Band members who got caught up in the differences of their Feuding Frontmen – Grunge

What is it about rock ‘n’ roll musicians that makes them so easy to fight? You can talk about arrogance, attention seeking, extreme selfishness, a lifestyle that is often influenced by drugs, and a thousand other factors, but whatever the reason, the need for conflict and rejection infects a large part of rockstars. For every legend, there is an enemy or two (or 10). Paul McCartney has John Lennon, Mick Jagger has Keith Richards, Roger Daltrey has Pete Townshend, Axl Rose has Slash, Roger Waters has David Gilmour, and the list goes on. As you may have noticed, all of those conflicts were or are being fought between band members, leaving many band members in the position of being a sad bystander.

As their leaders traded words, and at times, jabs, the crowd of innocent musicians, drummers and guitar players sighed, raised their hands, and reluctantly entered the fray as peacekeepers. As the veterans often say, it’s time to give the supporting cast some TV and hear them play this drama. To that end, there are five members of the group who were arrested for their war rebellion.

Poor Kirk Hammett. There are several moments during Metallica’s 2004 documentary “Some Kind of Monster” that highlight just how much controversy the artist has faced over the years. A fun drinking game for the doc would be to take a sip every time Hammett cleared his throat awkwardly and looked away as his colleagues went at it. In fact, it’s only when he’s not actively playing peacemaker, a role he’s become famous for and one he doesn’t seem to care about. It’s a good thing because Hammett’s destiny seems to be to stay stuck between endless bandmate conflicts.

In “Another Kind of Beast,” Hammett has a line that neatly sums up his role in Metallica’s spats, and has the added bonus of some random comedy. “You know, guys?” he begs. “Why don’t we just go in there and hang the hammer [the recording] without instead of hitting each other?” That appeal for harmony was undoubtedly one of the many at the time, who saw the group in the press many times because of the fight between James Hetfield and Jason Newsted. It was revealed in an interview, “Only guitarist Kirk Hammett, a person who likes yoga, said that he never hit anyone in this group.”

In 1974, Mick Fleetwood asked the musical and romantic group of Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham to join his group Fleetwood Mac, having heard their music and seen them in the studio, therefore knowing very well the great value that both of them could add to the group. What he probably didn’t foresee was that the pair would fall apart almost as soon as they met and what would lead to nasty, petty, decades-long feuds that would play a major role in breaking up Fleetwood Mac many times over.

On top of Nicks and Buckingham splitting soon after joining the band, longtime band members John and Christine McVie divorced at the same time. More impressively, Fleetwood divorced his wife at that time, too, but unlike the rest (and perhaps only because his partner was not a member of the group), Fleetwood held his drama (almost) and focused on the bigger picture: the success of Fleetwood Mac and the recording of “Marumo”. As Christine told Rolling Stone, “Somehow Mick was there, the image: ‘We have to move on. Let’s be grown up about this, let’s fix it.’ Somehow we got through it.” Over the years, as the battle between Nicks and Buckingham has ebbed and flowed, Fleetwood has told reporters many times about his desire to see the two bury the hatchet, but he will have to wait and see if he really, ahem, won’t come back again.

The story is about legendary fusion guitarist John McLaughlin, but it could have been about many other rock stars. That’s because the fight that McLaughlin had to witness between band mates Jack Bruce and Ginger Baker continued over the years – even on different teams. Eric Clapton, once, found himself caught up in the duo’s feud while working with them as Cream, and McLaughlin dealt with the same when the trio formed part of the Graham Bond Organization. Or,​​​​to put it simply as McLaughlin himself did in Guitar Player, “I know Eric hurt, and so did I.”

McLaughlin ultimately credited Bruce and Baker’s insecurities as the source of their passionate music, but that doesn’t mean their battles weren’t intense. “I remember one night,” McLaughlin told Guitar Player. “Ginger got so bored with Jack’s bass solo that he started beating him on the drums. Ginger was throwing the sticks at Jack really hard, and Jack turned around, took his upright bass and smashed it on Ginger’s drums.” As scary as the Baker/Bruce feud can be at times, anything that helped bring Cream’s “Wheels of Fire” to the world is a good net in our book.

In 99 out of 100 articles containing the words “Kinks” and “war,” the fight in question is almost always between brothers Ray and Dave Davies. The dispute between the two frontmen of the group is long as it is storied, but their eternal war was not only for the Kinks. One of the wildest fights in Kinks history didn’t affect Ray at all, even though he was there to witness it and has spilled all the sordid details to Wales Online.

The row happened during a gig in 1965 and according to Ray, he went from zero to trying to get his head down in the blink of an eye. Apparently, in response to a drunken fight last night, Dave accused drummer Mick Avory of the Kinks’ debut. In response, Avory produced a cymbal and hit Dave in the head (whether by twisting it or throwing it is never said), resulting in a gash that required a trip to the hospital and 16 stitches. “The police wanted [charge] Mick for attempted murder,” Ray revealed. “When they finally caught him and arrested him, Mick tried to deny it all. But the police turned around and said ‘Mr Avory, we’ve got 5,000 witnesses!’.” No criminal action resulted from the incident, although it did give the normally charismatic Ray Davies a chance to play the innocent for once.

One of the most immediate and undeniable qualities of the Ramones’ music is how fun it is. It’s not just “Blitzkrieg Bop;” their sound is generally loud, and allows for jumping, whistling and fist-pumping with joy. The biggest tragedy of the Ramones, however, is that the joy of their music did not translate into their lives as bandmates. The band was full of anger and resentment, much of it between frontmen Joey and Johnny Ramone, explaining why drummer Tommy Ramone once told the Hollywood Reporter, “It was never fun to be the Ramones.”

The story of Tommy and the Ramones has a unique sense of sadness to it because it was Tommy who first conceived the band, brought them all together, and not only played drums but served as producer on five of their albums. In short, he was almost like a band father and music director in one, which made watching his symbolic sons/band members even more estranged. “The Ramones weren’t about having fun,” Tommy told Pitchfork. “We were there to make the fans see the Ramones. There was a good feeling and all that, but the environment was very difficult. It really was. ” It’s sad that Tommy had to live among the other, tormenting the Ramones but if there was anyone who was there, maybe the Ramones would not have been together as long as they did.