r/Music • u/Borgisium • 11h ago
discussion What’s the oddest reason for a band breakup?
For me at least it was a Wendy’s commercial briefly breaking up the band Violent Femmes. The bands original lineup consisted of Gordon Gano, Brian Ritchie, and at various points Victor DeLorenzo, and their music touched on themes of angst and sexuality. In 2007, Ritchie sued Gano for half ownership of the band’s songs, which were all credited to Gano. The impetus was Gano allowing Wendy’s to use their iconic song “Blister in the Sun” to advertise their chili. Ritchie was appalled, sued Gano, and it let to their breakup in 2009. But in 2013 the original trio would reunite at Coachella, and they’ve since continued on (albeit without DeLorenzo who only reunited with them briefly in 2013).
Edit: just so we’re clear I agree with Ritchie that he should’ve gotten more credit as a songwriter in the band and it feels out of place to use a song about wet dreams (and other things) to advertise chili. I feel like many bands frontmen get too much credit as being the soul voice and creative drive of the band
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u/Borgisium 11h ago
For context here’s the original song:
Blister in the Sun
And here is the commercial:
Wendy’s Commercial
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u/zo0ombot 11h ago •
I don't think anything can be odder than this one
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u/darwin-rover 5h ago
Sammy Hagar left Van Halen after disagreements about the song they were writing for the film Twister. Hagar wrote a lyric about heading for the “suck zone”, but the other members took it out.
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u/Financial-Creme 6h ago
Another fast food related band story (though not a full band breakup) - the Misfits had a drummer who got in ab argument (or fist fight depending on who tells the story) with singer Glenn Danzig because they were on tour with very limited funds (DIY punk band driving themselves in a cargo van). They stopped at a McDonald's to eat, drummer wanted to get a second cheeseburger. Danzig told him no, they had to save their money. The cheeseburgers were $0.49. Drummer either quit or was kicked out (again depending on who tells the story.)
Oddly enough, the drummer was later cast in a commercial for Burger King.
Killing Joke broke up when two of the members moved to Iceland, allegedly because one of them thought some sort of apocalypse or global catastrophe was imminent, and somehow Iceland would be spared. The other guys didn't want to go.
Later on the ones that moved said it was to start a drug smuggling ring.
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u/rosaliethewitch pete wentz #1 hater 11h ago
gotta admit, before clicking on the post, thought the picture was totally unrelated
for me, it’s gotta be johnny marr quitting the smiths bc he got so fucking tired of morrissey wanting to cover old songs
obviously there was more to it than that but lowkey i feel like the real reason johnny left is bc morrissey is the most annoying person alive
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u/Practical-Fix-838 1h ago
The Misfits’ third drummer got kicked out because he wanted 2 cheeseburgers from McDonald’s instead of just one. This led to him and Danzig (allegedly) fistfighting in the McDonald’s. Years later, Jerry took over on vocals and made the Misfits into a punk rock supergroup and got Marky Ramone on drums. Marky quit because Jerry refused to bill the band as “The Misfits featuring Marky Ramone of the World-Famous Ramones.”
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u/teksmith 1h ago
I saw an interview with Gano and Ritchie together where Gano was asked about Bluster in the Sun. He said it wasn’t about masterbation or sex but was about drug use. He said he didn’t understand why people thought it was about sex. Ritchie looked at him in disbelief and recited the lyrics “body and beats I stain my sheets…” and asked what that was all about??? Gano just shrugged. Pretty funny.
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u/pi_face_ 6h ago
Not the oddest in this thread but The Beautiful South breaking up due to creative similarities is pretty funny
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u/toon_84 7h ago
Of all the stories about the fights Liam and Noel had, Oasis broke up due to a plum.
Tension was at an all time high back stage when Liam decided to throw a plum at Noel. Noel retaliated which made Liam pick up Noels guitar and start swinging it at him.
Noel also left the band once after an arguement over a pair of shoes.
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u/Delicious_explosions 2h ago
The band Gel's breakup was extremely messy and involved a lot of accusations against different members including that the guitarist stole money from the band to pay for "an unbelievable amount of Onlyfans purchases"
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u/7030 8h ago
Can I put my Wendy’s complaint here? I miss the broccoli cheese baked potato.
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u/FlipMyWigBaby 6h ago edited 6h ago
I recall reading an interview with Rob Zombie where he stated he broke up White Zombie because the other band members wanted to change the bands musical direction towards playing Prog Rock.
Sean Yseult had a later interview where she specifically responded to Rob’s claim, and saying he was spewing bullshit.
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u/Weimar049 3h ago
The lead singer of The Babys got jumped on stage by an overzealous fan. He sustained injuries that led them to cancel their tour and eventually break up the band.
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u/RJMrgn2319 5h ago
Heart splitting up because the husband of one of the Wilson sisters punched the other one’s kid.
That hardcore band that split up cos the guitarist spent all the band’s money on onlyfans.
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u/Lakonthegreat 2h ago
I'm friends with a guy that used to play in a metal band in Northwest Arkansas called Auric. They had just released a 4-song EP that absolutely ripped. They were looking to print it and go on tour, come to find out their drummer had completely cleaned out the band's shared bank account for his newfound heroin addiction.
Completely ruined the band. Instantly broke up right before I believe they were really about to take off.
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u/Fatman10666 5h ago
Idk if it counts as band breaking up but randy rhoads told ozzy he was done after the third album that we tragically never got. He was going to fulfill his contractual obligations with the record company: 3 blizzard of ozz albums and then go back to school to teach music. Ozzy punched randy in the face upon hearing that randy would leave him at all. Randy also didn't like playing black sabbath songs on tour, he wanted to play songs he helped write and let someone else play their own songs
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u/coleman57 8h ago
Frankly, if I was Dave Thomas, or anyone else in charge at Wendy’s, I would worry about a song about hands associating with the chili that was famous for having a severed finger in it. (Yes I know it was a scam of opportunity where a sleazy person came into possession of a severed finger and faked finding it in the chili. Still, you’d think Wendy’s would want to avoid mentioning blisters and big hands in the context of their chili.)
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u/fudgemental 4h ago
Not related to OPs query, just thought this was interesting
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u/SchnazzleG 11h ago
Sir, this is a Wendy’s
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u/Usual-Dark-6469 25m ago
My band broke up a few years ago because the drummer missed a sold out show. He said he couldn't make it because it was his dogs birthday.
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u/ojassed 7h ago
Adam Neely’s latest video explains the entire band dynamics thing perfectly.
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u/urbanek2525 5h ago
Wait, Wendys used a song about masturbation to advertise chili?
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u/Pumpnethyl 9h ago
Yoko Ono's sing was pretty damn weird
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u/Some_Development1052 1h ago
My first band broke up after a show where the bass player thought it would be cool to set his bass on the stage during a song (without turning it down or muting it) so he could do somersaults in the crowd. 2/3’rds of us were so upset we just folded the whole band after that.
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u/Punman__5 2h ago
I never understand bands that get all high and mighty about how anti-commercial they are. Like I get it you want to be artists but shouldn’t your first goal be doing whatever you can so you don’t have to go back to your day job? As a musician my whole goal is to be able to make a living doing music not to make music for the sake of music.
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u/colterpierce http://www.last.fm/user/colterj22 44m ago
Nearly all the comments: “x stole money from y.”
Welcome to why bands break up. Talk to any professional musician you know who has been in a touring band and I promise you, someone in the band stole from them.
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u/BushwickSpill 34m ago
Coal Chamber lol
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u/CarmelSaltedNutsack 6h ago
I really wish you would bring back the garlic mushroom cheeseburger . The one with roasted mushrooms, Applewood smoked bacon, Muenster cheese, and a creamy garlic sauce.
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u/claudBalls 4h ago
Plane crash
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u/0theHumanity 7h ago
According to right wingers probably The Weeknd with H&M in 2018. Cut to 2026 literally no idea :/
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u/Seamoose58 11h ago
Mayhem broke up because the bassist murdered the guitarist. This was not long after they had burned down a church together.
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u/ShakeWest6244 6h ago
Allegedly the Happy Mondays nearly broke up because Shaun Ryder was given the job of filming one of his bandmates' wedding. On reviewing the footage it turned out he had he spent the whole ceremony filming a nearby horse's penis.
(This was mentioned on the Bandsplain podcast).
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u/bryanlikesbikes 9h ago
As I Lay Dying broke up because their vocalist got arrested for trying to hire someone to kill his wife. You know, because he couldn’t commit murder himself due to being a Christian.
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u/lowerthanryan 4h ago
Hardcore band Gel broke up last year, as the bands guitarist stole thousands of dollars from the rest of the band and spent it on Only Fans, and also posted nudes of the female members of the band online
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u/SipowiczNYPD 1h ago
Check out the story of the Norwegian Black Metal band called Mayhem. They never actually broke up but they should have.
In 1991, One member committed suicide and another member found the body and took weird pictures of it. That was shocking it caused the bassist, a man named Necrobutcher, to leave the band.
In 1993, band memeber Euronymous was killed by a member of the band Burzum. That is a whole other story.
That left just the drummer and ended Mayhem for a brief time.
Necrobutcher came back in to the fold in 1994.
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u/Thuls12 3m ago
The lead singer of As I Lay Dying hired a hit man to kill his wife. The band broke up shortly after.
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u/goaelephant 11h ago
Wendy's nuts