11 Musician Love Triangles That Rocked The Musical World

George Harrison, like the other members of the Beatles, was no stranger to romantic drama, much of which centered on his wife, Pattie Boyd, and his good friend and collaborator, Eric Clapton. 

The whole thing started once Harrison and Clapton became friends, in the mid-1960s. The more time the latter spent at the Harrisons’ house, the more he came to fall in love with Boyd. While Harrison penned the song “Something” for his wife, Clapton wrote “Layla” in an attempt to convince her to be with him instead (inspired by a 12th century poem about star-crossed lovers, “Layla and Majnun”).

Things between the Harrisons were already difficult, thanks to George’s drug use and infidelity (including with Ringo Starr’s wife). Ultimately, Pattie left him. As she would say years later: "George was just being a different George. We had gone in different directions, basically. But we still loved each other…"

Pattie Boyd quickly struck up a relationship with Clapton, though this one was just as turbulent as the one with George Harrison. They married in 1979 but, due to many difficulties–including Clapton’s alcoholism, infidelity, and abuse–they ultimately divorced a decade later. 

Despite the love triangle, however, Harrison and Clapton remained friends, the former supposedly saying to his soon-to-be-ex-wife, 

Well, I'm glad you're going off with Eric instead of some idiot.

While the music of Fleetwood Mack is usually regarded as easy listening, the same cannot be said of the many dramas which unfolded behind the scenes. Even though Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham came to the group together, their relationship soon broke down, and many of the songs on the album Rumours have overtones of their breakup. Nicks was deeply insulted by the song “Go Your Own Way” and, as she later recounted, 

I very much resented him telling the world that 'packing up, shacking up' with different men was all I wanted to do. He knew it wasn't true. It was just an angry thing he said.

As if all of this weren’t messy and complicated enough, Nicks subsequently fell in love with Mick Fleetwood, one of the founding members of the band. However, Mick himself went on to have yet another affair and ultimately moved in with Nicks’ friend Sara Recor (whom he would eventually marry). As Nicks recalled, the ugly personal drama was a boon when it came to songwriting: 

That was three months into a 13-month album. So I lost Mick, which honestly wasn't that big of a deal because that was a rocky relationship. But losing my friend Sara? That was a huge blow. Sara was banished from the studio by the rest of the band... No one was speaking, and I wouldn't even look directly at Mick. That went on for months. And it was great fodder for writing! The songs poured out of us.

Nicks would go on to marry Kim Anderson, though they split up shortly thereafter. The band members remain on fairly decent terms, except for Lindsey Buckingham. He married Kristen Messner but was thrown out of the band in 2018.

The Mamas & the Papas were one of the major folk-rock acts of the 1960s, but over the years they’ve become as well-known for their various internal conflicts as they are for their music. In addition to making great music, the four members of the band were involved in something of a love square.

Band members Michelle Phillips and John Phillips were married, and Cass Elliot carried a torch for bandmate Denny Doherty. Michelle, meanwhile, was a believer in free love, and had an affair with Doherty:

[T]here'd be so much sexual energy between Denny and me that we’d be playing footsie under the table, and Cass and John didn’t notice it.

John penned one of the group's biggest hits, “I Saw Her Again” about his wife's affair - with, of all people, Doherty: 

I saw her again last night
And you know that I shouldn't

Elliot also felt betrayed by Michelle's liaison with her unrequited love. According to Michelle, her bandmate once asked her:

I don't get it. You could have any man you want. Why would you take mine?

John would eventually kick Michelle out of the group for another affair–this one with Gene Clark, a member of the group The Byrds–though she would ultimately rejoin it due to fan demand. The group finally split in 1969; John and Michelle's marriage also ended soon after.

The Beatles were certainly no strangers to romantic dramas of various kinds, including the infamous love triangle of Ringo Starr, Maureen Starkey, and George Harrison. At first Maureen Starkey was Ringo’s wife, the couple having married in 1965, when the band was hitting it big. 

Of course, fame is not without its costs, and this was very true for Ringo and Maureen. In addition to Ringo’s alcoholism–which placed tremendous strain on the marriage–Maureen also began an affair with fellow Beatles member George Harrison after he confessed his love for her. Even though Ringo was known for his own infidelity, he was still horrified when George’s wife told him of having found George and Maureen together. Even John Lennon was supposedly furious at the indiscretion, allegedly referring to it as “virtual incest.” Ringo and Maureen would ultimately divorce, and she passed away in 1994.

Few rock romances have been as famous as the love triangle between Linda Ramone and Joey and Johnny Ramone. Linda Daniele first met the band at a nightclub in New York City, but it wasn’t until she met them again in Los Angeles that she began her romance with Joey, the band’s frontman. Things took a turn, however, once she ended up touring with them. Linda developed feelings for Johnny, with whom she began a romance. The progressive Joey and the conservative Johnny already butted heads before the love triangle, and rock rumor has it that Joey wrote “The KKK Took My Baby Away” about Johnny and Linda.

Linda ultimately married Johnny, and the two were together until the latter’s death in 2004. Joey claimed the whole affair damaged the band–the Ramones eventually split in 1996–and the two men never found a personal reconciliation. When Joey passed in 2001, Johnny did not attend the funeral, saying:

I wasn’t going to travel all the way to New York, but I wouldn’t have gone anyway. I wouldn’t want him coming to my funeral, and I wouldn’t want to hear from him if I were dying. I’d only want to see my friends. Let me die and leave me alone.

Linda, however, claimed she and Joey had an understanding and that, despite their break-up, they always strove to put the band first. As she recalled: 

The truth is, I always spoke to Joey over the years. I never really told anybody, but I knew that to keep the band together, you have to make everybody happy. And Joey wasn't going to be happy if he didn't get to speak to me. And it was no big deal. Did Johnny know? No. Is that a big deal? No.

It remains to be seen whether this will put her reputation for being “Yoko Ramone” to rest.

In addition to their success as artists, singers David Crosby, Joni Mitchell, and Graham Nash are well-known for their own love triangle, even if it was one which ended up being less acrimonious than most. At first Mitchell dated David Crosby, after meeting each other at a coffee house in Florida. Thereafter they moved to Los Angeles, where she encountered Graham Nash. They soon struck up a romance. 

Fortunately for all concerned, Crosby didn’t bear any ill-will toward his soon-to-be bandmate for dating his former lover, at least according to Nash, who stated, 

They were lovers, [But] it was nothing to me and David that I would go live with Joan. It was all right all the way around.

Indeed, the two would go on to become part of the influential folk rock group Crosby, Stills, and Nash, while the romance between Nash and Mitchell ultimately didn’t last. Even though Nash would go on to find love, years later he would state that Mitchell was one of the loves of his life. Crosby and Nash, meanwhile, had a falling out–due largely to the former’s bad-mouthing of the latter–and never truly reconciled.