Taylor Momsen's Unlikely Encounter With AC

The sheer scale of the open-air concert in Spain, 2024. Taylor Momsen and The Pretty Reckless were supporting AC/DC when something small, almost invisible, dropped from the night sky and landed—a bat. The rock star, amidst the spectacle and volume, did not immediately register the bite. It was a moment of bizarre contrast: the massive infrastructure of a stadium rock tour interrupted by a sudden, acute biological threat.

Ms. Momsen subsequently required a series of rabies shots, a serious medical necessity that quickly became the basis for an intensely unique act of camaraderie. She noted, in a recent interview, the confusing gentleness of the moment: "It was a very cute bat, though, if that's any consolation."

The immediate aftermath was a sustained exercise in good-natured absurdity engineered by the AC/DC camp. They bestowed upon her the nickname "Batgirl." It seemed the band, known globally for their massive sound and iconic status, found a quiet, almost domestic joy in the ongoing joke.

Every day brought a new, meticulously placed item; a small rubber ducky shaped like a bat would appear in her dressing room. Then, before one show, the amplifiers were covered entirely in handmade signs declaring "No bat." The culmination of this odd, endearing obsession arrived with her birthday celebration: a bat-themed party featuring a giant, carefully crafted homemade bat cake and, quite tellingly, bat horns used as a tiara.

The high theater of rock and roll momentarily paused for a very specific, internalized joke.

The continuation of their professional relationship confirms the depth of this unusual bond. The Pretty Reckless has consistently served as AC/DC’s support act, spanning the 2024 and 2025 European legs, and now moving into a pan-American tour slated to begin this February in Brazil. The friendship solidified, perhaps, not just through shared musical success, but through the shared, very specific memory of a flying mammal and subsequent public adoption.

It provides an unusual insight into Ms. Momsen’s own trajectory—that same voice, now nicknamed "Batgirl" while touring with rock legends, once sang "Where Are You Christmas?" She was seven years old then, playing Cindy Lou Who in the film How The Grinch Stole Christmas. An unlikely journey, indeed, from Whoville to being crowned with rubber bat horns by rock icons.

We await the upcoming North, South, and Central American dates with a certain hopeful curiosity. Perhaps the geography will afford them different fauna.