Some of these suits got ugly…
Earlier this month, in a move that rocked the music world, Daryl Hall sued John Oates. The iconic pop duo is locked in a legal battle over their joint venture, Whole Oats Enterprises LLP. Oates has moved to sell his share, while Hall is attempting to block the transaction, the Associated Press reports.
The wedge between Hall & Oates is just the latest example of drama between bandmates that’s spilled out into the courtroom. From Fleetwood Mac to Oasis, here’s a look back at other ugly legal disputes in music history.
Fleetwood Mac
Five years ago, the famously tumultuous group ousted its longtime lead guitarist Lindsey Buckingham. (Insert “Go Your Own Way” joke here.) Mick Fleetwood and Stevie Nicks said the group decided to part ways with Buckingham because of his reluctance to sign off on a new tour. But Buckingham said that wasn’t the case and accused Nicks, his ex-girlfriend, of instigating “some kind of coup” against him.
Buckingham told the Los Angeles Times that Nicks “saw the possibility of remaking the band more in the Stevie Nicks vein. More mellow and kind of down, giving her more chances to do the kind of talking she does onstage.” Nicks, in a statement issued through her publicist, flatly denied that: “To be exceedingly clear, I did not have him fired, I did not ask for him to be fired, I did not demand he be fired.”
Buckingham sued his former bandmates for unspecified damages, claiming that because of his influence on Fleetwood Mac he should be considered a legal “partner” of the act. They ultimately settled, and Buckingham said he was “happy enough” with the agreement but admitted that the separation did “hurt for a while.”
Oasis
The beef between brothers Noel and Liam Gallagher has been well documented. The two have gotten into violent brawls (including one involving a cricket bat that was eventually auctioned off) and have trashed each other in the press for decades. By 2009, Noel — who’s credited with writing most of Oasis’ biggest songs, from “Wonderwall” to (ironically) “Don’t Look Back in Anger” among others — had had enough and called it quits, writing in a statement: “I simply could not go on working with Liam a day longer.”
Two years after the split, Liam sued his brother for libel. The band’s lead singer took issue with Noel telling the press that the reason why Oasis dropped out of a festival in 2009 was because Liam had a “hangover.” He also disputed his older brother’s account of the breakup. Liam insisted the suit wasn’t about money but rather winning an apology from Noel. In the months that followed, Noel did eventually apologize and Liam dropped the lawsuit, but it seems the brothers have yet to mend fences. As recently as March, Liam called Noel a “potato” on X — his favorite, utterly bizarre insult for his brother. (If you’re keen to travel down this very weird rabbit hole, Vulture has a brief history of Liam’s “potato” digs.)
The Beach Boys
The surviving members of the legendary surf rock band have spent years in litigation, fighting over the rights to the group’s classic hits, the Beach Boys brand, and in one case, defamation. So much for “Good Vibrations.”
The court battles date back to the 90s, when Mike Love sued his cousin and bandmate, Brian Wilson, over songwriting credits. He won his case and a reported $5 million settlement from Wilson and was retroactively given credit for collaborating on 35 tracks, including “California Girls” and “I Get Around.” Love, who became the sole licensee of the Beach Boys’ name in 1998, has since sued Wilson several times, per Rolling Stone.
Love has also taken Al Jardine to court for touring under the names “Beach Boys Family & Friends” and “Al Jardine, Beach Boy.” A federal judge sided with Love in the copyright infringement case. Jardine shot back in 2001 by filing a $4 million suit against Love, alleging Love excluded him from concerts that year. That complaint was dismissed, per the Associated Press.
Pink Floyd
In a roundup of iconic band feuds, we’d be remiss not to mention Pink Floyd. By the time they released “The Dark Side of the Moon,” the members were barely on speaking terms, per The Independent, and are still publicly bickering today. They began sparring in court in 1986, one year after Roger Waters departed the group, declaring that the band was a “spent force creatively.”
Waters sued guitarist David Gilmour and drummer Nick Mason, who were at work on their 13th album, A Momentary Lapse of Reason, to block them from recording under the Pink Floyd name. They eventually settled out of court, reaching an agreement that was finalized on Christmas Eve 1987 on Gilmour’s houseboat, Rolling Stone reports. Nearly 30 years after the dispute, Waters told the BBC that it was a mistake to take his former collaborators to court: “I was wrong! Of course I was. Who cares?”
The Beatles
In 1970, when picking their next manager, the mega-group reached a breaking point. Things grew so heated that Paul McCartney sued the other members to take control of the Beatles’ catalog. The day after the court sided with McCartney, John Lennon, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr allegedly drove over to the bassist’s home and threw bricks at his windows.
“Well, as you can imagine, that was horrendous and it gave me some terrible times,” McCartney told GQ about the suit. “I drank way too much and did too much of everything. And it was crazy, but I knew that was the only thing to do, because there was no way I was going to save it for me, because there was no way I was going to work that hard for all my life and see it vanish in a puff of smoke.”
