10 Hard Rock Bands Who FIRED Important Members
7. Rush - John Rutsey
For any band that's known as a trio, replacing any one member is going to mess up the formula on principle.
Since there's only three of you guys on stage, how are you supposed to sound the same when you have a completely new person working with you? Although John Rutsey wasn't necessarily a bad drummer by any means, Rush letting him go led to one of the greatest tradeups in rock history.
It's not like Alex Lifeson and Geddy Lee wanted Rutsey to leave...it was just a conflict of interest. As they started to branch out musically, Lifeson and Lee's interest in bands like King Crimson and Genesis weren't gelling with Rutsey's style anymore, who wanted the band to focus on the tried and true rock bands like Bad Company and Cream.
What really broke the band up though was the physical toll that John's body was taking on the road. Being diagnosed with juvenile diabetes, the tour manager was the one who needed to read them the riot act. Either John had to be let go or he was probably going to be brought back from the tour in a box.
Despite being heartbroken to leave their friend behind, Rush's rebirth with Neil Peart changed the course of prog rock forever, ushering in more ambitious concepts for the group.
Rush's early days were still great, they just needed to lose some of the dead weight though.