Inside the bandmates who actually hated each other - KISS to Van Halen

Throughout the years, millions have witnessed the rise and fall of music bands, which have gone from having legions of screaming fans to becoming a distant memory. Other groups have disbanded, with some members enjoying solo success.

Most of the chart-topping bands have resulted in lifelong friendships among their members, while brutal feuds ended others. Many bands have been torn apart by disagreements over money. However, some were forced to push their disputes under the rugs for lucrative paydays such as a tour. Yet, despite this, even a million-pound paycheck couldn't repair the ruined relationships between resentful musicians and their long-held grudges.

KISS

With their iconic black and white face paint and theatrical stage personas, KISS burst into the spotlight during the 1970s, attracting millions of fans worldwide with legendary hits such as Crazy Crazy Nights and Love Gun.

Its original lineup featured Gene Simmons on bass and vocals, guitarist Paul Stanley, lead guitarist Ace Frehley, and drummer Peter Criss.

However, in 1980, Peter was fired when his drug and alcohol misuse began to negatively impact his ability to make music, forcing the group to hire a session drummer to complete an album. Soon after Ace left the group soon with similar issues.

The duo, however, regularly returned to the group for reunion tours, even though their tensions with Gene and Paul consistently boiled over.

When asked if they could return as permanent members of the band, Gene said via the Guardian: "When you have a cancer in your system, it's best to cut it out as fast as you can."

He echoed the same sentiments in a 2019 interview with Guitar World: "Ace and Peter have gotten three chances, they were in and out of the band, fired three times. For drugs, alcohol, bad behaviour, being unprofessional ... they weren't carrying their load."

Blink-182

Blink-182's frontman, guitarist, and founding member, Tom DeLonge, famously experienced a bitter end when he quit the band in 2005.

Although he returned to the spotlight in 2009, his relationship with his bandmates took a turn for the worse as a disastrous attempt to record an EP resulted in his second and permanent exit from the band.

In a lengthy and scathing statement on Facebook, Tom addressed the departure and blamed "squabbling and politics" for the EP never being released as he claimed: "At the end of the day, we've always been dysfunctional, which is why we haven't talked in months."

Blink-182's Travis Barker and Mark Hoppus slammed Tom's statement and insisted they'd received an email from his manager informing them that "Tom's out indefinitely."

Travis then claimed that he and Mark had been shouldering the weight on his behalf for years. "It's hard to cover for someone who's disrespectful and ungrateful."

Oasis

Liam Gallagher and his brother Noel Gallagher's current reunion tour comes after 16 years of feuding, as a bitter backstage disagreement in 2009 landed in Oasis' end.

Throughout the years, their complicated relationship has been characterised by vicious remarks, non-stop criticism of one another, and even a notorious incident in which Noel bashed Liam in the head with a cricket bat.

"He's the angriest man you'll ever meet," Noel said of his brother during an interview via The Standard. "He's like a man with a fork in a world of soup."

Shortly after their breakup, he added: "People will write and say what they like, but I simply could not go on working with Liam a day longer."

Thankfully for fans, the brothers were able to put their differences aside for their long-awaited tour, which rocked fans after the surprise announcement in August 2024.

After kicking off the 41-date run on Friday (July 4) in Cardiff, the band will travel across the rest of the UK, Ireland, the US, Canada, Asia, Australia, and South America.

The Beatles

The most famous band hailing from Liverpool rocked the world when its members John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr, went their separate ways.

This came after Paul and John's friendship became strained to breaking point and became public knowledge after Paul released his second solo album, Ram, to which John responded with a bile-spewing single, How Do You Sleep,

In it's lyrics, the singer crooned: "The only thing you done was Yesterday," which Paul later admitted stung during a GQ interview in 2020.

Although he didn't comment at the time, the star said: "And those things were pretty hurtful."

According to a 1971 interview about the Let It Be movie, John said: "That film was set-up by Paul for Paul. That is one of the main reasons the Beatles ended. I can't speak for George, but I pretty damn well know we got fed up of being side-men for Paul."

Fleetwood Mac

This iconic rock band were propelled into stardom after the addition of Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks, who brought their vocal and song-writing skills in the renowned Rumours album, which sold a staggering 45 million copies and remained on the U.S. charts for 31 weeks.

However, the album was made under heated circumstances and amid rising tensions after Lindsey and Stevie ended their romantic relationship while remaining bandmates.

Tensions finally eventually boiled over during a 2018 appearance at the annual MusiCares benefit ahead of the Grammys, as Stevie recalled: "That's when he wasn't very nice to anybody," during an interview with Rolling Stone. Shortly after, Lindsey was fired from Fleetwood Mac and it later emerged that his firing came after an either-he-goes-or-I-go ultimatum from Stevie.

She said: "I dealt with Lindsey for as long as I could, you could not say that I did not give him more than 300 million chances."

While he confirmed that he'd rejoin the band in a heartbeat if the invitation came, although that appeared highly unlikely. "At least one person in the band wasn't very receptive to that," he added.

Van Halen

Van Halen skyrocketed to fame in the late 1970s with singer David Lee Roth fronting the group, until he quit the band in 1985 to pursue a solo career.

Although his exit at the time was seemingly amicable, guitarist Eddie Van Halen later complained he spent "twelve years of my life, putting up with his b*******," and alleged that David's exit blindsided him.

"He left us hanging," the guitarist fumed. David fired back during a press conference, refuting his former band member's version of events.

"Two weeks later, I'm reading in Rolling Stone what an a**hole I am, and how poor little Eddie was forced to spend the last 12 years of his life living a lie," he sarcastically said.

Sadly, David's solo career was not as successful as he'd hoped, while the band went on to reach further heights with his replacement, singer and guitarist Sammy Hagar.