It doesn’t matter what your line of work is; most people have experienced the highs and lows of getting fired. It’s no different for musicians in metal bands. Let’s take a gander at a few metal musicians who got fired from their own bands and where they ended up.
Videos by American Songwriter
1. Chance Garnette
Skeletonwitch was a pretty niche band in the metal world and is still around today. Back in the day, their original singer was their guitarist Nate Garnette’s brother, Chance Garnette. Garnette sang for the band through five albums until things started to get rough.
Garnette was allegedly abusive and had a drinking problem, so he had to go. He entered treatment for alcohol abuse almost a decade ago, and there isn’t much info on his activities since getting the boot.
2. Joey Belladonna
Anthrax’s Joey Belladonna was reported to have quit the band back in 1992. However, Belladonna went on record to say he was actually fired. It’s not abundantly clear exactly why he got fired, either. He reunited with the band for some work in 2005, but subsequently got fired by Anthrax again. He allegedly found out he was fired by seeing a headline on the internet.
Today, it doesn’t look like the rocker is up to much, though he was invited back to Anthrax and is still listed as a current member.
3. Chuck Mosley
Faith No Nore struggled to keep a vocalist in the first decade of the band’s existence, cycling through around five different singers. Today, Mike Patton is the vocalist most would connect with Faith No More, considering he’s been featured on the majority of their records. However, Chuck Mosley was another notable singer for the band.
Mosley was the vocalist for Introduce Yourself, which catapulted the band to fame. Things then began to get messy, he started fighting with the rest of the band and fell asleep on stage. Naturally, he got the boot. Mosley went on to sing for Bad Brains, Cement, and a few other projects. He had a brief live reunion with Faith No More in 2010. Mosley passed away in 2017.
4. Paul Di’Anno
Paul Di’Anno making this list of metal musicians who got fired from their bands was inevitable. Iron Maiden has been around for six decades and counting, so naturally, someone at some point was likely to leave or get fired. Di’Anno sang for two albums, but his drug habit started to get in the way of the band’s goals. He got the boot and was replaced with Bruce Dickinson.
Di’Anno had a fairly short solo career afterward, though he did play a live show in 2023 and announced an upcoming solo album set for 2024.
Photo by Alexandre Schneider
When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.
