Rock guitarist Peter Buck turned into a "drunken lout" and assaulted British Airways cabin staff after a heavy drinking session aboard a transatlantic flight, a court heard today.
The 45-year-old REM star allegedly ignored every effort to calm him down and was eventually served with the airline's equivalent of a "yellow card" telling him to behave.
He was warned that if he did not the plane would be diverted and he could be taken off and prosecuted.
Far from quietening down Mr Buck promptly tore the notice into pieces under Captain Tom Payne's nose and told him what he could do with his "f---ing letter".
From that point his behaviour deteriorated even further, Mr David Bate QC, prosecuting, told West London's Isleworth Crown Court.
"He went on to upturn a breakfast trolley, smashing the crockery inside.
"He then picked up a knife and tried to slip it up his sleeve before it was taken from him by one of the crew," the barrister claimed.
When told again by the captain to calm down he threatened to take BA to court for assaulting him, the jury was told.
"He said to the captain, `I am REM and I can make up a story that I was assaulted'," said Mr Bate.
The barrister said that after the 747 from Seattle had landed at Heathrow Airport in April last year, Buck was asked by police to comment on his allegedly "loutish and drunken behaviour".
Mr Bate said: "Claiming to be shocked at what he had done and remembering nothing of it, he said he had acted like a jerk going on vacation. He had become like a Jekyll (sic)."
"The prosecution would put it rather differently."
Buck, who appeared in court in a pin-striped navy blue suit, white shirt and dark blue tie, denies one charge of being drunk on an aircraft, two counts of common assault involving cabin services manager Mr Mario Agius and stewardess Ms Holly Ward, and one charge of damaging British Airways crockery.
PA