On 28 July 1979, the World Series of Rock festival at Cleveland Stadium in Ohio brought together some of the biggest rock acts of the era for a day-long event that descended into violence and excess. The article recounts how a glorious summer festival, headlined by Aerosmith, ended with the stadium grounds in ruins, the band members reportedly at odds with one another, and two people dead, drawing comparisons to Woodstock as a notorious showcase of rock'n'roll excess.

The World Series of Rock began in Cleveland in 1974 as a run of summer festivals staged at Cleveland Stadium, home of the Cleveland Indians, adopting a baseball theme in which each festival day was billed as an "inning". The 1979 line-up featured Aerosmith headlining alongside Ted Nugent, Journey, Thin Lizzy and a rising Australian act, AC/DC. Trouble began the night before, as crowds gathered outside the stadium and local gangs preyed on unguarded fans, with reports of violence, robberies and theft; five people were shot in separate incidents, one fatally. Aerosmith, meanwhile, arrived in disarray, behind schedule on their album Night In The Ruts and beset by internal arguments fuelled by heavy drink and drug use, as captured in an interview at local station WMMS.