The 15 Ugliest Band Breakups of All Time

Making popular music for adoring fans sounds like a dream come true, right? Well, for many artists, the pressure of the spotlight and the intense scrutiny from fans can make the job of being a recording artist unbearable. That’s when bands break up in ugly and often explosive ways, like these 15 infamous examples.

The Smashing Pumpkins

The alt-rock it-group of the 90s was doomed to fall apart in an ugly way due to the big egos and big success that went with the band. Frontman Billy Corgan summed the situation up in 2004, four years after the band broke up: “The truth of the matter is that guitarist James Iha broke up the Smashing Pumpkins. Not me, not drummer Jimmy Chamberlin, but James. Did it help that bassist D’arcy Wretzky was fired for being a mean-spirited drug addict, who refused to get help? No, that didn’t help keep the band together, not at all.”

Van Halen (Sammy Hagar)

Van Halen’s second breakup (it’s complicated) took place in the summer of 1996 due to a song for the soundtrack to Twister, of all things. The movie’s producers asked them to record a song, but they were exhausted after a long tour. Sammy Hagar was too exhausted to do it, leading to a huge fight that tore the band apart.

Fleetwood Mac

Fleetwood Mac had been in some process of disintegrating since the 70s, but the most notable “ugly” breakup came decades later. In 2018, Stevie Nicks felt Lindsay Buckingham was making fun of her during a speech she was giving by smirking while standing behind her. He would later tell interviewers that the band had an inside joke that Stevie would talk for a long time, and that he was laughing at Christine and Mick jokingly waltzing on the other side of her, out of her line of sight.

The Sex Pistols

The Sex Pistols didn’t so much break up as got broken up. Their manager, Malcom McLaren, didn’t really view them as a band so much as a political statement. As such, his decision to fire Glen Matlock and replace him with Sid Vicious, who couldn’t even play the bass guitar he was supposedly hired to perform with, was a publicity stunt. McLaren wanted the punk rockers to break up to increase their album sales with a huge publicity stunt.

Motley Crue

Motley Crue toured hard from 1989 through 1992, capping off the Dr. Feelgood tour with the Decade of Decadence tour. By the end of those marathon campaigns, they were pretty sick of one another. They needed a break, but instead got pushed into the studio to make another album at the behest of their label. Vince Neil cracked first, angrily storming out of the studio one day. While the band initially blamed him, they later admitted that his departure was a scapegoat and they were all ready to be done.

Pink Floyd

The members of Pink Floyd started to feel like they were just playing backup to Roger Waters’ solo project when the credits to The Final Cut indicated the album was “by Roger Waters.” It dryly noted the songs were “performed by Pink Floyd.” The band moved on without Waters in the 80s, kicking off a lengthy legal battle over who had the rights to use the Pink Floyd name.

The Police

Sting and his bandmates, Andy Summers and Stewart Copeland, came at odds in the early 80s over frustrations with the songwriting process. Sting remembers the situation as such: Summers and Copeland wanted more say over songwriting, but Sting felt they were weak songwriters. In 1984, after a 105-concert tour, they called it quits over “creative differences.”

Queensryche

Metal band Queensryche broke up in a very ugly way in 2012. Frontman Geoff Tate had made his wife the band’s manager and his stepdaughter the head of their fan club in the 00s, and during a show in Brazil, the band’s drummer Scott Rockenfield told Tate the band had voted to fire his “whole family,” and that Tate was next. He, recounts trying to strike Rockenfield before being restrained, and understandably left the band when the tour ended.

N.W.A.

Ice Cube parted ways with N.W.A. just one year after Straight Outta Compton made waves in the nascent hip hop scene. Ice Cube didn’t say much about it when he left in 1989, but two years later his diss track “No Vaseline” laid out his problems with the band in graphic detail. In short, he was upset because he felt like he was being denied proper royalties by his fellow artists and their manager, Jerry Heller.

Pantera

The story of Pantera’s breakup is inextricably linked to the murder of the group’s guitarist, “Dimebag” Darrell. Darrell and frontman Phil Anselmo were at odds in late 2004 over personal issues involving Darrell’s drinking, and Anselmo spoke in a heated way to the press, alleging that the guitarist “deserves to be beaten severely.” An unhinged fan murdered him during a concert in Columbus, Ohio days later. Anselmo and Darrell’s brother, Pantera drummer Vinnie Paul, never reconciled after this.

Sonic Youth

Being in a band with your spouse can be tough. Sonic Youth looked like it dodged any drama when members Kim Gordon and Thurston Moore stayed married for decades without issue. Then, in 2010, Gordon found text messages from Moore’s girlfriend on his phone and they divorced just under 30 years after they got married.

The Everly Brothers

In 1973, the Everly Brothers broke up in spectacular fashion with what was meant to be one final show. Don Everly was addicted to Ritalin at the time, and he “celebrated” the end of the band by having a lot of drinks before coming onstage. Phil was so incensed with his brother for bungling song lyrics while inebriated that he smashed a guitar on-stage and ended the show early.

Live

Weirdly, 90s alt rock darlings Live didn’t break up back in the decade they made all their hits. Instead, they split in 2020 after a bizarre situation involving an investor named Bill Hynes. Whatever the case, frontman Ed Kowalczyk says he had to fire Hynes and his bandmates, Chad Taylor, Chad Gracey, and Patrick Dalheimer and restart the band with all new musicians.

Oasis

The Gallagher brothers’ feuding is the stuff of legends. The beloved Brit rock duo had a troubled relationship before they ever started playing music together, and it only got worse as they toured and recorded albums. Their partnership split for good in 2009, when Liam attacked Noel with a guitar. Noel smashed the guitar and stormed off, vowing to never play with his brother ever again—and he hasn’t.

The Beatles

No one is quite sure what, precisely, broke the Beatles up. John Lennon has said it was the death of their manager Brian Epstein in 1967. Paul McCartney insisted that it was because Lennon wanted to leave the band. Another issue was Allen Klein, their replacement manager who controversially brought in Phil Spector to complete songs on Let it Be. One thing is certain, though: it wasn’t Yoko Ono’s fault, despite Lennon’s insistence on her presence at recording sessions frustrating some of the members.

Both McCartney and Ono herself have dismissed long-running rumors that she wanted John to split with the Beatles. For her part, Ono notes that the four of them were such strong-willed people that the only thing that could have broken them up would have to have been internal.