So you're a musician.
You've joined a band.
And then you get kicked out of the band.
Sorry.
This is what happens to a lot of musicians.
Welcome to the real world.
It isn't all fans and tour buses, some hearts get broken along the way.
In 1990, Crystal Jones devised a girl group that would skirt the line between hip-hop
and R&B.
Working with a local record producer, she recruited two bandmates to join her in this
endeavor: Lisa Lopes and Tionne Watkins.
The group, originally known as 2nd Nature, scored an audition in front of Perri "Pebbles"
Reid, who suggested they rename themselves TLC-Skee.
They were then brought to the attention of LaFace Records and Antonio Reid.
Here's when things fell apart for Jones.
The documentary CrazySexyCool: The TLC Story suggested she was kicked out around this time
because she couldn't sing.
But according to Jones, the real problem was a dispute over a lengthy contract.
"Can I take it home?
Let my my mom take a look at it?
Because I really don't understand what I'm reading.
And she said no absolutely not!
So I didn't sign it."
Either way, Jones was soon replaced with another "C," Rozonda "Chilli" Thomas, and TLC went
on to achieve tremendous success throughout the '90s.
In 1994, an advertisement was placed in a British magazine asking for singers to audition
for a new all-girl pop group.
Five women were chosen: Victoria Adams, Melanie Chisholm, Melanie Brown, Geri Halliwell, and
Michelle Stephenson.
Stephenson, the first to be picked for the group, was a lifelong performer who had studied
theatre and English at university.
Shortly after their successful auditions, the girls moved into a house together and
began, they hoped, to prepare for fame and fortune.
It didn't take long, however, for tensions to grow between Stephenson and the others.
She maintained a job on the side, kept open the option of returning to university, and
according to the rest of the band, "lacked the intensity or enthusiasm to learn."
"I wasn't really happy.
It wasn't really the kind of music which I wanted to be doing."
"It was very, very pop, you know.
It just really wasn't what I was into."
Stephenson was asked to leave the band, so she went on to travel Europe before returning
to her studies.
Her old bandmates replaced her with Emma Bunton, and they soon found fame and fortune as the
Spice Girls.
Chad Channing was a musician from California who joined a band called Nirvana in 1988.
Together, they recorded the songs that would become their first album, Bleach, which was
a moderate success.
In no time at all, however, Kurt Cobain and Krist Novoselic became frustrated with Channing's
input, while Channing himself recognized creative differences in his view of where the band
should go.
In 1990, he departed the band and was replaced by Dave Grohl.
Despite all this, he remained on good terms with the rest of the group.
"It's great to know that ya know Nirvana had such an effect, that so many people enjoyed
ya know listening to the band."
Nirvana's second album, Nevermind, was released a year later, and it went on to become one
of the most influential albums of the '90s.
Most people know that Sting is the frontman of The Police, and most devoted music lovers
know that guitarist Andy Summers and drummer Stewart Copeland round out the trio.
But only a few die-hard fans are likely to be familiar with the name Henry Padovani.
A guitarist from the island of Corsica, Padovani was recruited to the band before Summers.
He played a number of small venues with them and helped record some of their earliest work
in the late '70s.
Padovani's biggest problem was Summers' arrival into the band.
Sting and Copeland had already convinced Summers to join the band, and The Police existed as
a four-piece for a brief spell.
Summers, however, insisted on being the band's only guitarist.
By August 1977, only months after the group had formed, Padovani was gone, and the new
lineup eventually took the world by storm.
Padovani went on to play with a whole host of other bands before becoming an executive
at IRS Records.
Pete Willis was a founding member of Def Leppard, having met fellow bandmates Rick Savage and
Tony Kenning at school in Sheffield, England in the '70s.
Willis was with the band for their first two albums, On Through the Night and High 'n'
Dry.
But during the recording of their third album, Pyromania, things turned sour.
Willis had a serious problem that rendered him unable to play in the studio.
The album's producer, Mutt Lange, refused to work with him again, and the rest of the
band decided he had to go.
His replacement, Phil Collen, was brought in almost immediately.
The band finished recording Pyromania, which went on to become one of the best-selling
albums in history.
Meanwhile, Willis went on to record with the bands Gogmagog and Roadhouse.
In 2003, he left the music industry, and he now runs a property management company in
Sheffield.
Doug Hopkins was a musician from Arizona who formed the Gin Blossoms in 1987.
The group took off, eventually signing a recording contract with A&M, a career decision that
didn't really sit right with Hopkins.
Their first album released by A&M was 1992's New Miserable Experience.
Before it came out, however, Hopkins was fired from the band at A&M's request after his drinking
became too much of a problem.
He reportedly felt betrayed when songs he wrote like "Found Out About You" and "Hey
Jealousy" started climbing the charts after he left the group.
Hopkins struggled with drinks and depression throughout his life.
Perhaps these demons, combined with his own personal feelings of betrayal, proved too
much.
On December 5, 1993, he succumbed to his demons..
If you or anyone you know is having dark thoughts, please call or chat online with the National
Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255).