The most iconic couples in rock history

10 November 2024, 11:00

Let's take a look at some of the most memorable, enduring and passionate rock 'n' roll relationships from across the decades.

By Radio X

@RadioX

Rock couples often share a unique bond forged in creativity, stardom and experience. These often turbulent relationships come from art and activism, irresistible chemistry and the blossoming of love through overcoming life's trials. Let's take a look at some of the rock couples that left an indelible mark on the world.

1. Damon Albarn and Justine Frischmann

   The Blur singer and the Elastica frontwoman were Britpop's hottest couple. However, their split in 1998 inspired some of Albarn’s most poignant tracks, with both Tender and No Distance Left To Run reportedly about their lives together.

   

2. Keith Richards and Anita Pallenberg

   Model Anita Pallenberg was originally in a relationship with Stones guitarist Brain Jones, but she controversially left the erratic musician to start courting Keef. Although they never married, the couple had two children and were together until 1980. She’s also reported to have had a brief affair with Mick Jagger, based mainly on the risqué scenes that featured the couple in the film Performance, but Pallenberg denied any dalliance.

   

3. Kurt Cobain and Courtney Love

   Kurt and Courtney first met in 1990 and, while Cobain initially evaded Love’s advances, the two married two years later. The pair were the golden couple of the grunge scene, but sadly fate had other ideas and Kurt took his own life in 1994, leaving Courtney with their daughter Frances Bean.

   

4. Mick Jagger and Marianne Faithfull

   In 1966 Mick Jagger and singer-songwriter Marianne Faithfull began a much publicised relationship. By the end of the 1960s, The Rolling Stones had taken over the world and Faithfull’s drug issues started to spiral out of control. Although the pair split in 1970, Faithfull not only co-wrote Sister Morphine from 1971’s Sticky Fingers, but is also said to have inspired some of the Stones’ biggest hits, including Wild Horses.

   

5. John Lennon and Yoko Ono

   One of the most enduring stories of rock and roll romance started in 1966, when the Beatle attended the Japanese artist's conceptual art show in London. Love soon blossomed and the pair became inseparable, much to the annoyance of the other Beatles. Despite their ups and downs (including a mutual separation that lasted 18 months), the pair remained married until Lennon's murder in 1980.

   

6. Pete Doherty and Kate Moss

   They were occasionally called the Sid and Nancy of the Noughties. He was a singer-songwriter in one of the biggest bands of the moment. She was one of the most famous models in the world. Throw excess and tabloid slander into the mix and what do you get? Well, in April 2007 Doherty announced that Moss was his fiancée... but they split three months later.

   

7. Johnny Cash and June Carter

   Cash was married to Vivian Liberto when he met June Carter of the noted country group The Carter Family in the mid-50s. By 1968, Cash's marriage was finished and The Man In Black proposed to June onstage at a show in Canada. Johnny and June married on 1st March 1968 and remained together until Carter's death in May 2003. A heartbroken Cash himself died just four months later.

   

8. Ozzy and Sharon Osbourne

   John "Ozzy" Osbourne had been married before he and Sharon got together, having two children with his first wife Thelma. But it was the marriage to his manager Sharon Arden that would make rock history - she took the singer on at a time when his alcohol and drug issues were at their height and he claims Sharon saved him from himself in the turbulent months after he was fired from Black Sabbath. Despite some very tough times - including an incident in 1989 when a drugged Ozzy tried to strangle Sharon - the pair are still together in 2024.

   

9. Paul and Linda McCartney

   Macca's relationship with actress Jane Asher was one of the most talked-about romances of the 60s, and the pair announced their engagement on Christmas Day 1967. However, it was all over by the summer, with rumours of the Beatle having an affair. Meanwhile, McCartney had met American photographer Linda Eastman at the launch of the Sgt Pepper album in May 1967 and a relationship blossomed over the next year, with the pair inseparable by the end of 1968. They married in March 1969 and Paul adopted Linda's daughter Heather from her first marriage. Paul and Linda became one of rock's most visible couples, with Linda becoming part of the post-Beatles band Wings and the McCartney family adding three children: Mary, Stella and James. They remained married until Linda's death in April 1998.

   

10. Debbie Harry and Chris Stein

    Harry and Stein were in a relationship since 1973 and thorughout their time in Blondie, forming a visually striking couple. When the band came to an end in November 1982, it was announced that Stein was suffering from the autoimmune disease pemphigus and that Harry had taken up caring for her partner full-time. However, they split in 1985 yet remain friends - Debbie became godmother to Chris's two daughters.

    

11. Gwen Stefani and Gavin Rossdale

    The break up of No Doubt's Gwen Stefani and Tony Kanal prompted the band's biggest hit Don't Speak, but it was Stefani's relationship with Bush frontman Gavin Rossdale that made the headlines. The two met at a KROQ show in 1995 and the pair married in London in 2002... and again in LA two weeks later. Despite having three sons together, the couple split in 2015 and divorced the following year over "irreconcilable differences".

    

12. Jack and Meg White

    For a while, no one knew what the hell was going on between Jack and Meg White. Were they brother and sister? Were they man and wife? Or just good friends? Well, despite Jack often stating that Meg was his sister, the pair were in fact an item. They married in 1996 and divorced in 2000. He took her last name, originally being called Jack Gillis, because he thought it sounded better.