If you don't watch football, let us get you up to date with the biggest stories of the NFL postseason so far: First, a pass interference call against the Cowboys was reversed (a very rare move for that penalty) during the Detroit/Dallas matchup, leading in the Cowboys getting the ball and ultimately the win. A week later—in an act of karma if you're a Lions fan—Cowboys receiver Dez Bryant caught a pass and ended up a yard from the end zone, with a touchdown potentially meaning victory. Instead, Green Bay coach Mike McCarthy challenged the reception and got the play reversed. Dallas fans were enraged and the rest of the world befuddled as it seemed perfectly clear that Bryant had made a "football move."
In short, NFL refs may have made some bad decisions in the last week. If it makes them feel any better, these bands also made huge mistakes when they fired key members.
Hawkwind and Lemmy Kilmister (1975)
Lemmy Kilmister probably rings a bell to rock fans...after all he's been nicknamed the "godfather of metal" for his role within Motörhead as its bassist and gravelly-voiced frontman. On the other hand, you probably haven't heard of Hawkwind, presumably because it fired Kilmister. He served the same role for Hawkwind as he did with his current act and coincidentally enough, Hawkwind never really generated a profit until Kilmister joined. A few years later he was arrested for possession of cocaine crossing over the Canadian-American border and the band fired him right there despite him never being convicted of anything (it wasn't cocaine...it was speed. Canadian law didn't allow for charging him with a second crime for the same mislabeled substance). Needless to say, he did alright in the end and Hawkwind is still around. Being less famous than Motörhead.
Van Halen and David Lee Roth (1985)
Van Halen had the same problem that many a successful classic rock band has: Too much personality. On one hand, guitarist and namesake Eddie Van Halen was a draw thanks to his absurd finger-tapping solos. On the other hand, David Lee Roth wasn't too bad a vocalist and had a stage persona the crowds dug. The pair often battled over subject matter (more of the same in Roth's case and a more progressive approach for Van Halen) but as the guitarist's name was the one up in lights, he saw to it that the vocalist got the boot. This resulted in Sammy Hagar taking the reigns for more than a decade. Few periods in rock history are more despised than "Van Hagar" is by diehard Van Halen fans. True story: Your correspondent, while working at a cafeteria dish room during school, encountered an intoxicated employee screaming "f--k Van Hagar" and dropping dishes into a functioning garbage disposal, spewing shrapnel everywhere, because "Finish What Ya Started" came on the radio.
Steve Perry and Journey (1998)
This is definitely the most controversial of our selections for bad firing ideas, and the argument could certainly be made that Journey did the right thing by giving Perry the axe. The situation was thus: Journey had just come back after a huge break, ten years without a new record between 1986 and 1996. Then it dropped Trial By Fire and had peaked at no. 3 on the Billboard 200. Alas, vocalist Steve Perry had a hiking accident and required surgery. Rather than actually take that surgery however, he kept pushing the band to postpone the planned tour. For 17 months. Supporting an album on tour 17 months after it was released? Many would suggest that firing Perry and replacing him with Steve Augeri was a justified action. And it was. But not a good one. Journey had succeeded by being a lesser Boston for years (Boston at least had one really frickin' good album to lean on before the '80s happened) and most of that was thanks to Steve "The Voice" Perry. No Perry, no dice in our book. That said, Journey's still making money on tour.
Jon Anderson and Yes (2008)
The benefits to being in Journey and not Yes, an extremely talented band from the golden age of progressive rock, is that you'll always have royalties to rely on, even if your band's lineup falls apart (okay...so Yes probably makes millions from "Owner of A Lonely Heart"). Yes was still touring 40 years after its debut but no one outside of its hardcore fans really cared. One nice thing it could say was that vocalist Jon Anderson and guitarist Chris Squire had both been there from the beginning and both had been with the band for the better part of those 40 years. Until Anderson had an asthma attack and doctors recommended the 66 year-old take some time off from the whole vocalist thing. Squire wasn't having it so he fired his pal and hired a new singer from a YES cover group. The only reason why we consider this a mistake is for dignity's sake. But can you imagine this happening to prog rock acts still relevant? If Neil Peart decided to fire Geddy Lee from Rush? Blood in the streets.
Krewella and Kris Trindl (2014)
One of the messier breakups of 2014 was when EDM act Krewella cut loose member Kris "Rainman" Trindl. He claimed the other two members, sisters Jahan and Yasmine Yousaf, had fired him for trying to stay away from substance abuse. They counterclaimed that he had the exact opposite problem and was still suffering from alcoholism despite his claims. We don't know who's telling the truth but both sides leave one unpleasant truth: Trindl was responsible for the majority of Krewella's music and the Yousafs mainly sang and/or danced around onstage (based on what we saw at Lollapalooza). Seriously, check out the credits page for the album Get Wet: All of the production, except that handled by people outside of the band, was Trindl. Production essentially means "making the music" in EDM. Since this list started with football, imagine Monday Night Football commentator Jon Gruden circling an empty soundboard and repeating this exact tweet from Deadmau5: "EDM protip: if youre going to make a group / trio act...don't fire the guy who actually does s--t." It's not as if his work was inimitable however. Hopefully the Yousafs will consider hiring a female DJ to counter all the misogynistic chatter aimed at them and make Trindl's firing less about gender in the media.
© 2024 MusicTimes.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
