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
I’m absolutely terrified of bats for this very reason. They are so small and their bites can be the smallest scratch that you don’t even notice.
And then you are walking dead.
Oh I’m gonna go cry now.
When I was a child my grandma used to tell us that if a bat got stuck in our hair we would have to shave our heads. I know it was nonsense but I’m still terrified of these little things. They get spooked so easily and try to bite for no reason.
If you ever have a bat in your house – attic or ANYWHERE – you need the shots.
Yep. A friend had a bat get into her bedroom in the middle of the night. It wasn’t obvious that anyone was bitten but the whole family had to get rabies shots.
She’s a very talented musician. I love her voice.
Me too. Songs are hit or miss, but her raspy voice is amazing.
Now I have something else to add to my list of Things to Freak Out About. Yikes!!!
I had to get the rabies vaccine, the preventative one, for work. There are a few countries, not many, where the vaccine is recommended. There was no med evac in country, so it wa mandatory for work liability issues, not to enter the country. Anyway, the rabies vaccine is one of the most painful, scary vaccines I’ve ever gotten (and I’ve gotten A LOT bc of my job). Three shots over a two month period, they have to be spaced out, I forget the timing. It burns like nothing you’ve ever felt and causes crazy muscle spasms and aches for days. I don’t know how painful the post-bite shots are, but I hope it’s not like the vaccine.
I had to get post-exposure shots, and aside from having to drop my pants for the nurse (the first shot goes in your butt cheek- something about it needing to go in an area that has a lot of tissue), I didn’t notice anything different than a typical vaccine. Only that all five had to be administered in the ER, because it’s so expensive that doctors’ offices can’t keep it on hand.
Ah, interesting, very different then. The preventative vaccine is in your upper arm. My arm was in so much pain for a week.
Ah, sorry, I wasn’t very clear! I had four trips to the ER across four weeks for the shots. The first round was, iirc, one shot in the butt which was something to boost immune response, and one vaccine in the arm. The remaining three visits were one shot in the arm each time. I think my arm was kind of sore, but nothing beyond what I would normally expect. The total amount of shots was based on body mass- I had five in total because I’m tiny, but a friend of a friend had seven. The nurse for my first visit, who had been working in ER medicine for many years, told me that rabies shots in the past were like a 6 inch needle that went IN THROUGH THE NAVEL and up into the abdomen. *shudders* He made me grateful for the minor inconvenience I dealt it.
I’m glad you were able to get the pre-exposure shots, even if they sucked! Rabies is utterly terrifying.
I received four post-exposure rabies vaccinations after being bit by a dog that had no vaccination record on my job. All shots went in my upper arm. The first one was the worst, as you get a booster with it. That knocked me on my butt for a few days. But anything’s better than rabies.
And I did have to go to the ER to get mine. It also had to be ordered by my county’s health department as it’s so expensive. Thank goodness workman’s comp paid for mine.
We used to live at the other side of the country and bats would flutter and flit around us during summer evenings catching mosquitoes. I thought it was cool and cute. My coworker said that of course bats have rabies…🥺🦇 I’m not sure if I’m happy that I didn’t know that back then or not.
I watched the video last week and thought she said “I must really be a witch” – which is hilarious
She did say “I must really be a witch.” The Spanish subtitle shows that (bruja)
The chances of a bat having rabies is pretty slim, but because rabies is fatal it’s good to treat any encounter as if they do have them.
We found a dead bat in our catio recently and had to quarantine our cats until the bat got tested. It was negative. Animal Control was pretty freaked out on whether we’d touched it or not, luckily my husband recognized what it was before picking it up and put on gloves, or we’d had to start the shots immediately. Not sure if we could have stopped the shots once the tests came back negative? I’m assuming so.
Been there, had the shots. Thank god the vaccine was fully covered by my insurance, but the whole series cost the same as a decent used car.
For anyone who has physical contact with a bat or wakes up with one in the house: CATCH THE BAT!!! Don’t open your windows or shoo it outside. Don’t touch it with your bare hands. Throw a towel over it (they can’t fly from the ground) and stuff it into a container. Don’t kill it and don’t damage its head.
If you can catch the bat, then you can bring it to your local veterinarian’s office first thing in the morning and have it sent to a lab for testing. It cost me $100 last time. (Cheaper than an ER copay.) If the test comes back negative, then you don’t have to get the shots. 10/10 would recommend. Worth the fee.
Omg great tip.
The price of the post-exposure series is insane. I think they charged my insurance over $11,000 USD when I needed the shots four years ago.
My shot series was nearly $7,000. When they sent the bill to my work, I nearly passed out. I had to forward it to workman’s comp and they paid it.
When I was in high school we had a bad-a** cat who would hunt bats. They hung under the gutters of this old rental house we lived in. She would jump up and wake them and they would be flying around blind in the sun. We couldn’t get the lazy landlord to hire a pest removal company, so we had to rely on Melissa the Huntress to protect us from the bats.
This story is insane. Poor Taylor!