Shaquille O’Neal Rushed a Girl to the Hospital, Revealing the Ugly Truth Behind Germany Trip

When Shaquille O’Neal becomes DJ Diesel, it’s not some celebrity side gig, it’s a full-blown second life. He’s not back there pressing buttons for show; he’s there to bring the roof down—literally. “What’s not to love?” he told Billboard, talking about the wild mosh pits at his sets. “Losing your mind for 30 seconds with a bunch of random people. No judgment. No hate. Just energy and good vibes.” For Shaq, it’s deeper than the drop: “It’s the closest feeling I get to playing ball again.”

And just like on the court, he takes responsibility for what happens in his space. Despite towering over the crowd as DJ Diesel, Shaq’s got a soft heart—and when it comes to his fans’ safety, he doesn’t take chances. That’s why you’ll never catch him crowd-surfing at his shows. Let’s be real—how are you supposed to lift a 7-foot, 324-pound giant? But moshing? That’s a different story.

On The Big Podcast with Shaq, he chopped it up with rapper Russ about it. Russ laughed when he found out Shaq skips crowd-surfing but jumps right into the pit instead. “Everyone’s up to his waist,” Russ joked, “so he can still survey the scene.” But as safe as that sounds, Shaq knows it’s anything but. “Trust me, it’s not safe,” he said. “I go out there, whole 30,000 coming—you have to hold them people up.”

The stakes became heartbreakingly real when he recalled one terrifying moment: “One time I had a little girl… and she was just hugging me, but everybody was coming and she fell. So now she’s on the ground and stepping on. So now I got to get violent, ’cause you’re telling people to move back. Now I got to throw elbows, you know.” His tone dropped as he remembered the aftermath: “I had an incident in Germany where the girl got messed up and I had to take her to the hospital.” Shaq feeds off the energy, but never at the expense of someone’s safety.

Shaquille O’Neal, also known as DJ Diesel, performs during his Shaq’s Bass All-Stars show at Skydeck on Broadway in Nashville, Tenn., Friday, March 29, 2024.

That sense of passion and care goes back to the very start. Shaq was just 14 when he saw Public Enemy live and got hooked on the idea of DJing. He mowed lawns and walked dogs until he saved up $200 for his first pawn shop turntables—and by 1993, his debut rap album Shaq Diesel went platinum. Still the only athlete to ever hit that milestone. Now, as DJ Diesel, he’s dropped bangers with Steve Aoki and NGHTMRE, chasing the same adrenaline rush he once got from championship basketball. “When I DJ, it gives me the same adrenaline rush as a playoff championship game,” he said. “That’s why I do it.”

And that rush is still going. Most recently, he teamed up with Virtual Riot for Damage, a genre-blending track that dropped in February on Monstercat Uncaged. The song opens with a mellow guitar and explodes into trap and dubstep mayhem—perfectly timed for his massive Super Bowl weekend event, Fun House. It’s high-octane, high-stakes Diesel, just how fans like it.

Did Shaquille O’Neal break the Guinness World Record?

In 2022, Shaquille O’Neal wasn’t just spinning heavy bass drops as DJ Diesel. He had a much bigger goal in mind: making mosh pit history. As he geared up to perform at Excision’s Lost Lands, one of the most iconic dubstep festivals in the U.S., Shaq asked fans a bold question: “Should we go for Guinness world record for biggest moshpit at @lost_lands ???” directly calling out the 40,000-strong bassheads gathered at Legend Valley, Ohio.

Anyone who’s seen a DJ Diesel set knows he brings chaos in the best way possible. Known for his face-melting drops and monster energy behind the decks, Shaq has earned his spot in the EDM scene as more than a celebrity hobbyist. He’s a full-blown bass ambassador. “EDM revitalized a sense of urgency and passion in me,” he said in a 2020 interview, and it shows. Fans lovingly call him the “dubstep dad,” and he shows up with the same ferocity he once did on the court—just now it’s for ravers instead of rebounds.

But breaking a world record isn’t as easy as pushing play. Back in 2007, heavy metal band DevilDriver tried to do just that with a 25,000-strong mosh at Download Festival, only to have Guinness deny it. “Unfortunately, as there is no way you can physically define where any circle/mosh pit starts and ends, we cannot accept this as a category,” they were told. Still, Lost Lands draws 40,000 headbangers annually.

Despite the buzz and a follow-up social media push, Guinness never formally certified Diesel’s attempt. Sources at Guinness World Records tell Loudwire that the category remains unrecognized, and no application was submitted for verification. Still, the episode cemented Shaq’s mosh-pit cred and proved his ambition far outstrips mere stage presence. He aimed to redefine a live-music moment, even if the record books didn’t budge

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