EXIT STAGE RIGHT
Rampant egos, drug and alcohol excess, stealing from band members, sexual assault, bad pay and declining health are generally the most common reasons why a musician is told by his or her band to take a long walk off a short pier.
Dave Navarro was tossed out of Red Hot Chilli Peppers “because I tripped and fell over an amp while on drugs.”
In mid-2013 Kim Shattuck’s time in The Pixies lasted six months – because, she says, she did a stage dive, and was told by the manager as she came off stage, “The Pixies don’t do that.'”
THE LONG AND GRINDING ROAD
The Sex Pistols sacked bassist Glen Matlock in 1977 because he did something despicable and unforgivable: he liked The Beatles.
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“He went on too long about Paul McCartney,” manager Malcolm McLaren sighed.
The Beatles sacked their good looking drummer Pete Best because he got all the fans’ attention.
Original AC/DC singer Dave Evans reckons “Malcolm Young was getting very jealous all the time because I just happened to be popular with the girls and Malcolm didn’t have a girlfriend. So Malcolm and I sort of fell out because of that.”
MUCH ADIEU: 12 UNORTHODOX SACKINGS / DEPARTURES
But there have been some creative ways a band has executed a sacking, or a member has left.
(1) RITCHIE BLACKMORE LIGHTS A MATCH
Ritchie Blackmore sent the message to bassist Jimmy Bain by setting the bed in his Paris chateau room on fire. However Bain was having sex at the time.
“Jimmy didn’t see it. So I’m there watching these flames going, Er, Jimmy… But he was too engrossed in the girl. So I try again, Fucking hell, the bed’s on fire!” (http://www.rainbowfanclan.com/interviews/blackm73.html).
(2) DESTINY’S CHILD: MORE BEYONCÈ TO THE OUNCE
Destiny’s Child’s LeToya Luckett and LaTavia Roberson secretly began looking for a new manager because Matthew Knowles was seemingly favouring his daughter Beyonce. They were watching the 2001 video for ‘Say My Name’ for the first time and saw they’d been replaced.
(3) METALLICA: DEPART SANDMAN
In April 1983, when Metallica were heading to New York to record their first album, they told guitarist Dave Mustaine his drinking and related violent outbursts were creating an issue. They unceremoniously dumped him off at the Port Authority Bus Terminal, where he took a bus back to California.
(4) OL’55 READ THE NEWS, OH BOY
When Sydney band Ol’55 were in the mid-70s enjoying triple platinum status with their Mushroom album Take It Greasy, they leaked to Juke magazine that drummer Geoff Plummer was to be dispensed with. But there had been a delay with doing the dirty deed, so when the story hit the stands, they first denied it, and then gave him the bad news a few days after.
(5&6) SO DO STP & VAN HALEN
Similarly, Scott Weiland knew of his departure from Stone Temple Pilots in a press release about the firing while Van Halen bassist Michael Anthony found out online he’d been replaced by Eddie Van Halen’s 16-year-old son Wolfgang.
(7) NOT WILDE ABOUT YOU
Jo Jo Zep & The Falcons’ saxplayer Wilbur Wilde kept being sacked by leader Joe Camilleri – but Wilde kept turning up for the gigs to play anyway.
After three attempts at “uncoupling”, Joe gave up and kept him on.
(8) SMITHS’ BEAT IS MURDER
Morrissey insists Smiths bassist Andy Rourke was not drop-kicked in 1996 with a postcard slipped on his car, “Andy, you have left the Smiths. Good luck and goodbye, Morrissey.”
He growls, “Andy‘s ‘dismissal’ from The Smiths would not be a decision solely made by me, and would not be announced by me on a note bearing only my name.
“It would also not be executed by a handwritten note carelessly thrown on to the hood of a car (or window-wipers, as has often been reported). Doesn’t anyone have the wit to work this one out?”
(9&10) BROTHERS IN ARMS
The Everly Bros broke up in 1973 when one turned up drunk at a Hollywood show and forgot the words, and the other smashed him on the head with his guitar. They didn’t speak again for ten years.
Noel Gallagher quit Oasis the night after a punch0up backstage a Paris festival during which his guitar was broken.
(11) WISH YOU WEREN’T HERE
Pink Floyd simply “forgot” to pick up their eccentric and drug-addled founder Syd Barrett on their way to a gig. They wouldn’t see him again for 10 years.
(12) ANGRY YOUNG MAN
On the day sessions were to begin for a new Crosby Stills Nash & Young album, a limo picked up Young to take him to the studio.
On the way, he tapped the driver’s shoulder and said, ‘Turn right here’. The driver responded, “But Mr. Young, the studio’s to the left. Young grunted, “Yes, I know.”
