Musicians Who Got Fired From The Band For Sad Reasons

Hearing about the breakup of a beloved band can be devastating — it's music that gets people through the good times and the bad, after all, and that's a powerful thing. In some cases, a line-up change can be just as bad. And here's the thing: The reasons for sending someone on their way can be absolutely heartbreaking.

It's easy to think that musicians are on top of the world: They seem to have it all, from fame all the way to fortune. But there are other things that come with the life of a rock star, too: stress, grueling tour schedules, the pressure to make the next album better than the last, and the sneaking suspicion that the only reason anyone likes you is your star status. That can take a toll even on the people who want it the most, and sometimes, the fallout is devastating. Sometimes, bands are left with no choice but to part ways with members. It happens a lot — so, let's talk about some of the music industry's biggest and brightest musicians who got handed their walking papers for some incredibly sad reasons.

Yes founder Jon Anderson told Rolling Stone that he didn't even know he had been replaced with a singer from a Yes tribute band: "They didn't tell me anything. They were just off and running. But what can you do?" Anderson said, adding that a friend eventually told him that he'd been fired. But, why?

It was 2008. He'd been the band's frontman for 40 years, and he was sick. In an interview with Rock History Music, he went into more detail about what ailed him. Anderson said that the oily smoke from the stage lights had caused him to start coughing up black mucus, and it took such a toll on him that he pitched the idea of putting together an acoustic album instead of continuing on tour. Anderson said that when he asked for a break to recover, he was dropped from the band he'd founded. "I was coughing so much that the only time I wasn't coughing was onstage. I just needed a break, but the guys were upset about that." The firing "broke my heart," he said. "People get into that place where they don't care about people. To them, it's just business."

Anderson said that it wasn't business for him, and while he was still upset about it, he knew he had to hit the reset. So, after leaving Yes, Anderson opted to tour at a more relaxed pace, alongside his wife. "It was the most precious fun I've ever had," he said.

Kate Schellenbach (left) hit the New York City scene when she was still young and ended up as one of the founding members of a group that would become famous as the Beastie Boys. They were called The Young Aborigines in those early days, and the Beastie Boys grew out of that.

Schellenbach, though, wasn't allowed to ride the tidal wave of popularity that the band found themselves on, and as their sound became less punk and more rap, she was booted from the group. Adam Horovitz explained what had happened when he and Mike D sat down with PBS NewsHour, and although they had nothing but good things to say about her, they also said that at the time, there was becoming more of a focus on both the "Beastie" and the "Boys" part of their image. They sort of assumed that she probably wouldn't have been interested in being in the band anymore anyway... right? So, they fired her for the simple reason that she was a girl.

Both spoke to fame turning them into people they didn't like or recognize, and Horovitz explained, "We started becoming these dudes... we were gross. I don't know how else to say it. We kicked Kate out of the band because she didn't fit in with this new dude thing that we were doing." Since then, fences have been mended, and the Beastie Boys have collaborated with Schellenbach and Luscious Jackson.

There are two sides to every story, especially when it comes to the relationship between temperamental artistic types. And speaking of temperamental artistic types, there's temperamental, and then there's Oasis. Brothers Noel and Liam Gallagher famously turned confrontation into an art form, so it's perhaps not entirely surprising that they sacked someone from the band after their monumental first album. 

That was drummer and founding member Tony McCarroll, and there are two very different stories about what happened. On one hand, the Gallaghers say that he was just a pretty bad drummer... although it's worth noting that many say Oasis was a much better band with him. On the other hand, McCarroll said he left Oasis because Noel Gallagher didn't appreciate having a band member who wasn't an unconditional yes-man.

And it ended really, really badly: McCarroll had known the Gallagher brothers from childhood, and in spite of the fact that Oasis predated the Gallaghers, they didn't even tell McCarroll they fired him. He says he was simply no longer included anymore, and attempts at finding out what had happened were fruitless. McCarroll eventually sued for his portion of the royalties, and the case was settled for an undisclosed amount in 1999. As he walked out of the courtroom, The Guardian reported that when asked how he felt about the remaining members of Oasis, he simply replied, "I no longer have anything to do with them."

The reason Syd Barrett left Pink Floyd is downright heartbreaking, and it was David Gilmour who explained what happened to MOJO. One day, they had been on their way to a show, and "someone said, 'Shall we go and pick up Syd?' And someone else, probably Roger, said, 'Naaah, let's not.' And we didn't, and we drove off to Southampton."

And so ended Syd Barrett's connection with the band that he started. Gilmour further explained, "He wasn't capable or willing to do what was needed and when you're young and ambitious you're also pretty callous, and we just got on with it."

But what, exactly, does that mean? Barrett's increasingly regular LSD use had made him increasingly unpredictable. At the same time, he was writing songs that sent Pink Floyd's popularity skyrocketing; he was occasionally catatonic; and he occasionally couldn't recognize his bandmates. There may have been more to it, and it's now believed that Barrett could have been diagnosed with either bipolar disorder or schizophrenia. When Rolling Stone caught up with him in 1971, he was still writing and painting, but he was also living in a Cambridge basement and apologizing to the interviewer: "I'm disappearing, avoiding most things. ... I'm treading the backward path. ... I'm sorry I can't speak very coherently. ... I don't think I'm easy to talk about. I've got a very irregular head. And I'm not anything that you think I am anyway." Barrett died in 2006.

If you or someone you know needs help with mental health, please contact the Crisis Text Line by texting HOME to 741741, call the National Alliance on Mental Illness helpline at 1-800-950-NAMI (6264), or visit the National Institute of Mental Health website.

It's safe to say that audiences pretty much know what they're going to get with a band called the Sex Pistols, but that doesn't make the stories behind the group any less surprising — particularly the story of the firing of Glen Matlock. 

When Matlock sat down to chat with Big Issue, they recapped the old story: He was fired because he was a massive fan of the Beatles. And Matlock confirmed that yes, the Beatles were one of the major influences that led to the idea of forming his own band. But, did his love of the Beatles spell the end of his involvement in his own band? Not exactly. In an interview with Songfacts, Matlock said, "That's not true — that's something Malcolm MacLaren said."

Steve Jones gives another version of the story in an interview with Rhino, saying, "[Matlock] was a good writer but he didn't look like a Sex Pistol, and he was always washing his feet. His mum didn't like the songs." Was that a good enough reason to oust someone from their own band? There may have been slightly more to it, and in his biography, "Lonely Boy: Tales from a Sex Pistol," Jones writes (via The Cinemaholic) that problems took root when it became clear that Matlock and Johnny Rotten didn't see eye-to-eye. Then, when Matlock started asking questions about the band's finances, he was shown the door.

Sometimes, it's amicable when bands split. Sometimes, it's the polar opposite of amicable, and that's where Styx and their firing of original lead singer Dennis DeYoung come in.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, there are two different stories about why DeYoung left Styx. When Tommy Shaw, James Young, and Lawrence Gowan spoke with Dan Rather, they addressed the firing (via ABC News Radio). It was Young who explained that things came to a head in 1999: "We had offers galore to go out and perform live, and Dennis refused to leave the house... he said for a medical reason. ... And I said, 'Well, we're going with you or without you.'" They famously went without him, but according to DeYoung, there was much more going on.

In 2000, The Chicago Tribune asked him what happened. According to him, life started going sideways in 1997. That's when DeYoung lost his father, best friend, and sister-in-law in just a few months. Not only was he devastated, but he contracted a strain of the flu that made him unable to do, well, much of anything: "I was just so fatigued all the time, and my face was always hot. I went to doctor after doctor, and it took me eight months to figure out that I had become sensitive to light: bright overhead lights, sunlight, anything like that made me feel feverish." DeYoung said he was feeling better by the following year, but not 100% — which is when he got the phone call and ultimatum.

Fired for just being too laid-back and cool? It sounds unlikely, but that seems to be part of the reason why Rivers Cuomo showed Weezer founding guitarist Jason Cropper the door.

When Cropper sat down for an interview with Bandbox, they stressed that the specifics of his dismissal are hidden away behind a non-disclosure agreement, but Cropper did say that although it was heartbreaking, "it was the best possible decision for me to leave, both for the band and for my family." He continued to say that he was "presented as kind of a liability" but... what does that mean?

Cuomo told Rolling Stone that there were some major personality differences from the very beginning, and said that Cropper's laid-back nature was a sharp contrast to his own "careful, controlled artistry." But at the time of that retrospective interview, Cropper also shared the fact that he hadn't just gone against Cuomo's rules about keeping recording times relationship-free, he'd gotten pretty serious with his then-girlfriend. They would eventually get married, and according to Cropper, his forced departure from the band had everything to do with the fact that she became pregnant and was just around too much. Fellow Weezer member Matt Sharp has denied that's the case, but has been equally vague and only cited personality conflicts as the reason for Cropper's ousting. Still, Cropper says there are no hard feelings.

There's that old saying about adding insult to injury, and that's precisely what happened when Stone Temple Pilots issued their official 2013 statement that Scott Weiland was fired. Rolling Stone had spoken to Weiland the day before he left the band, and he reassured the magazine there was nothing to the rumors that he was on thin ice with the rest of the band.

The truth was, he had been let go because of his increasingly erratic behavior and troubles with law enforcement. The lawsuits and counter-suits that followed were publicized and ugly, and Weiland later spoke to Rolling Stone to share more of what had been going on with him. He spoke candidly about how drug use had contributed to the growth of STP, but at the same time, he acknowledged, "[W]hat ended up happening is the more I indulged in drugs, the more it became a dependency and a crutch. I became overwhelmed, and I lost the ability to feel. I started feeling like there was a blanket over my heart."

After Weiland's tragic death, his widow Jamie Weiland spoke with Billboard about what else had played a contributing factor in his instability. While he had spoken openly about the fact that he had been diagnosed with bipolar disorder, Jamie shared that it had been a struggle to find medications and dosages that worked for him. The last message she got from him was a text that said, "I'm so in love with my beautiful wife." 

If you or someone you know needs help with mental health, please contact the Crisis Text Line by texting HOME to 741741, call the National Alliance on Mental Illness helpline at 1-800-950-NAMI (6264), or visit the National Institute of Mental Health website.