On this day, eight years ago (July 23, 2010) Kings of Leon cut their set in St. Louis, Missouri at the Verizon Wireless Amphitheater short due to a bombarding of bird droppings. Three songs into their set, the band left the stage for “security reasons,” but it was revealed later that it was actually due to being mercilessly dive-bombed by pigeon poop.

The Followill brothers, in an attempt to not disappoint fans, decided to still take the stage even after openers The Postelles and the Stills returned from the stage devoured by pigeon excrement. The band took the stage and performed three out of their 20 planned songs before some of the poop landed near the bassist's mouth and the band decided they needed to quit before they "would have been covered from head to toe."

"We couldn't believe what The Postelles and The Stills looked like after their sets," Jared Followill said in a statement. "We didn't want to cancel the show, so we went for it. We tried to play. It was ridiculous."

Drummer Nathan Followill then took to Twitter to apologize to fans:

“So sorry St Louis. We had to bail, pigeons sh*t in Jared‘s mouth and it was too unsanitary to continue... Don’t take it out on Jared, it’s the fucking venue’s fault. You may enjoy being sh*t on but we don’t. Sorry for all who traveled many miles.”

Before the band had to leave they played two tracks off their 2008 album Only By The Night and one track off their debut album Aha Shake Heartbreak. Check out their cut-short-due-to-pigeon-poop setlist below:

The group did return to St. Louis just two months later, performing the same venue, but with a notable lack of pigeons. At this time they were also getting ready to release their fifth studio album, Come Around Sundown that was nominated at the 54th Grammy Awards for Best Rock Album.

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