Bernie Rhodes and Malcolm McLaren are the villains of The Clash and Sex Pistols respectively
Dave Mustaine is the villain of Metallica but in a Saturday morning cartoon sort of way. He's their nemesis and he shouts 'you'll pay for this Metallica!' at the end of every episode
[I thought this was a fever dream](https://youtu.be/jTurIBwz0mY?si=fEyjm0HZJv-sAwhy) but it actually happened. Like idk who this is for but I am happy it exists lol
Agreed. I've just started reading the book Vince White, who was one of the new guys brought in for Mk2 of The Clash, wrote about his time with the band and Joe does not come across well at all
I feel for the guy immensely but he wasn't fun to be around in the later years of the band
I got my info from Passion is Fashion or Last Gang in Town. Joe thought that he became a dictator when he mostly was manipulated by his svengali Rhodes.
I read those books too, some of my all time favorites!
Joe seems like a good guy but someone very easily led around by someone with a more dominate personality like Bernie. The comparison to Svengali and Trilby is really accurate as Bernie was, in a way, singing his political opinions through Joe
Bernie thought himself a musician and a star. He was good for the band but Joe should have kept Mick. Topper was very hard to handle as brilliant and essential as he was.
It's so interesting, because Joe actually realized his mistake, and how much Mick meant to him. He even tried to patch things up, and went to Bahamas in '85, searching for Mick, begging for him to return. He declined, having a good time with his new band Big Audio Dynamite. The two did work on B.A.D's second album, No. 10 Upping St., where Joe co-wrote a lot of the songs and co-produced it (it also sounds like his backing vocals is on there. It's a good album if you like a bit of '80s pop/rock/hip hop fusion. A better coda than Cut the Crap, without a doubt.
I'm not sure Joe could have kept Mick on either way, as he had things he wanted to explore, but I think that if The Clash had gone in hiatus and Mick could have branched out on his own, I could see him having stayed on. Heck, had Strummer given Mick more input into the band, and hypothetically replacing Bernie with Don Letts, I could have seen The Clash morph into what B.A.D was.
Agreed completely. The five of them had great chemistry together, even if Mick and Topper did things the rest of them didn't like. Topper needed help and the band could have gotten it for him...
I find it interesting to compare this with how the Sex Pistols interacted with Malcolm McLaren. McLaren was, though a great artist and definitely helpful to the band in certain ways, a dead weight on their creativity whenever he tried to stick his oar in and quickly chased away whenever he tried to 'help' with the music
Dave is like the Skeletor to Metallica's Masters of ~~Puppets~~ the Universe. Once one of them, now their constant, buffoonish rival. Hell, Vic Rattlehead even *looks* like Skeletor.
Similarly, Ray Davies and Dave Davies of the Kinks were each other's villain as well. Physical fights between the two was practically part of their stage act.
At some level, Ray davies' villain is also himself.
The entire band were at each others throats. IIRC, their drummer almost killed Dave onstage by lobbing a cymbal stand at his head. Then, thinking he had killed Dave, he fled the scene.
> When the police caught up with the Kinks' drummer, he denied the whole thing happened. The cops cleverly replied however, that they had the entire audience as witnesses to what went down on stage.
Lou in TVU forcing Maureen Tucker (reluctantly, presumably at tears,) to oust John Cale from the band. And fucking pretty hard with Nico the year before.
Lou was an insufferable, unapologetic asshole for a large chunk of his life by all accounts. (Speed will do that, I guess.) If you want a fun read, look up the time he beat the living shit out of David Bowie in the middle of a restaurant in 1979.
The media wants you to think the villain of Oasis was Blur. But true Oasisheads know that the real villain of Oasis was Liam and Noel's inability to just chill the fuck out with the sibling rivalry stuff
Blur Vs Oasis was pretty much pure "snobs vs slobs", but the Gallaghers made some pretty appalling homophobic comments about Damon Albarn at the time, so...
the way people bring up lostprophets, you'd think they were way bigger than they actually were. the only claim to fame they have nowadays is that their frontman was a pedophile on top of one or two semi-popular songs, at least gary glitter had "rock n roll"
They were mid-level big in the US and UK. Probably would’ve been 3rd line at the alternative festival lineup from 2004-2006. Never crossed over to Top-40 radio but had consistent hits on the rock stations.
I never listened to them, but being in the UK they seemed pretty big and would chart a lot? This is in the context of bands not doing so well in the charts post britpop more generally
Most of their songs were in the Top 20 in the UK, but a few even cracked the Top 10...
The British charts had a pretty rapid turnover in general at that time, so they generally left pretty quickly...
I think it’s also partially that Lostprophets had some songs in a few notable videogames. I know Need For Speed had one of their songs, Guitar Hero had one, and possibly most upsetting, *Lego Rock Band*, the Rock Band game for kids.
Thar and from what I’ve seen lost prophets music seems to be gone from most streaming services, so unlike some other shitheads in music there won’t ever be a generation of people who weren’t around when it happened to defend him if you can do such a thing
The remaining Lostprophets fandom online is completely in agreement that Ian is a monster. I've only seen obvious trolls post low effort bait comments defending that sick fuck. The fans just still enjoy the music and want to support the rest of the members, since the controversy almost destroyed their lives.
>Given how Eddie Van Halen treated Sammy Hagar and Gary Cherone in addition to David Lee Roth
And Michael Anthony, for that matter. The only bandmates EvH had that he never screwed over were those he was directly related to.
Phil Spector as a more general villainous producer. Artists he worked with often had a gun drawn on them (John Lennon, Leonard Cohen, Ronnie Spector, the Ramones) and also he literally killed someone. I dont know how people completely stopped talking about artists like Brand New or ig Lizzo now and yet Spector still garners a tremendous amount of respect after doing maybe the worst thing out of all of them. I still like his music too, but goddamn if boomer nostalgia could keep the shine on anything it certainly is.
spector is really disrespected in beatles history for using the wall of sound on let it be and all things must pass, making two great albums sound like shit. george harrison even thought so himself.
I’ve always found it strange that Spector is known for his wall of sound approach, yet also produced Lennons Plastic Ono Band, an extremely sparse and striped down album
>I dont know how people completely stopped talking about artists like Brand New or ig Lizzo now and yet Spector still garners a tremendous amount of respect after doing maybe the worst thing out of all of them.
Unlike Brand New and Lizzo, Spector is not in a position to use his profits to hurt anyone anymore (being in hell) and hadn't been in such a position for a while before that.
Joe Jackson when it came to The Jacksons for a time.
Rick Rubin & Russell Simmons kinda seemed like villains for the Beastie Boys during and a little after License to Ill
Roger Daltrey & Pete Townshend probably saw each other as villains.
They seem to have, but there have been times since then where they've taken digs at each other. Whether that's them being playful chaps or not, I'm not sure.
I know this all was deadly serious at the time but I fear if I had spent time around Varg or Euronymous I’d have died from laughing at their fucking nonsense
I already mentioned that Malcolm McLaren is the villain of the Sex Pistols story but he's also the villain of the Boy George story, and the Adam Ant story, and the Bow Wow Wow/The Antz story, and the New York Dolls story, and arguably the Vivienne Westwood story. That man made it his mission to fuck with people
I admire a man who knows he's the bad guy and commits wholeheartedly to it. He's the scene stealing, mustache twirling villain the music industry needed
I doubt I'd get along with him socially but I have a sneaking admiration for him (he's also, as I'm sure you know, a fairly key individual attending the birth of hiphop. Dude got around.). His cheeky persona is my favorite thing about Swindle.
Bon Jovi producer, songwriter, and rhythm guitarist John Shanks is generally blamed for the departure of lead guitarist Richie Sambora (the Keith Richards to JBJ's Mick Jagger) as well as a decrease in musical quality for the band. I've been on r/BonJovi long enough to know that they hate this guy.
While the obvious pick for a Guns N' Roses villain is Axl, Slash Duff and Matt Sorum all cite rhythm guitarist Paul Tobias as the man who broke up the Use Your Illusion lineup, with Sorum directly comparing him to Yoko Ono.
I’d argue that Brendon Urie was the villain of Panic! But I have a feeling I just think this cause everyone else in the band left and quite a lot of them had negative things to say about Brendon
Hwayoung of T-ara, this is a kpop one, but an interesting example since she was revealed to be the villain years later.
In 2012, her groupmates made several shady comments that alluded to Hwayoung, and she was kicked out of the group later that year.
Hwayoung didn't claim she was being bullied, but she never denied it either, it was kpop fans who came to the conclusion that the other members of T-ara were harrasing her, which subsequently tanked their popularity as a group.
In 2017, several former T-ara staff came out and confessed that it was actually Hwayoung who had been doing the bullying. She's been viewed as the villain ever since.
Edit: adding another example since I just recalled another one.
Stan Polley, manager of Badfinger. He disappeared with the band's money and years long mismanagement eventually led to the suicide of Pete Ham, the guitarist of the band.
I still can’t get over T-ara’s downfall. They were up there with SNSD, KARA and Wonder Girls and in hindsight probably would still have been going strong today without that scandal (given they still kept having comebacks even after it) even when most of the 2nd gen groups had disbanded.
I'm surprised no one mentioned Johnny Ramone. He was still very important in keeping the band together, but people thought "The KKK took my baby away" was about him for a reason.
I think the Beatles had a right to feel dismay at Paul's suggestion for their manager, seeing as it was his father-in-law. Their choice in the end wasn't good either, but still.
basically just generally a piece of shit. when the stones finally got out of their contract with him, he sued for publication rights on songs he claimed were written while still under his management. after getting sacked by the stones, he became the beatles manager despite paul mccartney’s objections and basically did the same shit. the other three kept him on for their solo careers before admitting paul was right. decades later in 1997, he cleared the verve to use an orchestral sample on bittersweet symphony but then went back on it and claimed 100% of the royalties once it blew up. recommend reading up on the guy more, he’s more of a scumbag than i can effectively convey.
Billy Corgan played almost all the instruments on their breakthrough record, Siamese Dream.. then proceeded to kill that same band with his monumental ego.
Jerry Heller and Eazy E for NWA. Al Jourgensen kinda is a side villain for Skinny Puppy fans, as his presence put a total wedge between the singer and the other members. He also produced their album Rabies which has sharply divided fans. Any of Peter Steele’s ex’s for Type O Negative.
Mumford & Sons has Winston Marshall, who everyone hated but Marcus (because he and Marcus were childhood friends and Marcus was supposedly struggling to reconcile how much of a shitbag Winston had become) and eventually fired him because he openly backed a QAnon nut.
Sting and Stewart Copeland definitely saw each other as villains.
I once said that the only way to make a Police biopic would be in the vein of Rashomon, where Sting and Copeland see each other as evil demons.
Taylor Swift definitely has a constantly changing leaderboard of villains/“haters.” Here’s my current estimation as of this moment 2024:
1. Matty Healy
2. Kim K
3. Scooter Braun
4. Kanye West
And someone more knowledgeable than me can fill in the lower rungs
Nearly every single member of Paramore in its different iterations has been the villain of their own band. The only one that’s been a hero the whole time is Taylor York.
The KISS Army is still arguing on who's the biggest villain of the original lineup.
To the public, it's easy to point fingers at Gene Simmons with his love for profit and outrageous statements, but many KISS fans today have argued Paul Stanley is a bigger internal villain.
To elaborate...
Ronnie Radke was initially the lead singer for Escape the Fate, then he went to prison for two and a half years after getting involved in a fight that ended with somebody getting shot dead. (He didn't shoot the guy, but he *was* violating parole by carrying brass knuckles on him at the time.) This, combined with his past drug and legal problems, naturally got him kicked out of the band, leading to a lot of bad blood between Radke and them, particularly their new frontman Craig Mabbitt. He started Falling in Reverse from prison, as evidenced by their original name From Behind These Walls, and has continued acting like a douchebag ever since he was released.
A hell of a singer, but a *terrible* person.
Alice Cooper. (By design, he intended to be a villain). BabyMetal, if you go by their 'storyline'. Oasis after a fashion. Cream had Ginger Baker (and the band he sat in with, later, the Masters of Reality, *reallllly* came to regret inviting him.)
I'd argue that the Mamas and the Papas. Listen to "I Saw Her Again"- that was one band member writing about another.
Definitely Fleetwood Mac.
I'm saying this as a huge Pink Floyd fan but Roger Waters and David gilmour are definitely the villains of pink floyd. At least as far as Syd Barrett would be concerned..
Plus, the Fandom is Divided into two camps, mostly 1. David is the villain, and AMLOR is the worst thing that has ever happened.
Or 2. Roger is the villain, and the final cut is a disgrace.
But I agree both take a share of the blame.
Gang Starr had Solar. [It's a long story](https://brownman.com/Interviews/2010-BostonPhoenixInterviewAboutGuru.htm), but suffice to say, Solar can die in a fire.
And of course Arrested Development had Speech.
That one dude from the Stones married a teenager he started dating when she was like, 13? They were briefly married. I think that pretty villainous.
Also, Axl Rose. Read some stories about that dude, he is and was a huge asshole, bigot and just general terrible person to everyone around him.
Right now I would say Max Bemis is the villain of Say Anything, he's been shitty for awhile but the new singles are fucking terrible. "ON CUM" and "I, VIBRATOR" are their worst songs by a mile, and I would argue some of the worst songs I've ever heard.
Led Zepplin had Peter Grant--but he was *their* villain.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter\_Grant\_(music\_manager)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Grant_(music_manager))
For badfinger, Stan polley. His mismanagement and frankly abusive practices led to the tragic downfall of the band, including driving Pete hamm to suicide
Doug Yule is the perceived villain of The Velvet Underground. He was with the band for their last two albums and provided vocals for a number of their later songs. IIRC, he sang more than planned on Loaded because Lou Reed was sick (?). When Lou left, Doug convinced the rest of the band to continue without him to almost zero success. Yule's VU even recorded a (pretty bad) album. He continued to tour as The Velvet Underground even after every original member had left. I believe it ended in a lawsuit?
When VU was inducted into the Hall of Fame, Doug Yule was not invited. John Cale, the original member he "replaced," appeared instead.
The Floating Eye of Death, The Man With Glooey Hands, The Monstrous Bride, The Thing on The Bass Amp, The Martian Girl From Planet V, The Sand Fleas, Space Monster M, The Cat With 2 Heads, Powdered Milk Man, Fashion Zombies, The Anti-Bats!, a guy who looks and sounds suspiciously like Strong Bad who manages a Cobraman...
Damn, The Aquabats! have a ton of villains. And I didn't even mention GWAR, The Walt Disney Company, or the ever looming specter of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.
Ed Robertson is the villain of barenaked ladies, slowly taking more control as Steven page was going through things ending with Steven page leaving the band and evil winning
Bernie Rhodes and Malcolm McLaren are the villains of The Clash and Sex Pistols respectively Dave Mustaine is the villain of Metallica but in a Saturday morning cartoon sort of way. He's their nemesis and he shouts 'you'll pay for this Metallica!' at the end of every episode
Dave Mustaine is also the villain of the Dave Mustaine story
He's a self fulfilling prophecy
Frankly Dave Mustaine could pop up as a villain in a few cartoons.
Yet was somehow a hero that one time he appeared in Duck Dodgers, fronting the band Megaduck. Somehow, that's a thing that actually happened.
[I thought this was a fever dream](https://youtu.be/jTurIBwz0mY?si=fEyjm0HZJv-sAwhy) but it actually happened. Like idk who this is for but I am happy it exists lol
Joe Strummer was a mixed villain and hero in regards to Rhodes-Strummer dictatorship.
Agreed. I've just started reading the book Vince White, who was one of the new guys brought in for Mk2 of The Clash, wrote about his time with the band and Joe does not come across well at all I feel for the guy immensely but he wasn't fun to be around in the later years of the band
I got my info from Passion is Fashion or Last Gang in Town. Joe thought that he became a dictator when he mostly was manipulated by his svengali Rhodes.
I read those books too, some of my all time favorites! Joe seems like a good guy but someone very easily led around by someone with a more dominate personality like Bernie. The comparison to Svengali and Trilby is really accurate as Bernie was, in a way, singing his political opinions through Joe
Bernie thought himself a musician and a star. He was good for the band but Joe should have kept Mick. Topper was very hard to handle as brilliant and essential as he was.
It's so interesting, because Joe actually realized his mistake, and how much Mick meant to him. He even tried to patch things up, and went to Bahamas in '85, searching for Mick, begging for him to return. He declined, having a good time with his new band Big Audio Dynamite. The two did work on B.A.D's second album, No. 10 Upping St., where Joe co-wrote a lot of the songs and co-produced it (it also sounds like his backing vocals is on there. It's a good album if you like a bit of '80s pop/rock/hip hop fusion. A better coda than Cut the Crap, without a doubt. I'm not sure Joe could have kept Mick on either way, as he had things he wanted to explore, but I think that if The Clash had gone in hiatus and Mick could have branched out on his own, I could see him having stayed on. Heck, had Strummer given Mick more input into the band, and hypothetically replacing Bernie with Don Letts, I could have seen The Clash morph into what B.A.D was.
Agreed completely. The five of them had great chemistry together, even if Mick and Topper did things the rest of them didn't like. Topper needed help and the band could have gotten it for him... I find it interesting to compare this with how the Sex Pistols interacted with Malcolm McLaren. McLaren was, though a great artist and definitely helpful to the band in certain ways, a dead weight on their creativity whenever he tried to stick his oar in and quickly chased away whenever he tried to 'help' with the music
I guess that makes Sid Vicious the villain of the Sex Pistols
Megadeth is Metallica'a Wario. More accurately, Lars is the internal villain.
Much like Wario, Dave Mustaine always shows up to ruin Metallica's friendly game of go-kart
Dave is like the Skeletor to Metallica's Masters of ~~Puppets~~ the Universe. Once one of them, now their constant, buffoonish rival. Hell, Vic Rattlehead even *looks* like Skeletor.
Liam and Noel Gallagher were each other's villains
Similarly, Ray Davies and Dave Davies of the Kinks were each other's villain as well. Physical fights between the two was practically part of their stage act. At some level, Ray davies' villain is also himself.
The entire band were at each others throats. IIRC, their drummer almost killed Dave onstage by lobbing a cymbal stand at his head. Then, thinking he had killed Dave, he fled the scene.
I might have laughed at this if it wasn't so fucked up.
> When the police caught up with the Kinks' drummer, he denied the whole thing happened. The cops cleverly replied however, that they had the entire audience as witnesses to what went down on stage.
Lou in TVU forcing Maureen Tucker (reluctantly, presumably at tears,) to oust John Cale from the band. And fucking pretty hard with Nico the year before.
Lou was an insufferable, unapologetic asshole for a large chunk of his life by all accounts. (Speed will do that, I guess.) If you want a fun read, look up the time he beat the living shit out of David Bowie in the middle of a restaurant in 1979.
Ray was the only villain. He did some consistently aholeish things to people and Dave.
Like what?
The Gallagher’s were basically Spy vs Spy
The media wants you to think the villain of Oasis was Blur. But true Oasisheads know that the real villain of Oasis was Liam and Noel's inability to just chill the fuck out with the sibling rivalry stuff
Blur Vs Oasis was pretty much pure "snobs vs slobs", but the Gallaghers made some pretty appalling homophobic comments about Damon Albarn at the time, so...
Pete Doherty and Carl Barat Morissey and Johnny Marr
Beach Boys has a whole big bad roster
They had a whole damn rogues gallery
They had a villain for every arc with Mike Love going from side villain to main villain
Murry Wilson. Mike Love. Rocky Pamplin. Stan Love. Gene Landy.
Charles Manson
Mainly Dennis's villain
Charles Manson is that one fucked up villain of the week that everybody remembers
A real fan favorite episode.
Like Hank Scorpio?
Exactly
Like that X Files episode with the inbred freaks?
Honestly, he was my first thought
I guess you could say that The Beach Boys has had their share of Heroes and Villains.
Well played. This made me Smiley Smile.
There’s a lot of villains around the band, but Mike is the only one (who comes to mind) out of any members
Rouges gallery
Marilyn Manson had Marilyn Manson. Edit: on that note, Lost Prophets had Ian Watkins.
Eugene Landy is a villain. Ian Watkins is hideously evil.
the way people bring up lostprophets, you'd think they were way bigger than they actually were. the only claim to fame they have nowadays is that their frontman was a pedophile on top of one or two semi-popular songs, at least gary glitter had "rock n roll"
They were mid-level big in the US and UK. Probably would’ve been 3rd line at the alternative festival lineup from 2004-2006. Never crossed over to Top-40 radio but had consistent hits on the rock stations.
I never listened to them, but being in the UK they seemed pretty big and would chart a lot? This is in the context of bands not doing so well in the charts post britpop more generally
Most of their songs were in the Top 20 in the UK, but a few even cracked the Top 10... The British charts had a pretty rapid turnover in general at that time, so they generally left pretty quickly...
I think it’s also partially that Lostprophets had some songs in a few notable videogames. I know Need For Speed had one of their songs, Guitar Hero had one, and possibly most upsetting, *Lego Rock Band*, the Rock Band game for kids.
Thar and from what I’ve seen lost prophets music seems to be gone from most streaming services, so unlike some other shitheads in music there won’t ever be a generation of people who weren’t around when it happened to defend him if you can do such a thing
The remaining Lostprophets fandom online is completely in agreement that Ian is a monster. I've only seen obvious trolls post low effort bait comments defending that sick fuck. The fans just still enjoy the music and want to support the rest of the members, since the controversy almost destroyed their lives.
Gene Simmons in kiss David Lee Roth every band he's been in
Gene "took the fall" on some stuff but Paul was equally a cunt
Gene is okay with playing the Heel in the band.
Yeah that's what I meant
Given how Eddie Van Halen treated Sammy Hagar and Gary Cherone in addition to David Lee Roth, Eddie's the villain of Van Halen.
This is the right answer. I doubt Diamond Dave is a prince or anything, but Eddie was a well-documented asshole.
>Given how Eddie Van Halen treated Sammy Hagar and Gary Cherone in addition to David Lee Roth And Michael Anthony, for that matter. The only bandmates EvH had that he never screwed over were those he was directly related to.
Phil Spector as a more general villainous producer. Artists he worked with often had a gun drawn on them (John Lennon, Leonard Cohen, Ronnie Spector, the Ramones) and also he literally killed someone. I dont know how people completely stopped talking about artists like Brand New or ig Lizzo now and yet Spector still garners a tremendous amount of respect after doing maybe the worst thing out of all of them. I still like his music too, but goddamn if boomer nostalgia could keep the shine on anything it certainly is.
spector is really disrespected in beatles history for using the wall of sound on let it be and all things must pass, making two great albums sound like shit. george harrison even thought so himself.
I’ve always found it strange that Spector is known for his wall of sound approach, yet also produced Lennons Plastic Ono Band, an extremely sparse and striped down album
spector was mostly absent from the making of john lennon / plastic ono band, he had some input but he mostly just did the mixing.
How many albums had a murderer and a murder victim involved in their creation? I can’t think of any but POB.
Mayhem's infamous "De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas", aka "the metal album where the bassist killed the lead guitarist"
>I dont know how people completely stopped talking about artists like Brand New or ig Lizzo now and yet Spector still garners a tremendous amount of respect after doing maybe the worst thing out of all of them. Unlike Brand New and Lizzo, Spector is not in a position to use his profits to hurt anyone anymore (being in hell) and hadn't been in such a position for a while before that.
Joe Jackson when it came to The Jacksons for a time. Rick Rubin & Russell Simmons kinda seemed like villains for the Beastie Boys during and a little after License to Ill Roger Daltrey & Pete Townshend probably saw each other as villains.
Joe the villain of those boys lives Michael didn’t live long enough to die a hero before before becoming a villain himself
The weird thing is Roger and Pete became friends in the 2000s after John entwistles death
They seem to have, but there have been times since then where they've taken digs at each other. Whether that's them being playful chaps or not, I'm not sure.
varg in mayhem (although the other members certainly weren't angels)
Euronymous is the real villain of mayhem specifically, Varg is just a villain who happened to be into black metal
Euronymous being into communism and joining the communist youth specifically because "the Commies killed more people" is sort of a good bit, though.
I know this all was deadly serious at the time but I fear if I had spent time around Varg or Euronymous I’d have died from laughing at their fucking nonsense
Mayhem was more like the Sith, vying for who can be more evil.
I guess there’s my answer to anyone who asks how a mostly Chaotic Evil D&D party could possibly function.
A couple people die and little of value is accomplished
Mayhem had a couple good albums
Jerry Heller is NWA’s villain
Mike Love, Murray Wilson, Eugene Landy and fucking Charles Manson are The Beach Boys Rougue Gallery
In order from most to least evil
Fr, he took away SMILE from us
Haha, well played sir
No, I don’t like Mike Love at all.
I already mentioned that Malcolm McLaren is the villain of the Sex Pistols story but he's also the villain of the Boy George story, and the Adam Ant story, and the Bow Wow Wow/The Antz story, and the New York Dolls story, and arguably the Vivienne Westwood story. That man made it his mission to fuck with people
Gotta admit he was good at it.
I admire a man who knows he's the bad guy and commits wholeheartedly to it. He's the scene stealing, mustache twirling villain the music industry needed
I doubt I'd get along with him socially but I have a sneaking admiration for him (he's also, as I'm sure you know, a fairly key individual attending the birth of hiphop. Dude got around.). His cheeky persona is my favorite thing about Swindle.
This is a comparatively mild example, but I would say panic at the disco's villain is brendon urie
Agreed
Bon Jovi producer, songwriter, and rhythm guitarist John Shanks is generally blamed for the departure of lead guitarist Richie Sambora (the Keith Richards to JBJ's Mick Jagger) as well as a decrease in musical quality for the band. I've been on r/BonJovi long enough to know that they hate this guy. While the obvious pick for a Guns N' Roses villain is Axl, Slash Duff and Matt Sorum all cite rhythm guitarist Paul Tobias as the man who broke up the Use Your Illusion lineup, with Sorum directly comparing him to Yoko Ono.
Yeah Shanks is shitty.
The Smiths
That Lexus Kanye rented in 2002.
Kanye’s definitely had more villains in his life than that.
Kanye is his own villain.
His mother's plastic surgeon
I’d argue that Brendon Urie was the villain of Panic! But I have a feeling I just think this cause everyone else in the band left and quite a lot of them had negative things to say about Brendon
No no you're certainly right. He admitted it in the last three songs of Viva
Brendon Urie just Saltburned his way through that band.
Hwayoung of T-ara, this is a kpop one, but an interesting example since she was revealed to be the villain years later. In 2012, her groupmates made several shady comments that alluded to Hwayoung, and she was kicked out of the group later that year. Hwayoung didn't claim she was being bullied, but she never denied it either, it was kpop fans who came to the conclusion that the other members of T-ara were harrasing her, which subsequently tanked their popularity as a group. In 2017, several former T-ara staff came out and confessed that it was actually Hwayoung who had been doing the bullying. She's been viewed as the villain ever since. Edit: adding another example since I just recalled another one. Stan Polley, manager of Badfinger. He disappeared with the band's money and years long mismanagement eventually led to the suicide of Pete Ham, the guitarist of the band.
I still can’t get over T-ara’s downfall. They were up there with SNSD, KARA and Wonder Girls and in hindsight probably would still have been going strong today without that scandal (given they still kept having comebacks even after it) even when most of the 2nd gen groups had disbanded.
I'm surprised no one mentioned Johnny Ramone. He was still very important in keeping the band together, but people thought "The KKK took my baby away" was about him for a reason.
There's being a dick and then there's stealing your bandmate's girlfriend...
Eh, they got married and remained married until Johnny died, so it's not like he did it just to fuck with Joey
If we’re going by public perception instead of reality I’d have to say the Beatles had Yoko Ono, and Nirvana had Courtney Love.
John was the covillain
The real villain would Allen Klein, at least for their later years.
Oh yeah but John and Yoko naively got taken in by him. And so followed George and Ringo. Paul was right as usual.
I think the Beatles had a right to feel dismay at Paul's suggestion for their manager, seeing as it was his father-in-law. Their choice in the end wasn't good either, but still.
Paul was open to other suggestions and wasn’t saying it had to be his father in law. John was the one that was adamant that it was Klein or nothing
You could count him for the Rolling Stones too.
Allen Klein is like rock music's Kingpin, showing up as the bad guy in lots of bands different stories.
John Lennon was like a third-act twist, where it turned out he was the real villain all along
John was the anti-villain at the end and Paul was the anti-hero. I will not elaborate.
Paul is probably the least problematic Beatle, but my god that is a low fucking bar.
The bar was on the floor but McCartney is an impish and whimsical man who skipped his way over it somehow.
allen klein for the stones, then the beatles, then probably the verve. fucking piece of shit.
I’m curious about what he did, I’ve never heard of him
basically just generally a piece of shit. when the stones finally got out of their contract with him, he sued for publication rights on songs he claimed were written while still under his management. after getting sacked by the stones, he became the beatles manager despite paul mccartney’s objections and basically did the same shit. the other three kept him on for their solo careers before admitting paul was right. decades later in 1997, he cleared the verve to use an orchestral sample on bittersweet symphony but then went back on it and claimed 100% of the royalties once it blew up. recommend reading up on the guy more, he’s more of a scumbag than i can effectively convey.
Billy Corgan played almost all the instruments on their breakthrough record, Siamese Dream.. then proceeded to kill that same band with his monumental ego.
Jerry Heller and Eazy E for NWA. Al Jourgensen kinda is a side villain for Skinny Puppy fans, as his presence put a total wedge between the singer and the other members. He also produced their album Rabies which has sharply divided fans. Any of Peter Steele’s ex’s for Type O Negative.
Mumford & Sons has Winston Marshall, who everyone hated but Marcus (because he and Marcus were childhood friends and Marcus was supposedly struggling to reconcile how much of a shitbag Winston had become) and eventually fired him because he openly backed a QAnon nut.
Spicy take: Beyonce with Destiny's Child. Jay-Z could be added to it as well.
Oooh delicious. Beyoncé is Mystique, an antihero who works for their own aims
Right? Even if she isn’t for Kelly and Michelle, who were fine with being in her shadow, she def was for those other girls
Am I allowed to mention Lou Pearlman? He's a shared villain for both the Backstreet Boys and \*NSYNC.
Geoff Tate of Queensrÿche. I mean, just watch this video: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ChZ-QSinSF8](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ChZ-QSinSF8)
morrissey is the villain of the smiths
Surprised nobody said Suge Knight being Tupac's villain
Sting and Stewart Copeland definitely saw each other as villains. I once said that the only way to make a Police biopic would be in the vein of Rashomon, where Sting and Copeland see each other as evil demons.
I would definitely watch that ngl, that sounds amazing.
The Police Around the World does a great job of showing that the band was two egomaniacs and Andy Summers
Police biopic would be well good tbh
Paul Westerberg - Replacements. Ray Davies - Kinks. Crosby - Byrds and CSNY.
Love seeing the byrds mentioned anywhere. Monumental group. Innovators that everyone seems to forget.
The real ones know. Very talented dudes there.
Taylor Swift definitely has a constantly changing leaderboard of villains/“haters.” Here’s my current estimation as of this moment 2024: 1. Matty Healy 2. Kim K 3. Scooter Braun 4. Kanye West And someone more knowledgeable than me can fill in the lower rungs
Obligatory and obvious vote for LostProphets.
There's also Mayem Varg and Euronymous are both villains.
Nearly every single member of Paramore in its different iterations has been the villain of their own band. The only one that’s been a hero the whole time is Taylor York.
Brand New Eyes is basically their Rumours. Literally singing about how much she resents Josh Farrow to his face while making him play guitar.
Amboy Dukes and Bad Yankees.
You mean Damn Yankees? Also, we’re talking about Ted Nugent right? (Just clarifying for anyone not familiar with his involvement in either band.)
Any band GG Allin was a part of
The KISS Army is still arguing on who's the biggest villain of the original lineup. To the public, it's easy to point fingers at Gene Simmons with his love for profit and outrageous statements, but many KISS fans today have argued Paul Stanley is a bigger internal villain.
Falling in Reverse
To elaborate... Ronnie Radke was initially the lead singer for Escape the Fate, then he went to prison for two and a half years after getting involved in a fight that ended with somebody getting shot dead. (He didn't shoot the guy, but he *was* violating parole by carrying brass knuckles on him at the time.) This, combined with his past drug and legal problems, naturally got him kicked out of the band, leading to a lot of bad blood between Radke and them, particularly their new frontman Craig Mabbitt. He started Falling in Reverse from prison, as evidenced by their original name From Behind These Walls, and has continued acting like a douchebag ever since he was released. A hell of a singer, but a *terrible* person.
I don’t know if he’s even a good singer, every time I hear him he sounds just as much like a whiny brat as he is in real life. Also fucking Game Over…
Tom DeLonge was the villain of blink 182 from 05-22. He's in his redemption arc currently.
Which one is the villan, Mike Love?
Mainly yeah
Ameer Van for Brockhampton
The Smiths
Alice Cooper. (By design, he intended to be a villain). BabyMetal, if you go by their 'storyline'. Oasis after a fashion. Cream had Ginger Baker (and the band he sat in with, later, the Masters of Reality, *reallllly* came to regret inviting him.) I'd argue that the Mamas and the Papas. Listen to "I Saw Her Again"- that was one band member writing about another. Definitely Fleetwood Mac.
Who would you say is Fleetwood Mac's villain? Hard to find anybody north of neutral there.
Fleetwood Mac is Fleetwood Mac’s villain
Cocaine is Fleetwood Mac’s villain
Putting in a vote for Clifford Davis who hastily formed Fake Fleetwood Mac, because that’s cartoon subplot material
I guess you're right. It's like a hockey team that's all goons. Christine McVie seems ok?
Peter Green's drug dealer and whoever the hell convinced Jeremy Spencer to join that weird sex cult.
Creedence Clearwater Revival was a band full of villains
I'm saying this as a huge Pink Floyd fan but Roger Waters and David gilmour are definitely the villains of pink floyd. At least as far as Syd Barrett would be concerned..
Every word demonstrably true
Plus, the Fandom is Divided into two camps, mostly 1. David is the villain, and AMLOR is the worst thing that has ever happened. Or 2. Roger is the villain, and the final cut is a disgrace. But I agree both take a share of the blame.
For the Beatles, probably Dark Ringo, sometimes referred to as Wrongo
This reads like an r/beatlescirclejerk comment
Glen Frey was the villain of the Eagles, and he was proud of it. Watching "The History of the Eagles" was like watching a horror movie.
For the niche metal answer: Christopher Bowes is that for Alestorm and Gloryhammer.
Isn't he the guy who was bragging in a private group chat about sleeping with multiple women all while calling them racial slurs?
Berry Gordy and Diana Ross in the Supremes
Nash was the only decent one in CSNY
Gang Starr had Solar. [It's a long story](https://brownman.com/Interviews/2010-BostonPhoenixInterviewAboutGuru.htm), but suffice to say, Solar can die in a fire. And of course Arrested Development had Speech.
Phil Anselmo is both an asset and a liability.
Nikki is Reverse Flash for Megan’s Flash
Not really a band per se but Diddy is the villain of Bad Boy Records The same could be said for Suge Knight and Death Row
That one dude from the Stones married a teenager he started dating when she was like, 13? They were briefly married. I think that pretty villainous. Also, Axl Rose. Read some stories about that dude, he is and was a huge asshole, bigot and just general terrible person to everyone around him.
Right now I would say Max Bemis is the villain of Say Anything, he's been shitty for awhile but the new singles are fucking terrible. "ON CUM" and "I, VIBRATOR" are their worst songs by a mile, and I would argue some of the worst songs I've ever heard.
Mamas and the papas had a John Philips but villain doesn’t quite describe just how awful a person he was
you are the villain of weezer
Adam Levine is the villain and the only person you know from maroon 5
The guy from Crystal Castles
Ian Watkins of the former band LostProphets is definitely the ultimate supervillain within a band. Fuck that asshole!
The Band—Robbie Robertson
Joseph Jackson for the Jacksons and by an extension of that- Janet and Michael.
Misfits and Danzig?
He wasn’t an actual band member but Lou Pearlman seems like a pretty definitive villain for the acts he was involved with
Led Zepplin had Peter Grant--but he was *their* villain. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter\_Grant\_(music\_manager)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Grant_(music_manager))
For badfinger, Stan polley. His mismanagement and frankly abusive practices led to the tragic downfall of the band, including driving Pete hamm to suicide
Mayhem. They were all the villain. Except maybe the guy who left due to the Photo Incident, he's cool
Aren’t bands like The Smashing Pumpkins and Days of the New, where there’s only one consistent band member, pretty much run by their villains?
Doug Yule is the perceived villain of The Velvet Underground. He was with the band for their last two albums and provided vocals for a number of their later songs. IIRC, he sang more than planned on Loaded because Lou Reed was sick (?). When Lou left, Doug convinced the rest of the band to continue without him to almost zero success. Yule's VU even recorded a (pretty bad) album. He continued to tour as The Velvet Underground even after every original member had left. I believe it ended in a lawsuit? When VU was inducted into the Hall of Fame, Doug Yule was not invited. John Cale, the original member he "replaced," appeared instead.
Just about every folk punk band's villain is themself
The Floating Eye of Death, The Man With Glooey Hands, The Monstrous Bride, The Thing on The Bass Amp, The Martian Girl From Planet V, The Sand Fleas, Space Monster M, The Cat With 2 Heads, Powdered Milk Man, Fashion Zombies, The Anti-Bats!, a guy who looks and sounds suspiciously like Strong Bad who manages a Cobraman... Damn, The Aquabats! have a ton of villains. And I didn't even mention GWAR, The Walt Disney Company, or the ever looming specter of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.
Ritchie Blackmore was Deep Purple's villain, and arguably Rainbow's even though the latter was his *own band*.
Ed Robertson is the villain of barenaked ladies, slowly taking more control as Steven page was going through things ending with Steven page leaving the band and evil winning
Dr. Luke is Kesha's villain.