The talk of the 2000 MTV Video Music Awards wasn’t so much the triumphs of Eminem and *N Sync – or Lil’ Kim‘s expectedly scandalous outfit (orange, plastic, barely there). It was a bizarre stunt pulled by Rage Against the Machine‘s Tim Commerford, who scaled the structure behind the podium and perched himself there while Limp Bizkit accepted the award for Best Rock Video for ‘Break Stuff’.
The sight of Commerford surprised everyone, including security inside Radio City Music Hall, who rushed onstage with New York City firemen and policemen to try to coax the bassist down. At times Commerford swayed back and forth, threatening to topple the precarious structure.
“It was the craziest thing I ever experienced almost in my life,” said Limp Bizkit‘s Fred Durst afterwards. “I felt really uncomfortable.” Durst said he couldn’t quite understand what Commerford was mumbling as he sat up there, but it sounded something like “We played for you guys.”
“I hope he gets his head checked soon,” Durst shrugged, calling the whole episode “weird and upsetting”.
Blink 182 performed ‘All The Small Things’ with a host of midgets jumping around and suspended from the ceiling. Jennifer Lopez, who won the Best Dance Video for ‘Waiting for Tonight’, arrived with Puff Daddy on her arm, putting to bed rumours of a split.
Comedians Shawn and Marlon Wayans hosted the show, and got it right when they joked that Britney Spears went “from the Mickey Mouse Club to the strip club”. Spears‘ extremely sexual performance of ‘OopsI Did It Again’ raised more than eyebrows.
Later, Spears and Christina Aguilera made a point to appear together onstage, quelling whispers of a feud, before Whitney Houston and husband Bobby Brown stepped out as surprise presenters. And Limp Bizkit‘s Durst joined Aguilera during her performance, playfully alluding to gossip that the two have engaged in “extracurricular” activities.
One pairing that wasn’t about to happen was Napster‘s Shawn Fanning and Metallica‘s Lars Ulrich. Bitter about Napster‘s role in distributing his band’s music, Ulrich rolled his eyes when Fanning, wearing a Metallica T-shirt, helped MTV VJ Carson Daly announce Spears‘ performance. Fanning admitted backstage that he was very nervous about being up there, and walked out of the press room when asked about the case against mp3.com, which is currently facing many of the same legal troubles as Napster.