The Arctic Monkeys might have been the perfect success story. However, behind the scenes, not every founding member was happy with how it all turned out via Ultimate Guitar.
When the band split with its co-founder and original bassist, Andy Nicholson, in 2006, it seemed like the split was amicable enough. Nicholson parted ways with the band shortly after the release of the British rockers’ debut album “Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not.”
Nicholson didn’t share his feelings at the time, however, he told Mojo in an interview that he was devastated when his “three best friends” decided to continue without him just as the band began its rise to superstardom. He argued the band’s current bassist, Nick O’Malley, was only meant as a temporary replacement.
He said, “Towards the end of a European tour, I had some family stuff that I needed to be at home for. So we were like, ‘Why don’t we get Nick to fill in?”
It wasn’t long before Nicholson found out that their joint childhood friend would become his successor, as he added:
“We had a meeting in the manager’s office in Sheffield, and they said, ‘Oh, yeah, we’re gonna keep Nick now.’ My world came crumbling down right in front of me.”
“I’d gone from having the next year scheduled to not even knowing what I’m doing tomorrow, and my three best friends had done this to me. I can’t imagine it was easy for them either. I remember saying, ‘Best of luck with everything.’ I shook all their hands, and I walked out.”
Moreover, Nicholson realized that wasn’t the end of it, as there were still legal issues to address:
“That same day, the other manager was like, ‘You’re gonna need a solicitor.’ My head was spinning… I would have died for that band, but, unfortunately, that band wouldn’t have died for me.”
As his former band went from success to success, Nicholson couldn’t help but feel left out:
“The band headlined Glastonbury the year after, and I’m sat on my own at home in floods of tears watching it [on TV]. I was thinking ‘That [was meant] to be me.'”
Although the musician is in a better spot now, he noted how it took him a long time to come to terms with what had happened:
“It’s a testament to my really close friends and family that I’m still here, to be honest. It probably took 15 years for me to finally digest it all, and to be at the point I’m at now.”
