Scathing one-way feuds: 15 musicians who irrationally hated a fellow artist
“I am the innovator,” Little Richard once proclaimed, “I am the originator. I am the emancipator. I am the architect of rock ‘n’ roll.” From that bombastic moment onwards, it would seem that fighting talk was firmly part of the fabric of the genre. Music might be the great unifying force of our age, but several of its most famed proponents have certainly had a swing at orchestrating a one-way division from within.
This is, after all, a world of egos – and egos are at the beck and call of subjectivity at that. Unlike sport, there’s no threat that you can throw muck on an opponent before a match and lose 6-0. If you hate a band, then there is no real recourse that is going to embarrass you. It is, in the wise words of The Dude, “just your opinion, man”. Furthermore, unlike film, as a band or artist in music, you stand alone. You’re not reliant on being cast by anyone except the will of the public. This makes music a firing range of few consequences.
As such, many artists have inexplicably (or perhaps not so inexplicably) hurled insults at their peers over the years. So, we’ve looked back through the annals of history and compiled the moments when artists come right out of the blue with a big fuck you. From Elvis Presley falling out of favour with counterculture and seeking his revenge to Bob Dylan’s evangelical arbitration of rotten ‘satanists’, these insults are classic moments of musical curmudgeon.
From patched-up spats to wars that are still being waged, these are the wild quotes from ten musicians who irrationally hated other artists. We’re not advocating cynicism. The world needs simple kindness more than ever, but as Ben Folds once said: “Rock ‘n’ roll is – and should be – a kid’s place.” So, let’s enjoy this playground stuff for a bit of fun.
10 musicians who hated other artists:
15. Bob Dylan’s hatred of Kiss
In the early-1980s, a strange hysteria swept over the US. The trend that is now dubbed The Satanic Panic saw vigilante parents turf up the grounds around a preschool in search of secret tunnels. It was when Judas Priest were accused of inexplicably killing off their fanbase with coded messages urging suicide. And it was when Kiss’ Gene Simmons was suspected of having the tongue of a cow. Essentially, the only cause for this devilish meshuga was an increase in working hours. This resulted in parents spending less time with their children, and the guilt this induced manifested in a bizarre way amid the rise of the religious right.
However, Kiss didn’t just receive a barrage of abuse from worried guardians since a born-again Bob Dylan was at it too. While performing at the University of Arizona, the audience grew tired of him purely singing songs praising Christ and began to demand a few hits. Dylan fumed and thought that the time had a-changed for the worst. He scathingly yelled: “If you want rock ‘n’ roll, you can go see Kiss and rock ‘n’ roll all the way down to the pit.” This was the start of his belief that Simmons and his satanic face-painted cohorts were on their way to hell.
14. Joni Mitchell’s hatred of Madonna
“Hate is a very strong word” is a phrase I remember being told often in my childhood, but when it comes to Madonna, it’s sadly bandied about quite often. Hell, even sweet Paul McCartney said she was no better than a “fairly average porn movie.” Mitchell chose an even stronger denigration; she isn’t ‘Mad-on-her’, to say the least. “Music has become burlesque over the last few years — video’s done that. Every generation has to be more shocking than the last. But at a certain point, you’ve got to reel it in because decadence ultimately isn’t that hip. Our country is going down the tubes from it. It’s rotten to the core. And I think women can be more than decorative,” she explained while setting up her insult.
“Yet someone like Madonna can be seen as a feminist hero because she’s exploiting her own sexuality rather than being exploited by some man. That’s an interesting idea, but what’s the difference between her and a hard hooker, you know? Who’s being exploited there? She’s revelling in herself, too,” she said. Before adding: “She’s got that whore-Madonna thing built-in [laughs]. She’s like a living Barbie doll but a little bit on the blue side. There’s always been that type of female. There’s always been a market for it, but the danger is that she thinks she’s a role model. And it’s a terrible role model. It’s death to all things real.”
13. Keith Richards’ hatred of Elton John
Keith Richards is not too much of a fan of kind words. He called Prince “an overrated midget” and even accused Mick Jagger of having a “tiny todger” but an “enormous pair of balls.” However, it seems his gripe with the ‘Rocketman’ was even more dogged. In true ‘you shouldn’t laugh, but you can’t help it’ fashion, The Rolling Stones rocker called dear old Elton “an old bitch… his writing is limited to songs about dead blondes.”
Elton John was determined not to be outdone, and his response is also comically commendable. “It would be awful to be like Keith Richards. He’s pathetic. It’s like a monkey with arthritis, trying to go on stage and look young. I have great respect for the Stones, but they would have been better if they had thrown Keith out 15 years ago,” the Rocketman rallied. Something tells me that something has happened at a party somewhere along the line.
12. Elvis Presley’s hatred of The Beatles
Pop culture moved quickly, and what started as one-way adoration quickly turned on its head and saw the ‘Fab Four’ view Elvis with indifference while ‘The King’ grew so loathsome he could cry, particularly when it came to John Lennon. The hip-snaking rock progenitor even grassed them up to the FBI, no less. In fact, it is rumoured that he offered to spy on John Lennon to help Richard Nixon drum-up charges that would have the peace and love singer deported from the Land of the Free.
Lodged in the FBI vault is a 663-page report on “Presley, Elvis A”. Within that, we learn that “he thought the Beatles had been a real force for anti-American spirit.” Furthermore, he was also “of the opinion that the Beatles laid the groundwork for many of the problems we are having with young people by their filthy unkempt appearances and suggestive music.” And that is what he told the authorities, according to his publicist, if you mentioned Lennon around him in private, the Kung Fu fighting burger king would “fly into a rage”.
11. Tom Waits’ hatred of The Eagles
When The Eagles covered Tom Waits’ Closing Time classic ‘Ol’ 55’, he was delighted… at the impact it had on his bank account. As Waits explained to WAMU back in 1975: “I frankly was not that particularly crazy about their rendition of it.” Taken from their On the Border LP, Waits continued: “The song is about five years old, it’s one of the first songs I wrote, so I felt like it was kind of flattering that somebody wanted to do your song, but at the same time I thought their version was a little antiseptic.”
While the flattery and royalties might have sweetened him at this stage of his career, he was even more cutting about their cover the following year. “I don’t like The Eagles,” he told NME. “They’re about as exciting as watching paint dry,” he said in a proto-paraphrase of Jeff Lebowski. He then concluded his cutting lambast by stating: “Their albums are good for keeping the dust off your turntable, and that’s about all.”
10. Pete Townshend’s hatred of Led Zeppelin
The Who guitarist Pete Townshend is another rocker not shy of a punch-up with a band. Speaking to the Toronto Sun when he was asked about The Who’s changing sound, he saw this as the perfect opportunity to squeeze in a jab at Zeppelin: “It doesn’t sound like The Who from those early heavy metal years. We sort of invented heavy metal with (our first live album) Live at Leeds (1970). We were copied by so many bands, principally by Led Zeppelin, you know heavy drums, heavy bass, heavy lead guitar,” said Townshend, aiming at the iconic quartet.
In 1995, Townshend was far more cutting of the record-breaking quartet: “I don’t like a single thing that they have done, I hate the fact that I’m ever even slightly compared to them.” He continued with vein-bulging rage: “I just never ever liked them. It’s a real problem to me cause, as people, I think they are really, really great guys. Just never liked the band. And I don’t know if I have a problem, block too, because they, well, that became so much bigger than The Who in so many ways, in their chosen field, I’ve never liked them.”
9. Nick Cave’s hatred of Red Hot Chili Peppers
In the saddest entry in this list, we bring you a cautionary tale about the pitfalls of cynicism, even if it is veiled as a pithy remark. We begin with a bit of profound praise from Red Hot Chili Peppers’ bassist, Flea. “Igor Stravinsky sat at his piano every fucking day,” Flea once mused, “The same thing goes for Nick Cave, the greatest living songwriter. He goes to work! Every day. And that’s what we do.”
Thus, it was all the more crushing when he discovered the following quote by Nick Cave regarding his band: “I’m forever near a stereo saying, ‘What the fuck is this garbage?’ And the answer is always the Red Hot Chili Peppers.” The happy ending is that they have since buried the hatchet and Cave invited Flea along to play on their recent tour, an experience he deemed spiritual… once the inevitable awkwardness subsided. Sticks and stones may break bones, but a handshake can always patch things up. As Flea maturely concluded: “I don’t care if Nick Cave hates my band because his music means everything to me.” He’ll be glad they’re now experiencing an unlikely bromance.
8. Lou Reed’s hatred of Frank Zappa
Lou Reed’s first acrimonious spat in music apparently began when The Velvet Underground were playing on Zappa’s west coast patch in Los Angeles in 1966 as part of Andy Warhol’s art collective, The Exploding Plastic Inevitable. The story goes that Zappa made a sarcastic comment about the artistic band and their creative coterie of Factory stars that filtered through within the underground music scene. This jibe was only exacerbated further because both acts were signed to MGM, and Zappa, as the main rival alternative act, was receiving way more promotion. Reed, as ever, flew off the handle over this.
“Frank Zappa is the most untalented musician I’ve ever heard,” he scolded. Later adding, “He can’t play rock ‘n’ roll because he’s a loser.” To which VU guitarist Sterling Morrison added: “If you told Frank Zappa to eat shit in public, he’d do it if it sold records. I would do it if I liked to.” In retrospect, the comical undertone to this whole debacle is that both artists were pretty much the antithesis of the commercially inclined.
The Beatles, however, were a band they could bond over hating. Reed said, “I have no respect for those people at all, I don’t listen to it at all, it’s absolute shit,” while Zappa proclaimed, “People thought the Beatles were God! That’s not correct.” And seemingly, this iconoclasm helped to patch their differences because Reed even ended up inducting Zappa into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
7. Liam Gallagher’s hatred of The White Stripes
In what is the finest rock insult of all time, Liam Gallagher’s brother Noel described him as “a man with a fork in a world of soup”. This enraging disposition has led the swaggering singer to offer up an interminable barrage of abuse and comical quips. You can take your pick at what he’s “not having”, but a personal favourite is the following inexplicable attack: “The White Stripes? Fucking rubbish. School ties? At the age of 24? Fucking hell.”
The beauty of the insult is how irrefutable it is. Wearing an outfit in rock ‘n’ roll always sets you up for a fall, and Liam Gallagher was more than happy to apply the push. Just as Paul Weller recently said about Robert Smith, “I can’t fucking stand them. Fucking fat cunt, with his lipstick and all that bollocks. He is my age as well, isn’t he?” Liam also decided to double down on his White Stripes swipe by enlisting his brother back when they were (sort of) pals. Noel stuck the boot in, stating: “He looks like Zorro on doughnuts.”
6. Kurt Cobain’s hatred of the Grateful Dead
Kurt Cobain had issues with what he deemed hippie culture. He believed that certain beat-inspired psychedelic bands were a symbol of “giving up” rather than actively fighting for what they believed in. Despite his moping, Cobain was in the punk camp of fighting authority rather than opting out. While the blonde groveller was getting his thoughts in order, The Grateful Dead often took the brunt. For one photo shoot, Cobain sported a T-shirt that read “punk’s not dead” and “Kill The Grateful Dead.”
He was also quoted saying, “You know what I hate about rock? I hate tie-dyed tee-shirts. I wouldn’t wear a tie-dyed tee-shirt unless it was dyed with the urine of Phil Collins and the blood of Jerry Garcia.” As a result, the plaid-shirted fad turned on anything that was deemed hippie, and The Grateful Dead began a flowery symbol of this—Nirvana fans were happy to piss on their garden.
5. John Lydon’s hatred of Sting
John Lydon’s mantra has always been: “See humour in all things”. This outlook has also always informed his view on music. “I’m not doom-laden, I’ve never been into goth rock, I always found that to be childish. ‘Oh, we’re all going to die’ – well, of course, but enjoy what you’ve got in between,“ is something he was citing as far back as 1992 with Creem. However, it wasn’t just the goths he thought took life too seriously.
“Humour’s a brilliant thing, I think you can solve more problems through humour than any other way,“ Lydon continued. “Deadpan seriousness doesn’t really work. Like Stink[g]! Sting amuses me because here’s a man who’s joined now so many causes and so many charities that he’s dissipated the energy behind them, and you can’t really take anything he now contributes to too seriously anymore.” And aside from this phony altruism, he also lashed out at his look, saying, “he’s gone and taken himself far too seriously, hasn’t he? ‘I am an intellectual, honest, please believe me. Look how unshaved I can be.”
4. Mick Jagger’s hatred of The Stranglers
“No matter what Johnny Rotten and Sid Vicious do, they can’t be more disgusting than The Rolling Stones are in an orgy of biting,” a 34-year-old Mick Jagger told Interview like a kid in a playground caught up in a daft ‘my dad is harder than your dad’ contest. Punk had clearly rattled him. However, he at least begrudgingly admired The Sex Pistols, the same wasn’t true of The Stranglers.
In 1977, the angered frontman decreed, “Don’t you think the Stranglers are the worst thing you’ve ever fucking heard? I do. They’re hideous, rubbishy,” he said. Continuing his cutting diatribe in the NME by adding: “So bloody stupid. Fucking nauseating, they are.” All the same, this simply served as fuel for the band. Jean-Jacques Burnel said that the band “thrived on being disliked.” He told Radio Times that being in the band meant that “if gigs didn’t end in a riot, or we weren’t booed off stage, it wasn’t good”.
3. Robert Smith’s hatred of Duran Duran
Duran Duran never made any apology for what they were all about. In fact, Simon Le Bon once even said, “That was the whole point in forming a band. Girls. Absolutely gorgeous girls.” They were a symbol of 1980s excess and irreverence, but Smith wanted his music to have more substance.
As Smith recently explained: “It was generally Duran Duran, which is really sad because they loved us and they used to come to our shows. But they represented everything we hated: the whole glamorous 80s, consumer bullshit; this horror show that we were up against.” Once again, he notes that it’s a shame that the ‘boy band’ in question happened to be fond of his own music–you can’t choose your fans.
2. David Crosby’s hatred of The Rolling Stones
While his view might have softened in his later years, for a time, you got the sense that David Crosby blamed the Stones for burning down the dream of the 1960s. He lived up in Laurel Canyon, where a community of bands fostered a prelapsarian hope for peace and love through arts. The Rolling Stones didn’t share this sentiment and often dished out digs to their peers and pushed the punkiness of rock ‘n’ roll towards a dangerous end that only served themselves.
After the horrific events at Altamont, where the band hired the Hells Angels as security in a regrettable move that resulted in fatalities, Crosby commented, “I think the major mistake was taking what was essentially a party and turning it into an ego game and a star trip of The Rolling Stones, who… qualify in my book as snobs. I think they’re on a grotesque, negative ego trip, essentially, especially the two leaders.”
He later said that they were far more limited in range than The Beatles and that they couldn’t harmonise ”for squat”, so he wasn’t too hot on the quality of their music either.
1. Jerry Garcia’s hatred of The Doors
Jerry Garcia was a very chilled out guy. Perhaps that’s why he took issue with the relative drama and pomposity of The Doors. “I never liked The Doors,” he bluntly put it in a biography. “I found them terribly offensive…when we played with them. It was back when Jim Morrison was just a pure Mick Jagger copy. That was his whole shot, that he was a Mick Jagger imitation. Not vocally, but his moves, his whole physical appearance was totally stolen from right around Mick Jagger’s 1965 tour of the states,” he said.
Even when Morrison tried to relinquish his wayward ways and play the role of a more demure artist, the star’s art was not to Garcia’s taste. The Grateful Dead founder commented: “He used to move around a lot before he started to earn a reputation as a poet, which I thought was really undeserved.” For him, it was naive sixth-form diary stuff. “Rimbaud was great at eighteen, nineteen, and Verlaine – those guys were great. Fuckin’ Jim Morrison was not great, I’m sorry.” And he seemingly remained artistically 18 in Garcia’s eyes forever.
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