10 Musicians That Got Fired From Huge Bands

The rise of the Beatles in the early '60s is the kind of magical luck that will probably never be seen again in pop music. Even though they may have just been the hottest skiffle group on Merseyside at the time, their manager Brian Epstein saw the potential hidden behind everything and finally found them time in Abbey Road Studios working alongside George Martin. The band seemed to have everything lined up for superstardom, until they actually had to hit PLAY for the recording.

After a few sessions, Martin called the band in saying that he wasn't happy with Pete Best's capabilities as a drummer, thinking that he wasn't really cut out for the songs. Although the initial plan was to hire a session drummer, the rest of the guys didn't want to lose the camaraderie, drafting in Ringo Starr from fellow Liverpool act Rory Storm and the Hurricanes, and ditching Pete. While the band had worked with Ringo before, they were not prepared for the backlash back home, with George Harrison even getting into a fist fight and sporting a black eye when they went into record with Ringo.

None of the Beatles can actually say they did the deed though, with Brian Epstein doing the dirty work and even getting a call midway through firing Pete from Paul McCartney to make sure that he had fired him. Pete may have missed out on some of the biggest accolades known to man, but even being a footnote in the story of the Beatles is more than most musicians do in their lifetime.