Beach Boys Brawl Again: Music's Biggest Feuds
The Beach Boys are the latest epic feud to hit the music industry.
Sept. 27, 2012 -- intro: Things don't look so sunny for the Beach Boys. The band's frontman Mike Love has announced that the iconic rock group will drop founding members Brian Wilson, Al Jardine and David Marks at the end of this week.
"The post-50th anniversary configuration will not include Brian Wilson, Al Jardine and David Marks," Love and Bruce Johnston (not an original member) said in a statement released last week. "The 50th Reunion Tour was designed to be a set tour with a beginning and an end to mark a special 50-year milestone for the band."
Wilson, for one, feels blindsided.
"I'm disappointed and can't understand why [Love] doesn't want to tour with Al, David and me," he told CNN. "We are out here having so much fun. After all, we are the real Beach Boys."
Love told the London Telegraph Wednesday that money and protecting the iconic rock band's legacy was behind the decision.
"You've got to be careful not to get overexposed," he said. "There are promoters who are interested [in more shows with the original band], but they've said, 'Give it a rest for a year.' The Eagles found out the hard way when they went out for a second year and wound up selling tickets for $5."
Fans are rallying to keep the band together. An online petition on iPetitions.com had more than 2,000 signatures as of Wednesday afternoon, and Jardine has tweeted his support for it.
Over the years, Wilson and Love have fought in public (and in court) over writing credits and publishing rights, but this feud might be the band's worst. If the Beach Boys do not make amends, their Sept. 28 concert at Wembley Stadium, part of their "Keepin' the Summer Alive" tour, could be the last time the original members play together. Love and Johnston plan to continue the tour with substitute band members.
Click through for other legendary feuds between bands and their rivals:
quicklist: 1title: Madonna vs. Elton Johntext: After feuding off and on over the last few years, in August, Elton John made perhaps his harshest remarks about Madonna. In an interview for Australian TV, John not only declared the Material Girl's career "over," but said she looked like a "fairground stripper."
In the interview aired on Australia's Channel 7 program Sunday Night, John said of Madonna, "Why is she such a nightmare? Her career is over, I can tell you that. Her tour has been a disaster and it couldn't happen to a bigger [expletive]."
He added, "If Madonna had any common sense, she would have made a record like 'Ray of Light,' stayed away from the dance stuff, and just been a great pop singer and made great pop records, which she does brilliantly. But no, she had to prove that she was like…" There, John trailed off, but then continued, "And she looks like a [expletive] fairground stripper."
At the Golden Globes earlier this year, John and his partner David Furnish publicly dissed Madonna after she beat John for the Best Original Song trophy. (Talking to reporters after accepting the award, she said that she deserved it.) John has also taken public swipes at Madonna in the past for allegedly lip-synching on stage.
In late August, Madonna decided to "forgive" John, albeit in a passive aggressive fashion. During a concert in France, she dedicated her song "Masterpiece" to John, saying, "I know he's a big fan of it. And I know he's a big fan of mine. And you know? I forgive him. Gotta start somewhere."media: 15371886
quicklist: 2title: Madonna vs. Gagatext: Madonna may be tight-lipped about her feud with Elton John, but not so with Lady Gaga. At a May 31 concert in Tel Aviv, Madonna performed a mash-up of her 1980s hit "Express Yourself" and Lady Gaga's "Born This Way." "I'm on the right track, baby, I was born this way. Express yourself," Madonna sang.
Gaga responded to Madonna for stirring up the "haterade" at a concert in New Zealand: "It sometimes makes people feel better about themselves, to put other people down, or make fun of them, or maybe make mockery of their work, and that doesn't make me feel good at all."
The feud began in January when Madonna dissed Lady Gaga's sort- of-sound-alike track and described it as "reductive" to ABC News' Cynthia McFadden. Before that, the two pop goddesses joked while sharing the "Saturday Night Live" stage, but now the two seem to be waging a global cold war of epic proportions. Elton John also complained about Madonna's treatment of Gaga. "She's been so horrible to Gaga," he said referring to his son's godmother.media: 14465155
quicklist: 3title: Tupac vs. Biggie Smallstext: In the annals of music history, there is perhaps no bigger feud than that of West Coast rapper Tupac Shakur and East Cost rapper Biggie Smalls. The two rivals traded disses in their music while their label mates stoked the hate, touching off the infamous West Coast-East Coast rivalry. The animosity reached its peak in the mid 90s, when hip hop music was populated by images of guns, gangs and violence, and culminated in the still unsolved murders of Shakur in September 1996 and Biggie in March 1997.media: 16940739
quicklist: 4title: Paul McCartney vs. Michael Jacksontext: Paul McCartney and Michael Jackson once recorded the '80s hit songs "Say, Say, Say" and "The Girl Is Mine." But their close relationship ended when the King of Pop bought the publishing rights to the Beatles' songs for $47.5 million in 1985. Afterward, McCartney often complained publicly of "having to pay" every time he performed songs such as 'Hey, Jude.' Then, rumors circulated before Jackson's death in June 2009 that the singer had left the catalog to McCartney in his will.
But after Jackson's death, McCartney set the record straight: "The report is that I am devastated to find that he didn't leave the songs to me," McCartney wrote on his website. "This is completely untrue. I had not thought for one minute that the original report [about the will] was true, and therefore the report that I'm devastated is also totally false." McCartney said in the posting that he and Jackson may have "drifted apart," but "we never really fell out."media: 16940196
quicklist: 5title: Katy Perry vs. Lily Allentext: When Katy Perry described herself in 2008 as the "fatter version of Amy Winehouse and the skinnier version of Lily Allen," it wasn't surprising that Allen didn't see it as much of a joke. Allen responded by slamming Perry for not writing her own songs and then threatened to post Perry's phone number on Facebook. Perry then called a truce to the feud, but not before both sides basked in the publicity the feud generated.media: 16940297
quicklist: 6title: Eminem vs. Mobytext: In 2002, DJ/musician Moby called rapper Eminem "misogynistic" and "homophobic." Eminem struck back, calling Moby a "36-year-old bald-headed fag," then went on to parody the artist in his video "Without Me." The tension continued when Moby was seated behind Eminem at that year's MTV Video Music Awards. Em denounced Moby from the stage amid boos from the crowd. Then in 2005, after the feud appeared to have died down, Moby accused Eminem of having "blood on his hands" after an Eminem fan and impersonator was convicted of murdering a woman and stuffing her in a suitcase, much like the rapper does in his video "Stan," in which he pretends to murder a woman he put in the trunk of a car.media: 16940685
quicklist: 7title: Courtney Love vs. Dave Grohltext: Soon after Kurt Cobain's 1994 suicide, his widow Courtney Love and former Nirvana band mates appeared to be working out the details of his estate until the relationship collapsed amid lawsuits and public sniping. Love claimed that drummer Grohl, now of the Foo Fighters, used to hit on her and that Cobain never liked him anyway. Grohl cracked on Love's well-known drug use and slammed her in Foo Fighter songs "I'll Stick Around" and "Let It Die." Their war of the words doesn't appear to be ending anytime soon. As recently as April, Love accused Grohl of hitting on her daughter with Kurt Cobain, Frances Bean Cobain. Grohl dismissed the accusation as "another hateful twitter rant" by Love, and even Love's 19-year-old daughter denied that Grohl had ever approached her in anything other than a platonic way.media: 16940572