Making Sweet Music: 15 Groups With Famous Relationships
The old adage "Don't mix business and pleasure" doesn't apply to the music industry. This Valentine's Day, we're showcasing some artists that found love in the workplace. Whenever members of a group get together, it can result in an invigorating period of creativity. . . or things crash and burn when the romance ends. What follows are 15 examples of noteworthy intraband relationships and how they – and their bands – fared, for better or worse. By Daniel Kreps
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The Fugees
When the Fugees went on hiatus soon after they hit the mainstream in 1996 with The Score, the prevailing thinking was that each member of the band wanted to pursue a solo career. Years later Wyclef Jean revealed in his memoir that his affair with Lauryn Hill was reason for the Fugees' split. Judging from Jean's account, the relationship was tumultuous. "We had fights on planes. We had huge fights, and a few times when it went down, she started swinging at me right there in the seats," wrote Jean, who was married while romancing his bandmate. The breaking point, claimed Jean, was a paternity dispute with Hill over the latter's son, whose father was Rohan Marley. "She could no longer be my muse," Jean recalled. "Our love spell was broken."
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Sonic Youth
For more than three decades, Kim Gordon and Thurston Moore were the poster couple for how to have a healthy intraband relationship. Their marriage survived 15 albums, endless touring and personal tragedy. The couple announced their separation in 2011 after 27 years of marriage, and with that sad news, it seemingly meant the end for Sonic Youth.
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The White Stripes
Although early speculation suggested that the White Stripes were brother and sister, Meg and Jack White were in fact married for four years. (John Anthony Gillis, "Jack," actually took Meg's last name following their 1996 marriage.) While most groups harboring an intraband relationship would likely fold following a divorce – especially in the case of a duo – the White Stripes somehow flourished: Their 2001 breakout White Blood Cells arrived a year after their marriage ended, and the White Stripes pummeled the blues for a decade before splitting for in 2011. Meg would eventually marry Jackson Smith, the son of Patti Smith and Fred "Sonic" Smith.
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Fleetwood Mac
Where to begin? ? In an anything-goes era of cocaine and excess, the members of Fleetwood Mac were also frequently sharing beds. Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham were already lovers and collaborators when they joined Fleetwood Mac in 1975. Nicks would eventually have an affair with Mick Fleetwood, whose wife once had an affair with one time Fleetwood Mac guitarist Bob Weston, resulting in Weston getting kicked out of the band. On top of that, Christine McVie and bassist John McVie were married for years until they broke up in the months before 1977's Rumours.
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Ike & Tina Turner
Ike and Tina Turner were responsible for one of music's most infamously dysfunctional relationships, and their troubled union was the basis for the 1993 Tina biopic What's Love Got To Do With It. It's unclear whether Ike and Tina (born Anna Mae Bullock) were ever officially married – they eloped in Tijuana – but their 16-year association resulted in classics like "River Deep – Mountain High," "Proud Mary," and dark allegations of spousal abuse. As their marriage fell apart in 1976, so did the Ike & Tina Turner Revue. Two years later, Ike and Tina were divorced, with the latter having to fight in court for the right to keep using her stage name. Despite all this, Ike and Tina are one of only a handful of couples to have been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
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Jefferson Airplane
When Grace Slick joined Jefferson Airplane in 1966, she was still married to Jerry Slick, lead singer of the band Grace had quit to join the Airplane. In true hippy fashion, Slick soon began dating her new bandmate Paul Kantner. While the Slick/Kantner relationship didn't ground the Airplane immediately, singer Marty Balin soon left the band. Jefferson Airplane made it to 1970 before Jorma Kaukonen and Jack Casady split to form Hot Tuna. Kantner and Slick continued on as Jefferson Starship. Those two soon broke up, and Slick then married Skip Johnson, a Jefferson Starship lighting designer.
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ABBA
For a brief moment in this legendary Swedish pop group's decade-long lifespan, the As in ABBA were married to the Bs. However, by the time Benny Andersson and Anni-Frid Lyngstad were tying the knot in 1978, Bjorn Ulvaeus and Agnetha Faltskog were untying theirs. By 1981, the two couples in ABBA had both divorced, and within a year, the group itself had split for good.
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Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band
And now a happy story! Singer-guitarist Patti Scialfa first met Bruce Springsteen while she was gigging at Asbury Park, New Jersey's famed The Stone Pony in the early Eighties, but it wasn't until 1984 that she was recruited to join the E Street Band for the Born in the U.S.A. tour. By the time 1988 and Tunnel of Love rolled around, Scialfa was both a full-fledged member of the E Street Band and Springsteen's partner. They married in 1991 and have been together ever since.
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Arcade Fire
The Houston-bred Win Butler met the Quebec-born Regine Chassagne in 2000 when both attended Montreal's McGill University. Arcade Fire formed soon after, and these band mates tied the knot in 2003. In April 2013, the pair welcomed a son, and six months after that, they delivered Reflektor.
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No Doubt
Gwen Stefani and bassist Tony Kanal began dating in 1987 shortly after forming No Doubt. They dated for seven years until Kanal broke it off with Stefani prior to the recording of their 1995 breakthrough Tragic Kingdom. That album's hit singles "Don't Speak" and "Sunday Morning" were inspired by the breakup. The band persevered through the split, and while opening for Bush in '95, Stefani met future husband Gavin Rossdale.
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The Revolution
While Prince took a ride on a protégé carousel that included Vanity, Apollonia, and Sheila E., guitarist Wendy Melvoin and keyboardist Lisa Coleman from his backing band the Revolution kept their relationship quiet until decades after Prince dissolved the band. Wendy & Lisa (pictured) eventually broke up, both professionally and personally, but they still continue to collaborate with each other. As an added twist, Prince was also once engaged to Wendy's twin sister Susannah Melvoin. That must have been awkward.
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Talking Heads
One of the longest running still-active married couples in rock, Talking Heads bassist Tina Weymouth and drummer Chris Frantz (pictured) have been married since 1977. Their relationship has spanned three bands – Talking Heads, the Tom Tom Club, and the David Byrne-less one-off the Heads – and the duo continue to work together as producers and musicians, even making a cameo with Gorillaz. Members of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, the Frantzs reside in Connecticut.
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The Cramps
The Cramps had dozens of band members come and go, but at the core of the psychobilly act was longtime couple Lux Interior and Poison Ivy. From 1979's Gravest Hits to 2004's Fiends of Dope Island, Interior and Ivy had one of rock's most enduring and creative relationships. Sadly, Interior passed away in 2009. He and Ivy had been together for 37 years.
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Blondie
Singer Deborah Harry and her guitarist boyfriend Chris Stein were in a bunch of different bands before Blondie put out its debut in 1976. As their relationship began to disintegrate following addiction troubles and money issues, not to mention Stein's bout with a serious illness and Harry's sex symbol status, Blondie also went on the fritz, eventually breaking up in 1982. Stein continued to work together musically with Harry throughout her solo career, and Blondie reunited in 1997. The band has continued on since.
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X
Los Angeles punk band X enjoyed their most rewarding creative period from 1980 to 1985. Those years – which saw the release of their landmark Los Angeles and Wild Gift, two of Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time – coincided with the marriage of bandmembers Exene Cervenka and John Doe. After the couple broke it off, X slowly disbanded and then went on an indefinite hiatus, during which time Cervenka married (and divorced) actor Viggo Mortensen. Thankfully, X has persevered through the Doe/Cervenka divorce and Cervenka's multiple sclerosis diagnosis by continuing to sporadically perform.