Nothing Musical About Them: 10 Fights Between Musicians

The music history is filled with instances of a lot of fights. Here are the strangest ones.

Queen versus Vanilla Ice

Vanilla Ice picked the bass line from Queen’s song, “Under Pressure,” and denied it to avoid royalties. Eventually, he lost the lawsuit. 

The Dixie Chicks and A Chunk of America

In 2003, Natalie Mains from the band commented publicly about not supporting the war in Afganistan. Most radio stations in the United States blacklisted their music afterward. 

Madonna and Elton John 

A dispute that lives on till today, in 2002, Elton John commented that the theme song for “Die Another Day” by Madonna was “the worst ‘Bond’ tune ever.”

Miley Cyrus and Sinead O’Connor

A feud for years in tweets and open letters started with Cyrus mentioning that an O’Connor song inspired her.

Tchaikovsky and Half of Russia

The Five repeatedly condemned Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky for following the traditional Western European Style. 

Courtney Love and Dave Grohl 

The duo started publicly speaking against each other during the heydays of Nirvana. Eventually, it went to court over the rights to Nirvana songs that had yet to be released.

Kurt Cobain and Axl Rose

A public war of words ensued when Kurt Cobain refused an invite from Axl Rose. Both the bands even fought verbally backstage, and the fight ended only with the death of Kurt Cobain.

Justin Bieber and Patrick Carney

A war of tweets between the two began when Patrick Carney tweeted about Bieber’s Grammy win. 

John Fogerty against Himself

In this bizarre copyright case, the artist’s former record label sued him for creating a composition that sounded like an older one. John Fogerty proved his case by playing them live in court. 

Band Members of Mayhem 

When the death metal singer “Dead” killed himself, his band member Øystein “Euronymous” Aarseth took it to the press for attention. Another member disliked the idea and ended up stabbing Euronymous to death.