The Most Explosive Sibling Rivalries In Rock History

There have been plenty of bandmates who actually hated each other, but in most cases, they could eventually go their separate ways, never forced to breathe the same air again except maybe in a courtroom. That's not necessarily the case when the feuding bandmates happen to be related. Some of the most intense feuds in all of rock 'n' roll have been between siblings — specifically, brothers. 

When musical siblings can't stand each other, fans have a non-zero chance of seeing a bust-up onstage, and it is inevitable that the band will break up. In many cases, a decade or two apart is all it takes to heal the rift between them, and their band will reunite as a celebration of their music — or, more accurately, for the draw of a big paycheck after years of living off dwindling royalties. But just because they sometimes make up enough to get back on stage doesn't mean that the fraternal issues have gone away. From creative insults to actual fist fights, here are the stories of some of the most explosive sibling rivalries in rock history.

Noel and Liam Gallagher from Oasis just couldn't get along, ever. As early as 1994, Liam threw a banjo at his brother while they were on stage during their North American tour, which resulted in Noel leaving during the show and quitting the band for a short period. Things never really got better from there. When Oasis was supposed to play MTV's "Unplugged" two years later, Liam refused to take the stage and instead heckled Noel from the balcony as his brother tried to save the situation and put on a good performance. 

There were more serious incidents, too, like the time in 2000 when the band was hanging out, drinking, and Liam said Noel's daughter was probably the product of another man. This led to an actual fistfight between the brothers. When not physically sparring, they were verbally sparring, usually through the media or Twitter, throwing pointed, personal, and downright strange insults at each other for years.

Despite all this, the pair managed to keep it together until 2009, when the animosity became untenable, and the band's split seemingly became permanent, with both Gallaghers embarking on successful solo careers. Their feud was still going strong, though, with Liam suing Noel for libel, although he later dropped the suit. Fortunately for fans, the brothers just needed about 15 years away from each other to cool down, and they reformed Oasis for a massive (and lucrative) world tour in 2025.

If your feud with your brother/bandmate is so intense that it freaked out the Gallagher brothers of Oasis when they witnessed it firsthand, you need to seriously consider family counseling. Liam and Noel were shocked by the relationship between Chris and Rich Robinson of the Black Crowes when the bands toured together in 2001. And like the Gallaghers, the Robinson brothers have spent years airing their many, many grievances with each other in the media.

"For a long time, he's tried to diminish what I've done in the band," Rich told Rolling Stone in 2018. "Chris wrote the lyrics, and I wrote all of the music and arranged the songs. He's kind of hinted that that wasn't the case ..." He also accused his brother of trying to screw over the other band members financially, the issue that finally led to the group's breakup in 2015.

In his own interview with Rolling Stone a month before, when asked how long it had been since he spoke to his brother, Chris said, "If we're speaking philosophically, it's been many decades. ... In the physical plane? It's been about five years, probably." He added that the only reason the pair would ever reunite Black Crowes would be for the money — which was an awkward comment for him to have made when the band got back together the following year.

Don and Phil Everly of the Everly Brothers so clearly despised each other that, despite their clean-cut image and living in an age before social media, their fans in the 1950s and '60s were well aware the pair hated each other. In an interview with Rolling Stone in 1986, Phil explained, "The tensions between Don and I ... existed from day one, from birth. And will go on forever."

To be fair to the brothers, their relationship was not helped by the fact that both misused drugs — specifically amphetamines — and that no one in their professional lives was concerned about getting them help for their addictions. Instead, they were pushed to work harder and hide their problems from the public. These were not circumstances conducive to working through the root causes of their mutual animosity.

In 1973, the Everly Brothers were scheduled for one final concert before a planned two-year break. Instead of being a celebration of their career, it was a complete disaster: Don showed up highly inebriated, and Phil got so angry that he smashed his guitar on stage before storming off and quitting the band. It was a decade before they reunited on stage, and during that period, the only time they spent together was at their father's funeral in 1975. Even after their reunion/detente in 1983, they could easily go years without seeing each other between gigs. 

Tom (pictured far left) and John Fogerty (far right) of Creedence Clearwater Revival seemed to get along pretty well as they worked through several iterations of bands that would eventually become the iconic rock group. But just over two years after CCR first made the Billboard charts, Tom was out.

The truth is, John and Tom Fogerty's feud was caused by the same thing so many rock bands are plagued by: huge egos. Tom had originally been the lead singer and couldn't get over his more talented (by his own admission) younger brother taking over the frontman role and controlling the creative direction right before CCR hit it big. When his attempts to regain some control and the occasional lead vocal failed, he quit the group in December 1970. After the breakup, John became furious with Tom for his perceived disloyalty in siding with the head of their former record label over him in several lawsuits.

There would be no CCR reunion before Tom died from complications of AIDS in 1990. In fact, right until the end, the brothers were barely speaking. "We were certainly estranged," John told People in 2025. "[But] long after Tom had passed away, I actually made it a point in my own consciousness to forgive Tom for all of that. If he'd gotten a chance to survive, I think he would've come to the place where we'd say, 'All that stuff's crap,' and let it go."

The Kinks' Ray and Dave Davies can't stand each other, even though they are both old men by this point. Speaking to The Daily Mail in 2010, Dave said, "I think Ray has been happy for only three years in his life. And those were the three years before I was born." Seemingly, everyone who has ever known or worked with the two brothers says how they are very different people, except for their ability to fly off the handle over literally anything. Their volatile relationship and aggressive behavior were so stressful that it almost caused the Kinks' bassist Pete Quaife to have a nervous breakdown.

Yet somehow, the brothers kept working together for decades, even as their list of grievances (which they were always happy to make public) continued to grow. Dave got so drunk at Ray's wedding that he couldn't give his best man speech. Ray stormed off stage during a show. Dave accused Ray of faking pain to get attention during Dave's convalescence after a stroke in 2004 — even though Ray had recently been shot. And Dave claims that at his 50th birthday party in 1997, "Just as I was about to cut the cake, Ray jumped on the table and made a speech about how wonderful he was. He then stamped on the cake."

So while both brothers are still kicking as of April 2026, don't expect a reunion for these octogenarians.

The sibling rivalry between Michael and Jermaine Jackson of the Jackson 5 is probably one of the less crazy things about that family, but that is not for lack of trying; it's just that it has so much competition. (After all, Jermaine married his brother Randy's ex-partner and the mother of his children.)

Jermaine blamed Michael for "stealing" the superstar career the former was on track for in the late 1970s. During the 1985 tour that reunited the Jackson brothers, Jermaine told a reporter (via The Washington Post), "[Michael] is very talented, a lot of his success has been due to timing and a little bit of luck. It could have been him, or it could just as easily have been me. But now I'm doing a lot of things. I'm the hottest brother." In 1991, the original version of Jermaine's song "Word to the Badd!!" included lyrics like "Only think about number one/ You forget about where you started from" and "Once you were made/ You changed your shade/ Was your color wrong?," leading most listeners to assume it was a diss track about Michael.

For Michael's part, he allegedly used his superstardom and wealth to ensure that big producers wouldn't work with Jermaine, according to Clive Davis' book, "The Soundtrack of My Life," and he once threatened to evict Jermaine and his family from the Jackson family home, which Michael owned.

William and Jim Reid formed the Jesus and Mary Chain in 1983. For the next 16 years, there was always something negative going on between the Scottish brothers. William told their biographer for "Never Understood: The Jesus and Mary Chain" about one incident, where a slight disagreement led to fists flying in the van they were using to tour: "The reality is that Jim and I had a fight ... nobody got a black eye. I know he's an idiot, he knows I'm an idiot, and every now and then we have one of those pushing and shoving fights ..."

The final gig they played lasted only 15 minutes because they were fighting on stage, and their manager considered calling their mother to get them to stop. It wasn't necessary, since William left the tour and the band subsequently broke up. Things didn't improve after that. "In the '90s, when the band broke up for that period, we would go out of our way to annoy the f*** out of each other and it isn't healthy," Jim explained to NME in 2023.

Fortunately, they had two women who cared about their relationship, even if the brothers didn't: their mother and sister. According to the Edinburgh Reporter, the ladies worked as peacekeepers and sounding boards, making sure William and Jim had to spend time together at family events. The pair finally reunited in 2007, but they kept the pressure off their reunion, not making a new album for another decade. 

Caleb Followill was hated by his King of Leon bandmates, all of whom he happened to be related to. The problems between Caleb and his brothers Nathan and Jared Followill have involved everything from loud fights to sniping at each other on Twitter to physical violence. Nathan once broke Caleb's shoulder during a fight, and was still so mad afterward that he stabbed his brother's bed with a kitchen knife.

Their fighting was so inescapable that it ended up in the documentary on the band, "Talihina Sky: The Story of the Kings of Leon." With Nathan holding the camera, he starts yelling at Caleb, saying, "You're a piece of s***, and your goddamn band can't f***ing stand you." It seems that even with that kind of anger directed at him, Caleb didn't realize how bad the situation was. The film's director, Stephen C. Mitchell, told Rolling Stone, "The first time I brought Caleb into the edit room to show him that, he had his hands over his head and just said, 'Wow.'" 

In 2011, the same year the documentary came out, their issues boiled over, and the band canceled the U.S. leg of their tour. The final gig was a disaster, with a visibly inebriated Caleb leaving the stage and not coming back. "I know you guys f***ing hate us," Jared told the audience, according to The Guardian. "It's really not our fault; it's Caleb ... F***ing hate Caleb, not us."

Michael and Rudolf Schenker of Scorpions have a relationship based on fighting as hard as they rock. While Scorpions have been going since 1969, Michael has been absent for most of that time. He hasn't officially been in the band since 1979, although he has made guest appearances during performances since then. However, in more recent years, he has been extremely vocal in his feelings about his brother, which means any further reunions are unlikely. 

"I'm now finding out more and more weird stuff about Rudolf," Michael told The Metal Voice in 2016. "I have to stay away from him, and I can't trust him anymore — period." Things hadn't improved two years later, when he explained to Metal Journal, "I'm his little brother, and he bullied and scammed me. ... I'm not resentful about anything; I just have to make sure he doesn't bully me. The only way to be sure is to stay away."

While Michael is obviously sincere in his feelings of being taken advantage of by his brother, and financial disputes are all too common in bands, at least one other (non-related) member of Scorpions questions some of his claims. Guitarist Uli Jon Roth disputes the claim that Rudolf screwed his brother over: "It was a little strange, I couldn't follow it. I don't know what got into Michael. I thought Rudolf always did good things for Michael."

Mark and David Knopfler of Dire Straits managed to get along long enough to make two albums, but by the time they were recording their third, David had had enough. While the two had written songs together when they first formed the band, David had been squeezed out by the time they found success. And he wasn't about to hand over all the control to his older brother. "He was the bloke I had shared a bedroom with," David told The Express in 2015. "How could I be deferential to him? Mark and I had a different vision of what we were up to. I was building a democracy, and Mark was making an autocracy." 

David didn't even tell Mark he was quitting the band after four years; he just booked a flight back home to England and left. Not that Mark was completely broken up about his brother abandoning him and their band. According to The Express, Dire Straits bassist John Illsley once commented, "Once David left, it seemed to lift a tremendous strain. Mark felt very freed."

Nor did ending their creative partnership improve their personal relationship, far from it. The breach between them is so large that it has affected a second generation of Knopflers. "I don't know what he does," David said. "Of course, it casts a huge shadow on both our lives and our families. We've got cousins who don't know one another."