A singer relieved herself on stage at a Florida concert. Will she face criminal charges?
As the old saying goes, when you gotta go, you gotta go. But does it have to go down on stage during a concert?
That’s what happened Thursday night during a shocking live performance at the Welcome to Rockville Festival at the Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach.
The lead singer with Brass Against, Sophia Urista, was singing a cover of Rage Against the Machine’s “Wake Up,” when she announced she had to relieve herself and called a fan up on stage.
“I’mma p--s in this mother-[bleeper’s] mouth,” she reportedly told the crowd. “I gotta pee, and I can’t make it to the bathroom. So we might as well make a show out of it.”
Video shared to social media (which we will not show here) shows Urista pulling down her pants and urinating on the guy, who had a can on his face, and didn’t seem to mind.
After finishing, Urista pulls up her trousers, walks away from the man and yells, “Security, get him the [bleep] out of here!”
The band later apologized on Twitter the following day.
“We had a great time last night at Welcome to Rockville,” the post said. “Sophia got carried away. That’s not something the rest of us expected, and it’s not something you’ll see again at our shows. Thanks for bringing it last night, Daytona.”
So what is the deal with this band?
According to Brass Against’s description, it’s a “collective group of musicians who share the goal of creating music to inspire social and personal change.” Was Urista making a statement with her actions? Maybe a lack of bathrooms backstage?
Regardless, what the former “The Voice” contestant, 36, did is technically against the law.
If a police officer had witnessed the stunt, the Michigan-born performer could have been arrested and charged with lewdness and indecent exposure, a first-degree misdemeanor under Florida law.
It’s doubtful if any criminal charges will be filed because no incident report was made, Messod Bendayan, a spokesman for Daytona Beach police, told the Miami Herald on Monday.
Bendayan did say one person complained to police: a mother whose 16-year-old daughter was in the audience.
“No incident report was created because we didn’t actually speak to the reporting party,” Bendayan said. “She spoke to a county dispatcher initially. We tried calling her back twice and received no response. Beyond that, we’re not giving any further comment on this matter.”
Alas, on-stage antics at rock ‘n’ roll shows aren’t exactly a rarity. Two music stars who are known for their shock tactics come to mind: Ozzy Osbourne, who bit off the head of a dead bat at an Iowa concert in 1982, and Alice Cooper, whose head was “chopped off” for his audience more times than we can remember with a guillotine prop.
Old-school fans of The Doors fans may recall Jim Morrison was arrested in 1969 after he was accused of exposing himself to fans at a concert in Coconut Grove’s old Dinner Key Auditorium.
The rocker, then 25, was convicted of indecent exposure and open profanity, but cleared of a felony count of lewd and lascivious behavior and public drunkenness. The Melbourne, Florida, native was sentenced to six months in jail,and died just two years later in Paris while the highly publicized case was under appeal.
One thing is for certain. Brass Against won’t be playing at the Daytona International Speedway anytime soon.
“The band will not be included in future programming at NASCAR venues,” read a company statement to media.
A statement to media from Rockville producer Danny Wimmer also denounced the public urination: “We do not condone the inappropriate behavior that was displayed and have addressed this directly with the band, as well as other artists to ensure something like this doesn’t happen again.”
