Pick a Day

Music History Events: Feuds and Beef

February 4, 1974 The Stooges play a bar in Wayne, Michigan, where a biker gang called The Scorpions is initiating a new member by having him hurl eggs at lead singer Iggy Pop, who responds by going into the crowd to fight him.More

January 24, 1967 Aretha Franklin records her first Top 10 pop hit, "(I Never Loved A Man) The Way That I Love You," at a tumultuous session at FAME Studios in Muscle Shoals, Alabama where her husband gets into an altercation with one of the musicians.More

May 12, 1963 Bob Dylan refuses to appear on The Ed Sullivan Show when they won't let him play "Talkin' John Birch Society Blues."More

November 16, 2023 Daryl Hall files a lawsuit against John Oates, exposing a rift in the famously amiable duo. Hall's suit is an attempt to keep Oates from selling his shares of their publishing royalties, a move he calls "the ultimate partnership betrayal."

July 4, 2023 At his show in Las Vegas, Usher cozies up to the actress Keke Palmer while singing "There Goes My Baby." It blows up on social media and causes a rift with her boyfriend, Darius Jackson. In August, Palmer stars in Usher's video for "Boyfriend," poking fun at the controversy.

August 26, 2022 After Jason Aldean's wife Brittany posts a makeup video on Instagram with the caption, "I'd really like to thank my parents for not changing my gender when I went through my tomboy phase," Maren Morris, an advocate for transgender rights, flames her with a Tweet, writing, "Zip it, Insurrection Barbie." The feud raises tensions between conservative members of the country music community and those with more progressive views like Morris.

April 14, 2018 Dire Straits is inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, but with Mark Knopfler skipping the ceremony, nobody inducts them and they do not perform.More

January 26, 2017 Kylie Minogue successfully blocks Kylie Jenner's application to trademark the name "Kylie."

June 3, 2014 Jade Castrinos, the female vocalist in Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros, updates her Instagram bio to read: "For seven years i sang and wrote music with edward sharpe. they voted me off of tour a week before they left, via email. lol."More

May 14, 2014 On American Idol, The Chainsmokers perform their hit "#Selfie" in a bit where they take selfies with the judges. After the performance, EDM notables trash them.More

October 1, 2011 Meat Loaf performs at the AFL Grand Final in Melbourne between Collingwood and Geelong. Suffering from a hemorrhaging vocal cord, he struggles through the 12-minute set and is blasted in the press. The singer responds by calling AFL organizers "the cheapest people I've ever seen in my life."More

August 29, 2002 Pepsi pull their commercial with Ludacris after Bill O'Reilly blasts the rapper on his show The O'Reilly Factor for "peddling antisocial behavior." Luda does just fine: His next three albums go to #1 and he lands a role in the Fast & Furious franchise.

October 17, 1997 Rapper Warren G has a beef with Garth Brooks and files a lawsuit against the country star, claiming he infringed on his "G" logo.

September 4, 1996 At the MTV Video Music Awards, Van Halen, who recently parted ways with lead singer Sammy Hagar, appear on stage with their founding frontman David Lee Roth for the first time in 11 years to present an award. The reunion is short lived - a month later they announce Gary Cherone (formerly of Extreme) as their new lead singer. Roth releases a statement saying, "I was an unwitting participant in this deception." Van Halen release one album with Cherone before reuniting with Roth in 2007.

February 5, 1992 New Kids On The Block appear on The Arsenio Hall Show to address accusations made by Gregory McPherson, their former music director, that they didn't sing on their albums. McPherson later recants the allegations.

October 19, 1991 At a gig in Texas, Nirvana's Kurt Cobain gets in a fight with a bouncer. While crowd surfing, the bouncer shoves him back into the crowd by the face, to which Cobain responds by driving the butt of his guitar into the bouncer's own mug. Barely back on his feet, Cobain gets a sucker punch to the back of the head before his bandmates jump in to help him.

October 8, 1989 After Rolling Stones' Ron Wood suggests that The Who were re-forming for the money alone, Who guitarist Pete Townshend publicly answers: "Mick needs a lot more than I do. His last album was a flop," referring to The Rolling Stones' ill-received Dirty Work.

June 29, 1987 The Living Daylights, the first James Bond film to star Timothy Dalton as 007, premieres in London. The theme song was written and performed by a-ha, who are unable to attend. The film's composer, John Barry, is asked about the Norwegian band and calls them "Hitler Youth."More

October 6, 1980 The Bee Gees sue their former manager Robert Stigwood for $136 million, claiming unpaid royalties and fraud. The group alleges that contracts they signed with Stigwood in 1968 were predatory and unfair, and that they were too young to understand what they were signing. The suit is eventually settled out of court.

March 17, 1973 The sci-fi musical Lost Horizon, scored by Burt Bacharach, bombs at the box office. The failure precipitates Bacharach's split from longtime songwriting partner Hal David and Dionne Warwick, who had performed their songs for more than a decade.More

March 27, 1972 Grand Funk fire their manager/producer, Terry Knight, accusing him of taking more than his share of royalties. Knight sues, and in December confiscates the band's equipment via a court order.

July 29, 1970 The Rolling Stones' contract with Decca expires, and the group takes the opportunity to split with notorious manager Allen Klein. Delivering one more song to the label to fulfill its obligation, the famously unreleasable "C--ksucer Blues" (aka Schoolboy Blues), they also begin the process of forming their own label, Rolling Stones Records (which features their new "tongue and lips" logo).

August 1, 1942 Fighting against phonograph records, which they fear will replace live music, the American Federation of Musicians goes on strike, forbidding their members from playing on recorded music. The strike lasts over two years, by which time it becomes clear that people will both listen to records and go to concerts.

January 26, 2022 Spotify complies with Neil Young's request to remove his music from the service. Young's issue is with the Spotify podcast The Joe Rogan Experience, which he feels is spreading false information about vaccines. Joni Mitchell also removes her music, but Spotify stands tall for Rogan, whose subscriber count grows considerably in wake of the controversy. Young returns to Spotify two years later.

April 18, 2021 The Simpsons parodies Morrissey with the character Quillougby, a British misanthrope who sings "Everyone Is Horrid Except Me (And Possibly You)" with Lisa. "I'm quite used to it," the real Morrissey replies. "I've had enough horror thrown at me that would kill off a herd of bison."

November 10, 2020 Through her lawyer, Britney Spears tells a court she is afraid of her father and will not perform again if he is in charge of her career. Since 2008, she has been under conservatorship, with her father in charge of her health and finances.

September 20, 2020 Weezer and Fall Out Boy go head to head on Celebrity Family Feud, with FOB coming out on top.

October 26, 2018 50 Cent uses Groupon to buy 200 tickets to an upcoming Ja Rule concert for $15 each, just so the seats will be empty. The rappers have been feuding since the '90s.

April 8, 2016 Steve Miller, notoriously averse to awards ceremonies, goes on a backstage rant when he is inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. He says the Hall is like "a private boys club," and lets loose on the organizers. "It's a bunch of jackasses and jerks and f--king gangsters and crooks."More

January 27, 2013 A fight breaks out after Frank Ocean accuses Chris Brown of taking his parking space at a Los Angeles recording studio. Brown throws a punch at Ocean, and threatens to shoot him, allegedly shouting: "We can bust on you too!"