Taylor Momsen’s time opening for AC/DC has delivered plenty of unforgettable moments, but none quite as bizarre—or long-lasting—as an unexpected encounter with wildlife that earned her a new nickname from the rock icons themselves.
During AC/DC’s 2024 European tour, THE PRETTY RECKLESS frontwoman was performing in Spain when a bat unexpectedly swooped down and latched onto her leg mid-song. What initially raised serious health concerns and required Momsen to undergo rabies treatment soon took a much lighter turn behind the scenes, thanks to AC/DC’s sense of humor.
Speaking in a recent interview with Metal Hammer, Momsen detailed how the legendary Australian band quickly transformed the incident into a tour-long joke.
“AC/DC started calling me ‘Batgirl’. Every day I’d go into my dressing room and there’d be a little bat rubber ducky,” Momsen revealed.
“The next show, we walked on our stage, and they’d covered our amps in ‘No bat’ signs,” she said.
The situation culminated on Momsen’s birthday, when AC/DC leaned fully into the joke with a celebration that left little doubt the nickname was here to stay.
“They threw me a bat-themed birthday party with a giant homemade bat cake and some bat horns as a tiara; it was crazy. When AC/DC give you a nickname, you stick with that!”
Looking back, Momsen acknowledged both the shock of the original incident and the absurdity of how it evolved over the course of the tour.
“We were playing in Spain when this bat flew out of the sky and landed on me,” she remembered. “I didn’t notice it, but it bit me. I had to have all these rabies shots, but it turned into this big running joke on the tour. It was a very cute bat, though, if that’s any consolation.”
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