Many of the world’s biggest bands have imploded amid bitter and violent grudges over money, publishing, ego-driven power plays, relationships, drugs, and that famous old bromide, “musical differences.” Iconic bands like The Beach Boys, Fleetwood Mac, Pink Floyd, The Supremes, The Clash, The Eagles, The Band, The Police, Cream, and Guns ‘n’ Roses all suffered rancorous break-ups that have cast long shadows over their legacies.
Musical—and real—brotherhoods such as The Everly Brothers, Jagger-Richards, Ray and Dave Davies, Simon and Garfunkel, and Lennon-McCartney fractured as private brawls transitioned into toxic, public blame games.
Yet, as music lovers, we can’t help but be strangely captivated by the internecine warfare that is part of their shared antiquity, no matter the era you belong to—along with the timeless music they left behind.
Ken McNab’s You Started It charts these tales of rock ‘n’ roll excess and internal strife. He captures unique accounts from eye-witnesses of these legendary bands and their legendary breakups, bringing to life the divisions that produced domino effects of animus that followed them through the decades. McNab provides fresh takes on the human stories behind the in-fighting that saw a stairway to heaven become a highway to hell for the biggest bands of this or any other time.
