Nathan Gale in the audience that night was reportedly so upset about the demise of Pantera that he opened fire on Abbott just 90 seconds into Damageplan's set. Abbott, 38, died that night, and so did three other people: concert-goer Nathan Bray, band crew member Jeff Thompson, and Alrosa Villa employee Erin Halk. Gale, whose mother said he was discharged from the military due to mental health issues, also died, shot and killed by a police officer