The rock and roll lifestyle is not for the faint of heart, but that hasn’t stopped gentler souls from trying. When the dissonance between who these musicians are on and offstage becomes too much to bear, they’ll often slink back into the shadows where they feel most comfortable.
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Indeed, even a musical world made for outsiders, rebels, and freaks can become a claustrophobic, oppressive, money-making machine — the very thing many of these rock and rollers set out to fight in the first place.
Consequently, these founding members of some of rock’s most iconic bands walked away on the ascent (or the height of) their fame.
Meg White
The namesake and founding half of the Detroit-born alternative rock band The White Stripes, Meg White, was the woman behind the driving drums on “Seven Nation Army,” “Icky Thump,” and “Jimmy the Exploder.” But if you were lucky enough to talk to the reclusive musician offstage, you’d find an individual far more reserved than her band’s music would suggest.
As The White Stripes transformed from an underground garage band to international celebrities, the fame began taking its toll on the shy, quiet drummer. Just before a July performance on the band’s 2007 ‘Icky Thump’ tour, Meg admitted to the White Stripes’ archivist Ben Blackwell that she believed she was about to play the band’s final show. Her anxiety had become too great. She was ready to leave the spotlight once and for all.
In 2011, the band released a statement on their website announcing their split. The two-piece said their decision was not based on artistic differences or health issues but out of respect for the music they created. Three years later, Jack spoke to Rolling Stone about his former drummer. “I don’t think anyone talks to Meg. She’s always been a hermit. When we lived in Detroit, I’d have to drive over to her house if I wanted to talk to her. So now, it’s almost never.”
Captain Beefheart
While some music seems to achieve overnight success and acclaim, other music needs time to steep. Such was the case for Captain Beefheart, whose 10+ albums never achieved commercial success in his time but later served as invaluable inspiration for future artists like Kurt Cobain and Jack White. Beefheart, born Don Glen Vilet, was an eccentric, groundbreaking artist who left the music industry before his prowess was fully recognized.
Captain Beefheart and the Magic Band, a rotating lineup of musicians, many of whom would go on to achieve solo success, explored the musically avant-garde. However, no blend of blues, psychedelia, or rock and roll proved successful enough to propel them into the mainstream. After struggling with drug-induced mental episodes and an inability to keep band members due to his infamous temper, Captain Beefheart left the music industry for good.
Van Vilet returned to his first love of visual art, creating abstract paintings that matched his equally offbeat music. “He had been quite screwed by the music business,” gallery manager Gordon VeneKlasen recalled to the Guardian in 2023. “So, he kind of decided that the music business had not been very nice to him anyway and decided to give it up completely and just become a painter. He was not a bitter man, but he was bitter about the music industry for sure.”
Syd Barrett
Syd Barrett’s LSD-fueled artistic visions would lay the groundwork for British psych-rock band Pink Floyd. But they would also lead to Barrett’s removal from the group in the late 1960s, several years before they reached international stardom with their 1973 album ‘Dark Side of the Moon.’ As the founding member, Barrett encouraged the group to pursue their signature, drawn-out sound that starkly contrasted the regurgitated rock and blues of their time.
Still, not even Barrett’s creative genius could save him from himself. His extensive drug use and declining mental health began seeping into live performances, interviews, and general interactions with his bandmates. In 1968, three years after Barrett formed the band, his bandmates kicked him out. David Gilmour, Barrett’s friend and schoolmate, replaced him. Barrett continued to pursue a less successful solo career, but the same issues that led to his departure from Pink Floyd eventually started to affect his other artistic endeavors as well.
“He wasn’t capable or willing to do what was needed,” Gilmour told Mojo.”When you’re young and ambitious, you’re also pretty callous, and we just got on with it. One’s desire for survival in that field outweighs other considerations. Obviously, we were wracked with guilt about it later on. Roger and I did work on producing a solo album for Syd. Rick and I worked on producing the next one. So, we clearly did feel that we owed him something.”
Photo by Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images
