Rockstars live large and when a rockstar behaves badly, it can be extreme and very, very public. These music icons had it all until they did things the world can’t forget. Nirvana came to an end with the 1994 death of frontman Kirk Cobain. Drummer Dave Gro switched gears and emerged as the singer, songwriter, and guitarist for a new project called Foo Fighters.
After dominating postgrunge alternative rock for the rest of the ‘9s, Foo Fighters evolved into one of the most popular mainstream rock and roll bands of the 21st century. >> [music] >> could ever be this forever. >> All the while, Gro enjoyed a reputation as one of Rock’s good guys, injecting humor into Foo Fighters videos and shows, waging good-natured drum battles with children, and living out a public bromance with bandmate Taylor Hawkins until Hawkins tragic death in 2022.
I’VE GOT ANOTHER CONFESSION TO make >> came as a shock to fans and family in August 2024 when Gro revealed that he hadn’t been such a good guy as far as his 21-year marriage to Jordan Bloom was concerned. He took to Instagram to post, “I recently become the father of a new baby daughter born outside of my marriage.
I plan to be a loving and supportive parent to her. I love my wife and my children and I am doing everything I can to regain their trust and earn their [music] forgiveness.” my biggest inspiration and I love them so much and we have such a great relationship. >> The band canled some tour dates and announced it would take a break while Gro, pretty much constantly famous since 1991, lay low for a while.
As of 2026, Scroll and Bloom are still married and the band is back on [music] the road. >> Live sold 8 million copies of its 1994 album Throwing Copper, full of moody, philosophical, and tormented alternative rock hits like I Alone, Selling the Drama, and Lightning Crashes. [music] But the band’s dynamic was shattered in the 2000s when lead singer Ed Qualic began acting like he was the star attraction.
>> The ideas come from all four of us, you know, at any different times. >> Oh, really? So, everybody shares in the publishing? >> Yeah, >> that’s what he said. But in 2009, Qualic decided that Live ought to break up, announcing it via email. By that point, Kalchick’s behavior had gotten so egregious that his bandmates welcomed the split.
Guitarist Chad Taylor told Rolling Stone, “We all responded in about 30 seconds and went, “Great idea. Where did you go? [music and singing] >> Qualic embarked on a solo career, releasing two albums, Alive and The Flood in the Mercy. Both [music] of which sold so poorly that they didn’t even make the Billboard 200 album chart. Clearly, the public was over his music, not to mention his bad behavior.
So, what did he do? He went crawling back to his old band. [music] Quick organized a live reunion tour in 2016, but as for his diva behavior, it didn’t change. It actually got worse. [music] He negotiated himself a 40% revenue share while the other three band members split what was left. In 2022, Kalchick finagled a controlling interest in the band.
He finally had the power he’d always wanted, so he fired everyone and began touring as live with hired backing musicians. So Live the band is just Ed with a bunch of live musicians performing live as live. And that’s why it was always a dumb band name to begin with. Formerly a member of the birds, David Crosby spent the 1970s with Crosby Stills and Nash and sometimes Young.
the pre-minent acoustic act of the decade. >> Teach your children. >> CSN’s music was all about peace and love. But in his personal life, Crosby racked up a slew of arrests for drug and gunrelated crimes, as well as a long-term case of hepatitis C. >> David had become insufferable. He was just hard to hang out with.
You know, you didn’t want to be [music] around him. In 1982, while on his way to an anti-nuke protest in California, Crosby crashed his vehicle into a freeway divider. When police on the scene found cocaine and a loaded gun, they arrested him. He took a plea, reducing the charge to one count of reckless driving and probation without jail time.
But Crosby’s troubles weren’t over. >> There was boundaries I crossed that you haven’t thought of yet. >> 3 months later, he was arrested at a Dallas concert venue for again having cocaine and a loaded handgun in his dressing room. In March 1986, Crosby entered prison for what was supposed to be a 5-year sentence, but he was parrolled after 5 months.
Unfortunately, he didn’t escape the fallout from his life of substance abuse so easily. In 1994, he got a new liver, which saved his life, but even that wasn’t without controversy. Ordinary people wait years for a transplant. Crosby got his in a matter of weeks. He died on January 18th, 2023. In the late 1970s, Ellis Costello was a sensation on both sides of the Atlantic with his albums My Aim is True and This Year’s Model.
At first, he was lumped in with both the postpunk anti-establishment Angry Young Men and The New Wave. Eventually, Costello would settle into a bespoke niche under the alt rock umbrella. If you think this was about when he infamously switched up songs on Saturday Night Live, [music] >> I’m sorry, ladies and gentlemen, there’s no reason to do this song here.
>> Radio. Oh no, it’s much more serious than that. It’s when he let loose with some very ugly hate speech. In 1979, Castello’s armed funk tour landed in Columbus, Ohio. He and the band were hanging out in a hotel bar with folk rock icon Steven Stills and his entourage. As the alcohol flowed, the conversation got more intense, and Costello didn’t hold back with his general distaste for all things America, including American music, and used an ugly racial slur to dismiss the work of two of its foundational figures, Ray Charles and
James Brown. Singer Bonnie Braramlet slapped Costello so hard he fell off his bar stool and dislocated his shoulder. But she wasn’t done. Braramlet told reporters about Costello’s use of the n-word, forcing him to hold a press conference to deny being a racist. >> He may have used that as an excuse, but you know what? Castello never actually apologized.
And I know what you out there who are familiar with Costello’s catalog are thinking. What about Oliver’s Army? I’m not going to explain it, but let’s just say that Castello’s use of the word wasn’t an isolated incident. It’s worth noting that Ray Charles took the high road and commented, “Drunken talk isn’t meant to be printed in the paper.
” >> Led Zeppelin guitar god Jimmy Paige was positively woripped in the 1970s. He played a major role in forging the band sound, and his distinctive shredding can be heard on rock standards like Whole Lot of Love and Stairway to Heaven, both of which he’d later be accused of stealing.
And I’m not sure Zep ripped them off, but I gotta say, it makes me wonder. Really makes me wonder. >> In 1985, blues musician Willie Dixon sued Led Zeppelin for stealing chunks of You Need Love, a song he wrote for Muddy Waters and shoehorning them into Whole Lot of Love. You got yawning and I got funny. >> You need cooling, baby. I’m not fooling.
>> The case was quickly settled out of court and Paige and singer Robert Plant went back and forth in the media blaming each other for the plagiarism. In 1968, the band Spirit released the instrumental Taus in which the opening guitar line sounds a whole lot like the intro to Stairway to Heaven. If you’re wondering how Zeppelin could have heard that song, well, they just needed to peek their heads out of their dressing rooms.
Spirit opened for Zeppelin on their US tour in 1968 [music] and 69. The estate of Spirit member Randy Wool filed a copyright infringement suit in 2014, which was dismissed [music] in 2016, but retried upon appeal. Paige and the ban were cleared of intellectual theft in 2020, at least legally. And by the way, [music] that was actually harked because ironically enough, Led Zeppelin likes to sue people who play their music without permission.
But in terms of Spirit’s lawsuit against them, well, their lawyer laid it out for Rolling Stone, saying, “Led Zeppelin are the greatest art thieves of all time.” Steven Tyler and Aerosmith came out of the Boston area in the early 1970s. By the decades end, the band was huge, blending blues with simple rock hooks and packing arenas around the world.
It would later come out that during much of that time, Tyler was allegedly touring with an underage girl whose parents had signed off on the whole thing. >> It was truly days full of night. [music] >> In 2022, Julia Misley filed suit against Tyler, publicly claiming that she was coerced into a sexual relationship with him in the [music] 1970s.
Misley claimed that they met at a concert in 1973 when he was 25 and she was 16. After the show, they went to a hotel room where she was sexually assaulted. In 1974, after a few months of flying Misley out to Aerosmith concerts, Tyler filed paperwork to become her legal guardian so he could keep her nearby and allegedly groom her.
[music] >> Wisley alleged that Tyler gave her lots of drugs and alcohol, continuously assaulted her, and forced her to end a pregnancy. Parts of the lawsuit were dismissed in 2024, but as of 2026, the case is headed to trial. [music] just people. >> You might not, but he will. In 2003, operation or an international sting led by the FBI, resulted in the arrest of 1,600 people in the UK on charges of possessing obscene media depicting children.
Among them was the who’s lead guitarist Pete Townsen. Townsen sort of admitted to the crimes of which he was accused, but with a caveat. [music] He told authorities that in 1999 he’d used a credit card to pay to view a website containing the illegal material, believing that the imagery would bring up repressed childhood memories of his own abuse.
Following an investigation during which Townsen said he hadn’t actually looked at any of the photos, the charges were dropped, although the guitarist was placed on a national sex offender registry for 5 years. After a successful run in the late 1970s and early 80s, Blondie broke up in 1982. They then reunited in the late 90s with the hit album No Exit in a tour.
Original members Debbie Harry, Chris Stein, Clen Burke, and Jimmy Destry were on board, but Frank and Fonte, and Nigel Harrison were intentionally [music] left out. Why, you ask? >> That might be it. No one’s ever said for sure, but Infante and Harrison sued for a million dollars, seeking to stop the reunion from taking place without them and bringing negative attention to Blondie 2.0.
The case was tossed out of court, but it got awkward in 2006 when the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame enshrined Blondie, including Harrison and Infante. Before the induction ceremony, Harry told the Associated Press that a full happy reunion was out of the question, explaining there was no excuse for them suing us.
Harrison and Infante showed up anyway, not to play, but to speak their minds. Frank said, “One thing that really make it better would be if we could actually perform for you tonight, but some of us are not allowed to do that.” It was awkward. Bill Wyman is an incredible bass player. I’m still always amazed by Bill’s tastefulness. >> Yeah, about that.
Basist Bill Wyman joined the Rolling Stones in 1962 and played with them for about three decades. Wyman provided the bubbling low-end counterpoint to MC Jagger’s vocals and Keith Richard’s guitar licks. Wyman was content to leave the headline grabbing to his cohorts until he brought on [music] the biggest scandal in history of a band known for its scandalous behavior.
In his autobiography, Stone Alone, Wyman recalled an incident at the 1984 Daily Mirror British Rock Awards, saying, “I saw two stunning girls leaving the dance floor, and my heart just jumped.” The one who’d especially caught his fancy was named Mandy Smith, [music] and she was 13 years old. Within a few weeks, they were a couple.
The relationship became physical within the year, and Wyman took things public when Smith was 16, [music] and he was about 50. They married in 1989 and filed for divorce in 1991. Smith was still not 21 years old. Wyman left the [music] Stones in 1992. You know who was most upset about the divorce? It was Smith’s future stepfather.
Steven Wyman married her mother Paty in 1993. I know what you’re thinking. And yep, [music] Steven was Bill’s son. We were just 2 years away from Bill Wyman’s son being his father-in-law. You know what? Let’s just move on. When Cedon’s Clearwater revival split up in 1972, it should have led to long-lasting solo success for the band’s singer and main songwriter John Fogerty.
Instead, his career turned into a melodrama marked by bitterness and self-defeat. His first two albums didn’t sell very well, and after the single You Got the Magic barely made the Hot 100 in 1976. Asylum Records thought the LP Hudoo was so bad as to be unreleasable. Burgundy spent the next few years not making music, but fighting his old CCR record label, Fantasy Records, over control of his music.
He finally got back into the studio in 1983, but struggled to record anything he felt was worthy of release. In 1985, Fogerty made a comeback with the album Center Field, a double platinum smash. It got him sued. The tracks Mr. Greed and Vans Can’t Dance triggered a defamation lawsuit from Fantasy [music] Records boss Saul’s Ants.
And it’s not hard to see why when you listen to the pair of vicious diss tracks. [music] >> Fogerty publicly distanced himself from CCR bandmates who’d sided with Zance, including his brother Tom Fogerty. The brothers didn’t reconcile before Tom’s [music] death in 1990. Meanwhile, John refused to play any of his CCR songs in concert for years.
And when CCR was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, he [music] made sure that the two other surviving members of the band couldn’t get on stage to perform with him. [music] >> As the lead singer of the 1980s band Skid Row, Sebastian Bach had everything required of a hard rock frontman. Chiseled [music] good looks, swagger, and big stage presence.
The singer showmanship helped propel Skid Row to the big time, and they notched two top 10 singles and two platinum albums in a row in the US. But it’s fair to say that Boach’s role as frontman was powered by his ego. >> He thought he was bigger than everybody. [music] So therefore, nobody could tell him anything. >> His onstage persona, which included ripping with the audience, trashing other musicians on stage, and explaining the lyrics to songs that he had no part in writing, began to irritate his bandmates. In 1989, he actually threw a
glass into the audience. A 17-year-old girl suffered serious lacerations as [music] a result. We had been told that the cops were coming to get us and so we hightailed it out of town. That same year, Bach attracted more bad press for the band by wearing a homophobic t-shirt. I saw him put it on and it was like slow motion like just wanting to run over to her and go, “No.
” Was reportedly [music] just as volatile offstage. As the 1990s progressed, Boach’s bombastic performance style began to look increasingly dated compared to the authenticity of the grunge movement. Skidro disbanded in 1996. And if you’re wondering what happened to Bach, he first pivoted [music] to become a musical theater actor.
When the band reformed in 1999, it was with a new singer, Johnny Solinger. And Skidro members were open about how they never wanted to play with Bach again. Sebastian did extensive solo tours in the years after his stage work. And in 2026, it was announced that he would take over as the lead singer for Twisted Sister, replacing another bombastic singer on and off the stage, D. Snider.
Morsy became a megast star in his native UK and an eventual cult icon in the US. Thanks in great part to the stunning music that he made in the mid 1980s with the British indie band the Smiths. He worked alongside guitarist Johnny Maher whose lush playing style set the Smiths apart from other bands of the day. Together the pair created timeless songs about adolescent alienation and longing that are still a right of passage for many music [music] fans around the world.
When the band split in 1987, Morsy went on to enjoy a long and successful solo career. Yet, while Morsy was fed as an indie genius by the music press well into the 21st century, his reputation has taken [music] a hit in recent years. [singing] >> Heaven knows I’m miserable now. >> He’s always been outspoken, but he attracted a great deal of scorn for describing Chinese people as a subspecies in [music] an interview with the Guardian.
He’s also publicly supported for Britain, a far-right group that many have labeled racist, and defended convicted sex offender [music] Harvey Weinstein. Some fans have expressed shock and betrayal at Morsey’s ideological shift. And others point out that he has long been nationalistic, even provocatively posing with a Union [music] Jack Flag in the 1990s.
And according to Johnny Rogan’s book Morsy and Mah, the Severed Alliance, when he was a teenager, the singer allegedly wrote in a letter, “I don’t hate Pakistanis, but I dislike them immensely. That’s a very bad look. >> The world is a vampire. >> In the 1990s, Smashing Pumpkins combined screaming guitars, baffling lyrics, and snarling vocals.
Most of those came from Billy Corgan, smiling politely as the band’s main songwriter, frontman, and only continuous member. The group rode the highs of grunge with songs like Cherub Rock and Today, before getting grand and progressive with the double LP Melancholy and The Infinite Sadness. But by the early 2000s, they were done.
The band broke up because Corgan continuously alienated and fired his bandmates. [music] Then came his less smiling politely phase when he was kneedeep in what you can classify as hate speech. On his Live Journal blog in 2005, Corgan violently threatened a woman he’d spent the night with after he learned that she was transgender and had been [music] telling people she’d been with him.
6 years later, transgender rights activist and custom guitar pedal builder Debbie Ever wrote on a message board that Corgan had never paid her for her work. Corgan lashed out on social media with anti-trans slurs, threatening her with violence and insisting he would file a lawsuit so severe it would put her out of business forever. >> I had a top 10 radio hit and the indie press was coming after me, accusing me of selling out.
>> Following some crunchy underground cassettes released under the name Girly Sound, Liz Far came out with Exile and Guyville under her own name in 1993. The album influenced the generation of sexually frank confessional [music] guitar-driven female singer songwriters and female-fed bands of the ‘9s.
And Far followed it up with a few more like-minded albums by decades end. >> It’s kind of rock pop folk feminism rap. >> While Farah received plenty of critical acclaim, commercial success proved elusive. In 2003, Farah teamed up with the producers and songwriters behind the success of teen punk singer Averil Leavine.
It’s just like [music] we were meant to be. >> The strategy worked. Farah’s catchy radio friendly single, Why Can’t I put her in the top 40 for the first and only time. >> This was the era of Britney Spears and In Sync and Boys to Men. >> But to her longtime fans, Fairheads sold out. Few990s rock stars had to endure a more severe fall [music] from grace.
Matt Lame of the music blog Pitchfork went harder, giving her 2003 self-titled album a 0.0 out of 8.0. 0 review writing, [music] “Liz has finally managed to achieve what seems to have been her goal ever since the possibility of commercial success first presented itself to her to release an album that could have just as easily been made [music] by anybody else.
” When Grunge [snorts] dominated the 1990s, most 80s metal bands faded into obscurity. But not Panta. They got harder and edgier and became even more successful, selling millions of copies of their early 1990s albums vulgar displays of power and far beyond driven. Their energetic frontman, Phil and Selmo, became a certified rock star.
But his public grievances with his bandmates led to a split in the early 2000s. His feud with guitarist dimeag Daryl Abbott was so intense that when Abbott was murdered in 2004, his family told Anelmo not to attend the funeral. >> Why didn’t you return [music] the nine phone calls when Daryl called you? I go, “If you show up here, I’ll blow your head off myself.” And I hung up on him.
>> Even so, he eventually reconciled with his former bandmates and they revived Panta. His onstage behavior hadn’t improved. Take what happened at a January 2016 Dimeag Daryl tribute show. At the end of Panta’s set, Anelmo yelled out a white supremacist slogan and gave a Nazi salute.
He apologized on social media, but the damage would dog and Selmo and Panta for years to come. Even 3 years later, promoters in New Zealand cancelled some Panta shows, as did promoters [music] in Germany as late as 2023. Ted Nent was one of the most revered guitarists of the 1970s and 1980s, winning a claim for his musicianship, as well as his wild man theatrics during live shows.
For most of the 1980s, he went solo with slightly diminishing commercial and critical returns. [music] So, Nent ended the decade in the short-lived supergroup Damn Yankees, which released two albums before calling it quits. Nent has been known throughout his career for his outspoken conservatism, including his vocal support for gun ownership.
He might be more remembered for his outspoken support for hunting to the point where he might be the most vocal anti-vegan on the planet. He used his Detroit radio show as a platform to discuss political issues, not without fallout. Nent has made comments about former President Barack Obama that were widely interpreted as racist, and he has also posted messages on social media that have been described as anti-semitic.
Needless to say, his listenership has dwindled as a result.