10 Musicians That Got Fired From Huge Bands

There aren't too many people in the rock world that would be so bitter as to pick a fight with Tom Petty. For all of his heartland rock aesthetics, Tom had been the leader of all things rock and roll up until his death, standing up for what's right in the music world and always looking out for the underdogs of the genre. The name of the band was always Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers though, and that never really sat well with Stan Lynch.

While tensions had been high with Stan ever since the days of Damn the Torpedoes, things weren't much better once Petty decided to spread his wings as a solo artist, with Stan wanting no part of the album Full Moon Fever because there were a few songs on there that he didn't really fit in with. Since Full Moon Fever was the model for Petty's career going forward, Stan didn't really feel like contributing to the album process, saying that he didn't like any of the songs on Wildflowers and feeling like he was playing in a cover band every time he got up on stage.

The whole ordeal reached a head when the band was going to play at The Viper Room in California, with Stan coming in an hour before the show started and mentioning to someone outside the band that the Heartbreakers weren't his main gig anymore. By the time Tom's manager had to make that fateful call, the writing was already on the wall, with Stan asking if he was fired just as some sort of relief. Though one chapter of the Heartbreakers' story was closed that day, the addition of Steve Ferrone gave the band a sense of peace they hadn't had for a long time.