00:00Welcome to WatchMojo… and today, we're counting down our picks for the most volatile
00:11and totally dysfunctional bands in the history of music.
00:1610 Motley Crue Motley Crue was never trying to be anything
00:26other than the rock and roll bad boys they were at their core.
00:29Drugs and egos rarely mix well, and Crue were so absorbed in their lifestyle that one of
00:34their biggest hits, Kickstart My Heart, may have been written about a drug mishap suffered
00:38by bassist Nikki Sixx.
00:47He was declared clinically dead and needed to be brought back by two adrenaline shots.
00:52The band actually jointly went into rehab just before dropping their biggest album, Dr.
00:57was all good, but tensions… never did fully heal, leading to Neil leaving the band in
01:021992.
01:09They reformed a few times in the years ever since, but a band like this was always destined
01:15to burn out fast, rather than fade away.
01:219 Black Sabbath Every member of Black Sabbath probably pushed
01:29their partying a little too heavy from time to time, but lead singer Ozzy Osbourne was in
01:34a different league.
01:36In fact, he was playing a different sport.
01:44These British heavy metal pioneers had a near-perfect run of six amazing albums to kick off their
01:49career, but Substance Use Disorder eventually knocked them off course, forcing them to fire
01:54the completely out-of-control Ozzy and replace them with Ronnie James Dio.
02:05When they all got a little older and calmed down, the original lineup did eventually regroup, playing
02:10their final show in July 2025.
02:19But in their prime, they were as wild as can be.
02:23And yes, Ozzy did have a successful solo career where he once bit the head off a live
02:28bat on stage.
02:29Yeah, that totally happened.
02:318 Sex Pistols
02:40If you want to burn as brightly as the Sex Pistols did, don't expect to have an especially
02:45long career in music.
02:47They were already a pretty chaotic group of musicians in their original lineup, but when
02:51bassist Sid Vicious joined after Glenn Matlock got the boots, things went in a totally different
02:57direction.
03:05Johnny Rotten was already a wild and totally unpredictable frontman, but the undeniable
03:10edge brought by Vicious changed things.
03:13The band started to implode.
03:15Constant fights, on and off stage, substance use problems and tension with their manager
03:20Malcolm McLaren led to this group rising and falling within just three short years.
03:34Neither Vicious nor his girlfriend Nancy Spungen would live to see their 22nd birthdays.
03:407 Pink Floyd
03:43Pink Floyd have been bickering amongst themselves for decades now, or to be more exact, Roger
03:49Waters has been bickering with all of the rest of the band.
03:53Their original band leader, Sid Barrett, had a pretty infamous mental breakdown, leaving
04:03the band just before they truly hit it big.
04:06And so, with Waters now at the helm, he was forced to contend with another generational musician
04:11in the group, David Gilmour on guitar.
04:21Money issues, creative differences, and some really nasty personal jabs have been the story
04:27of Pink Floyd for years now.
04:29Though they did reunite for a worthy cause in 2005 at Live 8, they're more used to seeing
04:35each other in court these days.
04:37All in all you're just a, not a freak in the wall.
04:426 Eagles
04:45The Eagles are the poster boys for how not to run a balanced rock band.
04:50Though they created a highly successful string of hit records, power struggles between members
04:54were a constant problem.
05:02Glenn Frey was the natural leader of the group, at first, and eventually Don Henley grew into
05:07that role that allowed him to have a similar level of power.
05:10But things between members were always tense.
05:20As for Don Felder, trying to ensure that the band get a fair split of their profits,
05:24it was enough to get him fired.
05:27These guys eventually just hated each other, right up until Glenn Frey's death, where they
05:32seemingly made peace enough to perform together and pay tribute to their former frontman.
05:435 The Beatles
05:48The Beatles might not have had the wild substance use disorder issues and on-stage fights of some
05:53of their contemporaries in the chaos department, but what they did have was the most well-documented
05:59internal songwriting rivalry to ever grace music.
06:08Along with a third wheel in George Harrison, who would only truly blossom as an artist when
06:13he got away from his bandmate friends.
06:15John Lennon and Paul McCartney loved each other very much, but their relationship was as intense
06:20as can be.
06:21And when they finally imploded, both men blamed each other, or did nothing to dispel the idea
06:26that Yoko Ono was responsible.
06:34They even started arguing over who wrote certain songs in their catalog, a sad end for a legendary
06:41creative partnership.
06:484 The Beach Boys
06:50The Beach Boys were a family band, with brothers Brian Carl and Dennis Wilson being joined by
06:56cousin Mike Love and managed by their father Murray, plus their friend Al Jardine.
07:02First make he got drunk, broke him the captain's truck.
07:08However, just because they shared blood doesn't mean they were immune to tension.
07:13Band leader Brian Wilson and Mike Love had quite a lot, actually.
07:17I'm a rookie, I'm a rookie, I'm a rookie, I'm a rookie, I'm a rookie, I'm a rookie.
07:24Love gets a bad rap from the fans, but he was supposedly left out of a lot of songwriting
07:29credits he felt he should have gotten.
07:32Arguments between him and Brian Wilson were becoming more common as the lead singer's
07:36mental health began to unravel due to exhaustion and substance use disorder.
07:403 Guns N' Roses
07:50Who wouldn't find it difficult to work with a guy like Axl Rose?
07:55No band was as reliable for showing up to gigs, late, as G & R. Rose, to this day, carries
08:09himself like a god on earth, and it's no wonder that this band has had 24 different members
08:15since they began.
08:23Axl was just an abrasive character, and his relationship with iconic guitarist Slash genuinely
08:28seemed beyond the point of fixing… until they somehow patched things up decades after
08:32he initially left the band.
08:39Guns N' Roses have been nearly as unpredictable as the state of Axl Rose's singing voice on
08:45any given night.
08:472 Fleetwood Mac
08:49Romance was the real catalyst and the undeniable killer when it came to Fleetwood Mac's extremely
08:55chaotic time in the spotlight.
09:02Though originally led by Mick Fleetwood, Peter Green, and John McVie, the band would really
09:07find musical magic after Green left, thanks to the additions of Christine McVie, Lindsey
09:12Buckingham, and his then-girlfriend, Stevie Nicks.
09:16However, the relationships between Buckingham and Nicks, as well as John and Christine McVie,
09:27were falling apart by the time their legendary album Rumors came out.
09:32They were all basically taking shots at each other in song lyrics and fighting backstage.
09:37There was violence, infidelity, and more.
09:40Fleetwood Mac is the band many think of first when dysfunctionality is brought up.
09:45The gold standard in many ways.
09:53Before we unveil our top pick, here are a few honorable mentions.
09:57Van Halen, the band that was always destined to fall apart.
10:09The Kinks.
10:10Brothers Ray and Dave Davies were constant thorns in each other's sides.
10:14You really got me now, you got me so I got me back now and you really got me, you really
10:20got me.
10:21Simon and Garfunkel.
10:23Childhood friends grew to really resent one another.
10:34The Smashing Pumpkins.
10:36Billy Corgan seems like a pretty tough guy to work with.
10:43The Libertines.
10:49Substance use issues and a highly intense relationship at the center of it all.
10:53Now you know that the time has come, and they said it would never come for you.
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11:171.
11:18Oasis.
11:19There's an argument that the brothers Gallagher, Noel and Liam were the last true rock stars
11:30to emerge from Britain in recent decades.
11:33These guys are not the type to sit down and iron out problems with care and understanding.
11:38They have had onstage fights, drunken blowouts, substance problems, and one of the biggest
11:43and most shocking breakups of the era.
11:48Sure, as of 2025, they have finally put aside their issues and started a world tour for a
11:58boatload of cash, but every single Oasis fan will be nervously hoping that nothing kicks
12:03off between these two again.
12:05As with Liam and Noel, it only takes one of them to start a real problem.
12:09Hopefully age has mellowed them out a little.
12:19But which band do you wish could have put aside their differences and stayed on course?
12:24Let us know in the comments section below.
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