Brett Anderson almost missed breakout show

British rocker Brett Anderson almost missed his band Suede’s breakthrough performance at an awards show because he was so nervous he faked an illness.
The group shot to fame in the U.K. after a controversial appearance at the 1993 BRIT Awards when they shocked music industry executives sitting in the audience by turning in a raunchy performance of their track Animal Nitrate.
The eye-popping show, screened on live TV, propelled the band to stardom in Britain, but now their former record label boss Saul Galpern has revealed the big moment almost didn’t happen because frontman Anderson tried to wriggle out of it by pretending to be sick.
Galpern tells Uncut magazine, “Brett didn’t want to do it. It might have been nerves. I had to go round to his house and throw him in the car.”
Anderson admits he often faked illness during his early days in Suede, telling the publication, “It must have been a pain in the a**e for everybody. I felt a great weight of expectation and I wanted it to be amazing.”