Sex, drugs, rock n' roll … and fragile egos.
That's what being in a band is truly all about.
A successful band can last years and safely navigate the loss and addition of new members.
Except that sometimes, the band so hates their departed partner in crime that they do everything
they can to erase his very existence.
Here's a look at some band members that famous bands want you to forget about.
Dave Navarro, Red Hot Chili Peppers
After the original guitarist for the Red Hot Chili Peppers died of a heroin overdose in
1988, the band implemented a revolving door policy, bringing in several short-term replacements.
The most famous was former Jane's Addiction ax-man Dave Navarro, who played on the Red
Hot Chili Peppers album One Hot Minute.
Turns out that was a pretty accurate album title, because in 1998, the band dumped him
in a press release.
And when the Red Hot Chili Peppers were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2012,
they conspicuously left Navarro off the list of officially enshrined band members.
The band's lawyers said it was due to technical restrictions imposed by the Hall of Fame,
and not a personal grudge.
But only Navarro knows for sure.
Mitch Malloy, Van Halen
Everyone knows that Van Halen has toggled back and forth between lead singers Sammy
Hagar and David Lee Roth for years.
And most fans recall that at one point, the band recorded an album with a third lead singer,
former Extreme vocalist Gary Cherone.
But did you know that Van Halen actually had a fourth lead singer for a short time?
Yep, his name was Mitch Malloy, but after recording some music with the band, he decided
all the drama just wasn't worth it and simply quit rather than take the gig full time.
"That's why nobody knows about this.
Cause, they kept it quiet, and I kept it quiet.
Until recently."
Peter Criss, KISS
In the '70s, a KISS concert offered a little something for everyone, including a solo number
by drummer Peter Criss, who would be left alone on stage to sing along to an orchestral
backing track on the very un-KISS ballad he wrote, called "Beth."
It would become one of the band's biggest hits, but that didn't count for much with
KISS co-founders Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley.
The pair fired Criss in 1980, hiring Eric Carr as a replacement, and went so far as
to have Carr record a new version of "Beth" for their greatest hits album in order to
totally erase Criss from their catalogue.
That's cold.
Geoff Nicholls, Black Sabbath
Things that are metal: power chords, songs about the devil and going crazy, and Ozzy
Osbourne's Black Sabbath had all of those things, but they also had the rather un-metal
element of … a keyboard player.
His name was Geoff Nicholls, and he was a full-time, regular, longtime member of Black
Sabbath whose parts were easy to hear on every Sabbath record recorded between 1980 and 1995.
But since it just wasn't metal to have a keyboardist, he often played backstage during their live
concerts so the audience couldn't see him.
Sounds like Nicholls was the real wizard of Ozz...
"Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain!"
Hugh McDonald, Bon Jovi
The official bass player for Bon Jovi throughout the '80s and all the way to 1994 was Alec
John Such, a guy who, like the rest of the band, had glorious hair and big white teeth.
But he wasn't the band's only bassist.
In fact, a guy named Hugh McDonald recorded a lot of the band's songs, including the album
Keep the Faith.
Unfortunately for McDonald, he was 10 years older than the rest of the band and didn't
fit in with their look, so they kept him in the studio while parading younger dudes out
on stage.
Now that everyone in Bon Jovi is well into middle age, though, that doesn't matter so
much anymore, and McDonald was finally made an official band member in 2016.
So you can probably stop petitioning them about it.
Darryl Jones, The Rolling Stones
In 1992, bassist Bill Wyman left the self-proclaimed "world's greatest rock n' roll band" after
more than 30 years.
His successor, an accomplished jazz bassist named Darryl Jones, has since been with the
Stones for almost as long … and yet he's rarely in official photographs and sometimes
not even in the band's music videos.
At the end of a show, Jones sort of meanders around with the backing vocalists while the
guys you know - Keith Richards, Mick Jagger, Ron Wood, and Charlie Watts - take charge
and get everyone lined up for a final bow..
But Jones is more than a touring musician — he's the bassist on almost every Stones
recording since 1994.
What gives?
Well, Jones technically isn't an official member of the band, which is why the Stones
treat him like a hired gun instead of giving him his due.
Phil Rudd, AC/DC
Legendary hard rock band AC/DC is on indefinite hiatus following singer Brian Johnson retiring
from touring due to health problems, bassist Cliff Williams' reluctance to tour, and Malcolm
Young suffering from dementia.
On the band's website, all those guys are listed, along with longtime guitarist Angus
Young and original singer Bon Scott — who died in 1980.
Even Stevie Young, Malcolm Young's nephew and successor, and Chris Slade, who drummed
for the band in the early '90s and on the band's 2015 tour, are listed.
Curiously, nowhere on that roster is Phil Rudd, the guy who kept rhythm for the legends
for the better part of 40 years.
Why?
Well, a couple of years ago he was sentenced to eight months of house arrest in New Zealand
for meth possession...and also threatening to kill a guy.
The good news: The charge that he had tried to hire a hitman was eventually dropped — along
with all references to Rudd on the band's website.
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