Rock feuds can definitely get out of hand.
But when a grudge can't even be resolved on one's deathbed, you know there's some deep-seated
hatred there.
Stay tuned, because we've got plenty of rock's biggest feuds coming up!
Pink Floyd hit its commercial zenith with its mammoth tour for the 1979 album "The Wall."
However, it was also during that tour that tensions between bassist/singer Roger Waters
— who wrote the bulk of the double concept album — and guitarist David Gilmour had
deteriorated to the point that Waters parted ways with the band.
Gilmour told Consequence,
"Roger was a bit of a megalomaniac."
In 1986, Waters unsuccessfully sued to prevent his former band from using the Pink Floyd
name, calling them, quote, "a spent force creatively."
Gilmour and Waters were subsequently able to set aside their differences for reunion
concerts on special occasions.
However, their relationship can best be characterized as mutual animosity that has only grown nastier
over the years.
Discussing his bandmates' ongoing feud, Pink Floyd drummer Nick Mason told Rolling Stone
in 2018,
"I think it’s really disappointing that these rather elderly gentlemen are still at
loggerheads."
In 2020, Waters recorded a YouTube video complaining that Gilmour had "banned" him from promoting
any of his solo projects on the Pink Floyd social media channels and its website.
He griped,
"I think he thinks that because I left the band in 1985 that he owns Pink Floyd, that
he is Pink Floyd"
Despite a name that sounded more like a law firm than a rock band, Crosby, Stills, Nash
& Young remain one of rock's pre-eminent supergroups.
But don't expect them to ever play together again, as both Neil Young and Graham Nash
have longstanding feuds with David Crosby.
For Young, the problem stems from some comments Crosby made after the former ended his 36-year
marriage and began dating actor Daryl Hannah — now his wife.
In 2014, Crosby described Hannah to the Idaho Statesman as, quote, "a purely poisonous predator."
Years later, Crosby told The Guardian that he bears full responsibility for creating
the rift, saying,
"Neil has got a genuine beef.
I did say something bad about his girlfriend.
[...] OK, he can be mad at me.
That's all right."
Crosby even offered an apology during a visit to "The Howard Stern Show,” saying,
"I was completely out of line.
I have screwed up massively."
But Young didn't seem to accept the apology, telling Stern that a CSNY reunion would "never
happen."
And even if they settled their beef, Nash also has a bone to pick with Crosby.
In a 2015 interview with Dutch magazine Lust for Life, Nash laid it all out.
"I don't like David Crosby right now.
He's been awful for me the last two years, just f—ing awful.
I've been there and saved his f—ing ass for 45 years, and he treated me like s—."
Nash had more to say in a 2016 interview with Billboard.
"There will never be another Crosby, Stills & Nash record or show.
Right now, I don't want anything to do with Crosby at all.
It's just that simple."
Crosby, however, claimed that he had his own gripes with Nash, telling The Guardian,
"He gave the impression of looking after me, but apparently that was all just trying to
keep the money coming.
But there you go.
[...] I'm not going to talk to him.
I don't want to talk to him.
I'm not happy with him at all."
When Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham joined Fleetwood Mac in 1974, the two were partners
both musically and romantically.
In the years that followed, the addition of Buckingham and Nicks propelled Fleetwood Mac
to heights the band had never before approached.
This culminated into the mega-hit 1977 LP "Rumours," which is still one of the biggest-selling
albums of all time.
Fleetwood Mac's intra-band drama was also legendary.
Before recording "Rumours," Buckingham and Nicks had split, with Nicks then embarking
on an affair with drummer Mick Fleetwood.
Despite everything, the band soldiered on for decades as a top touring act.
However, that came to a screeching halt in 2018 when Rolling Stone reported that Buckingham
was fired due to arguments related to a new tour.
In a subsequent interview with the Los Angeles Times, he shared his version of events, claiming
Nicks threatened to quit if a planned tour was delayed so he could do some solo work.
She countered with a statement dismissing Buckingham's account as "revisionist history,"
explaining she was simply unwilling to continue working with him.
"She gave them an ultimatum.
Either Lindsay goes, or I go."
Fleetwood Mac's Christine McVie explained Buckingham's firing to Mojo as,
"[...] the only route we could take, because there was too much animosity between certain
members of the band at that point [...] it was either just completely break up the band
or make the best of it."
Skid Row was among the hottest heavy metal acts of the late 1980s, but the band's story
took a dramatic turn in 1996 when frontman Sebastian Bach was fired.
Bach told Legendary Rock Interviews that tensions between him and his bandmates were already
high when the singer told the rest of the group that he "didn't like" some new songs
they sent him and subsequently refused to sing them.
As guitarist Scotti Hill revealed on "Another FN Podcast," the final straw was when Bach
allegedly left a vicious voicemail for guitarist Dave "The Snake" Sabo.
Sabo reportedly responded by saying,
"'You know what?
I'm not gonna be in a band with you anymore.'"
According to Hill, reuniting with Bach was out of the question.
He insisted that he and the other band members didn't want to mess up the good vibes they
had by bringing back a loose cannon like Bach.
Meanwhile, Skid Row bassist Rachel Bolan told "The Chuck Shute Podcast" he hadn't
seen Bach "in years," and had no problem with that.
"I wouldn't say we were friends.
We were bandmates."
Speaking with Billboard in 2019, Bach admitted the reason he hadn't spoken with any of his
former bandmates in more than 20 years was that he knew they weren’t too fond of him.
However, he held the door open for a reunion and insisted he held no grudges.
"Unlike them, it is physically and mentally impossible for me to be mad at somebody for
so long — 23 years!"
Oasis took the world by storm in the 1990s, with Beatles-influenced hits such as "Don't
Look Back in Anger" and "Wonderwall" propelling the band to sell an estimated 70 million albums.
They even made it into the Guinness Book of World Records for "the longest Top 10 U.K.
chart run" by any group.
That massive success was ultimately derailed by the tumultuous relationship between the
band's co-founders — brawling brothers Noel and Liam Gallagher.
Noel quit the band on several occasions but ultimately returned.
However, tensions between the siblings boiled over in 2009 when he issued a statement announcing
he'd quit Oasis, mid-tour.
The statement read in part,
"I simply could not go on working with Liam a day longer."
This time, he did not return, which Noel says is not that big a deal.
"All-all I did, was leave a band.
That's all I did.
Y’know I didn't kill anybody.
Yet."
In the years that followed, the chill between the brothers did not thaw, and the rise of
social media gave Liam a whole new way in which to slag his brother.
Among these were a series of bizarre Twitter posts featuring photos of his estranged brother
along with the caption "Potato."
In a 2017 interview with The Times, Noel suggested that Liam needed to go to therapy.
Speaking with BBC4's "Front Row" a few weeks later, Noel said that Liam's nasty tweeting
just reinforced his resolve to never play music with his brother again.
Simon & Garfunkel were famed for the sweetness of their harmonies, yet
there has been nothing harmonious about the volatile relationship between Paul Simon and
Art Garfunkel.
After the duo's bitter split in 1970, they managed to set aside their differences for
several lucrative reunions over the years.
These included their wildly successful 1981 concert in New York City's Central Park, where
they performed for a crowd estimated at half a million people.
But despite the millions they were raking in, their relationship was fraught during
their 1993 tour.
Simon's manager, Joseph Rascoff, shared his recollections in the biography "Paul Simon:
The Life," saying of one particularly vicious fight,
"I genuinely believed that if there had been a knife on the table one of them would have
used it."
The final straw came when Garfunkel’s voice gave out after damaging his vocal cords.
Several dates on a 2010 reunion tour had to be canceled, and Simon was miffed.
According to biographer Robert Hilburn, Simon said,
"He let us all down.
I was tired of all the drama."
Speaking with The Telegraph in 2015, Garfunkel was hopeful for another reunion, yet also
referred to Simon as an "idiot," a "jerk" and "a monster."
Two years later, he told "CBS This Morning" that his relationship with Paul simply has
a lot of ups and downs.
"It's intense, it's like a marriage.
It has summers and winters, it waxes and wanes."
But in an interview with Rolling Stone, Simon put the kibosh on reunion hopes
when he said that any future concerts with Garfunkel were not possible, claiming the
two didn't even talk to each other anymore.
When The Beach Boys formed in 1961, the lineup featured brothers Brian, Dennis, and Carl
Wilson, cousin Mike Love, and friend Al Jardine.
As the band's success grew, it became apparent that Brian — who wrote the band's hits — was
a full-fledged musical genius.
However, he was also suffering from some serious mental health issues, culminating in a nervous
breakdown that led him to stop touring with the band.
A massive rift eventually grew between Brian Wilson and Mike Love as the former's mental
health deteriorated during the 1970s.
This ultimately led to the rest of the band firing him.
Love stepped up to become the group's de facto leader as the band became predominantly a
touring act.
For the next few decades, the cousins communicated only through lawyers — including a lawsuit
where Love won songwriting credit on some of the band's biggest hits.
Love told the Sarasota Herald-Tribune,
"There was always the perception that my cousin Brian did all the writing as well as the producing
and stuff like that.
That was not true.
I was the co-author of so many of the big hits."
Brian is no fan of his cousin, once remarking,
"I don't like Mike Love at all."
"His attitude is too egotistical.
I can't be around the guy.
Five minutes around him is all I can take."
Fans generally seem to have taken Wilson's side in the debate, and this bothers Love
to no end.
In his autobiography "Good Vibrations," Love wrote,
"For those who believe that Brian walks on water, I will always be the Antichrist."
When guitarist Don Felder joined the Eagles, he brought a harder, guitar-driven edge to
their mellow, country-rock sound — in addition to writing their signature song, "Hotel California."
As the group's popularity escalated, so too did tensions between Felder and bandmate Glenn
Frey; by the end of the 1970s, the two had grown to loathe each other.
That animosity led to an onstage confrontation, with Frey and Felder each vowing to pummel
the other as soon as they got off stage.
Ultimately, Felder demolished his guitar backstage, drove off in a limo, and that was the end
of the Eagles.
"We just couldn't work with him anymore.
And, you know, it started to become a drag, you know.
It was like the Eagles became this sort of albatross."
The band reunited in 1994 for their aptly titled Hell Freezes Over tour and continued
to both perform live and make records.
But in February 2001, Felder was fired for undisclosed reasons.
He fought back with a wrongful termination lawsuit that also attempted to dissolve the
Eagles as a business entity, alleging that both Frey and bandmate Don Henley were consumed
by uncontrollable greed.
Felder's suit was eventually settled, with the terms remaining confidential.
Still, after Frey's death in 2016, Felder told AP he felt "unbelievable sorrow" upon
hearing the news.
"I had always hoped somewhere along the line, he and I would have dinner together, talking
about old times and letting it go with a handshake and a hug."
Formed in the late 1980s, Smashing Pumpkins exploded into the mainstream with the band's
second album — 1993's "Siamese Dream."
They then cemented their status with the 1995 follow-up "Mellon Collie and the Infinite
Sadness."
But by 2000, frontman Billy Corgan was announcing that they were breaking up.
Nearly two decades later, in 2018, Corgan revealed the band was reuniting for a tour,
joined by original members James Iha and Jimmy Chamberlin.
Original bassist D'Arcy Wretzky, however, was not mentioned as being part of
the reunion plans.
Wretzky confirmed she was not invited back, telling BlastEcho she
"...only just found [out] yesterday that the band has decided to go with a different bass
player."
This led to a series of back-and-forth missives in the press.
While Corgan claimed he'd reached out to her repeatedly and had been snubbed, Wretzky told
Alternative Nation that his claim was a total fabrication.
The band ultimately embarked on its Shiny and Oh So Bright tour — sans Wretzky.
In 2020, Corgan confirmed that Wretzky would never be part of any future Smashing Pumpkins
iteration.
He told Premier Guitar,
"D'arcy, that's a dead end.
That's what I always tell people: She made it very clear that the bridge is burned."
With their fire-spewing stage antics and instantly identifiable kabuki-style face
paint, KISS exploded onto the rock scene in the 1970s.
While the band's membership has fluctuated significantly over the years, bass player
Gene Simmons and rhythm guitarist Paul Stanley have remained the hard-rocking backbone of
the outfit.
As fans well know, the original lineup featured Stanley and Simmons alongside lead guitarist
Ace Frehley and drummer Peter Criss.
Criss was famously fired in 1980 after what Stanley characterized as a series of drug-fueled
clashes with Simmons and Stanley.
Frehley then parted ways with the band in 1982.
Both musicians were rehired in 2000 — not as full-fledged band members, mind you, but
as salaried sidemen.
Then in 2003, Criss returned for more shows, but Frehley was gone once again.
As Simmons explained in a 2019 interview with Guitar World, firing the two original members,
repeatedly, wasn't personal.
"Ace and Peter have gotten three chances.
They were in and out of the band — fired — three times.
For drugs, alcohol, bad behavior, being unprofessional [...] all the clichés are clichés."
According to Simmons, the two just weren't doing their share of the work.
He added,
"You can't be in a car with two flat tires.
[...] They're never going to be in KISS again."
When Zayn Malik left One Direction in 2015, it preceded a still-ongoing hiatus
that's seen all of the group's members launch solo careers.
While Malik's bandmates initially responded with tears and claims of being "deeply saddened,"
it wasn't long before the rancor eventually spilled out.
And most of that rancor went in… one direction.
That's because Malik has repeatedly made negative comments about his former 1D bandmates, both
individually and collectively.
Months after his exit, for example, Malik told Fader that One Direction's music was,
quote, "generic as fuck."
He then told Apple Music's Beats 1 that he actually never wanted to be in the band in
the first place.
In a subsequent interview with Capital FM host Dave Berry, Malik admitted that he and
1D's Louis Tomlinson weren't friends, yet he also complained to NME that he hadn't heard
from anybody in the band.
Years later, Malik was still griping about his ex-bandmates.
In 2017, for instance, he told Us Weekly,
"To be honest, I never really spoke to Harry [Styles] even when I was in the band.
So I didn't really expect that much of a relationship with him."
Then, in 2018, he told GQ,
"I didn't really, like, make any friends from the band.
I just didn't do it."
Interviewed by British Vogue, Malik also alluded to stuff bandmates said after his departure.
"Snide things.
Small things that I would never have expected."
On the other hand, Niall Horan told The Sun in 2020 that it was all more
or less on Zayn, saying that Malik had his own reasons for leaving.
Horan added,
"he never really spoke to us much afterwards."
One of rock's nastiest band breakups was that of Creedence Clearwater Revival — a group
known for such hits as "Fortunate Son" and "Proud Mary."
When the band dissolved in the early 1970s, frontman and principal songwriter John Fogerty
was dismayed to discover that he didn't own the rights to their songs.
Instead, it was the band's label, Fantasy Records, that legally owned everything.
Even more disturbing was that Fogerty's brother and former bandmate, Tom Fogerty, sided with
Fantasy owner Saul Zaentz in the dispute.
As a result, the brothers battled for decades as a flurry of lawsuits was filed, with John
frustrated to be prohibited from performing any of the Credence hits that he wrote and
sang.
When he was finally freed from the shackles of his Fantasy Records deal, he released his
first solo album in a decade — 1985's "Centerfield."
This led to a lawsuit from Zaentz, who claimed that John's single "The Old Man Down the Road"
was a ripoff of CCR's 1970 hit "Run Through the Jungle."
John told The Guardian,
"In 1988 I had to go through a plagiarism trial where I was sued for sounding like myself,
and people tell me this was unprecedented."
Tom died in 1990 of complications from AIDS.
But even on his death bed, the two brothers weren't able to resolve their issues.
CCR bassist Stu Cook summed it up succinctly when he described the brothers' decades-long
quarrel to The Guardian as,
"[...] the saddest story in rock and one of the longest ongoing stupid feuds."
Ian Gillan joined British hard rock outfit Deep Purple in 1969.
He served as the band's lead singer during its most successful period in the 1970s, lending
his distinctive pipes to hits like "Smoke on the Water."
But according to Louder, by 1973, tensions with temperamental guitarist Ritchie Blackmore
had become too much for Gillan, who tendered his resignation in a letter.
Gillan and Blackmore put their differences aside when the "classic" lineup of Deep Purple
reunited in 1984.
As was the case before, the two musicians did not get along, typified by Blackmore's
infamous quip,
"I'm going to attack Ian Gillan in a back alley."
Gillan exited a second time, in 1989, but then subsequently rejoined Deep Purple in
1992.
This in turn led to Blackmore departing the following year amid increased onstage friction
between the two.
Asked in a 2021 "Tales from the Road" interview whether he and Blackmore would ever reunite
onstage, Gillan replied,
"No ... needless to say, it was all pretty nasty when we finished and Ritchie walked
out."
He then went on to explain that he and the rest of the band didn't harbor resentment
toward Ritchie.
"He has his own interpretations, and the rest of us have our interpretations, so it's really
not worth being fired up about it."
Gillan added that playing with Blackmore again would be rather unenjoyable.
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