Being famous has to be kind of rough. No one is immune to occasionally blurting out the wrong thing, but when celebrities do it, it’s on the record forever.
A-listers have different ways of handling this fact. Some shy away from the press, choosing to say nothing rather than be misinterpreted, while others let out anything that comes to their head, refusing to censor themselves.
The public can’t seem to get enough of the latter, whether the comments inspire entertain or offend. Here are nine of the most outspoken celebrities in that category.
7. Madonna
Back in the ‘90s, David Letterman’s monologue poked fun at Madonna regularly, so to get back at him, the pop star made her dissatisfaction known when she dropped by his show in 1994. Madonna relentlessly steered the conversation back to the uncomfortable, saying, “All you do is talk about my sex life on your show, so now you don’t want to talk about my sex life when I’m on your show?” She went on to drop multiple f-bombs, explain the benefits of peeing in the shower, and asked Dave if he had ever smoked endo. Madonna has cooled down a bit in recent years and even dropped by the talk show for a few tamer interviews, but her wilder years definitely make her a candidate for this list.
6. Ted Nugent
The Motor City Madman is notorious for aligning with the far right, so his rants often attract attention. One particularly violent tirade found Nugent sporting camouflage and two machine guns onstage, and well, his choice of words probably got him on some kind of CIA watch list. “Obama, he’s a piece of shit. I told him to suck on my machine gun,” he told the audience. “Hey Hillary, you might want to ride one of these into the sunset, you worthless bitch.”
5. Eminem
From Moby to ICP to Lady Gaga, Marshall Mathers has never been afraid of going after other musicians in his raps. So when he started Shade 45, his own uncensored channel on Sirius XM Radio, it was sure to be controversial. Eminem went into his personal life, saying that while he and Mariah Carey did have a relationship, “It didn’t work. I wasn’t really into what she was into, our personalities collided. She’s a diva, and I’m a little more regular, I guess.” Carey denied his comments, starting a slew of new diss songs from Em, as well as one from Carey.
4. Noel Gallagher
The British press can always count on the former Oasis guitarist to insult someone. Though recently in hot water for saying that Jay-Z had “no chance” at the Glastonbury Festival, Gallagher has talked plenty of trash before. Of Radiohead, he told Spin, “I remember seeing Radiohead on the cover of a magazine…and it said, ‘RADIOHEAD: THE PAIN’. And I thought, ‘Won’t you fucking give it a rest, you bunch of moaning children?’ The pain? Of making an album? I don’t buy it. If you’re not having a laugh, then don’t do it.” Noel is also known for telling The Observer in 1996 that he wished Blur frontman Damon Albarn and bassist Alex James “would catch AIDS and die.”
3. Liam Gallagher
Maybe it runs in the family. Former Oasis frontman Liam Gallagher is just as loose-lipped as his brother. Also taking shots at Radiohead, Liam criticized King of Limbs, saying, “I like to think that what we do, we do fucking well. Them writing a song about a fucking tree? Give me a fucking break! You’d have thought [Yorke would] have written a song about a modern tree or one that was planted last week. You know what I mean?” He’s also gone after Mumford and Sons, saying that they “look like fucking Amish people” and poking fun at them for being “ashamed” about winning a Brit Award. “They bow their heads down going, ‘Oh, we don’t deserve it,’ like a fucking dick. What’s that about? You must have seen it before so don’t pretend like you’ve just come out of a cider apple factory.”
2. Charlie Sheen
With talk of “warlocks” and “tiger blood” and “goddesses” and “winning,” Sheen’s crazy interview antics took him to the top of the meme totem pole. In one interview, he referred to Alcoholics Anonymous as a “bootleg cult,” saying, “My success rate is 100 percent. Do the math…another one of their mottoes is ‘Don’t be special, be one of us.’ Newsflash: I am special, and I will never be one of you! I have a disease? Bullshit! I cured it with my brain, with my mind.” Sheen also claimed that he and fellow actor Alex Jones were working for the Pope as mercenaries, saying, “We work for the Pope, we murder people…We are high priests, Vatican assassin warlocks. Boom. Print that, people. See where that goes.”
1. Kanye West
Were you expecting anyone else? Whether it’s the “George Bush doesn’t care about black people” comment following Hurricane Katrina or the infamous “Imma let you finish” line interrupting Taylor Swift’s VMA speech, West isn’t the best at holding his tongue. Matt Lauer thought he could get an apology out of the rapper in an interview late last year—Matt Lauer thought wrong. When the Today Show host tried to get West to look at footage of President Bush talking about the Katrina comments, West replied, “I didn’t need you guys to show me the tape in order to, like, prompt my emotion to what I’m gonna say.” He also got noticeably upset later on when a clip from the VMAs was played. “Please don’t let that happen. It’s like ridiculous.” All in all, it’s a very uncomfortable-yet-still-pretty-entertaining interview. Watch it below!
