10 Musicians That Got Fired From Huge Bands

10. John Kiffmeyer - Green Day

Being in a power trio is always a much different beast in the world of rock and roll. Since there's only three of you onstage, you all have to pull equal weight throughout the song so that everything doesn't collapse and turn to mush. Green Day already had a sturdy rhythm section with Billie Joe Armstrong and Mike Dirnt's guitars, but there was always a little bit of tension every time you listened to the actual drums.

Going through the first few years of their career, John Kiffmeyer tended to be the Achilles heel of the group every time they played live, sounding way too frantic behind the drum kit and never settling into the kind of groove that Billie Joe was working with at the time. Since pop punk didn't really have a name yet, John seemed to approach songs on their debut 39 Smooth from a more hardcore punk standpoint, which tends to get really sloppy on the pop friendly tracks like At the Library and I Was There.

Although John actually worked as the band's de facto manager at the time, his decision to step out of the band to go to college may have been a blessing in disguise, with the band grabbing Tre Cool from fellow punk rock band the Lookouts, who was much more about serving the song than just getting all of his pent up aggression throughout the course of a song. There might not have been anything inherently wrong with John, but we would have had a much bigger problem if he decided to stay for Kerplunk.