Heart’s ‘Two Buckets’ Tale – Real-Life ‘Spinal Tap’ Stories

How can two mop buckets come in handy for a rock musician on tour? Ann Wilson of Heart recently shared a real-life 'Spinal Tap' tale that shows how handy these common household items can be when things get really bad.

Wilson shared her rather stomach-churning story as part of our ongoing series of rock star memories in honor of the classic mockumentary’s 30th anniversary. As you might have guessed already, you may not want to read this one until your lunch break is over:

"So many things have gone wrong over the years. You know how when you’re out on the road and you’re traveling with a group and you’re out among the public, as they say, the “great unwashed” and there’s all this sickness going around and stuff? If one person in the whole touring group gets sick, it spreads like wildfire throughout the tour group.

"So our poor guitar player [Craig Bartock] got this really bad flu [recently], which was the total flu -- it was everything. He made the decision to go ahead and go onstage, but he asked that if he gave the signal that he had to run offstage, we should do something like do an acoustic song or tell jokes or whatever. They put two buckets for him backstage out of sight and he had to run offstage like two or three times. Then he would bravely just come back out and it would be okay again and then he’d get green and he’d have to leave again. Poor guy. That was just awful.

"You know, people get sick all of the time and I’m the only one that has the luxury that when I get really sick, we can’t play the show, because as a singer, I refuse to go up there and not give people my best."