REWIND: With Hall vs. Oates in the news, 4 other bands that hate each other

Hall & Oates, Daryl Hall, John Oates, Hall and Oates

Hall & Oates (Daryl Hall and John Oates) perform at the OMNI Coliseum in Atlanta on Dec. 14, 1980. Photo by Rick Diamond/Getty Images.

In case you missed it due to travel or Thanksgiving preparations, Hall got a restraining order against Oates.

Per the AP, John Oates wanted to sell his stake in their joint company Whole Oats LLP (I see what they did there) which owns their songs’ publication rights. Daryl Hall does not want that, says it breaks their business agreement and sued. A judge agreed, halting the sale until he can hear the case.

While this was shocking, and makes for some good headline wordplay, it’s just the latest in a long history of bandmates hating each other. Like who? I’m glad you asked.



Oasis — “D’You Know What I Mean?”

If anyone’s shocked by this one, I’m glad I get to be the one to introduce you to the music of Oasis. They were very good but brothers Noel and Liam Gallagher absolutely hate each other. The pressures of touring and stardom tore them apart, but by both their accounts they’ve hated each other pretty much since Liam was born. It did not improve, with Noel quitting the band during their very first U.S. tour after Liam hit him in the face with a tambourine during a show while both were high on meth.

Just a year later, in 1995, a recording of an interview was released where they just bicker for like 15 minutes. During their “MTV Unplugged” episode, Liam dropped out due to laryngitis but spent the whole show heckling his brother from the balcony, then refused to go on the American tour. Noel quit the band again in 2000 after Liam said his daughter was illegitimate, then in 2005 said Liam is terrified of him. The band finally broke up in 2009 when Noel quit the for a third time.

I actually left out most of the story but I have four more entries to go through. Trust me: They are not a happy, well-adjusted family. Also, “D’You Know What I Mean” is their best song. Fight me.



The Everly Brothers — “Bye Bye Love”

Phil and Don Everly, the brothers behind this and other late ’50s and early ’60s hits, were the original Oasis. They sang in harmonies, they were ludicrously famous in their time, and they really didn’t like each other at all. They managed to last from 1951 to 1973 before they broke up when Don showed up drunk to a show, though they later reunited for the money, which Oasis will probably never do.

What really sets them apart is that even after Phil died in 2014, they kept feuding. Don sued Phil’s estate in 2017 over who wrote their 1960 song “Cathy’s Clown,” which you’ve almost definitely never heard. That’s dedication. If I remember correctly, the suit was still going through the court system when Don Everly died in 2021, but if anyone’s gonna keep fighting, even after they’re both dead, it’s the Everly brothers.


Fleetwood Mac — “The Chain”

This one is my favorite because it’s not just a couple members of the band feuding; it’s pretty much the entire band, its techs and staff.

It started when the band had Lindsey Buckingham, Mick Fleetwood, Christine McVie, John McVie and Stevie Nicks. John and Christine McVie had just divorced after eight years and weren’t speaking to each other. Buckingham and Nicks had recently broken up and fought constantly. Fleetwood had just found out his wife was cheating on him with his best friend. The most surprising part is that Fleetwood’s wife and friend weren’t also in the band.

Not only that, but everyone in the band wrote songs, and since they’d all just broken up, they all wrote breakup songs about each other. For example, Buckingham wrote “Never Going Back Again” about Nicks—and Nicks had to sing it on the album. Christine McVie wrote “You Make Loving Fun” about her new boyfriend, the band’s lighting director Curry Grant—before the divorce from her bandmate was finalized, mind you—and John played bass on the song. It was a disaster.

The result was one of the greatest albums of all time.



The Ramones — “Sheena Is a Punk Rocker”

The Ramones weren’t quite as destructive as the various sets of brothers, and the rivalry wasn’t quite as ubiquitous as with Fleetwood Mac, but they’re included because of a weird fact most people don’t know or believe: Johnny Ramone was a far-right Republican.

That’s right. One of the founders of the Ramones, symbols of teenage rebellion and pioneers of punk rock, was a staunch conservative. In 2002, his speech for the band’s Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ended with “God bless President Bush and God bless America.” He wanted the name of the song “Bonzo Goes to Bitburg” changed because he found it insulting to Ronald Reagan, whom he thought was the best president of all time.

Joey Ramone, however, was as liberal as you’d expect a counterculture icon to be. As you can imagine, there was some friction.

That said, the major source of animosity was in 1984 when Johnny stole Joey’s girlfriend after he found out they’d gone shopping for engagement rings. Johnny and Joey’s ex eventually got married! The two pretty much never spoke for the rest of their lives, even though the band kept going until 1996.


KISS — “Detroit Rock City”

We end with one that doesn’t make a whole lot of sense.

In Paul Stanley’s memoir, he wrote that bandmates Ace Frehley and Peter Criss were virulently antisemitic. This is a disturbing allegation since antisemitism is terrible, but it’s also confusing because the other half of the band, Stanley and Gene Simmons, are Jewish. It’s a weird choice of bandmates for a couple guys who presumably think Hitler had some good ideas!

That said, the arrangement didn’t last forever; KISS is on its final tour, with their last-ever concert one week from today at Madison Square Garden, and Frehley and Criss have refused to participate at all to this point.



Follow publisher Daniel J. Willis and send column ideas to him at @bayareadata.press on BlueSky. (He has some invites if you ask nicely).

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