10 Musicians That Got Fired From Huge Bands

When we talk about bands that had to fire members, usually it comes down to a personality clash. Not every act is meant to be a band of brothers, and sometimes you have those certain personalities that can turn toxic in the wrong situations. Pink Floyd were a band of brothers in the beginnings, and one of those brothers ended up burning out way too fast.

Though we normally associate Floyd with David Gilmour and Roger Waters, the original incarnation of the band had Syd Barrett at the helm, bringing together weird psychedelic sounds that fit perfectly in the world of '60s London. As he started to take to the road, Syd started a downward spiral with his mental health, often struggling to pay attention and not even being able to hold his guitar pick correctly during some rehearsals. While Gilmour was brought in as a second guitar player during A Saucerful of Secrets, they had to make the decision to dismiss Syd, thinking that a life on the road would ultimately kill him.

That doesn't mean Syd's presence ever left the rest of the band, as their classic records would be defined by his absence, from the dissection of lunacy in Dark Side of the Moon to the full on tribute album to their ill bandmate on Wish You Were Here. It might be easy to ignore Syd Barrett as a band member on paper, but if he hadn't been a part of Floyd in the beginning, chance are the shape of rock history would look a lot different.