Top 10 Craziest Music Love Triangles

Full disclosure, we're going to be discussing a lot of classic rock relationships for this list, with many of our entries here being firmly ensconced within that period of free love and sexual freedom. Case in point? The relatively easy-going affairs folk icon Joni Mitchell had with CSNY members David Crosby and Graham Nash. Mitchell met Crosby not long after the latter left the formative psychedelic rockers The Byrds, and the pair were an item briefly prior to the formation of Crosby, Stills and Nash. Mitchell would date Crosby's bandmate Graham Nash for a significantly longer period of time, with both penning songs about each other and the time they spent living under the same roof. Not a lot of jealousy between the guys, it seems.

Who said the nineties were all about feeling alienated and disaffected? The love that bloomed in the grunge scene between Hole songwriter Courtney Love and Nirvana's Kurt Cobain has been well documented, but perhaps less known is Love's boyfriend prior to hooking up with the future musical icon. Love had actually been dating Smashing Pumpkins frontman Billy Corgan for a time. Some sources even say Courtney met Kurt for the first time after a Pumpkins show, but the details of their first meeting are fuzzy. Corgan reportedly didn't take to being dumped very well, however, and even allegedly turned down some high profile touring opportunities in order to lick his emotional wounds and avoid the new, happy couple.

Some bands fight, others make love: The Jefferson Airplane did both. Their co-lead singers, Marty Balin and Grace Slick never quite got along, with the former once declaring, "whoever slept with Grace had the power in the band." Grace, for her part, embraced the open sexual politics of the 1960s with a vengeance, and had relationships with the band's drummer Spencer Dryden and bassist Jack Casady. Eventually, Slick would have a child with Airplane guitarist Paul Kantner, China, and go on to work with various ex-band members with offshoot projects like Starship and Jefferson Starship, all the while remaining a counterculture icon and fashion plate.

We're gonna keep the aggro going for our next entry, this time turning to a punk rock meeting of the hearts (and fists). A fight was what allegedly broke out between Ramones members Joey and Johnny, after the former's girlfriend Linda Daniele left him for Johnny. There was definite bad blood between the Ramones members, although Johnny and Daniele did go on to get married and stay that way until his death in 2004. Joey, for his part, reportedly lost the fight, but won the war, as the spat ended up fueling his lyrics to one of the Ramones' best songs, "The KKK Took My Baby Away."

Classic rockers and Playboy playmates are two great things that go great together. Or...perhaps not so great if you're worried about paternity issues. Bebe Buell spent much of her romantic life in the company of musicians, most notably with prog and psych pioneer Todd Rundgren. However, Buell was also involved with other famous musicians, such as David Bowie, Jimmy Page and Steven Tyler. It was during a brief fling with Tyler when her daughter Liv was born, but early on Buell and Rundgren actually raised the girl as their own, due to Tyler's continuing battles with substance abuse. It wasn't until years later when the truth finally surfaced, and Liv Rundgren became the Liv Tyler we know and love today.

The Rolling Stones are no strangers to love triangles, such as the one between Mick Jagger, Marianne Faithfull and Keith Richards, but we're going to be discussing a different one for our next entry. Oh don't worry, good old Keith is still involved, only this time it's with Stones founder Brian Jones and actress/model Anita Pallenberg. Brian and Anita were a hot ticket for a time, but Jones' escalating drug dependency and increasingly erratic behavior pushed Pallenberg into the arms of Richards. The pair had three children together and remained friends, but ultimately parted ways as a romantic couple.

The Mamas and The Papas were a vocal group of beautiful and talented people...with a lot of drama. There’s the split of married couple John and Michelle Phillips, and the latter's subsequent affair with bandmate Denny Doherty. There’s Mama Cass' unrequited love for Doherty. And then there’s also The New Mamas and The Papas, a line-up variant of the group that John Phillips put together with his daughter Mackenzie; reports of sexual impropriety have dogged the singer for years. It's the sort of convoluted mess that could've only been birthed in the late sixties and seventies.

Can't we all just get along? If you're asking this question to Kid Rock and Tommy Lee then the answer is definitely....no. Rock and Anderson had the same sort of hot and heavy marriage the former Baywatch actress had with Tommy Lee, although that coupling did result in two children. Lee and Anderson reportedly kept seeing each other on and off after splitting up, and this did not go over well after she and Rock divorced in 2006. The "Bawitdaba" singer and Motley Crüe drummer came to blows at the VMAs a year later, in a display that felt more like a school yard spat than anything resembling rock and roll debauchery.

It's one of the most high profile splits in classic rock history, a true tale of romantic entanglement and drama bleeding out onto the stage. Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks were a romantically linked folk rock duo prior to joining the ranks of British blues legends Fleetwood Mac in 1975. The band already featured another married couple in the form of John and Christine McVie, but it wasn't long before both that couple and Buckingham/Nicks went their separate ways. Then, during the tour cycle for the band's classic album "Rumours," Nicks began an affair with the married Mick Fleetwood, adding more fuel to the fire of Mac's stranger-than-fiction story of love, loss and music.

Before we name our number one pick, here are a few honorable mentions

Josh Homme, Brody Dalle & Tim Armstrong
Punk Rock Couple Splits, Dalle Heads for the Stone Age

The Poison Between Richie Kotzen & Rikki Rockett
Note to Self: When Joining a New Band, Don't Sleep With Your Drummer's Girlfriend

It's one of the most famous classic rock songs of all time, a lovelorn ode to the wife of a good friend. "Layla" was written by guitar legend Eric Clapton while he was playing with Derek and the Dominos, a plea to Pattie Boyd, then wife of another musical icon: George Harrison. Truth be told, the Beatles guitarist and his wife were going through a rough patch, and the song was a perfect way for Clapton to bridge the gap between fantasy and reality. "Layla" did its job, and Clapton would also be inspired by Boyd for the track "Wonderful Tonight," although the couple would eventually divorce by the late eighties.