These band reunions/reformations were not without controversy. Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we’re counting down our picks for the most controversial band reunions of all time.
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00:00Part of the undertone, just part of the undertone
00:03And every step that I take is another mistake to you
00:08Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we're counting down our picks for the most controversial band reunions of all time.
00:15Me and him are like telepathic, you know what I mean?
00:17I know my brother better than anybody else.
00:20When both come together, we're of greatness.
00:2510. The Beatles
00:27Can we really live without each other?
00:33Where did we lose the touch that seemed to mean so much?
00:39The Beatles got back together?
00:42Surely that's impossible, but it's probably a testament to the muted feeling around this mid-90s project
00:47that it never really gets a mention whenever the iconic Liverpool band is discussed.
00:51The surviving members, McCartney, Harrison and Starr,
00:54collaborated on two new songs for the 1995 anthology project,
00:58Free as a Bird and Real Love.
01:00Lonely to be alone
01:05Lonely to be alone
01:10They were built around old John Lennon demos,
01:13massaged into new material chiefly by ELO's Jeff Lynne.
01:17The move sparked debate at the time, though,
01:19about whether it was ethical or even artistically valid
01:22to essentially resurrect a deceased band member.
01:25Ultimately, the tracks in question arguably added very little to the overall legend.
01:29Home and dry
01:35Like a homing bird I fly
01:42As a bird only knew
01:49Number 9. New Order
01:58After the tragic death of frontman Ian Curtis in 1980,
02:01the remaining members of post-punk trailblazers Joy Division regrouped,
02:05but under a new name.
02:06And initially, it was the name that sparked controversy,
02:10as some believed it to be a reference to fascism and Adolf Hitler.
02:13The band quickly confirmed there was no such connection.
02:24Fast forward a couple of decades, though,
02:26and controversy of a different sort befell them.
02:29New Order reunited again in 2011, but with a different lineup,
02:33and notably without founding member and bassist Peter Hook.
02:36There followed some long and tense legal issues behind the scenes,
02:40largely around the distribution of royalties.
03:03Number 8. Fleetwood Mac
03:07Fleetwood Mac's revolving door of members is practically legendary.
03:22For this list, we might have chosen a number of moments along their tumultuous timeline.
03:36But perhaps nothing highlighted the always-present tension quite so well
03:44as the recombining of the Rumors lineup in 1997 for the dance tour.
03:49The tour itself was a success,
03:51but all the talk around it was focused on the unique dynamics
03:54of the relationships between band members,
03:56and especially between Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham.
03:59The song Silver Springs was revived at the time.
04:02Written by Nicks about Buckingham,
04:04it had previously been dropped from the Rumors album in 1977.
04:09Twenty years later, and the lyrics struck a chord even better than they did before.
04:35Number 7. Oasis
04:49The Gallagher brothers Liam and Noel were notorious
04:52for their volatile relationship throughout their time in Oasis.
04:55Mere constant reports of backstage bust-ups ultimately led to an acrimonious split in 2009.
05:00There followed years of reported bitterness between the two.
05:04So much so that an Oasis reunion was widely tipped to be one of those things
05:07that would just never happen.
05:09That all changed in 2024 when the pair announced a truce and a new tour in 2025.
05:15They've been offered money. It's not about money. It's not...
05:17All of that has happened. Timing, as the band said in their most recent statement,
05:20it's really about timing.
05:22This Thursday is the 30th anniversary of definitely maybe their first record.
05:25Next year is the anniversary of What's the Story of Morning Glory, their second album.
05:29Fans rejoiced, but the good feeling turned sour
05:33when it came to trying to book tickets.
05:35Huge demand led to hours-long queues online.
05:38And then, if you did get to the front, Ticketmaster's so-called
05:42dynamic pricing meant that tickets were hugely more expensive than advertised.
05:46Liam and Noel had long been held as working-class heroes,
05:49but the pricing scandal flew in the face of that reputation.
06:02It's really big houses, probably eating soul food.
06:05Number six, Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young.
06:08It began the 70s as the top band in the US and then abruptly broke apart.
06:13For 30 years, they lived high and low, from adoring stadiums to jail cells,
06:18from wealth and luxury to near-death experiences.
06:21When a reunion of one of the biggest bands in the world gets retrospectively labeled
06:25as the Doom Tour, it's probably safe to assume that something went wrong.
06:29The inner workings of Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young
06:32had always been complicated, to put it mildly.
06:49But the four appeared to have worked it all out when they announced a reunion
06:53and a fresh set of dates scheduled for 1974.
06:56In truth, the shows are remembered by fans with something akin to fondness.
07:00They're controversial, though, purely due to the sheer scale of the band's
07:04reported excesses at the time.
07:06It was sex, drugs, and rock and roll to the extreme.
07:19Number five, Sex Pistols.
07:26It's perhaps not often that the Sex Pistols and the Spice Girls could be accused of the same thing,
07:30but when it comes to seemingly blatant cash-grab reunions without any real substance,
07:35they're both guilty.
07:56For the Spice Girls, it happened in 2007, with Cynics claiming that their return tour
08:01only materialized as no one from the group had achieved a successful solo career.
08:05With the Sex Pistols, though, it happened in 1996,
08:08with a short run of dates dubbed the Filthy Luker Tour.
08:11The Pistols had once been punk rock's poster children,
08:14building their reputation on anarchy and anti-establishment ideals.
08:18As a result, many saw their latter-day 90s rerun as being steeped in the
08:22As a result, many saw their latter-day 90s rerun as being steeped in hypocrisy.
08:27The tour was financially successful, but it did lasting damage to the band's credibility.
08:52As with many on this list, the life and times of Guns N' Roses never did run smooth.
09:04The relationship between lead singer Axl Rose and lead guitarist Saul Slash Hudson
09:08became the archetypal will-they-won't-they setup in terms of them ever playing together again.
09:13Thankfully for fans, in 2016, with the Not In This Lifetime Tour,
09:17the pair did reform, for what turned out to be a commercial juggernaut.
09:22The years beforehand, though, are mostly remembered for the ultra-chaotic
09:26Chinese Democracy Tour, which was littered with cancellations,
09:29no-shows and disappointing performances.
09:41Slash wasn't involved, which all played into some ill-feeling at the time,
09:46but at least they settled the score in the end.
09:52In 1996, it had been 11 long years since the original Van Halen had taken to the stage.
10:20It's little wonder, then, that the watching world got pretty excited when the group showed up in full,
10:25complete with David Lee Roth, to present Best Male Video at the VMAs.
10:29The appearance goes down as something of a car crash, though,
10:32with clear tension between Roth and Eddie Van Halen in particular.
10:36Roth's antics during the presentation reportedly led to huge arguments backstage,
10:51with it even said that he and Van Halen almost came to blows.
10:54Ultimately, the reunion that was teased here never really came to fruition,
10:58which only served to fuel the bad blood for years more to come.
11:06Who cares if one more light goes out, in the sky of a million stars?
11:23It flickers, flickers, who cares when someone's time runs out?
11:29If the moment is all we are, we're quicker, quicker.
11:37The tragic death of Chester Bennington in 2017 sent shockwaves through the music world
11:41and left Linkin Park's future uncertain.
11:44In the years that followed, there were various album reissues and constant talk that they might reform,
11:49with founding member Mike Shinoda reportedly exploring a number of options.
11:54In 2024, it was finally announced that Linkin Park would tour again,
11:59with a new lead vocalist in Emily Armstrong.
12:01However, controversy instantly erupted due to Armstrong's ties to the Church of Scientology.
12:07It was also revealed that she had previously supported fellow Scientologist Danny Masterson,
12:11whose crimes of sexual assault saw him sentenced to 30 years to life in prison.
12:15Fans demanded answers, and Bennington's son Jamie criticized Armstrong's appointment as a betrayal.
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12:53Number 1. The Doors
13:06Replacing a frontman as iconic and unique as Jim Morrison was always going to be a controversial move.
13:12Yet in the early 2000s, the surviving members of The Doors did just that,
13:17recruiting Ian Asprey of the cult for a series of shows and new recordings.
13:20They include founding members Ray Masaryk, Robbie Krieger, as well as Ian Asprey and Stuart Copeland.
13:26Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome The Doors!
13:37This new version of The Doors, which went by the name The Doors of the 21st Century, didn't go down well.
13:43Backlash was swift and brutal, with many fans and critics accusing them of grave robbing and exploiting Morrison's legacy.
13:57In the background, there were also long-running legal disputes between them and The Doors' original drummer John Densmore.
14:03All in all, it's remembered as a massive artistic misfire,
14:06and as a cautionary tale about the dangers of trying to recapture the magic of a bygone era.
14:18Which band reunion did you find most controversial?
14:21Which do you feel still managed to work?
14:23And which, in your view, ultimately failed?
14:25Let us know in the comments.
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