Music careers get off track all the time. They can usually be saved, but there are times when bad decisions leave irreparable marks on a band’s trajectory. The three rock bands below all made controversial decisions that left dark spots on their legacies. These bands are still iconic, but their choices left them at career crossroads.
Videos by American Songwriter
Kiss Meets the Phantom of the Park – KISS
Shock rock is usually attributed to bands that live on the darker edges of the genre. The word “shock” ultimately denotes something dangerous and controversial. KISS, though they may have started that way, made many decisions over the course of their career that distanced them from their “shock rock” roots. These decisions earned them massive amounts of mainstream fame, and yet lost them some of the more serious sides of their fandom.
One such decision that pushed them out of the shock rock category was their 1978 feature film, Kiss Meets the Phantom of the Park. This project has been resigned to cult status—a favorite of those who enjoy sub-par acting and cheesy scripts for what they are. No one was exactly lining up to give KISS their flowers when it came to this film, ultimately pushing them into a more theatrical space that their shock-rock peers wouldn’t have dared tread.
Spilled Milk Breakup – Aerosmith
In 1979, Aerosmith’s Joe Perry and Steven Tyler fought, quite literally, over spilled milk. Their backstage beverage-fueled fight moved Perry to jump ship.
As the story goes, Perry decided to walk away from the band when his wife, Elyssa, chucked milk all around the dressing room. By this time, the guitarist’s personal tensions with the group were mounting. This small but consequential fight moved him to leave the band for a period. Aerosmith’s Perry-less period wasn’t their strongest era. Though their legacy is still very much intact, it’s hard not to wager they would’ve had an even stronger run if this fight had never broken out and Perry hadn’t made the controversial decision to leave.
Allen Klein – The Beatles
Many things broke up the Beatles. There are punchlines and endless documentaries about it. But the one person most people agree was a misstep for the band was their late-stage manager, Allen Klein.
Paul McCartney opposed Klein’s hiring. The rest of the band got on board, only to regret it later when they realized he was robbing them of their royalties. Overarchingly, Klein was an undispitably corrupt businessman. Though the band had one foot in the grave already, Klein’s hiring caused an irreparable rift that made any reconciliation a hard-won task.
(Photo by Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images)
Leave a Reply
Only members can comment. Become a member. Already a member? Log in.