10 Musicians Who Ruined Their Own Lives
These musicians have no one to blame but themselves. Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we’re counting down our picks for the most famous musicians who saw their careers tarnished by immoral decisions and scandals.
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MusicTranscript
00:00 Is this camera on me?
00:01 Yes.
00:01 That's stupid!
00:03 Welcome to WatchMojo.
00:05 And today we're counting down our picks for the most famous musicians
00:08 who saw their careers tarnished by immoral decisions and scandals.
00:13 Has Gary Glitter arrived for sentencing today?
00:16 Gone were both the glamour and the rock.
00:18 If you like what you're hearing, be sure to check out the full song at the link below.
00:23 [Music]
00:32 Cee Lo Green
00:34 A once popular R&B singer, Cee Lo Green found success both in groups and as a solo artist.
00:40 His biggest songs are "Crazy" with Danger Mouse, which was released under their duo name
00:45 Gnarls Barkley, and of course his solo number two single "Forget You".
00:50 [Music]
00:57 But shortly after that song was released,
00:59 Green was accused of sexual battery and was investigated by the LAPD.
01:04 During that dinner, according to prosecutors, he slipped the woman the drug MDMA,
01:08 also known as ecstasy, before accompanying her to her hotel room.
01:12 He was later sentenced to three years probation and community service
01:16 after pleading no contest to furnishing a hallucinogen.
01:19 His image in the public eye took an even worse downturn when Green made some controversial
01:24 remarks on Twitter regarding the former of his cases and the general issue of sexual assaults.
01:30 And that was pretty much it for Cee Lo Green's career,
01:33 as none of his solo singles since "Forget You" have even charted.
01:36 [Music]
01:40 Tory Lanez
01:41 Canadian rapper Tory Lanez was on the come up in the mid-2010s.
01:46 A number of his albums reached the top five in America,
01:49 and his single "Love" received a Grammy nomination for Best R&B Song.
01:53 [Music]
01:58 But then came the night of July 12th, 2020.
02:01 Lanez and Megan Thee Stallion were reportedly attending a house party when Lanez shot her in
02:06 the foot. "Were you afraid for your life at that time?" "I was really scared because I had never
02:10 been shot at before." He publicly denied the claims, but was charged the following October
02:15 with a number of felonies related to the possession of a firearm. He was later found
02:19 guilty on three charges and sent to prison for 10 years. "It's unclear at this juncture whether
02:24 he will be deported to Canada." While he'll be free early next decade, something tells us that
02:30 his career will not be able to bounce back. Pete Doherty
02:34 The world underwent a garage rock revival in the late 90s and early 2000s,
02:38 spearheaded by bands like The Strokes and The Libertines.
02:42 [Music]
02:46 The latter saw great success in the United Kingdom with their self-titled album,
02:50 which reached number one and spawned the hit single "Can't Stand Me Now".
02:54 [Music]
03:01 Just as they were finding success though, frontman Pete Doherty was kicked out due to his inability
03:07 to successfully treat a substance use disorder. Eventually, co-frontman Karl Barad became
03:12 unwilling to continue without Doherty, and the band was dissolved at the height of their fame in 2004.
03:18 Unfortunately, this lightning in a bottle isn't something you can capture twice.
03:23 Fortunately, Doherty announced that he has refrained from substance use since late 2019,
03:28 so there's some good news to be found. "No matter how awful the circumstances,
03:33 the addictive mind convinces you that, you know, things will work."
03:37 Azealia Banks
03:39 While she never found enormous commercial success,
03:41 Azealia Banks was someone to watch in the early 2010s.
03:45 [Music]
03:51 Her debut single "212" was a modest success in the UK,
03:55 but far more important was its critical appreciation. "212" was met with immediate
04:00 acclaim and is now heralded as one of the best songs of the decade.
04:03 [Music]
04:07 But Banks disappeared as soon as she arrived, with "212" being her only top 20 song due to
04:13 a slew of harmful opinions. The singer has long been criticized for her use of social media,
04:18 often using Twitter, since rebranded to "X", to beef with other celebrities and espouse racist,
04:24 homophobic, xenophobic and transphobic remarks. It's a lot of phobics, and they effectively
04:31 derailed Banks' once promising career. "May the bridges we burn light the way."
04:35 Kanye West
04:37 There was a time when Kanye West was considered a genius. That time was in the 2000s and early
04:43 2010s, when the rapper was dropping GOAT albums like "Late Registration" and "My Beautiful Dark
04:48 Twisted Fantasy". And while Ye has always been a contentious celebrity, whose mental health issues
05:00 must also be acknowledged, things have gone from enjoyably bonkers to genuinely troubling in recent
05:07 years. He has expressed a number of disturbing opinions, like claiming that human subjugation
05:12 is a choice and praising Adolf Hitler. West also made a number of anti-Semitic remarks in 2022,
05:22 resulting in a flurry of lost business deals and briefly terminated Twitter accounts.
05:27 These outspoken beliefs, coupled with some disappointing albums like "Donda",
05:37 have seriously tainted Ye's life and legacy. Marilyn Manson
05:42 For a time in the 1990s, Marilyn Manson was considered a negative influence on America's
05:47 youth, with his lyrics even being studied in congressional hearings.
05:51 But most people saw through the act and regarded his behavior as performative art.
06:05 Despite the controversy, Manson continued to sell records and top the charts well into the 2000s.
06:11 However, he was properly cancelled in the early 2020s when several women,
06:16 including ex-fiancé Evan Rachel Wood, accused him of sexual and psychological abuse.
06:32 Despite a career full of contention and critical prodding, it was these accusations that put
06:37 Manson away for good. Maybe not behind bars, but certainly in the eyes of the public.
06:42 6ix9ine You may know Daniel Hernandez better as 6ix9ine,
06:47 the rainbow-haired, face-tatted artist behind songs like "Gummo" and "Fifi".
06:51 But he is equally known for his criminal behavior and celebrity feuds.
06:58 In 2015, 6ix9ine pleaded guilty to a nasty felony involving a minor and was arrested again three
07:05 years later on charges of racketeering, among other things. He testified against other members
07:11 of a street gang he was part of, resulting in a reduced sentence of just two years.
07:15 After being released from prison in April of 2020, he saw a brief resurgence with
07:28 his Nicki Minaj collab "Trollz". However, 6ix9ine has largely been unable to capture his pre-prison
07:37 glory since then. He has also been ostracized from the hip-hop community, making a potential
07:42 comeback even more unlikely. Gary Glitter
07:46 Once a glam rock icon, Gary Glitter turned heads with his dazzling public image and stage presence,
07:53 which often involved platform boots and glitter suits.
07:56 But even those who don't know a thing about Gary Glitter have heard some of his
08:05 most famous songs, "Another Rock 'n' Roll Christmas" and "Rock 'n' Roll Part II".
08:10 This astonishing career came to an abrupt end in the late 1990s, however, when Glitter was
08:20 arrested for downloading some highly illegal material. While he was only sentenced to four
08:24 months in prison, the scandal was enough to permanently tarnish his life and reputation.
08:29 Glitter faced further charges of sexual misconduct in the 2010s, resulting in a prison
08:34 sentence of 16 years. R. Kelly
08:48 Once heralded as the king of R&B, R. Kelly has sold over 75 million records and has won
08:54 three Grammys for his mega-hit "I Believe I Can Fly". While Kelly was embroiled in a
09:05 famous legal battle throughout the 2000s, he was eventually acquitted and his name was cleared.
09:10 It remained clear until 2019, when the Lifetime documentary "Surviving R. Kelly" made numerous
09:16 sexual abuse claims against him. He was indicted
09:24 on 18 charges that July, most of which we can't get into here. This eventually led to
09:29 a prison sentence of 31 years. He ruined both his life and career, and we won't be seeing him again
09:44 until 2045 at the earliest. Phil Spector
10:05 While not a musician per se, Phil Spector was an extremely successful songwriter and
10:10 record producer. He wrote the Teddy Bears' number one single "To Know Him Is To Love Him" and later
10:15 revolutionized the music industry with his production techniques, including the famous
10:19 "Wall of Sound". Having worked with the likes of The Beatles, Leonard Cohen and The Ramones,
10:33 Spector was a highly regarded figure in the music industry. He was a Grammy winner and
10:37 was eventually inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. However, he later developed a substance
10:42 use disorder and entered an extended period of seclusion in the early 1980s. He re-emerged into
10:48 the public consciousness in 2003 after the murder of a woman named Lana Clarkson. Lana Clarkson's
10:54 family wrote that she was a warm, compassionate, kind, loving woman who would be 58 years old now.
11:00 Spector was found guilty and sentenced to prison, where he died in 2021.
11:05 Do you expect to see any of the legacies of these musicians bounce back? Let us know in the comments.
11:11 His legacy will forever be that of a convicted murderer.
11:15 If you're a fan of the song playing right now, be sure to check out the music video for it right here.
11:20 [Music]