Music's 25 Most Dastardly Villains

20. BAD VIBRATIONS
Mike Love
Anti-bandmate, pro-PMRC Beach Boy

Rap Sheet: When the Beach Boys's Brian Wilson began conceiving his 1966 masterpiece, Pet Sounds, his cousin Mike Love moaned that it would alienate the group's fans. Love has been openly hostile and litigious toward his bandmates and, according to Beach Boys biographer Steven Gaines, in 1966 he beat his second wife while she was pregnant.

Love is virtually the only rocker of note to have supported Tipper Gore's Parents' Music Resource Center and, in 1988, he insulted the Beatles and the Rolling Stones at a Rock and Roll Hall of Fame ceremony. Also seems under the impression that wearing a hat at all times will make people believe he isn't bald.

The Defense: Some of Love's hostility can be explained by the fact that Beach Boys drummer Dennis Wilson seduced Love's second wife and then married his daughter, Shawn.

Quote: "[Mick Jagger]'s always been chickenshit to get onstage with the Beach Boys."

19. USING MY RELIGION
Maharishi Mahesh Yogi
The Beatles libidinous guru

Rap Sheet: A physicist from India, Mahesh Yogi gave up science in 1959, moved to London and began lecturing about Transcendental Meditation. A popularization of traditional Hindu teaching, TM caught on rapidly, capturing the hearts of (among many) the Beatles.

Things went sour when the Maharishi released an album of his lectures, dubbing himself "the Beatles's spiritual teacher." Accusing him of gross commercialism and sexual promiscuity, every Beatle but George Harrison cut ties with him. John Lennon wrote "Sexy Sadie" about him; the song's original lyrics include this touching line: "Maharishi, you little twat/Who the fuck do you think you are?/Oh, you cunt."

The Defense: During George W. Bush's tenure as president, Indian Major General Kulwant Singh offered Yogi's teachings as a nonballistic alternative to Bush's missile-defense system.

Quote: "There is no guru. You have to believe in yourself. It's all up to you, mate."—John Lennon, after the fallout

18. ENTER BADMAN
Lars Ulrich
Napster-harassing Metallica drummer

Rap Sheet: In April 2000, Metallica filed suit against Napster for allowing its users to trade digital copies of Metallica songs. A month later, Ulrich hand-delivered to Napster a list of 317,377 people who had downloaded Metallica MP3s to their computers, forcing the music-swapping service to banish them and setting in motion the eventual downfall of the best thing to happen to music since Nirvana.

The Defense: Metallica later allowed Napster to reinstate 35,000 people who, it turned out, had downloaded only live recordings.

Quote: "You want to fucking see in three months how we can fucking blow your measly little company apart? No problem."

17. GOT PLENTY OF "SATISFACTION"
Allen Klein
Avaricious manager of Beatles and Stones

Rap Sheet: In the mid-'60s, Klein, who had managed Bobby Darin and Sam Cooke, noticed the Rolling Stones's mounting fiscal difficulties and swooped in, promising them shelter from crushing taxes. He became the Stones's feudal lord, acquiring their pre-1970 master recordings (which he still owns) and dispersing their cash in trickles. In 1968, Klein acquired another bauble: the Beatles, whose Apple Corps was in dire financial straits. The Stones and Beatles spent parts of the '70s wriggling out of Klein's contracts.

The Defense: Both bands probably would have gone broke immediately without Klein's interference — particularly the Beatles, whose fiscally foolish Apple pissed away cash on such employees as the well-liked but incompetent technician "Magic Alex" Mardas.

Quote: "Why don't you like me, Bill?" "Because I don't trust you, Allen."—A frank exchange between Klein and Stones bassist Bill Wyman

16. WORST EXECUTIVE EVER!
Robert Morgado
Bean counter who destroyed music's best label

Rap Sheet: By the mid-'80s, Warner Bros. Music Group was the most successful record company in the world — and the hippest, too, with an impeccable roster of artists (from the Grateful Dead to Madonna) and top-tier executives who knew how to make both records and money.

That prosperous era ended in 1991, when corporate hatchet man Morgado was appointed the company's new chief and initiated a restructuring plan that would purge nearly every top exec. Warner soon skidded into mediocrity, and after his 1995 dismissal, a Dutch analyst assessed the company's music division as "practically worthless."

The Defense: Has a sense of humor. He once admitted that Warner's bloodletting made "Bosnia look like Shangri-la."

Quote: "Why would a man burn down the most beautiful house on the block, with all the beautiful stuff still in it?"—Former Elektra chief Bob Krasnow