Rock and Roll Sabotage: The Performances, Feuds, and Mistakes That Destroyed Careers

Everybody talked about it since they first moved to Oregon.

The big one, the earthquake that trashed the whole west coast, total destruction.

Officially calling it the largest natural disaster in American history.

I just didn't know what would help me next, so I took it all, even the gun.

It was time.

Or wherever you listen to your favorite shows available now.

So I started this series about a month ago, and I was overwhelmed with feedback to do another episode.

So for this one, I got seven more stories of rock and roll sabotage and treachery,

and I guarantee you a lot of these stories you don't know.

Sometimes the music industry's bands were a centimede.

Then again, sometimes a band can be their own worst enemy as well.

Today's episode is the proof.

I'm going to tell you about a Saturday Night Live performance where one guitarist was so pissed off

of the band's frontman.

He made up his own version of their hit song on the spot.

And the frontman had no clue how to sing along.

It was a train wreck, and he was embarrassed on national television.

Then there was a band who was excited to release their new CD,

or with high-tech tracks, who were supposed to be interactive in the coming computer age, early 90s.

But instead, the CD caused many systems to crash,

which led to massive album returns and radio stations blacklist of the band

for having a virus on the album.

And then there was the frontman who systematically tried to erase his female bandmate

on their albums and onstage because she was more popular with their fans.

Talk about ego.

Got some great ones coming up.

Let's do it.

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Professor of rock.

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Well, you asked for it.

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It's part two of our show, Sabotage,

where rock stars are sometimes their own worst enemies.

Let's get into the first one.

All right, starting off at number seven.

I've got a great one.

It's the police.

A band well known for its infighting.

We're going to talk about when they got together for the reunion tour.

Cross five albums in the 70s and 80s.

Of course, there's no shortage of stories about their volatile nature.

From fist fights in the studio to wars,

awards and the press.

These guys were always at each other's throats.

It's no surprise.

The trio, of course,

comprised of three competing super egos.

And they had reason to be super egos.

Let's be honest.

From Stuart Copeland,

guitarist, Andy Summers,

and the ringleader sting.

Three of the most talented musicians that have ever lived.

You know, that was their secret sauce.

Their competitive streak made them use a great.

But a dynamic like that can only last so long, right?

The police went away in the mid 80s after synchronicity and summary mixes

for their greatest hits out.

Every breath you take to singles.

In the band's absence,

Sting was the spotlight.

He released eight studio albums between 1985 and 2006,

putting together a monumental solo career,

selling 35 million albums in that span.

Into that, 12 top 40 US singles in another 20 in the UK.

And the man has been nothing short of brilliant solo career.

But of course, that was not going to intimidate the likes of Stuart Copeland

and Andy Summers.

So when the police reassembled in 2007 for the reunion tour,

the massive world tour they were on,

they weren't about to get down on one knee

and worship their former frontman.

Now, this reunion was going to be just like gold times.

The tour itself was a guaranteed commercial juggernaut,

and it's the police, you know.

Sting called the timing impeccable.

The band was there.

Couldn't have happened any sooner or later.

It was the first time all three shared a stage

since the Acrimonius split, let's say,

commemorating the 30th anniversary of their debut single,

Roxanne.

The tour was one of the highest grossing concert series of all time,

with over 360 million ticket sales.

While the onstage performance is showcased

the trio's undeniable skill,

Stuart Copeland kept the punchlines popping,

dishing out the dirt on his humorous blog post

about the band's backstage friction.

I gotta go back and read some of those.

I read some of them before I did this.

But the behind-the-scenes expose

undercut the image of the unified front.

Fans ate it up,

and I don't think anyone expected this reunion

to be all hugs and rainbows anyway.

I mean, old habits die hard.

Amazing. You could play that drug in nine beats.

Yeah, I'm testing.

You could get lost just because it's all confusing

for the bass playing elements.

You know, the band sabotaged each other

on stage as well.

I mean, most nights it was the battle of the rhythm section.

You know, a steward on drums and sting on bass,

Copeland would mess with Sting's phrasing every chance he got.

He would intentionally speed up the tempo

to a frantic pace and go into spontaneous drum fills

designed to keep Sting off balance.

Stuart would say about it and I quote,

I'd play a feel that wasn't authorized

just to see the back of Sting's neck turn red,

which was my signal that I'd successfully sabotage his zen.

And now Sting for his part was messing with Stuart Copeland

just as much.

And Sting's words,

being in a band is like being in a teenage gang.

As for Andy Summers,

he fell back into his role of trying to keep his two bandmates

from strangling each other.

Asked if the reunion tour was the band's last Sting would say,

yeah, I think so.

I think in an exercise in nostalgia,

it was very successful.

Certainly a successful tour commercially.

But is there a need to do it again?

I don't think so.

It was a bit like going back to a dysfunctional marriage

in many ways.

People were very happy to see his playing together again.

So I think we covered all the bases there.

I think we're done.

All right, coming to number six,

it's The Black Crows.

And the story of how they went rogue on their 1991 tour

was easy top.

Now, the Crows debut album, Shake Your Money Maker,

that of course dropped in early 1990's phenomenal album.

In a landscape dominated by big hair and polished hard rock,

The Black Crows came in swinging and they landed in uppercut.

It was refreshing.

The band sounded like they'd been beaned in

from an entirely different decade.

It was songs like Hard to Handle and She Talks to Angels,

both of course, which went to number one on the US rock charts.

And added to that, the number five rocket, jealous again,

the number 11 twice as hard, and the number two seeing things.

These guys were on a serious role.

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Shake your money, make your claim to number four in the Billboard 200

and sold five million copies in the States.

They were one of the hottest tickets at the time.

So when they landed the opening slot on ZZTops for a cyclor tour,

felt like the next logical step up the ladder.

Massive national tour, huge venues, millions of eyeballs and air drums.

However, there would be friction between the ban

and ZZTops management over the tour's corporate sponsor, Miller Bear.

I mean, from the get-go, the cross front man, Chris Robbins,

and made it clear what he thought about that arrangement.

The Atlanta band was passionately independent and anti-establishment.

They still are.

They didn't appreciate playing with Miller Bear banners for a backdrop.

So night after night after night, when Chris stepped up to the mic,

he didn't hold back his disdain for their corporate overlords.

He gestured toward the Miller signage and make wise cracks about being

Miller time and a corporate kind of day.

ZZTops manager Bill Hamm, he warned the cross to knock it off,

but the warning fell on deaf ears.

Chris Robinson kept it up night after night.

I mean, he got to the point where ZZTops management started posting guys

just off stage to write down verbatim what Chris would say at the mic, word for word.

But it wasn't just Bill Hamm getting after the ban here.

According to Chris, Miller reps warned them that they would be thrown off the tour

if they didn't stop talking smack about the sponsor.

We were given strict orders that they would be held to pay if, you know, we did it again.

Of course, Chris's response, we don't have a contract with you.

We thought we were going on tour ZZ.

If you want to throw us off, throw us off, I don't care.

It all finally came to a head when the tour rolled into Atlanta.

Of course, the black crow's hometown.

Whatever restraint Chris Robinson had left, he left at backstage here.

He went all in on the Miller Bear mockery and that was the last straw.

The black crow's were fired for the recycler tour in their hometown for repeatedly insulting their sponsors.

But according to Chris, ZZTops, I mean the ban, they had nothing to do with it.

And they loved playing with them.

Really, that's what they signed up for.

But can't say bad things about Miller.

That came down and the band didn't like it and the band's management.

Although I have a feeling they probably didn't even really know what was happening.

And in the aftermath, the black crow's, they were labeled as unmarketable

and really dangerous by promoters.

That's what they were stamped with.

And it did cost them some money and exposure.

But in this story, the sabotage actually worked out in the band's favor.

What happened is they would tell their side of the story of the press

and they actually came out looking like legendary outlaws.

I mean, they were the band that got fired for trashing corporate sponsors, corporate rock, whatever you want to call it.

The bad boys who could not be bought.

I mean, what's more rock and roll than that?

The following year in 1992, their sophomore album, The Southern Harmony and Musical Companion.

It went all the way to number one of the Billboard 200.

It sold two million copies and kicked out four straight number one rock chart singles.

So what many thought was sabotage turned out to be a good thing.

Trash and Miller beer.

It worked out.

All right.

Coming in at number five, it's the 80s British pop sensation.

Samantha Fox and the award show from hell.

Now, before transition in the music, Samantha Fox, you remember from the 80s.

She was one of the most recognizable faces in the UK as a high profile glamour mob.

Her career actually took off at age 16 when she began appearing in,

not riskate photos for the British tabloid, the sun, and 83.

Her popularity was immense and she became one of the most photographed women in the UK during the decade.

Yet, despite the massive success of her modeling career, Samantha Fox had already had artistic ambitions

from a very young age.

I mean, at age 14 she formed her first band and signed a short-lived record deal at 15.

This set the stage for her pivot back to music in the mid 80s.

Samantha Fox's music career officially exploded in 1986 with her debut single Touch Me.

I want your body, parentheses song.

It became a global smash reaching number one in 17 countries.

And I picked the number four in the US Hot 100.

Throughout the late 80s, she released three successful studio albums, Touch Me 1986, Samantha Fox 87.

And I want to have some fun from 88.

Remember naughty girls you'd love to.

It's true, naughty girls we love.

Fox collaborated with top tier producers like Stock Gate, Good Waterman, and Full Force,

earning a Brit Award nomination for Best British Female Artist in 88.

A lot of us had a crush on her back in the day.

By 1989, Samantha Fox had crossed over for modeling into pop music

and she was starting to make it stick.

But then came the night that blew it all up.

Samantha was tapped to co-host the Brit Awards, one of the biggest nights in British music.

For a young artist on the rise, this should have been a career-defining moment.

It was a chance to shine in front of millions.

Instead, it was one of the most epic live television disasters in UK broadcast history.

So her co-host was none other than Mick Fleetwood.

Of course, Rock Legend, iconic drummer.

But also a man with zero experience hosting a live award show.

That alone should have been a red flag.

But no one could have predicted how badly the whole thing would unravel going forth.

She's out of control already, I can tell.

The trouble really started before the cameras even rolled.

When Samantha gave Mick a good luck kiss backstage, she said,

he reached a pot, cannabis.

And at some point during the night, a massive chunk of hash that Samantha described

as the size of a block of Parmesan cheese fell out of Mick's pocket, online television.

But even worse was the whole production.

It was a technical train wreck.

The teleprompter went down almost immediately to physical cue cards.

There were in total disarray.

Wrong winners were announced for categories that hadn't even been introduced yet.

The whole show was collapsing in real time.

And Samantha was standing right in the middle of all of it.

In front of millions of viewers, and there was nowhere to hide.

Tonight, they're totally compostmentists, whatever that means I don't know.

I mean, she kept looking at Mick Fleetwood for some help.

But as she put it, he just gave her a big vacant face.

Of course, he did. He was high.

The lights were on. Nobody was home.

So every time things went sideways, she was left her own devices.

Samantha, I mean, she was only 22 years old at this point.

Doing her best to hold a sinking ship together with no support and no working equipment.

I don't know because I can't see.

Lined away.

I mean, the night was such a catastrophe that the Brit Awards pulled the plug on live broadcast

for about two decades because of that.

When it was finally over, Samantha Fox found herself in the crosshairs.

The press eviscerated her.

The cabalys branded her, quote, bimbo and blamed her for the production disaster

that was really completely out of her control.

Meanwhile, Mick, you walked away with no damage to his career.

But Samantha Fox, she got hand of the bill.

Her record sales dropped sharply after that and she never had another chart hit.

And the UK or anywhere else for that matter.

The professional credibility she'd spent years building evaporated almost overnight.

It really wasn't fair.

It's kind of what happened to Janet Jackson when the whole NIPPLE gate happened.

I can't say it on here.

But Justin Timberlake really didn't take any of the brunt for it.

She took it all.

And the same thing happened to Samantha Fox.

Massage.

I don't say that very often, but that's pure massage.

He said, if you consider 50-50, meaning I think that both of you are up there on the stage doing this,

then I probably got 10% of the blame.

I think America is harsher on women, he said.

And I think America is unfairly harsh on ethnic people.

Right, coming in at number four, I got 11 Rockets who were sabotaged by a voodoo doll

in a faulty space here, if you can believe that.

This is a really insane story to run their career.

Formed out of the ashes of Bauhaus, the 11 Rockets roster included Daniel Ash on vocals

in the tar drummer Kevin Haskins and bassist David J.

The trio released their debut album, 7th, 3 and a Teenage Heaven back in 85.

What really wasn't until 1989, though, that they scored their commercial breakthrough.

A self-titled album which included the number three hot 100 single, Soul Alive.

Great song.

A jump ahead to 93.

11 Rockets signed with Rick Rubin and America Recordings.

But their 1994 LP Hot Trip to Heaven failed to make a showing on the Billboard 200 at all.

So coming into album number six title, Sweet F A, the band was looking to rekindle

the commercial fire of Soul Alive.

But that's not the kind of fire they got.

In April of 95, the ex Bauhaus trio was recording Sweet F A and Harry Houdini's old mansion

on Laurel Canyon when a massive blazer erupted.

It would ruin their career.

The band had been celebrating with Genesis P. Orge of the band Psychic TV.

Orge and Haskins shared an intense interest in the supernatural.

During productions of Sweet F A, Orge fell ill and Haskins brought him to the mansion to rest.

So then, Orge woke up and he found a voodoo doll stuffed in his pants.

He had no idea how it got in there.

That's weird.

Reportedly, Orge, who I guess have experience with this sort of thing,

he performed a banishing ritual on the doll and placed it outside the door of the rehearsal room.

Orge went back to sleep.

But then he and Haskins were woken up by screaming voices around 6 or 7 telling them to get out

that the house was on fire.

In a panic, Orge jumped from a window and he cracked his ribs.

Kevin Haskins along with David J found themselves trapped at the top of the house.

Somehow, they survived after jumping from another window.

Much of the mansion was gutted and Love and Rock is pretty much lost everything.

Because they had all their equipment in there.

All the band's gear was destroyed both their recording equipment and their instruments,

including Daniel Asha's price saxophone, which was melted into the floorboards.

Months of recorder material was lost and in the aftermath it was determined that the fire

was started by a faulty space heater that was in their rehearsal space.

Or that voodoo doll.

There's always that.

But the label's insurance company, they refused to pay out the claim for the lost equipment

and the studio time.

The band spent years in a brutal legal battle against the insurance giant trying to get reimbursed.

Now, they ultimately won the lawsuit, but legal fees cancelled out the settlement altogether.

Meanwhile, Rick Rubin spent $30,000 of his own money to complete the record contract.

He and Love and Rock has re-recorded the entire album.

It was released on March 19, 1996.

It wasn't the comeback that they originally envisioned, but the album's lead single Sweet Love or Hangover

did at least go to number 10 on the US alternative chart, so there's that.

But the band was basically done in by their insurance company.

All right, coming in at number three.

We've got the Red Odd Chili Peppers, and they're off the rails performance under the bridge on Saturday night live.

So the Red Odd Chili Peppers formed back in Los Angeles back in 82.

The band persevered through the 80s.

They finally scored their first alternative chart hit with their cover of Stevie Wonder's Higher Ground in 1989.

That one went to number 11.

But they were just scratching the surface.

Then on September 24, 1991, the Chili Peppers released their Breakthrough LP Blood Sugar Sex Magic.

It was the same day that Nirvana released Nevermind.

The album would go seven times platinum in the US and spawn a slew of Red Hot Classics from the number one alternative chart hit,

give it away to break in the girl and suck my kiss.

And of course the number two smash under the bridge.

I want most of the band was thrilled with their escalating success.

There was at least one member who truly wasn't.

That would be guitarist John Fricente.

John had come aboard when he was 18 in 1988.

He was shortly after the death of Hillel Slavic.

As a teenager, he was a hardcore Pepper's fan.

However, he hated the band's growing fame.

As the spotlight on the Funk Rockers grew brighter, John became increasingly disillusioned and he was steeped in heroin abuse,

started isolating himself from his bandmates.

So on the night of February 22, 1992, the Red Hot Chili Peppers appeared on Saturday Night Live to perform two songs.

It was huge for them.

They were going to perform Stolen Cold Bush and Under the Bridge, which had just been released as a single.

This was their chance to introduce the song to a national audience.

But that night, Anthony Keedis was really apprehensive about singing.

Technically, Under the Bridge was challenging for him to sing, and he could see that John was in a sour mood.

Something was off.

The show's first number Stolen Cold Bush started off well.

I guess it went sideways because Keedis burst into a fiddle while stage antics.

It actually kicked John Frischente in the process.

Intentional or not, John was pissed.

So when the guys returned to play Under the Bridge, John Frischente began playing a version of the song that Anthony Keedis had never heard before.

The jarring and dissonant intro was completely out of time with the studio version, the one that they were used to performing.

And live, in front of millions of people.

Anthony Keedis had to scramble to figure out the right key.

But the ad libbing, it didn't end there.

Instead of singing his melodic backing vocals, John decided to scream at the top of his lungs.

For the majority of viewers who were unfamiliar with the song in the band, it was a confusing spectacle.

Anthony would say he was stabbed in the back and hung out to dry in front of America because so many watched the show.

But despite the, shall we say, avant-garde rendition under the bridge, the following week blood sugar-sex magic, the record shot through the roof.

And the chili peppers popularity skyrocketed from there.

Turns out the fame despising guitarists had just sabotaged himself and not the band.

His behavior became increasingly erratic.

While in tour in Japan, he told the guys he was done.

He said, I have to go home right away.

I can't do this anymore.

I will die if I don't get out of this band right away.

It was his final act of sabotage leaving the band without a guitarist mid-tour.

John eventually returned to the group in 1998 and remains their longest ten-year guitarist.

But man, 92 was a rough patch for sure.

Speaking of misogyny, oh, sorry.

Coming in at number two, I got a story of the Pixies and the systematic silencing of Kim Deal.

The form in 1986, classic lineup of the Pixies consisted of frontman Charles Thompson, better known as black frances,

guitarist Joey Santiago, drummer David Lovering, and the bassist vocalist Kim Deal.

Now between 1987 and 1991, the foursome released five albums.

From Pilgrim, Cerforoza, DuLittle, Bassanova, and Traplomont.

On every track, on every one of those albums, black frances was the songwriter.

Except for a couple cover songs.

Kim Deal, who had ambitions of becoming a songwriter herself, received partial writing credit on a couple other songs.

There was gigantic on Cerforoza and silver on DuLittle.

From the beginning, Kim was writing her own songs, which she offered up to the band.

But she was hit with a wall of resistance from black frances.

And going into 1989's DuLittle, she already had a backlog of rejected songs.

Because her songs kept getting rejected, Kim formed the breeders, you know, the side project.

Her first album, Pod 1990, was effectively a collection of rejected Pixies tracks.

But even without her songwriting, Kim was a vital part of the Pixies music.

And she was quickly becoming a fan favorite. I love Kim Deal.

Francis later complained that Kim only had to play one F and note, and the crowd would go wild.

So increasingly jealous, black frances began a passive, aggressive campaign to undermine Kim Deal's popularity

all together. I mean, during shows, he ordered sound engineers to turn Kim's mic down.

So, you know, audiences couldn't hear it at all.

He changed set list, and he cut songs that put her in the spotlight.

And Kim started talking to the crowd, black frances would start into another song that cut her off.

In the studio, Francis tried to write songs without them.

And then when Kim Deal turned her talents to the breeders, which, you know, still a side project at this point,

Francis would schedule Pixies shows in band business conflict with breeders events, so she couldn't do it.

During the 1989 Do Little Tour, the friction turned physical at a concert in Germany when Deal was reluctant.

Francis threw his guitar her on stage in a fit of rage.

Following the incident, Francis tried to fire Kim from the band, but he was talked out of it by the band's lawyer and management.

Finally, by early 1993, black frances' ego reached its breaking point.

Without calling a meeting, or even speaking to Kim at all, he announced the Pixies were over during a radio interview.

And then he actually sent a fax to the band members to confirm it.

While talking with Melody Maker after the split, Kim was asked about a reaction to the fax.

She simply highlighted the absurdity of it all saying, I didn't care.

I was like, oh, okay. It was just a weird way to do it.

But then everything about that band was weird.

Now, later that year, Kim would have sweet revenge.

The breeders released their second album, Last Splash,

and the charts had outperformed anything the Pixies had ever put out, including their latest, Trump LeMonde.

That one hit number 72 and sold about 360,000 copies.

Last Splash went to number 33 and went platinum, and they had a number two alternative chart hit Cannonball.

Bigger hit than any sign the Pixies ever had.

All right, for an honorable mention, I got a really good one for you.

I've got the Synth Pop Group Information Society, primarily known for their 1988 top 10 hot 100 hits.

What's on your mind, pure energy, and walking away.

And actually, they had another hit after that, think.

Oh, oh, no.

What's on my mind?

Oh, son, I'm going away, mom, mom.

They were on me, and now I'm here.

But before 92, the band had lost a couple steps on the charts,

and they were kind of looking to rebound in a big way with their 1992 album, Peace and Love Inc.

But the album was a complete disaster.

So looking ahead ahead of the curve, the group included a high-tech 3M data tracks on the album that were supposed to be interactive for computer users, right?

However, those tracks effectively acted as a digital virus for 90 stereo systems.

Because many CD players of that era couldn't distinguish between data and audio, they would either crash or emit an ear piercing static that damaged speakers and also professional broadcast equipment.

It was a tech nightmare.

I mean, radio stations fearing for their hardware, they blacklisted the album completely, effectively killed any chance of the album's singles had of gaining traction on the airways because of it.

I mean, the thought was devastating.

Retailers were hit with massive returns from fans who thought that they had bought defective product, because the CD wouldn't play.

Keyboard as Paul Rob later described the decision as commercial suicide.

The label Tommy Boyd withdrew promotion and Peace and Love Inc. became the least successful of their major label releases.

I got the album for Christmas from my cousin Mark, and it wouldn't work. I had to take it back as well. I remember that.

Thank you, don't be sick. Peace and Love Inc.

Alright, in at number one with a bullet, I got Pearl Jam, the band that did everything in their power to keep themselves from blowing up in the 90s.

And as you'll see, it requires some serious effort on their part.

I'm not saying this was a bad thing necessarily. Pearl Jam didn't want to sell out to the highest bidder.

The band's debut album, 10, was a massive part of the Grunge tsunami that flooded the airwaves in the early 90s.

I mean, the album sold 13 million copies in America and produced three rock chart hits.

A live hit, number 16, even flow hit, number 3.

Jeremy went top five.

Oh, I'm still alive.

Jeremy also instigated a national conversation over violence in schools with its controversial music video.

Released on August 17, 1992, Jeremy catapulted the band the next level of fame.

I mean, after a member, 10 actually outsold Nirvana Nevermind in America.

After Jeremy, though, there was very nearly a fourth single from 10 that could have eclipsed all their previous hits.

I'm talking about Black.

The world had already received a taste of it in May of 92 when MTV aired Pearl Jam's Unplugged Performance.

As any MTV addicted Gen Xer could tell yet, Pearl Jam's performance of Black was deeply moving.

It was an incredible moment.

So after the shockwaves of Jeremy, Pearl Jam's label epic was ready to release Black as the crowning single from 10.

However, Pearl Jam, and particularly Eddie Better, they were dead set against it.

They didn't want to get any bigger and they fought to keep the song from becoming a single.

And from then on, Pearl Jam actively worked to undercut their popularity.

They refused to release any more music videos after that.

They creatively dug deeper into experimental territory.

The follow-up album, 1993's Versus, it was still massively successful when seven times platinum with their number one rock chart hit Daughter.

But their next couple albums, Vitalogy and No Code, just getting more outside of the mainstream by design, great albums.

But by the late 90s, Pearl Jam had become something of a niche act.

And maybe Pearl Jam's most effective act of self-sabotage was their war against ticketmaster.

The friction began in 1992 when the band wanted to play two free concerts in Seattle to think they're fans.

Only thing is, ticketmaster insisted on charging a service fee for every ticket.

The conflict escalated in 1984 during the Versus tour.

Pearl Jam wanted to cap ticket prices at $18 and service fees at 10% of ticket prices.

This would keep tickets under $20.

But ticketmaster refused to lower their service fees.

Pearl Jam canceled their summer tour in protest.

That was a big coup against the greedy bastards.

But it cost the fans the chance to see their favorite band.

Pearl Jam took the corporate giant to court from there and even testify before Congress.

They alleged ticketmaster's exclusive contracts with major venues created a monopoly that really made it impossible for artists to protect their fans from price gouging.

For years, Pearl Jam all but vanished from the public eye, performing only an unconventional non-ticketmaster locations, which I think is pretty badass.

I mean, during these key years in the mid-90s, Pearl Jam basically did everything in their power to stunt their own popularity.

But playing devil's advocate for a second.

Imagine if they hadn't.

What if they had released and promoted black to the fullest?

What if they kept cranking out music videos?

What if they stuck closer to the winning templates to 10 inverses?

And what if they hadn't spent years touring off grit?

I mean, we might be talking about Pearl Jam as one of the biggest bands ever.

It kind of already are one of the biggest.

But it's estimated the Seattle rockers have sold nearly 100 million albums globally, right?

It's not unrealistic to suggest they might have doubled that if they hadn't deliberately undercut their own fame.

I mean, can you imagine?

But then again, when Pearl Jam even be Pearl Jam, if they hadn't done all that, they wouldn't be.

It all worked out for the best.

I think some of their albums, I mean, you know, they didn't have to sabotage black.

Black is a great song.

There's no reason why people shouldn't hear black.

Why every person shouldn't hear black out there.

And, you know, music videos are part of the game, so that part I don't really understand.

I totally respect the hell out of them for what they did against Ticketmaster.

Bully, bully, bully.

I say, awesome.

I think it's amazing.

And I think it's great that they, you know, they weren't looking to sell out.

But I mean, some bands, we talked about the replacements.

I mean, some bands are so focused on not selling out that they cost themselves.

I think you could say that about quite a few bands.

And Pearl Jam probably could have sold another 50 to 75 million, maybe even 100 million more albums.

I don't know.

I'm fine with it, but what do you think?

Let's have a great discussion below examples of sabotage.

Man, that information society, I didn't realize how much that undercut that band.

That just cut the legs out from under them.

But, you know, let's have a great discussion below.

What are your memories of these songs?

What are their sabotage stories?

What should we tell?

Should we do a volume three?

Let me know.

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