Bands are often likened to families, which implies a lot. “Brothers fight,” Graham Nash told Billboard in 2023 about the grandiose dynamics of his associations with David Crosby, Stephen Stills and Neil Young over the years.
“You’re brothers and you love each other, but you fight. You break up.You come back together. You break up again. It’s family. It’s volatile.”
That’s certainly proven true over many decades, as rock bands by the dozens — hundreds, even — have weathered departures, some peaceful and some tempestuous.
Many even turn litigious as the principals argue over ownership of music, trademarks, images and the like.
Some bust-ups prove to be temporary and are set right – or at least result in — subsequent reunions, and some are better for all parties concerned.
It’s a proverbial tale as old as time, and rare is a group like, say, U2, that’s gone through a long career with its band of brothers intact.
The changes are almost always noteworthy, and newsworthy, some erupting into open scandals that can last years and be rehashed by Behind the Music episodes and in scathing memoirs.
They become legendary, too, great gifts of lore that bring extra dramatic arc to a band’s legacy. It’s mesmerizing to watch from the sidelines, even if it’s traumatic for those directly involved.
The most impactful and controversial of them? Now there’s a discussion that could incite arguments vehement enough to break up any band.
We’ll take our shot, though, and present these as the 11 most notable departures and replacements in rock band history.
Pete Best was not the Beatles’ first drummer; he was preceded by Tommy Moore and Norman Chapman before successfully auditioning during August of 1960 and heading off to Hamburg for band’s famed first residency there.
But producer George Martin was unhappy with Best’s playing during the Beatles’ first recording sessions for EMI in June of 1962; as it happened the other three members were already considering a change, so they deputized manager Brian Epstein to deliver the bad news and two months later brought in Ringo Starr from Rory Storm and the Hurricanes.
Despite some initial consternation fans embraced the change. The Fab Four was finalized while Best continued playing music with his own bands and on the Beatles fan convention circuit.
This one is less notable for the drama at the time, more so for that “what if” historical element. John, Paul, George and Pete just doesn’t have the same ring to it.
It was Jones who formed the Rolling Stones during 1962 in London and chose the band name from Muddy Waters’ “Rollin’ Stone.
” While Mick Jagger and Keith Richards became the group’s primary songwriting team, Jones was its musical adventurer, bringing in unexpected instrumentation (the sitar on “Paint It, Black,” for instance).
He also scored the 1967 film A Degree of Murder and produced Brian Jones Presents the Pipes of Pan at Joujouka, recorded in Morocco during 1968 and released three years later.
He gradually became estranged from his bandmates over drug use, erratic behavior and creative and personal issues (girlfriend Anita Pallenberg left him to take up with Richards during the spring of 1967).
When Jones’ record of drug arrests made it unlikely he’d be able to get a work visa for the Stones’ planned U.S. tour in 1969, the group fired him — though allowed Jones to announce it as a resignation — and added Mick Taylor from John Mayall’s Blues Brothers.
Jones died less than a month after his departure, at the age of 27, after being discovered in the swimming pool at his Crotchford Farm estate.
The drowning was ruled a “death by misadventure,” though theories that Jones was murdered persisted for decades. Taylor remained with the Stones through 1974 and a golden era that included albums such as Sticky Fingers and Exile On Main St. He was replaced by the Faces’ Ronnie Wood, who’s been with the band ever since.
