Five Nasty Rock & Roll Breakups In Honor Of Journey's Potential Steve Perry Reunion
Not every band got a happy ending.
There have been talks recently of the popular 80s band, Journey, reuniting with their original lead singer, Steve Perry (no relation), and I have to say, that's pretty exciting.
Journey was the first band I saw in concert (they opened for Def Leppard at the Hard Rock in Hollywood, FL, in 2006), and the show kicked ass, but it just wasn't the same without their powerful frontman behind the mic.
Unfortunately, bloated egos and a war of words led to their breakup decades ago, but it got me thinking about some of the other infamous breakups in the history of rock (and there have been A LOT).
READ: Five Power Ballads To Set The Mood This Valentine's Day
Below are some of the nastiest breakups rock and roll has ever seen, some of which were fueled by money, others by ego, but most took decades to heal while some never did.
5. The Eagles
The Eagles were one of the biggest bands in the galaxy by 1980, riding high off the success of their monster 1976 album Hotel California and touring to support yet another classic, The Long Run.
Things weren't so rosy within the band, however.
Creative tensions and business disputes drove a wedge between the California quintet, and at the center of it were founding members Don Felder and Glenn Frey.
Things came to a head on July 31, 1980, in Long Beach, CA, where the band was hosting a benefit concert for Senator Alan Cranston.
Frey was apparently miffed at the way Felder treated Cranston at the pre-concert meet-and-greet, and they started sparring with each other during warm-ups.
The two famously snarled back and forth on stage, with Felder delivering the now-famous line "Only three more songs until I kick your ass" to his bandmate.
This was the last show they would play for nearly a decade and a half.
The band would often joke that they would reunite when "hell freezes over," which is exactly what they named their 1994 reunion tour.
4. The Police
After the release of their 1983 masterpiece Synchronicity, it was thought that The Police were ready to take the second half of the decade by storm.
Unfortunately, tensions between singer Sting and drummer Stewart Copeland wouldn't allow that to happen.
The fiery Copeland and the egotistical and, at times, controlling Sting would often clash over creative decisions, so much so that Sting said he wanted to bring in a drum machine for Synchronicity.
The tipping point came after the band took a long hiatus following the tour supporting the album, when the trio reunited for a reissue of some of their hits on Every Breath You Take: The Singles.
Sting wanted to redo a few of their songs with some of the new recording technology at his disposal, and when Copeland couldn't commit to the dates due to an injury, it reignited the fire between the two.
Following a few tense shows in 1986, the band called it quits and have only reunited a handful of times since.
All three members maintain that they are still close "like brothers," but note that brothers often fight, and they can't be around each other in a professional setting for too long.
3. Van Halen
Much like the first two bands on this list, you could make the argument that by the mid 1980s, Van Halen with David Lee Roth was the biggest band in the world.
Their latest album, 1984, was well on its way to multi-platinum and, eventually, diamond-selling status, and the band was packing arenas and football stadiums across the country.
Also, like the first two bands listed, two of the members couldn't stand each other, those being the aforementioned Roth and virtuoso guitarist, Eddie Van Halen.
To put it as succinctly as possible, Roth wanted to be a rock star while Van Halen wanted to be a musician.
Speculation started to swirl in the first half of 1985, and although the rumor was that Dave left on April Fool's of that year, the toxic duo were seen at an MTV awards show in June.
Regardless, the band met sometime in the summer of 1985 to discuss their future and after talks soured, they went their separate ways and spent the better part of two decades attacking each other every chance they got.
READ: Eight Outstanding 80s Albums That Turn 40 This Year
Roth would form his own band with another virtuoso guitarist, Steve Vai, while Van Halen countered by enlisting the services of singer Sammy Hagar.
Both Roth and Van Halen achieved success throughout the rest of the decade and would eventually reunite in 2007, but fans will always wonder how big the band could have been for the second half of the 80s if they had just stuck it out.
2. The Beatles
Confession time: I am not the biggest Beatles fan in the world.
In fact, I think they are overrated and, outside a handful of songs, I can hardly tolerate the sound of them.
I can, however, recognize that they were one of if not the biggest bands in the history of rock, so their breakup in 1970 is one that can't be ignored.
After their manager, Brian Epstein, died in 1967, it was said that the band lost their "adult in the room."
From that point forward, the future of the band became mired in a power struggle between the two creative forces in the band, Paul McCartney and John Lennon.
Between McCartney's obsessive need for control as well as legal and creative tiffs, the band limped on until news started to leak that the group had broken up in the spring of 1970.
That doesn't even account for the Yoko Ono saga, which had many fans accusing Lennon's wife of breaking the band up herself.
It got ugly and, sadly, Lennon's death in 1980 made it so that the band members could never reunite or reconcile fully, marking a tragic final chapter in the story of one of the biggest bands in human history.
1. Fleetwood Mac
This one is notable for the breakups that happened within the band as much as it is the actual breakup of the group.
It's a miracle Fleetwood Mac lasted as long as they did, as lead singer Stevie Nicks and singer/guitarist Lindsey Buckingham dated on and off for a while, until a nasty breakup fueled the songs behind their biggest album, 1977's Rumours.
Aside from Nicks and Buckingham, bassist John McVie and keyboardist Christine McVie also divorced prior to the recording of the album, only adding to the tensions within the band.
Remarkably, the band soldiered on for almost two decades, breaking up and getting back together multiple times in the 90s.
It finally ended for good in 2022 after both Buckingham's dismissal/departure and McVie's death, with Nicks making the call to discontinue the band now that one of the original members had passed.
Fleetwood Mac's breakup was actually far less shocking than the band staying together as long as it did, as songs like "Go Your Own Way," "Dreams," and "Silver Springs" were written from the perspectives of Buckingham and Nicks about each other and their breakup and were played in front of each other on a nightly basis for 20 years.
Nonetheless, the animosity spawned some of the best pop songs known to man, so the nastiness and vitriol between the members of the band at least have a silver lining to them.