The Nastiest Band Fights That Happened Right In Front Of Fans

It's not surprising that a lot of bandmates hate each other. The pressures of touring and performing, the egos, the money, the romantic relationships: all of these have led to some groups being known for how much they dislike each other almost as much as their music. There's Van Halen's multiple messy band breakups, for example, or the famous feud between Lindsey Buckingham And Stevie Nicks of Fleetwood Mac.

What is less common is when the hatred results in a physical, public confrontation. Once in a blue moon, a band turns a live show into an impromptu Jerry Springer musical. Whether it be creative differences, a clash of rock-star-sized egos, or impaired judgment due to substance misuse, eventually the problems most bands manage to keep in the dressing room explode on stage. And for the audience watching when this happens, the experience can be everything from embarrassing to dangerous. Here are the nastiest band fights that happened right in front of fans.

On May 20, 1966, The Who were slated to play at the Ricky-Tick club, but Keith Moon and John Entwistle showed up two hours late. Moon and Entwistle had been out drinking with Beach Boys vocalist Bruce Johnston, who was The Who's guest. Roger Daltrey and Pete Townshend had started the party without them, recruiting members of the opening act, Jimmy Brown Sound, to replace Moon and Entwistle.

The overdue Who members ousted their replacements mid-show. Discord ensued as Moon and Townshend sniped at each other, and when the drunken drummer wrecked his kit, a cymbal bashed Townshend on the leg. Townshend, apparently intent on guitar-jousting with a speaker, missed his target and struck the percussionist. "I lost my grip on the instrument and it just caught him on the head," Townshend says in his autobiography (via Ultimate Classic Rock).

The hits that followed weren't accidents. Bruce Johnston called it "the biggest fight I've ever seen. Guitars are swinging; everybody's just in a frenzy." Moon walked away with an ankle injury, stitches, and a black eye. He and Entwistle soon announced that they were walking away from the band altogether. But the hard feelings over the blowup blew over, and they reunited.

Even a band of brothers sometimes fights like it's the Civil War, and most of the time, that band was probably Oasis. Sibling bandmembers and oft-archrivals Liam and Noel Gallagher had a famously tumultuous relationship. The Gallaghers' open displays of hostility include Liam drunkenly peeing on Noel's new stereo, Noel pummeling Liam for questioning the paternity of Noel's son, Liam heckling Noel while the latter performed, Noel refusing to let Liam perform with Oasis, and Liam cracking Noel over the head with a cricket bat.

And then, of course, there was the tambourine. It happened in 1994 on Oasis' first American tour. During a gig at Whiskey a Go Go, the band was allegedly under the influence and messing up the show in spectacular fashion. Liam had a go at his brother by altering the lyrics of "Live Forever" to say, "Maybe I don't really wanna know/Why you pick your nose." He then picked a fight with his brother by smacking him on the head with a tambourine. Noel quit, but before long, the brothers were back together and back at war.

As '80s hair band veterans, Poison's band members were no more a stranger to controversy than anyone else working in their genre; the debauchery of the vast majority of those teased-hair, spandex-clad headbangers of yore is well-documented. Poison, though, had a slightly greater tendency than their peers to throw down with each other onstage, beginning with a legendary scrap at the 1991 MTV Video Music Awards. There, singer Bret Michaels and guitarist CC Deville beat the holy hell out of each other backstage after Deville drunkenly launched into the wrong song during their set. 

History sort of repeated itself in 2006, when Michaels got into an onstage argument with bassist Bobby Dall — the cause of which is still unknown — during a concert in Atlanta. In between their set closer and the encore, the pair got into a testy exchange which ended with Dall slinging his instrument at Michaels, who then had to be restrained by drummer Rikki Rockett and the security crew. Confusingly, Michaels then told the audience they may have just seen the band perform for the last time, immediately followed by Dall picking up the mic and asking if they wanted to hear more. The two subsequently patched things up; they were back on the road with fellow '80s rockers Ratt the very next year with Dall still manning the bass, and have been touring pretty much constantly since.

The Kinks are often left out of discussions about the '60s British Invasion in favor of ... well, mostly the Beatles and Rolling Stones (who themselves feuded). This is an egregious injustice; the band, led by brothers Ray and Dave Davies, was among the most sonically daring and creatively vital outfits of that era. They were also known to get a wee bit annoyed with each other, especially the Davies brothers, who set the template for their famously combative fellow Brits, Liam and Noel Gallagher of Oasis. Their most famous and consequential onstage fight, though, took place between Dave Davies and drummer Mick Avory, who completely lost his stuff one infamous night in Cardiff in 1965.

Speaking with Wales Online in 2010, Ray Davies remembered that his brother and Avory had gotten into a physical fight the previous day. When Davies needled Avory in front of thousands of fans — gently suggesting that his drumming might sound better if he played the snare with a private part — Avory tried taking Davies' head off with a cymbal, inflicting a wound that required 16 stitches. Ray Davies recalled that when the police caught up with Avory (who had promptly fled the venue), he somewhat hilariously tried to deny involvement, to which the cops responded, "Mr. Avory, we've got 5,000 witnesses." 

Davies declined to press charges, but the fallout was significant; hearing of the incident, the American Federation of Musicians banned the Kinks from playing in the U.S. for four years, crippling their career.

The truth of legendary Southern California outfit The Eagles is that they had their share of intra-band tensions, and oddly, the most public expressions of disquiet within the band seemed to involve the late, great guitarist and vocalist Glenn Frey (pictured second from right). 

One famous fight took place in 1977, when Frey insisted during a concert in Knoxville that bassist Randy Meisner (pictured center) perform his signature lead vocal, the insanely demanding ballad "Take It to the Limit," for the encore. As his throat was beginning to self-destruct after singing the song night after night, Meisner refused; he snapped at Frey, Frey snapped back, and Meisner clocked Frey in the face, quitting the band a few months later.

The band's most famous fight, though, was one that just barely remained a verbal altercation between Frey and lead guitarist Don Felder (pictured far right) at a fundraiser for Senator Alan Cranston in 1980. Frey felt that Felder had disrespected the senator during their meet and greet, and late in their gig, the two began trading verbal shots; in the 1995 biography "The Long Run: The Story of the Eagles," Frey recalled, "So now we're onstage, and Felder looks back at me and says, 'Only three more songs till I kick your ass, pal.' And I'm saying, 'Great. I can't wait.'" A backstage screaming match ensued, Felder smashed his guitar against a wall and stormed out, and the Eagles broke up (for the first time, anyway) not long after.

Psychedelic rockers The Brian Jonestown Massacre, led for all of their existence by mercurial front man Anton Newcombe, have been around for over three decades, and they have never been anything less than musically intriguing. That their music has continued to grow and evolve, even with recent releases such as 2022's "Fire Doesn't Grow On Trees" and 2023's "Your Future Is Your Past," helps to explain their sturdy fan base, which allowed them to be among the most successful (and prolific) touring bands in rock. Over the years, though, their ever-shifting lineup has pretty much served as a vehicle for Newcombe's vision, and when a piece isn't fitting quite right, he's not shy about saying so.

Case in point: A 2023 gig in Melbourne, Australia, which saw Newcombe go straight up ballistic on guitarist Ryan Van Kriedt for reasons that remain unclear. In the middle of the show, Newcombe abruptly demanded that Van Kriedt's mic be cut, directed him to unplug his guitar, and spat, "We don't really need you. Put [your] guitar down on the stage." Van Kriedt did just that, wandering around for a bit before apparently attempting to confront Newcombe — who promptly smacked Van Kriedt upside the head with his  own guitar. Chaos ensued, the show ended prematurely (to the loud displeasure of the crowd), and the band ended up canceling its remaining Australian dates. 

Alternative rockers Jane's Addiction burned brightly in the late '80s and early '90s, dropping just two studio albums — 1988's platinum-selling "Nothing's Shocking" and 1990's double-platinum "Ritual de lo Habitual" — before breaking up in 1991. Front man Perry Farrell occupied himself with other projects, notably founding the Lollapalooza music festival and forming a second legendary alternative rock band in Porno for Pyros — but he reconvened Jane's Addiction on several occasions, most recently releasing a new single, "Imminent Redemption," and mounting a U.S. tour in 2024. Unfortunately, said tour hit an early snag when Farrell came completely unglued during a show in Boston.

The band was in the middle of a song when Farrell became visibly frustrated; Farrell's wife, Etty Lau, would later explain that the singer felt that his vocals were being drowned out by the band's volume, and was particularly peeved at guitarist Dave Navarro — with whom Farrell has long had a contentious relationship – for leading the crowd in a chant. Farrell's frustration quickly boiled over, and he charged Navarro, body checking him and throwing a punch before being restrained by bassist Eric Avery and security personnel. The show abruptly ended, and in the aftermath, the band canceled the remaining 15 dates on its tour. 

Farrell released a statement calling his own behavior "inexcusable" and apologizing to his bandmates and fans, while Navarro likewise issued a statement alluding to a "pattern of behavior" by Farrell and offering his hope that the singer "gets the help he needs."

Scottish rockers The View formed in 2005, and followed an enviable career trajectory. They began as a teenage cover band, tightened up their act and focused on songwriting, got some radio play off an EP recorded with a small indie label, got signed to Columbia-Sony, and scored a U.K. top-five single ("Same Jeans") with their major label debut, all within the space of a couple years. That debut, "Hats Off to the Buskers," sold like hotcakes in the U.K. — but subsequent releases failed to perform as well, and the band never properly broke through stateside. The View broke up in 2017, but have reconvened in recent years to hit the road — and, on at least one occasion, each other.

During a 2023 show in Manchester, lead singer Kyle Falconer became rather annoyed with bassist Kieran Webster, throwing a punch at him and stopping the show cold midway through. What was Falconer upset about, one might ask? A good question — in an interview with The Scottish Sun a couple months later, the singer himself didn't rightly remember. "I completely lost the plot," he said. "I feel out of control sometimes ... I feel like my brain never switches off, but sometimes it's like '[give me] a break.'" As a result of the scrap, a London date was canceled, but the band resumed touring in November, quickly moving past what they called a "brotherly bust-up that went too far."

In early 2005, singer Pete Doherty was having a bit of a rough time. He had recently been kicked out of his successful band, The Libertines, on account of substance misuse issues. He was also, due to an incident involving a filmmaker who was documenting the formation of his new band Babyshambles, facing charges of robbery and blackmail (those charges were eventually dropped). In February, the new outfit was playing a gig in front of 5,000 fans at Brixton Academy in London when things threatened to go even further sideways.

To begin with, the show's start was delayed due to overcrowding, and only two songs into the set, the band had to stop to implore the crowd to please stop surging forward and squishing the people in the front. The band pushed on through this tense atmosphere, but at one point, Doherty appeared to (perhaps accidentally) unplug guitarist Patrick Walden's axe — causing the two to come to blows. Security intervened and ushered the band offstage, but thankfully, it was a brief intermission; five minutes later, they returned and miraculously skated through the rest of their set without further incident.

It seems like U2 has forever been one of the biggest bands in the world, even if they might have gotten worse after getting rich. But in 1980, they were just a bunch of Irish boys trying to make an impact with a series of dates at small venues in the U.S. In an interview with journalist Jonathan Ross in 2009, guitarist The Edge recalled that the band all felt pressured to make every gig a memorable one — and that one date in New Haven, Connecticut, ended up being memorable for quite the wrong reason. "Halfway through the show [drummer Larry Mullen's] drum kit started falling apart and he's literally got a set of spanners out trying to fix them," Edge said. "[Lead singer] Bono didn't see what was going on, all he knew was that Larry had stopped playing, and he just lost his head."

Bono came after his hapless drummer, only to find out that his guitarist wasn't having it. "The Edge just caught me with one," Bono told Ross. "He hit me very, very hard." In their autobiography "U2 by U2," the singer elaborated on the incident. "It was actually a full-on rumble, with all members of the band whacking at me, and me whacking at them," he said. "But Edge packs a punch. There's a lesson here: never pick a fight with a man who earns his living from hand to eye coordination."

One of the foundational acts of alternative rock, the Jesus and Mary Chain enjoyed a lengthy run beginning in 1983; their debut album "Psychocandy" has been widely hailed as being way ahead of its time, a document that influenced a metric ton of bands and charted new sonic ground while mining the lush harmonies and psychedelic vibes of decades past. The band, the brainchild of brothers Jim and William Reid, has picked up its mantle in recent years, coming together for live dates in the late '00s and even dropping the comeback album "Damage and Joy" in 2017. This is something of a minor miracle, considering the incident that facilitated their breakup in 1998.

Speaking with Yahoo! Entertainment in 2022, Jim Reid remembered how he and his brother, along with guitarist Ben Lurie, had been at each others' throats while touring the U.S. in support of their 1998 album "Munki." As tensions grew, Jim binge-drank, and by the time the band was scheduled to hit the stage at L.A.'s House of Blues, he was in serious trouble. "I had totally forgotten where I was," he said. "I saw William ... and I just started screaming all sorts of abuse at him. And then suddenly I looked around and I realized we were onstage." The extremely public and embarrassing blowout was the last straw for a band already teetering on the brink, and they didn't play together again until a reunion at Coachella nine years later.

Aussie rockers The Vines rode the garage rock revival of the early '00s to a fair degree of success, scoring a gold platter in the U.S. with their 2002 debut "Highly Evolved." Unfortunately, it was only a few months after that album's release that lead singer Craig Nicholls began to establish his personal reputation for being something of a prima donna by instigating a brutal fight onstage with his childhood friend and bassist, Patrick Mathews — for the crime of busting a string on his bass. 

The band was mid-song when Mathews experienced his blowout, which prompted Nicholls — for some reason known only to him — to start whipping his microphone around, striking Mathews in the head with it. Mathews responded by tackling Nicholls, and the pair toppled right off the stage and into the audience in the middle of their impromptu MMA match. The band cited exhaustion as the cause of the scrap; after playing one more show in Chicago, they flew back home to rest and get their stuff together, and all of their scheduled dates outside of their homeland were summarily canceled.