From The Who to Black Sabbath: Notable Musicians Who Were Fired from Iconic Rock Bands

21 May 2025, 15:55 | Updated: 30 May 2025, 17:42

What happens when you're given your marching orders from a major rock band? The recent hassles between Zak Starkey and The Who has put interpersonal issues between musicians back in the news. Here are some of the most notable examples from rock history.

1. Zak Starkey and The Who

   The short version: Zak - the son of Beatles legend Ringo Starr - had been playing with The Who since the band's revival of their Quadrophenia opera in 1996. His drumming hero was not actually his own father, but the late Who member Keith Moon. On 15th April 2025, it was reported that The Who had "made a collective decision to part ways with Zak" after a Teenage Cancer Trust gig at the Royal Albert Hall in March, where frontman Roger Daltrey stopped the show on more than one occasion due to sound issues.

   

   Four days later, Pete Townshend claimed that the drummer had been reinstated, saying: "There have been some communication issues, personal and private on all sides, that needed to be dealt with, and these have been aired happily.” A month after that, it seems that The Who have parted ways with Starkey for good as they prepare to head off on their farewell tour of North America. "I love The Who and would never have quit," the drummer told his fans, while Daltrey claimed that the Beatle offspring was not "fired" but merely "retired". Well that's alright then.

2. Pete Best and The Beatles

   The most famous - and notorious - sacking in rock history was back on 16th August 1962. The Beatles went through a number of drummers in their early days, but Pete Best was a fan favourite and stayed with the band through their formative years in Liverpool and Hamburg. However, shortly after they were signed to the Parlophone label, Best was unceremoniously fired in favour of Ringo Starr - and The Fab Four were complete.

   

   Were they jealous of Pete's good looks? That was the long-standing rumour, but when the Best version of Love Me Do was finally released on The Beatles Anthology 1 compilation in 1995, it seemed to confirm producer George Martin's feeling that Pete wasn't good enough to appear on studio sessions. Add this to Ringo sharing the Beatle sense of humour and history was made. Best struggled with his notoriety for two decades before forming his own band, which played the Beatle convention circuit until his retirement in April 2025.

3. Ozzy Osbourne and Black Sabbath

   Ozzy actually quit Sabbath at the end of 1977, leaving Dave Walker to join the metal pioneers as vocalist. He lasted precisely one gig before Osbourne changed his mind and rejoined. While all of Sabbath had an issue with substance and alcohol abuse, guitarist Tony Iommi claimed that Ozzy was "on a totally different level altogether" in those stakes. With the temperamental frontman refusing to sing on some of the new material that was being worked on, Iommi decided to fire Osbourne - although he let drummer Bill Ward break the news.

   

   The deed was done on 27th April 1979, with Ronnie James Dio being employed as a new singer. Ozzy, meanwhile, was taken under the wing of wife Sharon, who managed her husband through an incredibly successful solo career; he'd return to Black Sabbath over the next few decades, but that's another story.

4. Lindsey Buckingham and Fleetwood Mac

   After joining Fleetwood Mac in 1975 alongside his musicial partner Stevie Nicks, Buckingham rode the wave of the British-American band's huge success with their album Rumours. He quit the group in 1987 after the release of the best-selling album Tango In The Night, claiming he no longer wanted to tour. Buckingham returned a decade later for a reunion tour called The Dance, and managed to run his Fleetwood Mac work alongside a solo career. Things came to a head in April 2018 when it was reported that the musician had been fired from the group.

   

   Buckingham claimed he'd been called by the band's manager Irving Azoff, saying Nicks never wanted to be on stage with her former partner again after a debate on their Rhiannon track being used for a charity event. Apparently Buckingham had also "smirked" at Nicks during her acceptance speech at the same event; he later said "Our relationship has always been volatile. We were never married, but we might as well have been."

5. Steven Adler and Guns N'Roses

   Incredibly, the "classic" GNR line-up of Axl Rose, Slash, Izzy Stradlin, Duff McKagan and Steven Adler only lasted for two albums: Appetite For Destruction and GN'R Lies. In 1990, Rose publicly slated certain members of the band for "dancing with Mr. Brownstone", which was a pointed jibe at drummer Adler. When the musician struggled to record the percussion for the track Civil War, it was the last straw - he was formally sacked from GN'R on 11th July 1990. He was replaced by former Cult drummer Matt Sorum, who was given his own marching orders by Axl Rose in 1997.

   

6. Brian Jones and The Rolling Stones

   Lewis Brian Hopkin Jones was the founder of The Rolling Stones, having coined the name of the band for a gig at the Marquee in July 1962. Despite his lack of songwriting credits, Jones was the acknowledged leader of the group, expanding on the group's basic blues sound. That is, until Mick Jagger and Keith Richards began their musical partnership and moved centre stage, in collusion with manager Andrew Loog Oldham. Alongside this, Jones' drug abuse made him increasingly erratic and brought him into conflict with the law, which caused problems with a proposed North American tour planned for Autumn 1969. This, plus Brian's lack of input into the Stones' recent recording sessions, led to a decision being made: he was told he was out of the band on 8th June 1969.

   

   Jones released a statement the next day, claiming "I no longer see eye-to-eye with the others over the discs we are cutting." He was replaced by Mick Taylor of John Mayall's Bluesbreakers, who was unveiled to the press four days later. Taylor's debut was at the Stones' huge free Hyde Park show on 5th July - the gig unexpectedly became a memorial to Jones, after the musician drowned in a swimming pool at his home in East Sussex 48 hours earlier.

7. Peter Criss and KISS

   Less than a firing, more of a gradual easing out: the drummer and the "Catman" with the classic 70s line-up of the hard rock glam outfit appeared on just one track on the 1979 album Dynasty: Criss' own composition Dirty Livin'. On this and the subsequent KISS album, Unmasked, the drums were by Anton Fig. Fig, however, was just a session musician, with Criss wearing the Cat make-up for the videos and continuing to perform live with KISS until May 1980. when he was "let go" by Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley. The video for Shandi was his last appearance at The Cat until the 1996 KISS reunion tour. He left again in 2001 and yet again in 2004.

   

8. Syd Barrett and Pink Floyd

   Another "sacking" that was more of a freezing-out. Roger "Syd" Barrett was the founder, lead songwriter and undoubted genius of Pink Floyd in their formative years. He penned early singles like Arnold Layne and See Emily Play, plus the majority of their masterful debut album.The Piper At The Gates Of Dawn. However, towards the end of 1967, Barrett appeared to undergo some kind of breakdown; the generally accepted theory is that he'd exacerbated an underlying mental health problem by over-indulging in LSD. He'd become withdrawn and uncommunicative, but this was accompanied by acts of wilful self-sabotage.

   

   During a high profile show at the Fillmore West in San Francisco, Barrett deliberately de-tuned his guitar strings and continued playing. Drummer Nick Mason recalled thinking: "Shall I roar with laughter or do I try and kill him?" Floyd has begun using David Gilmour as a second guitarist during this period and, when heading to a gig in Southampton in January 1968, the rest of the band simply decided not to pick Barrett up and played the show without him. On 6th April that year, it was announced that Syd Barrett was no longer a member of Pink Floyd; his last song with the group was Jugband Blues, the final track on A Saucerful Of Secrets.

9. Dave Mustaine and Metallica

   Mustaine had been Metallica's lead guitarist since answering an ad in 1981. However, by April 1983 his drinking, drug abuse and violent behaviour had exasperated his bandmates, leading to James Hetfield and Lars Ulrich sacking him and sticking him on a Greyhound bus straight back to Los Angeles. "I was so hurt by the way that happened," the musician told the Lydverket blog a quarter of a century later. "I said, What? No second chance, no warning? C'mon, we all drink. 'No, that's it. You're gone'." Mustaine bounced back with his own band, Megadeth.

   

10. Lemmy Kilmister and Hawkwind

    The former Rockin' Vickers star joined the space rock stalwarts in August 1971 and appeared as lead vocalist on Hawkwind's sole Top 10 hit, Silver Machine, in the summer of 1972. However, after being busted for possession of drugs in Canada in May 1975 the band considered Lemmy's behaviour to be a liability. "I was called to [guitarist] Dave Brock's room," the bassist told the NME at the time. "They were all sitting there. I was told I was being sacked. I said 'Thanks very much' and left." The bassist formed a new band, initially called "Bastard", but renamed Motörhead after one of the songs Lemmy had written for Hawkwind.

    

11. Vince Neil and Mötley Crüe

    Nikki Sixx says that vocalist Neil quit the Hollywood glam metallers, but the singer himself insisted that he was fired by Sixx, Tommy Lee and Mick Mars in February 1992 over his incraesing unreliability. A statement claimed that Neil's involvement in Indy Lights racing had proved detrimental to their relationship: "Race car driving has become a priority in Neil's life. His bandmates felt he didn't share their determination and passion for music." Neil says that the whole situation "was handled idiotically" and he was replaced by singer John Corabi. Neil was back in the fold by 1997.

    

12. Glen Matlock and the Sex Pistols

    Malcolm McLaren famously claimed that the original Pistols bassist was fired from the punk pioneers "because he liked The Beatles". Matlock later tried to put the record straight, saying he'd quit because he was "sick of all the bullshit", but when asked about the incident in 2006, guitarist Steve Jones admitted: "He 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." Matlock was replaced by Sid Vicious - a less proficient bassist, but someone who definitely "had the look" of a Sex Pistol. Vicious died in 1979 aged 21, so when the band reunited in 1996, Matlock returned to play bass again.

    

13. Don Felder and Eagles

    After the ironically-named Hell Freezes Over tour (so called because it seemed so unlikely the members would settle their differences), long term guitarist Don Felder was fired from the LA rockers on 6th February 2001. The reason, as ever, was money - Felder filed a lawsuit against founder members Don Henley and Glenn Frey for "abusing their authority and acting unfairly" in sacking the musician, adding that he required a "full accounting of all transactions - including royalties, tour receipts, and merchandise revenue - made by Eagles Ltd". Felder claimed the duo were receiving a "higher percentage of the band's profits", but Henley and Frey countersued the guitarist for breach of contract and the whole thing was settled out of court in May 2007.

    

14. Mick Jones and The Clash

    On 10th September 1983, The Clash issued a statement saying: "Joe Strummer and Paul Simonon have decided that Mick Jones should leave. It is felt that Jones drifted away from the original idea of the group." Drummer Topper Headon had been fired from the legendary punk band in May 1982 after his substance abuse had grown too much, and with The Clash making headway in the US, reliability was an issue.

    

    This is one of the reasons why founder member Jones was fired the following year - as frontman Joe Strummer said in the documentary Westway To The World: "Mick was intolerable to work with by this time. I mean, no fun at all. He wouldn't show up... when he did show up, he was like Elizabeth Taylor in a filthy mood."

    For his part, Jones said he'd lost sight of what was important. "I didn't know personally about self control, you know? I didn't know about that stuff until much later. I was just carried away, really." The guitarist went on to form the acclaimed Big Audio Dynamite, while The Clash limped on for one more album, 1985's Cut The Crap.