5 Legendary Band Feuds That Almost Ended Everything

Slash gets into the long, complicated GNR story, the kind of band relationship that spent years frozen in silence before the reunion finally thawed it.

Guns N' Roses are far from alone. Some of the greatest bands ever spent years at war with themselves. Here are 5 legendary feuds that almost ended everything.

Watch the video: Slash on the GNR Reunion and New Album and subscribe on the Rock with PJ Pat channel for more rock breakdowns.

1. Roger Waters vs David Gilmour (Pink Floyd)

The deepest, coldest feud in rock. After Roger Waters left Pink Floyd in the 1980s, he tried to legally stop the others from using the name, arguing the band was creatively done. Gilmour and the rest carried on without him and sold out stadiums anyway. The two have traded barbs for decades, reuniting only once for a charity show in 2005. Two brilliant minds who built one of the greatest catalogs ever, and who still cannot fully bury the hatchet.

2. Dave Mustaine vs Metallica

The original rock revenge story. Metallica fired guitarist Dave Mustaine right before they made it big, putting him on a bus home with no warning. He channeled that fury into founding Megadeth and spent years chasing and competing with his old band. The wound ran so deep that he wept about it in the documentary Some Kind of Monster. Time has softened it, and the two camps are friendly now, but for decades it was the most personal feud in metal.

3. The Davies brothers (The Kinks)

Before Oasis, brothers Ray and Dave Davies of the Kinks set the standard for sibling warfare. They fought constantly, on tour, in the studio, and famously on stage, including a notorious moment where a drum kit got kicked over mid show and the band brawled in front of the crowd. The tension fueled some of the sharpest songwriting of the British Invasion, but it also kept the band in a near constant state of almost breaking up for years.

4. Lennon vs McCartney (The Beatles)

When the greatest band of all time fell apart, the two greatest songwriters of all time turned on each other in public. After the breakup, the business fights got personal, and John Lennon fired back at Paul McCartney with the song How Do You Sleep, one of the most cutting diss tracks ever recorded. They eventually made peace before John's death, but for a stretch the warmest partnership in music history was openly at war on vinyl.

5. David Lee Roth vs Eddie Van Halen (Van Halen)

The classic singer versus guitarist power struggle. The chemistry between flashy frontman David Lee Roth and guitar genius Eddie Van Halen made the band electric and also made it a powder keg. Roth left in the mid 1980s amid clashing egos, and the two spent years sniping in the press through multiple failed reunions. The friction was real, but the music they made together is exactly why fans kept hoping they would patch it up. Sometimes the spark and the fight are the same thing.

More on What Rocks: 5 Classic Albums Made by Bands That Couldn't Stand Each Other, 5 Bands That Survived Losing Their Singer, and 5 Wild Teenage John Lennon Stories.

Wear it loud

If the drama is half the reason you love these bands, gear up like a true fan. Two picks for the certified rock heads:

Rock Hand Sign Graphic Tee →
For everyone who knows the best bands fight like family.

Volume Knob Rock Baseball Cap →
Turn the drama down and the music up to 11.

Well there you go! 5 feuds that nearly torched some of the greatest bands ever, from Pink Floyd's courtroom battles to Mustaine's long road back. Guns N' Roses proved even the deepest freeze can thaw. The wild part is how often the fighting and the genius came from the exact same place. Crank it up.

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Rock 1 louder!

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