The feuds
Bachman vs. Cummings — the founding fracture
The Guess Who's split is the Canadian Beatles-breakup story: Randy Bachman walking out in May 1970, weeks after "American Woman" hit #1 — health, faith, and money in the mix (see our Guess Who and American Woman features). The aftermath ran decades: competing lineups, legal skirmishes over the name, public coolness — followed by the reunion tours (the "Running Back Thru Canada" era) that proved the chemistry outlived the wounds. Verdict: the longest feud and the best reconciliation.
Kroeger vs. everybody — the Nickelback paradox
Chad Kroeger's public feuds (with rock peers, with critics, with the internet itself) became so central to the Nickelback discourse that they functioned as a second career (see our Nickelback reappraisal). The twist history keeps delivering: the band the internet loved to hate outsold and outlasted nearly every detractor — the feud, in the end, was the marketing.
The Toronto–Montreal cold war — the friendly one
The country's two scene-capitals have maintained a half-century rivalry of affectionate competition: Toronto's industry muscle versus Montreal's cool — the CHUM-to-Osheaga axis? — keep it clean: Toronto's industry muscle versus Montreal's scene mystique. Every wave (new wave, indie, electronic, rap) ran on the productive friction. Nobody's reconciled because nobody's truly broken up; it's less a feud than a marriage.
The creative ruptures — Young vs. CSN, Cohen's quiet exits
Neil Young's periodic estrangements from Crosby, Stills & Nash (he left the 1974 tour mid-run; the reunions have cycled ever since) show the international wing of the Canadian feud tradition. And Leonard Cohen's estrangement from his own manager (the betrayal that cost him his retirement savings) remains the most quietly devastating financial feud in the country's music history — resolved, heroically, by returning to the road in his seventies and winning it all back.
The reconciliation pattern
Here's what separates Canadian feuds from the global standard: they end. Bachman and Cummings tour together. Kroeger shrugs. The scenes intermarry. Maybe it's the small-country math — the industry is too compact to hold grudges when you'll share a green room, a Juno table, and a Heritage Minute eventually? — keep it clean: when you'll share a green room and a Juno table eventually. The beefs are real, the hugs are realer, and the history is better for both.
Frequently asked questions
Why did Randy Bachman leave the Guess Who?
Health problems (including diabetes), religious commitments, and internal friction led to his May 1970 departure at the band’s commercial peak; the feud’s decades-long arc eventually resolved in reunion tours.
Does Nickelback feud with other bands?
Chad Kroeger’s public sparring with rock peers and critics became legendary — though the band’s outlasting of its detractors is the feud’s real punchline.
Do Canadian music feuds ever reconcile?
Constantly — the country’s compact industry makes permanent estrangement impractical, and most of the famous feuds (Bachman–Cummings above all) ended in reunions.