- 4 hours ago
Sex, drugs, and rock 'n' roll often lead to chaos behind the scenes! Join us as we count down our picks for the most volatile and totally dysfunctional bands in the history of music. From sibling rivalries and substance abuse to creative differences and ego clashes, these legendary groups delivered amazing music while barely keeping it together backstage.
Category
🎵
MusicTranscript
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.
10:59Before we continue, be sure to subscribe to our channel and ring the bell to get notified
11:05about our latest videos.
11:07You have the option to be notified for occasional videos, or all of them.
11:10If you're on your phone, make sure you go into your settings and switch on notifications.
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.
Be the first to comment