16 STITCHES, 30 YEARS OF FIGHTING, AND SOME OF THE GREATEST ROCK SONGS EVER WRITTEN. Cardiff, 1965. The Kinks had played just two songs when Dave Davies kicked over the drum kit. Drummer Mick Avory grabbed a cymbal and cracked it across Dave’s head — right there, in front of 5,000 fans. Sixteen stitches. Police wanted to charge attempted murder. Backstage, Ray Davies was sobbing. He thought the band was done. But here’s what nobody expected. Ray and Dave spent the next thirty years still fighting — in studios, backstage, in the backs of cars — and still making songs like “Waterloo Sunset” and “Lola.” Fifty million records sold by two brothers who could barely be in the same room most days. Then in 2004, Dave had a stroke. Right side of his body went numb. He had to relearn how to hold a guitar pick. And somewhere in that silence, all those years of punching each other started to feel different. Dave said it simply: “Ray and I were so different. We still are. But those differences complemented each other.”
16 Stitches, 30 Years of Fighting, and Some of the Greatest Rock Songs Ever Written Cardiff, 1965. The Kinks had…