10 Bands That Broke Up For Bizarre Reasons

It’s been said before and it’ll surely be said again; getting to the top of the mountain in music is easy, staying there is the true test. While some bands have endured the perilous terrain of the industry through thick and thin, others have found themselves on thinner ice than they were comfortable with. In many instances, these touchy times saw members turn on one another, causing the band to implode and disappear from stardom.

In most cases, bands will fall out over serious issues such as royalty distribution, creative differences, politics, or even criminal charges. But why let something as trivial as money be the downfall of your band when there are so many more exotic options available? Say goodbye to falling out over royalties and hello to dissolving your group because a bandmate stood on your birthday cake. Why suffer with perilous and endless substance abuse in your band when you could simply split up the first time somebody shows up drunk? And what better reason to go on hiatus than to avoid the Apocalypse?

All these phenomenal reasons for bands splitting up and more are being placed under the music microscope for this article, as the spotlight is on some of the weirdest reasons bands have decided to split up.

For decades, rock music has held a love/hate relationship with alcohol. Some bands such as Motorhead and Metallica were renowned for their consumption, while other acts like Minor Threat earned notoriety for their outright rejection of it. Either way, there is no denying that alcohol has changed rock music and, as The Everly Brothers discovered, these changes weren’t always positive.

As the first of two duos to feature in this article, The Everly Brothers formed in 1956 and found commercial success almost immediately. The brothers' second single, ‘Bye Bye Love’, became an international superhit in 1957, topping the chart in the US while also reaching the top ten in Canada and the UK. Within 12 months, they had scored further chart success with ‘Wake Up Little Susie’ and ‘All I Have to Do Is Dream’. 

However, commercial success began to falter in the late-'60s when their record deal expired and they released a live record to a lukewarm reception. Underlying tensions between the brothers became apparent in light of their slow decline, and everything imploded in 1973. The siblings had already agreed to break up after a two-night show at Knotts Berry Farm, California, but they never made it to the second night. During the first night, Don Everly was visibly drunk and forgot the lyrics to several songs. Frustrated, Phil smashed his guitar and stormed off stage, leaving Don to perform as a solo act on night two. The duo wouldn’t perform together again until 1983.