Taylor Momsen was bitten by a random bat on stage, is getting rabies shots
Taylor Momsen and her band The Pretty Reckless are having a Pretty Rock-full year (it’s June, you’re getting a Dad joke). They opened for The Rolling Stones at the Las Vegas stop of the AARP-sponsored Hackney Diamonds Tour last month, and this summer they’re on the European leg of AC/DC’s PWR Up Tour. While promoting these gigs recently, Taylor recalled playing a show in Argentina where a group of fans stormed the stage and started stripping, as one of the craziest performances the band has ever had. If asked again today, I think Taylor would have a new answer for craziest show. While performing in Spain last week, singing a song called “Witches Burn,” no less, the audience had to alert Taylor to a BAT that had landed on her leg. Displaying far better humor than I would if a bat had bitten me, Taylor posted videos on Instagram of the moment on stage, and later in the hospital getting the first of a series of rabies shots she’ll need for the next two weeks.
Taylor Momsen is officially #batgirl.
The Gossip Girl star and singer took to Instagram on Friday and shared a wild video shot by a fan as she performed onstage in Sevilla, Spain. While in the middle of performing “Witches Burn,” a bat could be seen landing on her left leg. Fans watched in horror and pointed to the bat in an effort to alert Momsen, who was none the wiser about what had just happened.
“You guys are pointing at something and I don’t know what you’re saying,” she tells the crowd before turning around and taking a closer look. Momsen can then be seen shouting, “Oh my God” after realizing there’s a bat clinging to her leg.
“There’s a flying f***ing bat on my leg right now,” she says. “Can someone help me, please?”
Momsen, who portrayed Jenny Humphrey on Gossip Girl, laughs off the bizarre moment, and even jokes, “I must be really rich [in blood].”
After a couple of crew members come to her rescue, Momsen says, “Gracias!”
In her caption, Momsen said the incident happened Wednesday, and she had no idea the bat landed on her leg until the “incredible crowd kept screaming and pointing.”
“He was cute, but yes he bit me…so rabies shots for the next two weeks,” Momsen wrote in her caption to the video that captured the incident. “thanks to all the staff at the hospital who dubbed me #batgirl after seeing it on the local news that morning.”
The video also cuts to Momsen in the hospital receiving her first rabies shot.
Momsen, who was performing with The Pretty Reckless while on AC/DC’s PWR Up Tour, said that night will be “one for the books!!!!”
So just reading about the encounter, I was like, “How could you possibly not realize a bat had landed on your leg?! Let alone bitten you!!” Then I watched the video. The bat is tiny! For the first few seconds I thought it was just part of her dress! And then I learned yet more about bat bites when CB decided to scare the ever-loving sh!t out of share with me a podcast on rabies. The disease is nearly 100% fatal in humans if you don’t get the vaccine right after exposure. And, apparently, a bat can bite you without your having felt it or without even leaving a mark. The two facts were linked by a story of people dying after being bitten by rabid bats in their sleep. EEKS!! I couldn’t tell exactly what Taylor’s tights situation was (they look like fishnets), but this whole episode has me wondering about artists like Beyonce wearing multiple layers of tights when performing. Sure, she’s said it’s to keep everything, well, tight. But has Beyonce secretly been defending against bat bites penetrating her skin this whole time??!!
photos credit: Faye’s Vision/Cover Images, Getty and via Instagram
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