Not quite on the same level, but one of my buddies and his brother went to see Allan Holdsworth and his band once, and severely overestimated how long it would take to get to the venue, which was just a small club anyway. So with well over an hour to kill, they head to the bar, and there's Allan himself sitting there getting hammered! An hour before the show, he's not just drinking, he's pounding doubles. So they sat and had a few drinks with Allan Holdsworth, then he says he's gotta start getting ready for the show, and excuses himself.
He screwed up a couple times during the show, but they stuck around to chat with him afterwards, told him how great he was. "Even pulverized?" he asks. Well, he was great considering that he was pulverized. But they didn't say that. But now, "pulverized" is our new favorite word for getting shitfaced.