The concept of a rock band breaking up over internal band issues only to get back together for a cash-in reunion tour is so common in the music industry that it's a cliche. However, sometimes these reunions are so unexpected, that even the most jaded fans are surprised. These are the wildest band reunions of all time. Some of these bands were classic rock staples from the 1960s or 70s who got back together decades later for a late-career victory lap, while others were 2000s-era pop-punk mainstays who were only broken up for a short period before reuniting to embrace their legacy. Did we miss any of the wildest band reunions ever? Let us know.

Pretty much from the moment they broke up in 1970, speculation arose as to whether the Beatles would reunite. Over the course of the decade, music promoters, record companies, and famously Saturday Night Live producer Lorne Michaels made overtures to the band, while the various members did contribute to each other's solo albums. While the desire for a reunion ebbed a bit following the murder of John Lennon in 1980, fans still held out hope for an official musical reunion by Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, and George Harrison. These wishes were granted in 1995, when the three came together under the name the Beatles in 1995. The resulting project was The Beatles Anthology. While this sprawling multimedia set was mainly made up of archival material, it did feature two "new" Beatles songs: "Free as a Bird" and "Real Love." The tracks were John Lennon demos to which McCartney, Starr, and Harrison added vocals, some lyrics, instrumentation, and production. "Free as a Bird" in particular turned out to be a hit for the briefly "reunited" band.

Aerosmith was one of the biggest American rock bands of the 1970s thanks to classic tracks like "Dream On", "Sweet Emotion", and "Walk This Way". However, by the early 1980s, the band was a mess. Founding members Joe Perry and Brad Whitford had left, and the remaining members of the band were touring small venues in a drug-induced fog. However, in one of the more miraculous comebacks in rock history, band members eventually got clean and reunited in the mid-80s. Thanks to savvy commercial moves like a "rap-rock" duet version of "Walk This Way" with Run-DMC and bringing in outside songwriters to help modernize their sound on albums like Permanent Vacation, Pump, and Get a Grip, Aerosmith became bigger than they'd ever been and remain a major touring draw to this day.

The Who is right up there with the Beatles, Rolling Stones, and Led Zeppelin as far as the most influential and popular bands of the 1960s and 70s. However, by 1982 the band was burned out. The twin tragedies of the death of drummer Keith Moon and a deadly stampede prior to a 1979 Cincinnati concert had taken their toll, and that year guitarist and driving creative force Pete Townshend announced that the band was going on a farewell tour. Said tour ended with a triumphant final concert, which was hailed as the last time the band would play live. That lasted all of three years before the band reunited for a brief set at 1985's Live Aid. Four years after that, the band reunited for a 25th Anniversary Tour that broke sales records across the U.S. The reunion stuck, and the Who have remained a touring entity in the decades since.

An entire gallery could likely be written about the various reunions Van Halen has gone through over the years, each more unexpected than the last. To tell the story of Van Halen's reunions, we have to go back to the band's schism. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, the band built its reputation as one of the biggest rock bands in the country thanks to the artistry of guitarist Eddie Van Halen and frontman David Lee Roth. In 1984, the band broke through to the mainstream thanks to the massive hit "Jump" off their album 1984. However the following year, Roth either quit to pursue a solo career or was fired, depending on whose version of the story you believe. Roth was replaced by Sammy Hagar, and the band continued selling millions of albums despite many hardcore fans clamoring for a reunion with Roth. They got their wish in 1996 when, after Hagar quit/was fired depending on who you believe (sensing a pattern?) Roth very briefly rejoined the band to record two new songs and appear on an MTV awards show. Roth was fired (or quit) again and was briefly replaced by Gary Cherone, who was then replaced by Sammy Hagar for an ill-fated reunion tour in 2004. Finally in 2007 Roth officially reentered the fold, and the band released an album and went on several tours before Eddie Van Halen's 2020 death.

New Jersey Horror Punk icons Misfits became one of the most influential genre bands of the early 1980s. During this period, the band did have a somewhat malleable lineup but was anchored through this period by vocalist, songwriter, and keyboardist Glenn Danzig, bassist Jerry Only, and guitarist Doyle Wolfgang von Frankenstein (AKA Only's brother Doyle). The band split in 1983, and over the next three decades, the various members toured with several solo bands and new Misfits-inspired acts. However, in 2016, Danzig, Only, and Doyle reunited for the first time in 33 years, and have played together sporadically since.

Arguably thanks more to their makeup, toys, comic books, and image than their actual music, KISS (in their original lineup of guitarist Paul Stanley, bassist Gene Simmons, drummer Peter Criss, and guitarist Ace Frehley) became one of the biggest bands in America. However, things fell apart quickly, and by the early 1980s, Criss and Frehley were out of the band, and Simmons and Stanely had ditched the makeup and gone in a slightly more "serious" musical direction. This continued throughout the first half of the 1990s, despite nostalgic fans continuing to call for "classic" KISS. In 1996, the original lineup - in full makeup and costume - appeared at the Grammy Awards to announce a reunion. The group's reunion tour was a massive success, and the reunited KISS was a successful road act for the next several years. However by the mid-2000s Criss and Frehley were out of the band again, and Simmons and Stanley have continued touring as KISS in the original makeup, including dressing new musicians in Criss and Frehley's makeup.

Over the course of their career, Motley Crue broke up, reunited, and changed integral members several times. However, their most recent reunion is arguably their most memorable. In 2015, the band signed a heavily promoted "cessation of touring agreement", which supposedly "prevented them from touring under the Mötley Crüe name beyond the end of 2015" and then proceeded to go on a farewell tour. Less than five years later, the band announced they were returning for a stadium tour with Def Leppard and Poison.

The Eagles arguably wrote the playbook on rock band reunions. In 1980 - at arguably the height of their massive fame as the biggest band in America, and possibly the world - the band announced their somewhat acrimonious breakup. Over the next 14 years, each band member - most successfully Glen Frey and Don Henley - embarked on solo careers. Henley in particular was outspoken about the band never getting back together, repeatedly saying it would only happen when "hell freezes over"... which explains why the Eagles' 1994 reunion album and the tour were named Hell Freezes Over. The band has been a consistent touring force since.

Fleetwood Mac has essentially made a whole career out of lineup changes, breakups (both in the professional band sense and the personal romantic relationship sense), and reunions. After going through several iterations and lineups from the late 60s onwards, the band found their greatest professional success in the 1970s with a lineup of Lindsey Buckingham, Stevie Nicks, Christine McVie, John McVie, Mick Fleetwood even as the McVie and Buckingham/Nicks couples were falling apart personally. The band eventually disintegrated in the 1980s, before reuniting in full for The Dance in 1997. The band has continued touring intermittently since, though Buckingham was fired under controversial circumstances in 2018.

Guns N' Roses exploded off of the Los Angeles Sunset Strip in 1987 to take over the world of rock with their debut album Appetite for Destruction. The band's outwardly dangerous attitude and image made them "bad boys" popular with audiences who had tired of the "homogenous" rock at the time. The band reached its apex in 1991, when they released the albums Use Your Illusion I and Use Your Illusion II in the midst of their massive Use Your Illusion Tour. However, internal pressures combined with the substance issues that continued to plague the band culminated in an acrimonious dissolution in 1994, which left the rights to the band's name and logos with singer Axl Rose. For most of the next two decades, Rose continued to tour with a band of ringers using the Guns N' Roses name all while saying the original lineup, specifically Rose and guitarist Slash would not reunite "in this lifetime." So of course, when the band reunited in 2016, they embarked on the long-running Not In This Lifetime Tour, which has continuously topped the touring charts over the last several years.

British rock band Cream - made up of bassist Jack Bruce, guitarist Eric Clapton, and drummer Ginger Baker - were one of the first rock supergroups, and well-known for hits including "Crossroads", "Born Under a Bad Sign", "Tales of Brave Ulysses", "White Room", "Sunshine of Your Love",  and "SWLABR". With tensions mounting, the band split in 1968 after playing two legendary concerts at the Royal Albert Hall, which were later released on film as Farewell Concert. After a brief reunion for their 1993 Rock n Roll Hall of Fame induction, the band embarked on a small reunion tour in 2005, playing four shows at the Royal Albert Hall and a following three at Madison Square Garden.

By 1983, English New Wave band The Police had become the biggest band in the world, touring massive stadiums and churning out hit albums and singles. However, by 1986 the band had collapsed due to the weight of its own success. The band members, most notably Sting, embarked on solo careers. In 2007, the band announced their return with a surprise Grammy performance coinciding with a reunion tour announcement. Over the next year and a half, the band toured around the world to rapturous acclaim. After a final run of shows in New York's Madison Square Garden, the band once again retired.

Obviously, a true Nirvana reunion is impossible after the 1994 death of singer/guitarist/primary songwriter Kurt Cobain. However, surviving members drummer Dave Grohl, bassist Krist Novoselic, and touring guitarist Pat Smear have reunited for several concerts and other special occasions. In 2012 and 2013, the three played with Paul McCartney on several occasions. At the band's Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony in 2014, the trio played with female vocalists Joan Jett, Kim Gordon, St. Vincent, and Lorde singing Cobain's parts. A full concert with a similar lineup of guest vocalists occurred in Brooklyn several weeks later. Grohl and Novoselic have played with Jett, John McCauley, and Beck several times in recent years.

Led Zeppelin was never a critical darling during their career, but the band dominated rock radio and toured throughout the 1970s, becoming one of the most popular - and successful - rock bands in the world. However, everything changed upon the 1980 death of drummer John Bonham and the band's surviving members - Robert Plant, Jimmy Page, and John Paul Jones - announced they'd officially disbanded. Outside of a brief and disastrous set at Live Aid in 1985, the band remained inactive until 2007. That year, the band reunited (with Bonham's son Jason on drums) for the Ahmet Ertegun Tribute Concert in London. Over 20 million people had entered a lottery for the chance to purchase tickets. The show was critically acclaimed and saw the band resurrect all their biggest hits. Despite the success of the show - which was eventually released as Celebration Day - the band has yet to play together again.

The Sex Pistols fell apart in 1978, a scant 18 months after their formation, and a year after the release of their lone album. However, since they were always more of a pre-packaged attempt to make money off the then-burgeoning punk rock movement than they were a real band, it shouldn't come as much of a surprise that the surviving members of the band regrouped in 1996 for a Japanese tour. As guitarist Steve Jones put it, “The price was right.” Various versions of the band have continued to play sporadically since.

Manchester's Stone Roses were one of the most influential British bands of the late 1980s, however, inter-band acrimony broke them up before they could truly break big. The band finally reunited in 2012, as explained by frontman Ian Brown:

“I’ve been waiting 31 years for the Sex Pistols to play and it was actually the best concert I went to last year. It was tight, fresh and they still had some kind of hunger, so it was great. I think the Pistols never really got paid, which is a similar story to the Roses, isn’t it? We both only did a little bit of work but that little bit of work influenced a lot of people.”

Fall Out Boy rode the wave of 2000s emo/pop-punk popularity and hits like "Dance, Dance", "Sugar, We're Going Down", "This Ain't a Scene, It's an Arms Race", "Thnks Fr Th Mmrs", and "I Don't Care" to become one of the biggest bands in America by 2009... when they went on an indefinite hiatus. For four years, fans questioned if the band was ever returning. Said questions were answered out of the blue in February 2013, when the band made a surprise return with a new single ("My Songs Know What You Did in the Dark (Light 'Em Up)") and announcements of an album and tour. FOB's comeback has been a massive success, elevating them to stadium tour levels they'd never before achieved.

From their earliest days playing together as Tom and Jerry, Simon & Garfunkel broke up and reunited countless times over the years, giving them a reputation as one of the most dysfunctional acts in popular music. The duo's most famous reunion occurred in 1980, when an estimated 500,000 people came to see the two play a concert in New York's Central Park.

The Smashing Pumpkins were one of the most popular American alternative bands of the mid-late 90s thanks to albums like Siamese Dreams and Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness. However, by the end of the decade, both the band's commercial success and interpersonal relationships had waned, leading to a heavily publicized final show in their hometown of Chicago. The band's breakup lasted almost five years before band leader Billy Corgan announced he was bringing the band back claiming "I want my band back, and my songs, and my dreams." Since then, Corgan has been the one constant in a series of lineups, some of which have featured James Iha and Jimmy Chamberlain.

Despite the fact that they never achieved huge commercial success, many who grew up during the 1980s claim that alternative pioneers The Replacements were the best band in the world at the time. The band, primarily led by singer/guitarist Paul Westerberg and bassist Tommy Stinson, embarked on a farewell tour in 1991, culminating in a final concert in 1991 famous for each member being replaced by a roadie throughout the concert. After years of rumors, the band reunited for a series of shows in 2013, and a further tour in 2015. However, they split again after that show.

Blink-182 is arguably the most popular and influential pop-punk band of the 1990s behind only Green Day. The band was at the height of their fame in 2005, coming off the success of their self-titled album which featured hits like "I Miss You" when they announced they were going on an indefinite hiatus. The band was separated for almost five years, until being brought back together when the band's drummer Travis Barker was in a plane crash. The tragedy led to the band reuniting, going on several tours, and releasing an album before the band broke up again when Tom Delonge left the band. the other two members carried on with Matt Skiba in Delonge's place.

In the early 1980s Los Angeles-based all-female punk band the Go-Go's ruled the pop world with their albums Beauty and the Beat, Vacation, and Talk Show. The group broke up in 1985, with each member going on to solo careers, including massive success for Belinda Carlisle. The band flirted with reunions in the 1990s, before finally reuniting for good in the early 2000s. The band embarked on a farewell tour in 2016, though they have continued playing together sporadically since.

Bassist Roger Waters left Pink Floyd in 1981 and has been beefing with guitarist David Gilmour ever since. Despite the constant back and forth, fans always hoped that the full band would reunite one day, despite Pink Floyd continuing on without him for well over a decade. Waters briefly returned to the fold for a one-off performance at Live 8 in 2005, giving many Floyd fanatics the dream finale they always wanted.

Soundgarden exploded onto the national music scene in the early 1990s with masterpiece albums including Badmotorfinger and Superunknown. However, the band ended up imploding in 1997 due to internal strife accelerated by substance abuse within the band. Lead singer Chris Cornell embarked on a successful solo career, while also forming the successful band Audioslave. Soundgarden briefly reunited for a series of shows as well as an album in 2012. However, any hope of a further reunion ended with Cornell's death in 2017.

Despite being lumped in by many critics as simply another early 2000s, pop-punk emo band My Chemical Romance has proven to be much more than that. The New Jersey band has proven to be one of the most influential and important acts of the period, especially thanks to their 2006 masterpiece concept album Welcome to the Black Parade. The band broke up in 2013, however, their influence only continued to grow. MCR announced a reunion in 2019 to much fanfare. After playing a sold-out, one-off return show that December, the band announced a tour for 2020... that had to be rescheduled twice due to the pandemic. The band finally began playing to sold-out crowds in 2022.