3 of the Most Mind-Boggling Business Decisions in the History of Rock Music

Just because a rock star (or band) is talented, doesn’t automatically mean they are good at making business decisions. Quite a few legendary rock stars through the years made terrible decisions about who they worked with and what companies they associated with. Let’s take a look at just a few instances of the most head-scratching decisions ever made in rock music history. This list isn’t exhaustive, by the way!

1. The Rolling Stones Hiring Hell’s Angels in 1969

This decision proved deadly, though who knows what the alternative would have been? Back in 1969, The Rolling Stones hit the stage at the Altamont Speedway for a free concert. Over 300,000 people were in attendance.

Sadly, the event isn’t known for the Stones’ rockin’ tunes. Multiple deaths occurred at the concert. Two were from a nearby car accident, one was from accidental drowning in an irrigation canal, and one was a straight-up murder. 

Meredith Hunter was a concertgoer who had approached the stage during the band’s performance. However, the Stones opted to hire Hell’s Angels as their security. They prevented Hunter from getting too close, and he was then stabbed and beaten to death after allegedly flashing a revolver. One can’t help but wonder what would have happened if security professionals who were better-suited for de-escalation were hired over a motorcycle gang.

2. The Beatles Hiring Allen Klein

Some might argue that this isn’t one of the dumbest decisions in rock music. However, it’s very hard to agree with that. 

When Brian Epstein passed away, The Beatles went on a downward spiral. They decided that they couldn’t manage themselves and hired one Allen Klein, who is still considered one of the crappiest dudes in music industry history.

Klein was hired to manage the band (much to the annoyance of Paul McCartney) and he furthered the distance between each of the band members with his bottom-line goals and business deals that didn’t actually benefit the well-being of the Fab Four at all. Without Klein’s involvement, one can’t help but wonder if The Beatles would have made more albums later on in their careers after taking a breather.

3. U2 Working With Apple in the 2010s

To a degree, we feel bad for U2. They were ready to release Songs Of Innocence in 2014, and what better company to work with than the massive organization behind the then-popular iTunes?

Unfortunately, the partnership ended up being one of the dumbest decisions in rock music. Apple forced the new album into the libraries of thousands of iTunes users upon its release. They didn’t anticipate that most people would not love being force-fed music they didn’t choose to include in their library. Plus, it was a huge pain to delete the album after the fact. U2 survived the ordeal, but a lot of fans lost respect for them in the process.

Photo by C. Maher/Daily Express/Hulton Archive/Getty Images

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