Music’s Most Hated Musicians, According To The People Who Had To Work With Them

Mike SpohrWed, October 14, 2026 at 2:16 AM UTC

0

1. Let's start with one that surprised me — Lauryn Hill. In 1998, four musicians who worked extensively on The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill sued her, saying she failed to give them the songwriting or production credit they deserved. Hill called the suit “without any merit,” but settled out of court. Then there's pianist Robert Glasper, who said he and a band rehearsed 10 hours a day for a week for a 2008 show, only to be told the day before the gig that Hill didn’t like how they were playing and wanted to cut everyone’s pay in half. He also said, "She likes to fire bands. I can rattle off 15 guys off the top of my head. She will go on tour with a band, and in the city where they’re doing their show, she will hold auditions."

FREDRIK PERSSON / Getty ImagesIn 2011, guitarist Jay Gore sued Hill for unpaid wages, claiming, "After shows, Hill would demand that the musicians and road support personnel attend meetings where she would engage in a person-by-person critique and berating. At one point, Hill made a statement in front of the tour personnel to the effect that 'I can't believe I am paying you fools, you should be paying me.'"

Dana Nalbandian / Getty ImagesBEST SONGS: “Doo Wop (That Thing),” “Ex-Factor,” “Everything Is Everything”BIGGEST ASSHOLE MOMENT: After an attempted Fugees reunion went badly, bandmate Pras Michel said, “Before I work with Lauryn Hill again, you have a better chance of seeing Osama Bin Laden and [George W.] Bush getting a latte.”2. Legendary jazz drummer Buddy Rich admitted, “I have the worst temper in the world. When I lose it, oh baby.” He was so terrifying that his band secretly recorded his tirades, which became famous as “The Buddy Tapes.” On one, Rich screeched, "I’m accustomed to working with number one musicians. I’m NOT accustomed to working with half-assed kids who think they wrote the fuckin’ music business. You got a long fuckin’ way to go. You’re all a bunch of fuckin’ children! There’s not a man among you…not one man who can go out there and play the job like a man!" On another, after the band made a single mistake during a set, he bellowed, "How DARE you call yourselves professional! Assholes!! You got nowhere to fuckin' go the next set 'cause if I hear one fuckin' clam from anybody, you've had it. One clam and this whole fuckin' band is through TONIGHT. Try me!"

youtube.comRich wasn’t just having a few bad nights. A review of his biography Traps, the Drum Wonder called Rich “foul-mouthed, foul-tempered, sometimes violent” and said he fought with his wife, Frank Sinatra, Tommy Dorsey, his manager, the IRS, and members of his own band, “whom he treated without mercy.” Another review said Rich played “sadistic practical jokes on his closest friends.” Let's end on another quote from the tapes: "What kind of playing do you think this is? What kind of miscues do you call this? What fuckin’ band do you think you’re playing on, MOTHERFUCKERS! You wanna fuck with me on the bandstand?!"

Related: "This Music Trivia Quiz Will Guess Your Exact Age Down To The Year"

BEST SONGS: “West Side Story Medley,” “Channel One Suite,” “Mercy, Mercy, Mercy”BIGGEST ASSHOLE MOMENT: Berating trombonist Dave Panichi for having a beard, and giving him two weeks to decide if he wants “a beard or a job."3. There are a lot of reasons to think Sean “Diddy” Combs isn't the best dude, but here's one more — a lot of musicians who worked for him had brutal things to say about the experience. Rapper Mark Curry said, “There’s different ways you can kill a person... I’ve noticed him kill a lot of people’s spirits.” Another former Bad Boy artist said, “I don’t have anything nice to say when it comes to my time with Bad Boy. It was not a good experience and one I really don’t want to relive.”

Lawrence Lucier / Getty ImagesAt least he paid his musicians well. Wait, sorry, he didn't do that either, apparently. Mase blasted Combs in 2020 saying he “purposely starved” his artists and alleged that Diddy paid him just $20,000 for his publishing rights when he was 19. Mase said he later offered $2 million to buy the rights back and was turned down. (Combs eventually returned publishing rights to Mase in 2023.) Then there’s former Danity Kane singer Aubrey O’Day who said working under Combs was “torture,” full of mind games, betrayal, manipulation, and women pitted against each other. She also claimed she was fired because she “wasn’t willing to do what was expected of me — not talent-wise, but in other areas.”

Chelsea Guglielmino / Getty ImagesWorking in the Bad Boy offices wasn't much better. One source described Combs as “so volatile” that people did whatever he said just to stay in his good graces, and former Bad Boy president Kirk Burrowes said that Combs never forgot a grudge. Other employees said you had to learn how to “speak Puffy” if you wanted to survive there, and that “He’s someone you don’t want to make an enemy out of.”

u/Aten-Febrero / Viareddit.comBEST SONGS: “I’ll Be Missing You,” “It’s All About the Benjamins,” “Bad Boy for Life”BIGGEST ASSHOLE MOMENT: In 1999, music executive Steve Stoute alleged that Combs and two other men beat him with a telephone, chair, and champagne bottle after Combs became angry over an edit of Nas’s “Hate Me Now” video. Stoute suffered a broken arm. Combs later pleaded guilty to harassment, paid Stoute an undisclosed settlement, and was ordered to attend a one-day anger-management program (which, I'm sure, fixed everything).4. Long before producer Phil Spector was a convicted murderer*, multiple legendary musicians described working with him as genuinely frightening. Leonard Cohen remembered Spector as being obsessed with guns to the point that “the music was a subsidiary enterprise.” At one point, he said, Spector put an arm around him, pressed a .45 into his neck, and said, “Leonard, I love you.” Cohen replied, “I hope you do, Phil.” He later called the album they made together “grotesque.” Meanwhile, during sessions for John Lennon's Rock ’n’ Roll, Spector reportedly fired a pistol into the ceiling. Lennon’s response was: “Phil, if you’re going to kill me, kill me. But don’t fuck with me ears. I need them.”

Fotos International / Getty Images

*In 2003, actor Lana Clarkson was found dead in Spector’s mansion. Spector claimed she had shot herself, but prosecutors argued he put a gun in her mouth and pulled the trigger; after a mistrial, he was convicted in 2009 and sentenced to 19 years to life.

The Ramones’ Dee Dee Ramone wrote that Spector once pointed a gun at his heart, and Johnny Ramone says Spector made him play the same opening chord to “Rock ’n’ Roll High School” over and over for hours. Blondie considered making an album with him, but noped out of there after Spector answered the door with a gun in one hand and a bottle of wine in the other. His home was also ice-cold, and he wouldn't let anyone stand up. Chris Stein's verdict: “He was too weird — a little creepy for Debbie, too.”

Mirrorpix / Getty ImagesBEST SONGS: “Be My Baby,” “You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feelin’,” “River Deep – Mountain High”

Related: "Can You Pass This Daily Trivia Quiz?"

BIGGEST ASSHOLE MOMENT (OTHER THAN, YOU KNOW, THE MURDER): When, according to his then-wife Ronnie Spector, he turned their home into a near-prison with guards and fences, hid her shoes to make it harder for her to leave, and told her mother he had a glass-topped coffin in the basement where he would display Ronnie’s body if she ever left him.5. Guns N' Roses drummer Steven Adler once called Axl Rose “the most ruthless and meanest person” he had ever met. Years later, Adler upgraded that assessment: “He’s not a diva, he’s an asshole. One of the greatest assholes of all time — and I say that with love.” His bandmates also hated his habit of taking the stage VERY late. Duff McKagan wrote that “almost every night” the band could hear crowds getting “antsy and then ugly” while they waited backstage. He later recalled audiences of 50,000 chanting “bullshit, bullshit, bullshit” while the rest of Guns N' Roses sat around waiting for Axl, sometimes for two to four hours. Duff said there was “a lot of anger within the band” over it, but they were reluctant to confront him too aggressively because they feared “he would just fly home."

Brian Rasic / Getty Images

Rose's lateness was especially troubling in Montreal in 1992, when Metallica’s James Hetfield was badly burned by pyrotechnics and they had to end their set early. Duff wrote that Guns N' Roses “could have saved the day” by going on immediately and playing a long set — “the professional thing to do, the right thing to do.” Instead, the night ended with Guns N' Roses cutting their own set short and the audience rioting.

Advertisement

Soundgarden's Chris Cornell, meanwhile, remembered that people backstage were instructed not to be in any hallway Axl might walk through. Once, though, he spotted Rose being escorted down an otherwise empty corridor wearing “Axl Rose” sneakers, tiny red shorts, a backwards baseball cap, and a floor-length fur coat. Stone Temple Pilots' Scott Weiland was no fan either. When Rose attacked Slash and his new band Velvet Revolver, Weiland fired back: “Get in the ring. Go to the gym, motherfucker, or if you prefer, get a new wig, motherfucker.” He then called Rose a “fat, botox-faced, wig-wearin’ fuck” with an “unoriginal, uncreative little mind.”

Kevin.Mazur/ Getty ImagesBEST SONGS: “Welcome to the Jungle,” “Sweet Child o’ Mine,” “November Rain”BIGGEST ASSHOLE MOMENT: During a 1991 show, Rose spotted a fan taking pictures, ordered security to confiscate the camera, and when they didn’t move fast enough, yelled, “I’ll take it, goddamn it!” He then dove into the crowd, tackled the fan, and struck people before being pulled back onstage. Rose then blamed the “lame-ass security,” threw down his microphone, and walked off — helping trigger the infamous Riverport riot.6. When guitarist Eric Erlandson met Courtney Love through an ad she’d placed looking for musicians, he was “pretty scared off right away” and found her “kind of overbearing.” He joined the band anyway, reasoning that Love’s intensity needed “some focus and discipline." Hole drummer Patty Schemel, meanwhile, said making Celebrity Skin was one of the worst periods of her life. When producer Michael Beinhorn pushed to replace her on the album with a session drummer, Love’s explanation was brutally matter-of-fact: “Look Pats, he’s got a guy. It’s just business, okay?” Schemel said, “I lost my mind... it just broke me.” She left the band, and later wrote that the experience helped send her back into addiction.

Paul Harris / Getty ImagesBassist Melissa Auf der Maur has a more affectionate view of Love — but even hers comes with a pretty extraordinary description. In 2026 she called Love “a maniac and a hero — and yes, you can be both.” And Erlandson, for all his loyalty, later described Hole’s internal dynamic like this: “Courtney’s erratic, everybody knows Courtney.”

Jeff Kravitz / Getty Images

Related: "Pick 10 Random Songs, And We'll Guess Your Birthday"

BEST SONGS: “Violet,” “Doll Parts,” “Celebrity Skin”BIGGEST ASSHOLE MOMENT: At Lollapalooza in 1995, Love confronted Bikini Kill singer Kathleen Hanna over what Love claimed was a joke about her daughter, Frances Bean — something Hanna denied saying. Erlandson remembered Love throwing candy at Hanna and “kind of” slapping toward her face; Hanna said Love struck her, and Love herself later bragged, “I punched out Kathleen Hanna.” Hanna responded by screaming, “I challenge you to a feminist debate in any university in America!” Love later pleaded guilty to assault and got a suspended one-year sentence plus anger-management classes.7. David Crosby once said, “Almost everyone I’ve ever worked with hates me. I can be an asshole.” And...pretty much. His former Byrds bandmate Roger McGuinn called Crosby “insufferable,” particularly because of his political rants during concerts, and another Byrd, Chris Hillman, thought Crosby had a superiority complex. The two fired Crosby in 1967, saying he was “impossible to work with” and that they’d be better off without him. Crosby then co-founded Crosby, Stills & Nash (and sometimes Young). The group had tremendous success, but the personal relationships eventually became a disaster. By 2021, Stephen Stills was the only member he was still speaking to, and in 2016, his once close friend Graham Nash called him “fucking awful” and said, “I’ve saved his ass for 45 years, and he treated me like shit.”

Lynn Goldsmith / Getty Images

Crosby also wrecked his relationship with Neil Young after Young separated from his wife of 36 years, Pegi, and began dating Splash star Daryl Hannah. Crosby publicly commented, “He’s hanging out with somebody that’s a purely poisonous predator now — and that’s karma.” Years later, Crosby admitted: “Neil has got a genuine beef… I said I thought she was a predator. OK, he can be mad at me.”

Even modern musicians were unlikely to be fans. He said his dog could beat Kanye West at chess, and after Phoebe Bridgers smashed a guitar on SNL in 2021, Crosby called it “pathetic” and “stupid.” Bridgers responded by calling him a “little bitch.” Crosby struggled for years with cocaine and heroin addiction and finally got clean while serving prison time in 1986 on drug and weapons charges. He had also endured major personal tragedy, including the death of his girlfriend Christine Hinton in a car accident when he was in his 20s. Is that an excuse for being a dick? Probably not! But it's worth mentioning. Seems like he had a big mouth and knew the damage it did, which makes it a little sad.

X/Twitter / Viareddit.comBEST SONGS: "Eight Miles High," "Wooden Ships," "Guinnevere"BIGGEST ASSHOLE MOMENT: Claiming publicly he was kicked out of the Byrds because they were prudes who didn't like his song Triad (about a threesome), and not because of his obnoxious behavior.8. David Byrne, according to the other Talking Heads, was a huge pain in the ass. Bassist Tina Weymouth said, “He will use you until he has no more use for you,” and blamed others when things went wrong. Byrne also, despite spending more than a decade making hugely successful records with them, referred to his former Talking Heads bandmates as merely “people I used to play with.” Drummer Chris Frantz accused Byrne of taking sole writing credit for “Warning Sign” even though Frantz helped write it. Byrne also took virtually all of the songwriting credit on the first pressing of Fear of Music, despite Frantz arguing that songs like “Life During Wartime” grew out of Weymouth’s bass line and the band’s collective work. After the others complained, some of the credits were revised — including “Life During Wartime,” which is now credited to all four Talking Heads.

Dan Tuffs / Getty ImagesFrantz added that when he and Weymouth’s side project, Tom Tom Club, went gold, Byrne simply stared out the window and said nothing, later dismissing their success as “merely commercial music.” Byrne himself basically admitted he was impossible when he described his attitude toward collaborators as: “Nobody understands what I want to do. I have to be the boss guy. ‘No, don’t do it that way. You’ve got to do it this way. No, you f---ing idiot.’” He conceded, “I might have been right but you don’t have to deal with people that way.”

Luciano Viti / Getty ImagesBEST SONGS: “Once in a Lifetime,” “This Must Be the Place (Naive Melody),” “Psycho Killer”BIGGEST ASSHOLE MOMENT: Telling a newspaper that Talking Heads had broken up before actually telling the other three Talking Heads.9. James Brown sang "I feel good!" but his musicians rarely did. Drummer Clyde Stubblefield said Brown fined them constantly — and sometimes you didn’t even need to make a mistake, just do something a little different. Trombonist Fred Wesley said Brown tried to control “every aspect of your life,” from what happened onstage to how musicians looked. Brown could be spectacularly petty about his rules, too. Wesley remembered playing so hard at the Apollo that his lip split open and a tiny spot of blood landed on his uniform. Brown fined him $50. "I thought that was kinda unfair since he worked me so hard," Wesley said. "Got a $50 fine, I wasn’t making but $200.” Wesley also said that Brown could make $350,000–$500,000 in a week while keeping his band payroll around $6,000, and he begrudged even paying that much. Oh, and sometimes he withheld pay too.

Martyn Goodacre / Getty ImagesA teenage Bootsy Collins — whose band the Pacemakers was recruited after most of Brown’s previous band walked out — said Brown would deliberately tear the band down even after a great show: “Any time that you knew you’d played a great gig, and the people were loving it, he’d call you into his dressing room and say… ‘You just ain’t on it. You just ain’t on the one.’” Bootsy said Brown once told a sax player to throw his horn away because he was playing “trash,” and at one point told the whole band, “Y’all the greatest band in the world, but you just can’t play.” Bootsy eventually concluded Brown was deliberately messing with them to make them practice harder.

David Redfern / Getty ImagesBEST SONGS: “Papa’s Got a Brand New Bag,” “I Got You (I Feel Good),” “The Payback”BIGGEST ASSHOLE MOMENT: In 1988, Brown reportedly stormed into an insurance seminar carrying a shotgun after becoming furious that someone had used his private bathroom. He then fled police in his pickup, leading them on a two-state chase and continuing to drive for miles even after officers shot out his tires.10. The Smiths' Morrissey is unlikely to be on any of his former bandmates' Christmas lists. Drummer Mike Joyce sued him and Johnny Marr over not being paid fairly in the band and won: the court awarded him £1 million in back royalties and a 25% share going forward. More than 30 years later, Joyce said he still has no relationship with Morrissey: “I don’t feel it will ever happen between myself and Morrissey.” Bassist Andy Rourke kept playing with Morrissey after the group broke up, and even wrote “Yes, I’m Blind” and “The Girl Least Likely To.” But when he was asked years later if he was paid for his songwriting, he replied simply: “I don’t get paid for it.” Asked why he didn’t challenge Morrissey, he said, “He’s impossible to get ahold of.”

Louise Wilson / Getty ImagesAnd then there's guitarist Johnny Marr, who, while remastering the Smiths catalog, offered an olive branch by emailing Morrissey, “You can really hear the love in it.” Morrissey didn’t respond. Marr eventually said: “You can only try and be friendly with someone for so long without getting anything back. You just think: ‘Ah, fuck it.’” Morrissey wasn't any better when the band was together. There's a famous story that he fired Rourke (who was struggling with heroin addiction) with a note left on his car reading, “Andy — you have left The Smiths. Goodbye and good luck, Morrissey.” Morrissey denies that story, so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯.

Pete Cronin / Getty ImagesBEST SONGS: “There Is a Light That Never Goes Out,” “How Soon Is Now?,” “Everyday Is Like Sunday”BIGGEST ASSHOLE MOMENT: After Mike Joyce successfully sued for a fairer share of the Smiths’ royalties, the judge in the case described Morrissey as “devious, truculent and unreliable where his own interests were at stake.”11. Former Met general manager Schuyler Chapin said that opera singer Kathleen Battle “is the only artist I know of in my 43 years of dealing with artists who has managed to alienate practically everyone in every single place where she’s ever been.” And there were receipts. At the Boston Symphony, Battle bombarded management with petty complaints about her hotel food and threw the assistant conductor out of rehearsals. At the San Francisco Opera, she apparently antagonized the chorus and orchestra so badly that, after she left, backstage employees had T-shirts made reading “I SURVIVED THE BATTLE.”

NBC / Getty ImagesThings got even stranger at the Met. In 1988, Battle reportedly drove mezzo-soprano Tatiana Troyanos to tears by repeatedly demanding staging changes that put Troyanos at a disadvantage. She was also said to forbid people at rehearsals from looking at her. In 1994, when Battle was accused of mistreating colleagues during rehearsals for The Daughter of the Regiment, general manager Joseph Volpe fired her and canceled her future engagements. Reportedly, when the cast was told, they applauded. Battle disputed the characterization, saying she had never been told about any “unprofessional actions,” but the reaction from colleagues was hard to miss.

Johan Elbers / Getty ImagesBEST SONGS: “O mio babbino caro,” “Ach, ich fühl’s,” “Rejoice Greatly”BIGGEST ASSHOLE MOMENT: Battle once pulled out of a Vienna Philharmonic concert just three hours before curtain, forcing the orchestra to cancel the entire performance — reportedly the only time in its history that had happened.

Your daily brain workout: You're In The Top 3% Of Intelligence If You Can Solve Today's Word Chains

Read it on BuzzFeed.com

Original Article on Source

Source: “AOL Entertainment”