10 Messiest Band Splits In Rock Music History
6. Van Halen
If you have to make a pecking order for every single member of a band, the frontman is typically the most important. Since this is the guy who operates like the mouthpiece of the entire group, you need to make sure you have someone that radiates charisma and the fun loving attitude that you're hoping for. Just don't make sure that he gets on your bad side any time soon.
Once Van Halen reached 1984, they were gods among men in the rock industry, having some of the biggest hits in the world that crossed genre boundaries. On the inside though, they were absolutely crumbling, with Eddie Van Halen putting his foot down about using keyboards and getting nothing but animosity from David Lee Roth. By the time that the tour wrapped up though, that's when the battle lines were drawn.
Even though it would have been one thing for the band to just part ways with Roth, the tabloids had other plans, with DLR explaining that the title of his debut solo album Eat Em and Smile was about eating scum like Eddie and Alex for breakfast. They might have recovered with Sammy Hagar, but Dave was not yet done, saying that it must suck for Hagar to have to sing a song like Jump every single night of his life. Since this is the band that gave birth to the hair metal movement, this is the equivalent to seeing your parents fight when you're a kid.