10 Musicians That Got Fired From Huge Bands

For a few years in the early '70s, there was a good chance that we were never going to see the classic Van Halen lineup come to fruition. As much as Eddie and Alex may have worked well bouncing off each other, they started off as enemies with David Lee Roth, who was in a rival band that they were splitting their PA with. When they actually got Diamond Dave behind the mic though, it was time to let go of some dead weight on the bottom end.

Being a longtime friend of the Van Halens at school, Mark Stone was originally a much more straight ahead bass player for the band, always holding down the low end and making sure to balance out the sound between Eddie and Alex. As time went on though, he kept forgetting different parts when it came to play live with them, not having the same kind of drive that the rest of the band did to become global superstars.

If you ask Mark, he had said that he left to focus on his time at school, but the Van Halens have also made mention that Mark was a stoner kid who was more interested in building LSD molecules in class than actually paying attention. After seeing a performance of a local band named Snake, they found Michael Anthony, with a driving bass and a high vocal that perfectly complimented Dave's singing. Mike has said that he was just trying to keep up with the rest of the band, but they were already hitting on something magical.