Series
Documented fallings-out — on stage, in court, and on the record.
7 stories published.
Start here · Part 1
John Lennon told the others he was leaving in September 1969 and was persuaded to say nothing. Paul McCartney announced it six months later in a press release he wrote himself — and then sued the other three to get out.
7 min read
Part 2
Two marriages inside one group, both ended within three years of each other, and the biggest song of the period was sung by an ex-wife to lyrics written by her ex-husband. The documented sequence.
5 min read
Part 3
Mike Todd died in a plane crash in March 1958. By September, his widow Elizabeth Taylor was involved with his best friend, Eddie Fisher, who was married to Debbie Reynolds. The public chose a side immediately.
5 min read
Part 4
Kanye West took the microphone from a nineteen-year-old on live television in September 2009. What followed — an apology, a reconciliation, a song, a recorded phone call and a leak — is one of the most litigated pop-culture disputes of the century.
5 min read
Part 5
On 27 March 2022 Will Smith walked onto the Academy Awards stage and struck Chris Rock during a live broadcast. Everything that followed — the win, the apology, the resignation, the ten-year ban — is on the record.
5 min read
Part 6
Slash walked out of Guns N' Roses in October 1996. Axl Rose kept the name, spent fourteen years making one album, and turned down his own Hall of Fame induction. The reunion tour grossed over half a billion dollars.
4 min read
Part 7
The same underlying dispute was tried twice, on two continents, under two legal systems — and produced results that appear to contradict each other. The reason is in the procedure, not the drama.
4 min read
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