‘60s Classic Rock Legend Thought It Was 'The End' for Band Amid Four-Year Ban From the US
Dave Davies revealed he thought the Kinks were done when they recorded their album Arthur (Or the Decline and Fall of the British Empire) in the late 1960s.
The legendary Kinks co-founder appeared on The Magnificent Others With Billy Corgan podcast in May 2026, where he looked back at one of the English rock band's most difficult periods.
After Corgan noted that the Kinks didn't tour in the United States for about five years in the 1960s due to "something with the unions," Davies, 79, admitted he wasn't entirely sure what happened.
"Awful. We had a terrible time," the Kinks guitarist recalled. "We got banned in America."
"And to be honest, we went into the studio to do Arthur, we kind of thought that it might be our last album," he added of the band's struggle with losing a major part of their market with the backlisting. "It was kind of in the back of my mind thinking, you know… it felt like it could be the end."
"I thought Arthur was great, it was one of our best," Davies clarified. "They were great years. There's some emotional songs, though, in there that really stand up."
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Arthur was a concept album about the fictional character Arthur Morgan, a carpet layer living in post WW-II England.
Davies told Corgan the US ban caused the Kinks to think more "inwardly" after producing more satirical records in the past. "We kind of crashed a bit because of the American ban," he shared. "And we kind of thought, more inward…. And it did affect us."
There have been conflicting stories on the reason why the Kinks were banned from the US 60 years ago. According to Rolling Stone, one rumor was that the group was banned after Dave Davies refused to sign a union contract. Another story suggested his brother Ray punched a union official for claiming the British Invasion was a communist plot, thus losing the band's support from US booking agents.
Another theory shared by RX Music alleged that the Kinks failed to pay mandatory dues to the American Federation of Television and Recording Artists and then played on a Dick Clark TV special. The Federation banned the Kinks from performing in the United States from 1965 to 1969, which caused them to rethink their career strategy.
"America in the Sixties was the place to go," Ray Davies told Rolling Stone. "The Stones, Led Zeppelin, our friends in Jimi Hendrix and all these bands were going over, but we were banned from playing. So I withdrew into my own culture."
The Kinks went on to record some of their biggest hits in the 1970s and ‘80s, including "Lola" and "Come Dancing." The legendary band remained active until 1997.
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This story was originally published June 1, 2026 at 7:22 AM.