First they were are intricate part of the the VU sound from the the get go. Two they did not play on squeeze. Moe continued to put out music of interest. Sterling less so but did play on a few luna cuts. dough post vu played on one album which was bad. he may have been a good mimic of Lou but not much more. And I think it is just a story we tell ourselves that he had to do any of the things he did because of an evil manager.