The Rockstar Feuds That Headlined 2021

Last year, big names in the rock scene have headlined about their feuds inside their circle. Bands versus bands, a member versus other members, bands versus the people, and artists versus religion. Take a look at the list of these rock stars below,

 

Gene Simmons vs. David Lee Roth

It all started when KISS singer-bassist Gene Simmons was asked why former Van Halen singer David Lee Roth is no longer supporting KISS on their End Of The Road Tour and he answered, “He was the ultimate frontman,” and continued “And then, I don’t know what happened to him … something. And you get modern-day Dave. I prefer to remember Elvis Presley in his prime. Sneering lips, back in Memphis, you know, doing all that. I don’t want to think of bloated naked Elvis on the bathroom floor.” Roth responded to this comments by uploading on Instagram black-and-white images of a child wearing sunglasses and extending his middle finger, along with the caption “Roth to Simmons.” for 18 times. But Simmons apologized later on in an interview and admitted to hurting Roth’s feeling with his comments.

Paul McCartney vs. Rolling Stones

A long history of feud has been going on with these two iconic bands even though they kept insisting that it doesn’t exist. The most recent thing that got between them is when Paul McCartney was doing an interview published by The New Yorker, he commented about the Stones saying, “I’m not sure I should say it, but they’re a blues cover band, that’s sort of what the Stones are. I think our net was cast a bit wider than theirs.” Which Mick Jagger jokingly responded to during a sold out concert in Los Angeles saying, “Megan Fox is here, she’s lovely,” Jagger said. “Leonardo DiCaprio. Lady Gaga. Kirk Douglas. Paul McCartney is here, he’s going to join us in a blues cover later.” Well, it’s safe to say that Jagger wanted the world to know that he heard McCartney’s statement.

 

Roger Daltrey vs. Rolling Stones

Another comment about the Stones was made by another iconic singer. The Who’s Roger Daltrey was speaking to the Coda Collection, when asked about some of the other rock bands who rose to fame around the same time as The Who, such as the Stones and Led Zeppelin, he said, “You can not take away the fact that Mick Jagger is still the number one rock ’n’ roll showman up front. But as a band, if you were outside a pub and you heard that music coming out of a pub some night, you’d think, ‘Well, that’s a mediocre pub band!’” but unlike with McCartney’s statement, the Stones didn’t respond to Daltrey at all.

 

Johnny Rotten vs. Sex Pistols

Sex Pistols frontman John Lydon, better known as his alter ego Johnny Rotten, has broken his silence over losing a recent court case against the use of the band’s music in upcoming FX series ‘Pistol’ calling it “the most disrespectful shit I’ve ever had to endure.” Rotten lost his legal battle against bandmates Steve Jones, the group’s guitarist, and drummer Paul Cook over a contract setting out the agreement to license their music. In the end, Jones and Cook won and their music is now going to be used for the upcoming biographical drama miniseries based on Lonely Boy: Tales from a Sex Pistol despite Rotten’s disagreement. “This became Walt Disney money vs. me. Who do you think’s gonna win?” said Rotten.

 

Elton John vs. the Catholic Church

Elton John calls out Vatican for refusing to bless same-sex unions but investing more than a million euros on the Oscar-winning film “Rocketman” — a biopic based on John, who is openly gay and married to producer David Furnish. He posted side-by-side photos of both news reports, and tweeted ​“How can the Vatican refuse to bless gay marriages because they ‘are sin’, yet happily make a profit from investing millions in ‘Rocketman’ — a film which celebrates my finding happiness from my marriage to David?? #hypocrisy,” tagging the Vatican News and Pope Francis.

 

Roger Waters vs. David Gilmour

Roger Waters tweeted that he was banned by Pink Floyd bandmate David Gilmour from posting on Pink Floyd’s Facebook page with its 30,000,000 subscribers, so he posted his statements on his website instead. He accused Gilmour of taking more credit than what he is due, and delaying the reissue of the remixed 1977 album Animals. On his post he said, “What precipitated this note is that there are new James Guthrie Stereo and 5.1 mixes of the Pink Floyd album ‘Animals,’ 1977. These mixes have languished unreleased because of a dispute over some sleeve notes that Mark Blake has written for this new release. Gilmour has vetoed the release of the album unless these liner notes are removed. He does not dispute the veracity of the history described in Mark’s notes, but he wants that history to remain secret.” and continues, “This is a small part of an ongoing campaign by the Gilmour [and his wife, Polly] Samson camp to claim more credit for Dave on the work he did in Pink Floyd, 1967-1985, than is his due. Yes he was, and is, a jolly good guitarist and singer. But, he has for the last 35 years told a lot of whopping porky pies about who did what in Pink Floyd when I was still in charge. There’s a lot of ‘we did this’ and ‘we did that,’ and ‘I did this’ and ‘I did that.’”

 

Iron Maiden-Loving Principal vs. School Parents

A Canadian high school principal made global headlines after exposing herself as an Iron Maiden fan kept her job despite “concerned parents” calling for her removal. Sharon Burns, principal of Eden High School in St. Catherines, Ontario was criticized for “her allegiance to Satanic practices” after sharing two images on social media, one of which showed her posing in-front of an Iron Maiden banner and license plate whilst throwing a ‘horns up’ gesture, and the other featuring a figure of the band’s mascot, Eddie, sitting alongside a handwritten note saying “Eddie 666” inside a love heart. A group of parents started a Change.org petition to transfer Burns to another school. But they only got 500 signatures and a counter-petition on Change.org, titled “We Need Mrs. Burns” has received more than 12,000 signatures, as it cites the positive impact that the principal has made on the high school.

 

Lindsey Buckingham vs. Stevie Nicks

Lindsey Buckingham had been fired from Fleetwood Mac as announced in 2018 but months after his departure, Buckingham claimed he didn’t receive the news from his bandmates, but, instead, manager Irving Azoff told him, “Stevie never wants to be on a stage with you again.” After more than three years later, Stevie Nicks has made her first public statement about it to Rolling Stone saying, “It’s unfortunate that Lindsey has chosen to tell a revisionist history of what transpired in 2018 with Fleetwood Mac,” and added, “His version of events is factually inaccurate, and while I’ve never spoken publicly on the matter, preferring to not air dirty laundry, certainly it feels the time has come to shine a light on the truth. I could publicly reflect on the many reasons why, and perhaps I will do that someday in a memoir, but suffice it to say we could start in 1968 and work up to 2018 with a litany of very precise reasons why I will not work with him.” In 1970’s the pair were very much in love but in the past decades headlines about them have been riddled with words like “feud” and “grudge”.

 

Sammy Hagar vs. David Lee Roth

During an interview, Hagar had some pointed words regarding David Lee Roth saying that Roth’s voice “hasn’t aged well” and accused his predecessor of “pretending” with his “totally bullshit” stage persona. He also added, “The difference between him and I [is] I sincerely care,” and continued, “What is important to me is enlightening and elevating people spiritually and making them happy and making them have big dreams, making them want to be better themselves. And my goal with everything I do is to bring that to people and change their life, if I can. I don’t think Roth cares about anything like that. And that’s the difference between our presence. He’s very much into himself, very much into being a showman and doesn’t really care. I don’t know what he cares about, I really don’t.”

 

Sebastian Bach vs. Skid Row

Sebastian Bach who began fronting Skid Row in 1987, insisted he’d be open to a reunion but expressed frustration that his former bandmates remain unwilling. He said during an interview, “When those guys [in Skid Row] try to say, ‘He’s difficult to work with,’ let me just say this one more time: We have not been in the same room together since the year 1996,” and added, “Shut the eff up about you thinking you know what I’m like. You don’t know anything about what I’m like.” Bach continued, “The fact that we are all still alive and we are all in our 50s — some closer to 60 than others — but that, to me, is selfish that we’re not together.”