10 musicians that walked away from classic rock bands
For any aspiring musician, the lavish life of a rock star sounds like one of the most appealing jobs in the world. Between hanging out with one’s friends and playing music, artists get to see some of the most exciting corners of the world, bringing joy to thousands of fans wherever they set up their show. That kind of life isn’t for everyone, though, and members of bands like The Heartbreakers and Guns N’ Roses decided they had had enough.
While a life of luxury has its alluring moments, it’s equally not hard to see why some of these people quit their day jobs. As much as they may have made beautiful music together, the relationship between a group of tempestuous people who spend 24 hours a day in one another’s company is bound to grate on someone, especially if they aren’t necessarily the most pleasant set of people to be around.
Outside of the inner band turmoil, artists sometimes don’t want to be as big as the world wants them to be, occasionally opting out because they don’t want to take the pressure. As much as being on top of a pedestal might sound attractive, it’s completely different once people get a view of it for themselves.
While the bands were left high and dry by these departures, they each recovered from them nicely as well, either finding someone completely different to fill their shoes, changing up their style entirely, or folding under the pressure. It wouldn’t be easy building up their success again, but sometimes it’s better for the artist to do what feels right for them than what’s right for their fanbase.
10 musicians that walked away from legendary rock bands
10. George Harrison – The Beatles
As The Beatles reached the end of their recording career, George Harrison was still rapidly ascending as a songwriter. Despite some of the troubled sessions that went on during The White Album, Harrison’s penchant for melody had started to compete with the songwriting machine of John Lennon and Paul McCartney, with ‘While My Guitar Gently Weeps’ being one of the album’s many highlights. When returning to their roots, Harrison wasn’t ready to be put on the side again.
Ducking into Twickenham Studios for what was to become the Get Back project, Harrison often felt sidelined in the group, never being taken seriously by the rest of the group and having to limit his performance on songs like ‘Two of Us’. After being told to quiet down one too many times, Harrison finally left the group, telling the band to find a replacement and going home to write his future solo hit ‘Wah-Wah’.
Once the rest of the group showed up at his house to cajole him back into the band, the sessions still got put on the shelf for a few months while they worked on Abbey Road as their latest definitive artistic statement. Harrison may have been ‘The Quiet Beatle’, but being kept at bay for so long had finally gotten to him in that cold film studio. In truth, every member of The Beatles had walked away at some point during the group’s career; however, this one always felt the most personal.
9. Pat Smear – Foo Fighters
The fact that Foo Fighters exist at all is practically a miracle. After the dissolution of Nirvana following Kurt Cobain’s death, Dave Grohl’s decision to make new music on his own gave him a new lease on life, turning him into a bold new frontman after being kept in the back of the stage for so long. However, he needed a band to build around him, and Pat Smear was the right guy for the job…at first.
Although Smear had been working with Grohl since his days in Nirvana, he wasn’t ready to start back at ground zero again. Once they headed out on the road, Smear started to get tired of playing the same songs repeatedly on tour, especially after having to redo their second record, The Colour and the Shape, once Grohl thought drummer William Goldsmith wasn’t good enough.
As newcomer Taylor Hawkins was brought in, Smear abruptly quit the band, not wanting to commit to another tour, being replaced by Franz Stahl and later Chris Shiflett. Distance makes the heart grow fonder, though, and Smear would make his way back into the band for the album Wasting Light, turning Foo Fighters into a three-guitar assault every time they took to the stage.
8. Jimmy Page – The Yardbirds
Not many British rock bands can boast such a strong lineup of guitar players as The Yardbirds. Born out of the London blues scene, their penchant for playing some of the nastiest blues rock was only matched by their lineup, featuring future guitar hero Eric Clapton behind the fretboard in the early days. When Clapton started to carve out his own path with Cream, his replacement Jimmy Page felt he could also do better.
After playing rhythm guitar beside Jeff Beck in The Yardbirds and being a veteran of the session music scene, Page started to look for a new outlet, hooking up with fellow studio musician John Paul Jones to put together the foundation for a new group. Once they landed on John Bonham and Robert Plant, Page walked out of his old outfit to form the crux of Led Zeppelin.
While Zeppelin had played more than their fair share of blues progressions, Page was about expanding his music vocabulary, using different Eastern scale degrees that weren’t as common with any other band in England. The Yardbirds might have been a good litmus test for what Page could do, but hearing him in Led Zeppelin is like listening to the fully-formed musician he had become.
7. Ron Blair – Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers
Most functional rock bands always have that one quiet member holding things together. Even though they might not say much, these people are often the glue that holds the group together, always keeping steady with some of the sturdiest elements of every song. Ron Blair could hold his own as part of Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers, but he quickly fell out of love with the rockstar machine.
After spending time paying their dues on their first few albums, Blair started to see something change once they tasted success with Damn the Torpedoes. Outside of playing music worldwide, Blair had gotten tired of the sleazy nature behind some of the biggest companies he had to deal with, thinking that they were only concerned about money.
While he was absolutely right, Blair didn’t see any fun in trying to continue making music in that environment, leaving the group before the album Long After Dark and opening up a swimsuit shop in California. Blair did have a silver lining for his career, though, returning to The Heartbreakers in the early ‘00s following the death of his replacement Howie Epstein and staying with them until Petty died in 2017.
6. Roger Waters – Pink Floyd
No member of Pink Floyd would say that they were thrilled with being one of the biggest bands in the world. While it might be nice to have someone empathise with the feelings they were singing about, the loss of Syd Barrett gave them a clear example of what fame and the rockstar lifestyle can do to someone. As Roger Waters continued the course with the rest of Floyd, his visions for the band’s future became too big for any member.
In the wake of recording The Wall, Waters became a dictator, having heated arguments with David Gilmour about how certain songs should sound and even firing Richard Wright and rehiring him so the album could finish. After coming off one of the biggest tours in rock history, The Final Cut marked the final straw for Waters, acting like a companion piece to the concept album before leaving for a solo career.
Although Waters retained the rights to perform The Wall, there was never a concrete reunion between him and the rest of the members, only reuniting with them for a performance at Live 8 and getting into heated arguments with them ever since. Every rock band tends to feel like a democracy, but The Wall may as well be a Roger Waters solo album that happened to bare the band’s name.
5. Jason Newsted – Metallica
None of the members of Metallica took the death of Cliff Burton very well. After writing some of the most adventurous metal ever heard on albums like Master of Puppets, Burton’s sudden death in a bus accident made the rest of the band question whether they should continue. While they eventually picked themselves up, all their anger and frustration got wasted on the new guy.
As soon as Jason Newsted joined the group, he was already on the firing line, getting hazed by the group on tour and having his performances muted on the album And Justice For All. Despite getting to show off live, Newsted would always be stifled in the studio, only contributing a handful of riffs over his decade in the band.
While trying to get his artistic ideas out in other outfits, James Hetfield’s insistence on no side projects was the last straw, with Newsted quitting the group before working on the album St Anger. Some members might lose the sense of fun of being in a band, but Newsted left because he refused to be treated like a subpar musician every time he walked into the studio.
4. John Frusciante – Red Hot Chili Peppers
Every musician must always deal with a certain amount of external noise when getting famous. Even though they get the adulation of fans around the world, the sudden attention from the paparazzi and the constant questions about nothing is enough for any standard human being to want a little bit of a break. Although some musicians raced towards that fame like an Olympic sprinter, John Frusciante never wanted that kind of attention in the first place.
When replacing Hillel Slovak in Red Hot Chili Peppers, Frusciante was convinced that the group would remain underground for most of their career, becoming one of the greatest legends of the California scene. Once Rick Rubin came into the picture for Blood Sugar Sex Magik, the massive success of singles like ‘Under the Bridge’ and ‘Give It Away’ desensitised Frusciante, deciding to self-medicate with heroin.
While his massive drug habit often altered his performances, he also lost faith in his band members, including an incredibly awkward Saturday Night Live performance where he stayed completely stiff. After going on another massive tour, Frusciante couldn’t take it anymore, quitting the band before they were about to take the stage and not returning for five years until the album Californication.
3. Izzy Stradlin – Guns N’ Roses
It’s no secret that Guns N’ Roses were known to live their lives on the edge just a little bit. As they began cutting their teeth on the LA rock scene, each member had as good a chance of dying of an overdose as they did, becoming one of the biggest rock stars in the world. While every original member is still among the living today, Izzy Stradlin had one bad habit he needed to kick in the early ‘90s: Axl Rose.
After the prolonged sessions for the double album Use Your Illusion, Stradlin decided to clean up his act, getting sober midway through the tour and living a clean lifestyle. While the rest of the band weren’t as keen on dropping their habits, Stradlin was more concerned with the way Rose was conducting himself, becoming a massive diva and trying to dictate every piece of the show to be as perfect as possible.
Once Rose started not showing up to some of the gigs, the massive riots from unhappy fans became one of the final pieces of the puzzle, with Stradlin leaving and disappearing into the shadows with various side bands. Stradlin may have left a lot of money on the table, but he also knew that one more day with Axl Rose would have been much worse than a thousand smaller opportunities.
2. David Lee Roth – Van Halen
As hair metal was just starting, Van Halen was the perfect package a young hard rock fan could ask for. Outside of Eddie Van Halen’s signature guitar chops and tapping solos, David Lee Roth was the ultimate frontman in every sense of the word, playing his cartoon-like persona whenever he got onstage. However, Roth was still focused on music, and creative differences led to one of the most infamous fallouts of the ‘80s.
Since Van Halen had a specific formula for hard-edged rock and roll, Eddie’s decision to bring keyboards into the mix didn’t sit well with Roth, who preferred to stick with the formula that they were used to. After forcing the band to play old cover songs like ‘Dancing in the Street’ on Diver Down, Eddie decided to put his foot down, electing to use his home studio to record 1984 and utilise as many keyboards as he wanted.
Though the album came out spectacularly, Roth wasn’t keen to give in to Eddie’s demands for much longer, quitting after the tour wrapped up and being replaced by fellow vocal titan Sammy Hagar. Then again, if Eddie was becoming the main attraction, maybe it was getting to the point where there were too many egos for one band.
1. Noel Gallagher – Oasis
No one was ever going to question who the leader behind Oasis was. Though the attraction may have been the frustration going on between the Gallagher Brothers, Noel’s reputation as ‘The Chief’ was undeniable, penning all the songs and even singing the ones that were either closest to him or out of Liam’s vocal capabilities. That sibling rivalry could only last so long, and Noel finally decided enough was enough in 2009.
Having finished up their latest album, Dig Out Your Soul, Noel was still not on good terms with his brother on tour, never acknowledging his presence outside of being nasty towards him. As Liam started to get increasingly erratic onstage, things escalated just hours before a gig in Paris.
After pulling into the gig, the band were getting up to the usual press packages backstage when Liam went on a rant about Noel, thinking that he had been pulling the strings of the press. Once they entered the green room, Noel witnessed his brother swinging a guitar and decided that it was time for him to cool out. As Noel went back to the tour bus as he had done many times before, it was clear that this was the last time he would deal with the rock star antics, calling off the concert and announcing the group’s breakup days later.
