Musicians Who Refuse To Work Together

Musicians can be mercurial people, and that's proven to be true within some of rock music's most notable partnerships. Take guitarist/songwriter Pete Townshend and singer Roger Daltrey of The Who, who can boast more than 50 years as bandmates but once fought so bitterly that Daltrey feared he may have killed Townshend during one of their legendary rows, as he recalled in his memoir, "Thanks a Lot Mr Kibblewhite: My Story." Then there are brothers Chris and Rich Robinson of The Black Crowes, whose well-chronicled feud led to a nasty split, per Billboard; it should be pointed out, however, that the battling brothers were able to put their differences aside in 2019 when they announced a reunion tour in an interview on "The Howard Stern Show" — proving once again that it's money, not time, that heals wounds. 

Numerous others have followed the lead of those rockers, with the promise of a lucrative payday leading many warring bandmates to bury their respective hatchets over the years. However, that hasn't always been the case. As it turns out, there are some feuds that remain so deep and unsolvable that no amount of money can ever entice performers to work together again, as someone who was once seen as a trusted musical collaborator has become a full-fledged nemesis. 

From some legendary classic rockers to an iconic boy band to arguably the most celebrated folk duo of all time, keep on reading to find out about these musicians who refuse to work together.  

Despite a name that sounded more like a law firm than a rock band, Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young remain one of rock's pre-eminent supergroups. Throughout the years, members David Crosby, Stephen Stills, Graham Nash, and Neil Young have reunited frequently, and in various other iterations (such as the Stills-Young Band, and a few Crosby-Nash collaborations). 

However, hopes that the septuagenarian rock icons would reunite one final time have been stymied by Young's refusal to ever work with Crosby again — let alone be in the same room with him. The problem stems from some comments Crosby made after Young ended his 36-year marriage and began dating actor Daryl Hannah, now his wife. In 2014, Crosby described Hannah to the Idaho Statesman (via UCR) as "a purely poisonous predator." 

Years later, Crosby told The Guardian that he bears full responsibility for creating the rift. "Neil has got a genuine beef," Crosby admitted. "I did say something bad about his girlfriend. ... OK, he can be mad at me. That's all right." Crosby even offered an apology during a visit to "The Howard Stern Show" (via Rolling Stone), admitting, "I was completely out of line. I have screwed up massively." Young subsequently appeared on "Stern" (as reported by Rolling Stone), vowing a CSNY reunion would "never happen." Young also shrugged off Crosby's apology: "There's nothing to apologize for. It was fixable, but it didn't get fixed."

When Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham joined Fleetwood Mac in 1974, the two were partners both musically and romantically, ready to pack it in after their debut album, "Buckingham Nicks," flopped. In the years that followed, the addition of Buckingham and Nicks propelled Fleetwood Mac to heights the band had never before approached, culminating in the mega-hit 1977 LP "Rumours," still one of the biggest-selling albums of all time. 

Fleetwood Mac's intra-band drama was also legendary. Before recording "Rumours," Buckingham and Nicks had split, per Rolling Stone, with Nicks then embarking on an affair with drummer Mick Fleetwood. Despite everything, the band soldiered on for decades as a top touring act. However, that came to a screeching halt in 2018 when Rolling Stone reported Buckingham was "fired" due to "a disagreement over the band's upcoming tour." In a subsequent interview with the Los Angeles Times, Buckingham shared his version of events, claiming Nicks threatened to quit if a planned tour was delayed so he could do some solo work. Nicks countered with a statement dismissing Buckingham's account as "revisionist history," explaining she was simply "no longer willing to work with him," per Rolling Stone. 

Fleetwood Mac's Christine McVie explained Buckingham's firing to Mojo (via NME) as "the only route we could take, because there was too much animosity between certain members of the band at that point ... it was either just completely break up the band or make the best of it."

Oasis took the world by storm in the 1990s, with Beatles-influenced hits such as "Don't Look Back in Anger" and "Wonderwall" propelling the band to sell an estimated 70 million albums — even making it into the Guinness Book of World Records for "the longest Top 10 U.K. chart run" by any group, per Digital Spy. 

That massive success was ultimately derailed by the tumultuous relationship between the band's co-founders, brawling brothers Noel and Liam Gallagher. As Rolling Stone recalled, Noel quit the band on several occasions but ultimately returned. However, tensions between the siblings boiled over in 2009 when Noel issued a statement announcing he'd quit Oasis, mid-tour, insisting that "I simply could not go on working with Liam a day longer." This time, he did not return, and the band ultimately broke up for good.

In the years that followed, the chill between the brothers did not thaw, and the rise of social media gave Liam a whole new way in which to slag his brother. Among these were a series of bizarre Twitter posts in which Liam tweeted photos of his estranged brother along with the caption "Potato." In a 2017 interview with The Times, Noel suggested that Liam "needs to see a psychiatrist." Speaking with BBC4's "Front Row" a few weeks later, Noel complained that his brother's nasty tweeting "only heightens my resolve that I'll never walk the stage with that band again."

When The Beach Boys formed in 1961, the lineup featured brothers Brian, Dennis, and Carl Wilson, cousin Mike Love, and friend Al Jardine. As the band's success grew, it became apparent that Brian — who wrote the band's hits — was a full-fledged musical genius. However, he was also suffering from some serious mental health issues, culminating in a "nervous breakdown" that led him to stop touring with the band, and instead he focused on recording, per Gaslight Records.

A massive rift eventually grew between Brian Wilson and Mike Love as Brian's mental health deteriorated during the 1970s, ultimately leading the rest of the band to fire him. Love stepped up as the band's de facto leader as the band became predominantly a touring act, and for the next few decades, the cousins communicated only through lawyers — including Love successfully suing for songwriting credit on some of the band's biggest hits. "There was always the perception that my cousin Brian did all the writing as well as the producing and stuff like that. That was not true," Love told the Sarasota Herald-Tribune. "I was the co-author of so many of the big hits." 

Brian is no fan of his cousin, once remarking, "I don't like Mike Love at all. ... his attitude is too egotistical. I can't be around the guy." In his autobiography "Good Vibrations," Love wrote, "For those who believe that Brian walks on water, I will always be the Antichrist."

Formed in the late 1980s, Smashing Pumpkins exploded into the mainstream with the band's second album, 1993's "Siamese Dream," and cemented their status with the 1995 followup "Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness." Just a few years later, frontman Billy Corgan announced in 2000 that they were breaking up. 

Nearly two decades later, in 2018, Corgan revealed the band was reuniting for a tour, joined by original members James Iha and Jimmy Chamberlin. Original bassist D'Arcy Wretzky, however, was not mentioned as being part of the reunion plans, with Jeff Schroeder taking over bass duties. Wretzky confirmed she was not invited back, telling BlastEcho she had "only just found out yesterday that the band has decided to go with a different bass player."

This led to a series of back-and-forth missives in the press. While Corgan claimed he'd reached out to her repeatedly and been rebuffed, Wretzky told Alternative Nation that was a "complete lie." The band ultimately embarked on its Shiny and Oh So Bright tour — sans Wretzky. In 2020, Corgan confirmed that Wretzky would never be part of any future Smashing Pumpkins iteration. "D'arcy, that's a dead end," he told Premier Guitar. "That's what I always tell people: She made it very clear that the bridge is burned." 

When Zayn Malik left One Direction in 2015, it preceded a still-ongoing "hiatus" that's seen all of the group's members launch solo careers. While Malik's bandmates initially responded with tears and claims of being "deeply saddened," it wasn't long before the rancor eventually spilled out. 

That was particularly true of comments Malik made about 1D. Months after his exit, for example, Malik sniped to Fader that One Direction's music was "generic as f***." He then told Apple Music's Beats 1 (via Hollywire) that he "never really wanted to be there, like in the band," but simply "gave it a go." In a subsequent interview with Capital FM host Dave Berry (via the Daily Star), Malik admitted he and 1D's Louis Tomlinson were "not talking on friend terms obviously," and he complained to NME that "nobody's reached out" from the band.

Years later, Malik was still griping about his ex-bandmates. "To be honest, I never really spoke to Harry [Styles] even when I was in the band. So I didn't really expect that much of a relationship with him," he told Us Weekly in 2017, and in 2018, he told GQ that "I didn't really, like, make any friends from the band. I just didn't do it." Then, interviewed by British Vogue, Malik alluded to "things that were said after I left. Snide things. Small things that I would never have expected." Speaking with The Sun in 2020, Niall Horan admitted that Malik "left for his reasons and then he never really spoke to us much afterwards."

Ian Gillan joined British hard rock outfit Deep Purple in 1969, serving as the band's lead singer during its most successful period in the 1970s and lending his distinctive pipes to such hits as "Smoke on the Water." By 1973, recalled Louder, tensions with temperamental guitarist Ritchie Blackmore had become too much for Gillan, who tendered his resignation in a letter (Blackmore quit the band a few years later). 

Gillan and Blackmore put their differences aside when the "classic" lineup of Deep Purple reunited in 1984. As was the case before, Gillan and Blackmore did not get along, typified by the latter's infamous quip, "I'm going to attack Ian Gillan in a back alley." Gillan exited a second time, in 1989, but then subsequently rejoined Deep Purple in 1992, with Blackmore departing the following year amidst increasing onstage friction between the two.

Asked in a 2021 "Tales from the Road" interview (via Blabbermouth) whether he and Blackmore would ever reunite onstage, Gillan replied, "No ... needless to say, it was all pretty nasty when we finished and Ritchie walked out." According to Gillan, he and the rest of the band "never had any antagonism towards Ritchie. He has his own interpretations, and the rest of us have our interpretations, so it's really not worth being fired up about it." Reuniting with Blackmore, Gillan added, "would be no fun at all."