5 Opening Act and Headliner Combos That Actually Happened

New tours are seemingly announced every week. Oftentimes, those tours feature outstanding multi-act lineups and other great supporting acts.

With that in mind, we can’t help but think about all of the strange opening acts and headliner combos in rock history, and there have been some doozies.

A great example of this was the Molson Canadian Rocks for Toronto concert in 2003. The show was organized as an economic boom for Toronto, which was hit pretty badly by the SARS outbreak. (It’s also why the show is affectionately known as SARSStock. Over 450,000 people attended the show, which featured the headlining lineup of The Rolling Stones, AC/DC, Rush, The Guess Who…and Justin Timberlake.

Bookers and promoters didn’t think about how a predominantly rock crowd would react to Timberlake. It’s a memory that still sticks with Timberlake, who reflected on it during a February 2020 appearance on BBC’s The Graham Norton Show.

“You would think Canadians are historically peaceful people, … It was a bit of a blur,” recalled Timberlake, who at the time had just started his solo career. “I just remember saying to the band before we went on stage, ‘I don’t think this is going to go well.’ Little did I know how bad it was going to go.”

So, how bad was it? People threw bottles of urine at him!

Jokingly, Timberlake said, “I still have a lot of trauma from this incident. After the first song, the host of the festival comes out and [tries to wave me off stage,] and I’m like, ‘No, man! I’m staying out here! We’re doing this!'”

Fans then continued to throw the bottles of urine at him, but things eventually calmed down. Timberlake said, “After [the second song of the set] either one of two things happened: Either they ran out of nerve, because they knew I was going to stay there, or they ran out of urine.”

Fortunately, no bottles of urine were involved in the following five examples of strange opening act and headliner combos. However, they all are very interesting and almost baffling that they even happened. Enjoy!

• Jimi Hendrix Experience Opening For The Monkees (1967)

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  In 1967, the Jimi Hendrix Experience opened for The Monkees. Frankly, it's still amazing this bill was made official, but it is simply one of the strangest bills ever.  Considering most of the crowd was there to see The Monkees and likely not old enough to appreciate Hendrix, the group exited the tour after only seven shows, because they were booed every…single…night. (Yes, seriously!)

• The Who Opening For Herman’s Hermits (1967)

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  In a similar vein as the Jimi Hendrix Experience/The Monkees, The Who during their first tour of the United States ended up opening for Herman’s Hermits.  Coincidentally, a young Bruce Springsteen attended a stop on this tour which he fondly remembered at the 2015 MusiCares MAP Fund benefit honoring Pete Townshend.  It was the first rock show The Boss had ever attended, and he said it was a game-changer for him.

• Bruce Springsteen Opening for Anne Murray (1974)

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  This infamous moment happened in August 1974 at the Schaefer Music Festival in New York City’s Central Park.  While Springsteen’s star was on the rise, Murray was tearing up the singles charts, so it was decided that Murray would headline, and Springsteen would get an opening 80-minute set. Yeah…big mistake. Imagine going on *after* Bruce Springsteen.  We wouldn’t wish that on even our greatest enemies.
• The Beatles Opening for Brenda Lee (1962)

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  While just a one-off show, Brenda Lee's performance at the Star-Club in Hamburg, Germany now lives in infamy, because of her opening act:  The Beatles. In an interview with CNN, Lee said after the show, she took a Beatles demo to her label, Decca Records, and tried to score them a record deal.  The label reps told her, “That look will never make it, and that sound will never happen.” Oh…how those label reps were kicking themselves a year later.

• Lynyrd Skynyrd Opening For Strawberry Alarm Clock (1968)

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  Psychedelic rock and southern rock are definitely two genres we can’t imagine together on a double bill, but on select dates of a Strawberry Alarm Clock tour in 1968, Lynyrd Skynyrd provided support. As history would have it, Ed King, founding member of Strawberry Alarm Clock, would later join Skynyrd in 1972 and play on the band’s first three albums until his departure in 1975.