And why? Over my 53 years I have heard many references to the guy was the “cancer” in the bands they were in, but often without much explanation. Some examples are Roger Waters and David Crosby. What is the story there? Who else?
“Creative differences.”
The trouble-makers are usually the people with a distinct artistic vision for the band that don’t get a whole lot of agreement from the other members. Either that or they are just total assholes in general, which is more common than you might imagine and exacerbated by fame and success.
Sounds like Dave Mustaine (Metallica).
There is no shortage of articles on why bands broke up. I think that’ll do you more good than asking us.
That might have sounded snarky, but I’m serious. I looked this topic up and learned a lot.
For instance, I know a lot about David Crosby’s history with The Byrds and CSN&sometimesY, but even I was surprised when I googled, and the first article to come up was a Rolling Stone article titled:
Graham Nash: ‘I Don’t Want Anything to Do With’ David Crosby
“In my world there will never, ever be a Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young record and there will never be another Crosby, Stills and Nash record or show,” singer says…
And that links to number of sites, which lead to others… one of which delves into how Crosby has treated Neil Young (and the horrible things he said about his wife).
Phew, now I’m emotionally exhausted. Just think if I’d started googling Yoko Ono… glad I’m not in a band, they seem to be tinderboxes.
Hired as the bassist by the Sex Pistols he played on only part of one song of their only studio album. Mostly that was the hepatitis caused by his drug use causing him to miss most of recording. Partly it was because he had no prior experience with the bass. :smack: His heroin habit and assault on an audience member killed their US tour in 1978. The band broke up in the aftermath of the failed tour.
Oh and he may have murdered his girlfriend with a hunting knife after the band broke up. He died from a heroin overdose while on bail before the case could come to trial, though.
I’d say John Fogerty would qualify. He was a bully who knew how to hold a grudge, and I actually resent the fact that CCR never got back together at the end of the 80s when all the other classic rock bands seemed to be getting their second spring. I would have loved to have been able to see them perform. And his solo career can be summed up in two parts: “Centerfield” and “Shit.”
I can’t quite make up my mind about Don Henley and Glenn Frey. On one hand, yeah, they were poison. They were assholes and proud of it, and their egos wound up tearing the band apart, but at least they were assholes who got the job done. Having worked for assholes who didn’t get the job done, I can appreciate that. Without Henley and Frey, the Eagles would have wound up like America or Bread. That said . . . they were assholes.
Mike Love would likely qualify. I will admit that it would probably have been hard for anybody to try to work in a band with Brian Wilson during his dark years, but Love’s actions over the decades have definitely shown his true colors.
Id argue it was Dennis Wilson. He was drugged out to the point of catatonia. He allowed The Manson Family to live in his house for weeks even as they destroyed his cars and drained his bank. But the worst thing he did is plagiarize a Manson song on a Beach Boys album without sharing credit. He and Terry Melcher didnt follow through with their alleged promises to Manson to record him. When it came time to pick a house of people to kill on 8-8-1968 this grudge might very well have doomed the lives of Sharon Tate et al. It was Melchers old house.
I will certainly admit that Dennis had his issues and made a lot of very poor decisions. I don’t think that he was ever described as being an outright malicious person, though. The OP seemed to be indicating people who were outright antagonistic towards bandmates; I don’t think Dennis was ever that.
You are probably right. I have just finished reading Ivor Davis excellent new book Manson Exposed https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07VFXFYZD/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1 and Dennis is fresh on my mind. I have a little sympathy for Love because it seems like he was the sane one and had to put up with the problems of his other bandmates.
My first concert was Crosby, Stills, and Nash, on what my friend and I would come to call their, “I’ve jumped bail, I’m high, and I’m armed” tour. The Band opened. This was about a year before Richard Manuel killed himself, thus kickstarting my disturbing tradition of seeing ppl perform a year before their untimely death. CSN came out, played 2 or 3 songs, then Crosby walked offstage. The rest of the concert was Stills and Nash performing solo, while the other went back to talk him back out. He came out, performed 2-3 more songs, and that was the end of the show. I still enjoyed myself. Stephen Stills kicks ass live, and those concerts where things go memorably wrong are all the more . . . well, memorable. Crosby is a dick, though.
Glenn Frey and Don Henley have had a lot said about them. Don Felder and Frey threatened each other on-stage and had a backstage fight that ended Felder’s first tenure with the band. There are books, autobiographies, and documentaries that delve into it further. After their success, they went back on the, “everyone gets an equal share of money” agreement they had early on, as they decided they deserved more. Going back on an agreement is being a dick.
I hate Henley and Frey for another reason. They, “got the band back together”, went on the Hell Freezes Over tour in 1994, and charged obscene amounts of money for tickets. This proved to the industry that people will pay obscene amounts of money to see a concert. Their top ticket prices were over $120 some places. That same year, Phil Collins charged $45 for the most expensive tickets, and Meat Loaf, who was riding high on his Bat out of Hell 2 album, was testily defending his $36 top prices. Concert prices went up tremendously after that. It’s one thing to be a dick to your bandmates, but to be instrumental in pricing a lot of fans out of seeing their favorite band live, that’s a special kind of dickery.
Yeah, it can be a bit hard to untangle. Robbie Robertson often comes off to me as a massive egotist and entitled jerk. BUT…he was apparently the straight(ish) one who stayed mostly clean while the rest of The Band positively wallowed in drugs and booze. Who’s to blame when the adult in the room is an a-bit-full-of-himself egotist, but everybody else is stoned to the gills?
Johnny Ramone was apparently a hard guy to like at times( though several did, like Blondie guitarist Chris Stein ), but he ran The Ramones very successfully while dealing with a semi-functional at best enfant terrible in Dee Dee and an intensely neurotic, very OCD Joey. I believe Dee Dee is quoted as saying something along the lines of ‘we took a difficult guy at the best of times and made him into a monster’.
Dennis DeYoung in Styx. By his own admission, he was the (self-appointed) boss of the band… and he was a terrible boss. He took the band in a much more mellow direction after a very successful record that produced two big hits (Renegade and Blue Collar Man) that were both hard rockers written and sung by Tommy Shaw, who, notably to Dennis DeYoung, was not Dennis DeYoung. After that record, which included a DeYoung tune that was so mellow and sappy that Tommy Shaw flatly said he’d quit the band if it were released as the follow-up single to the already extremely mellow and sappy Babe, came the highly theatrical Paradise Theater concept album, which wasn’t too bad, DeYoung-wise. This was followed by the highly theatrical and in some ways unintentionally funny Kilroy Was Here concept album, with band members listed on the album has characters in some ridiculous dystopian story about rock-n-roll freeing humanity from an evil villain and his robots. (Hence Mr. Roboto.) The old VH1 *Behind the Music *episode on the band had members and managers recalling how humiliating it was to have to act out this whole script on stage while unhappy crowds waited impatiently for the actual concert to begin.
None of the rest of the band wanted to do Bread-like music or big theatrical stuff. They just wanted to rock. Band member James Young said that with Dennis DeYoung it was always “My way or the highway,” and at some point the rest of the group decided the highway was better and more or less forced DeYoung out of his own band.
I heard things long ago about mean ol’ David Lee Roth abusing poor puppy Eddie Van Halen, but I never really followed up on that whole saga.
Geoff Tate responded unfavorably when the band Queensryche fired his stepdaughter from running the fan club, and his wife as the band’s manager. Things came to a head when Tate confronted the band about the firings (the band felt like they didn’t have a voice anymore. That Tate and his wife were essentially the bosses).
They would end up taking each other to court over who owned the rights to the band name. At one point, there were two bands known as Queensryche touring. The band eventually won the rights to the name, so Tate retaliated by naming his band Operation:Mindcrime, which is the name of the original band’s more famous albums.
Geoff Tate - Queensryche. Incredible band, largest douchebag.
Ginger Baker.
Arrogant, obnoxious and absolutely brilliant drummer!
Cream probably wouldn’t have lasted more than a year to two more given Clapton’s endless desire to be a true bluesman, but what could have been. 
His drinking, drug use and constant battles with Jack Bruce tore the band and Eric apart. But according to Ginger he was damn near a saint in the whole thing, it was all Jack’s fault. The only good thing Ginger ever had to say about Jack was that “He had time.”, that “something” known only to musicians that made the three of them amazingly brilliant together in way they were never able to duplicate with anyone else.
No mention of Lindsey Buckingham yet?
Jack Bruce and Ginger Baker had been in a band together before Cream, and already had a volatile history (including fights onstage and Baker pulling a knife on Bruce at one point). Frankly I’m surprised the band ever even got together, much less lasted as long as they did.
If you can find it, check out the documentary “Beware of Mr. Baker”. You will learn more than you ever wanted to know about Ginger Baker. :eek:
I was coming in to mention “Beware of Mr. Baker.” When the documentary starts out with Ginger Baker beating the interviewer with his cane, you know you’re in for a treat.