When bands change lead singers, it can be a recipe for disaster. We're diving into the stories of iconic bands that lost their magic when a new vocalist stepped up. From rock to metal, these lineup changes left fans disappointed and the band's legacy tarnished.
Category
🎵
MusicTranscript
00:00Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we're counting down our picks for the bands that went downhill
00:07with the arrival of a new lead vocalist slash vocalists.
00:17Number ten, Sublime with Rome, Rome Ramirez.
00:22Technically, Rome Ramirez didn't replace the late Bradley Nowell as the lead singer
00:26of Sublime, but Sublime with Rome is essentially the same band with a new name for legal purposes
00:38and a frontman who can't live up to his departed predecessor.
00:45Ramirez, a fan of the band since childhood, is good if you're grading on a tribute band
00:56but he absolutely cannot live up to the presence of Nowell, and the albums released under the
01:00Sublime with Rome banner have been lackluster at best.
01:09This is less his fault and more a matter of him being given the impossible task of filling
01:14in for someone who was arguably irreplaceable.
01:23Number nine, Skid Row, Johnny Salinger.
01:26Though Sebastian Bach wasn't the original lead singer of hair metal band Skid Row, his
01:31pipes were the group's most distinctive feature.
01:37Unfortunately, Bach's conflicts with his fellow bandmates got him booted from the band in
01:441996.
01:45A few years later, a new Skid Row was born with Johnny Salinger, but the group's sound
01:57was way out of fashion by then and Salinger's lack of range compared to Bach was painfully
02:04clear.
02:05Salinger's tenure in the band was actually significantly longer than Bach's, but he
02:09never felt like anything beyond a mediocre replacement.
02:20Since the late Salinger's departure from Skid Row in 2015, the band has cycled through
02:25various other lead singers, none of whom have managed to recapture the Sebastian Bach magic.
02:39Number eight, Dead Kennedys.
02:42Brandon Cruz, Jeff Penalty, and Ron Skip Greer.
02:46One of the greatest frontmen in the history of punk rock, Jello Biafra's unmistakable
02:50voice and sharp political commentary and incredible stage presence made Dead Kennedys one of the
02:56defining hardcore bands.
03:03They called it quits in 1986 before reforming in 2001 without Biafra.
03:08There's not much of anything to say about Brandon Cruz, Jeff Penalty, or current vocalist
03:14Ron Skip Greer other than, not Jello Biafra.
03:23Once again, this is a pretty blatant instance of a band cashing in on a name and losing
03:28their punk credibility in the process.
03:31Case in point, there have been no new Dead Kennedys records since the original run, and
03:36the band without Biafra has been likened to a glorified cover band.
03:42Number seven, Motley Crue, John Carabi.
03:46One could argue that the end of the 80s would be rough for a band as emblematic of the decade
03:52as Motley Crue no matter what.
04:01Interpersonal conflict led to vocalist Vince Neil splitting from the group.
04:05In his stead, the band brought on the scream frontman John Carabi, shifting away from the
04:10glam metal and into something more alternative metal and grunge.
04:20Though Carabi, a skilled vocalist in his own right, did a decent job of leading the band
04:25into a new direction on their 1994 self-titled album, but they were well past their relevance
04:30by then.
04:37The album flopped and the tour was cancelled.
04:39Neil eventually came back for the band's next album, Generation Swine, which also wasn't
04:45particularly well received.
04:53Number six, Deep Purple, JoLynn Turner.
04:57If you only know Smoke On The Water, you may be shocked to learn that Deep Purple has
05:01gone through nine different formations since their late 60s origins, with drummer Ian Pace
05:07being the only constant.
05:17In fact, Smoke On The Water vocalist Ian Gillen isn't even the band's original singer.
05:22He is, however, its most enduring.
05:25Gillen's initial run with the band, known as The Mark II, ended in 1975, but the lineup
05:31reunited in 1984 before Gillen's dismissal.
05:35He was replaced with former Rainbow frontman JoLynn Turner, who had collaborated with guitarist
05:40Richie Blackmore and bassist Roger Glover as a member of Rainbow.
05:44But that was the problem.
05:53It sounded like a mediocre Rainbow album.
05:55Turner soon departed and Gillen once again returned.
06:06Number five, Yes, Trevor Horn.
06:10When you think of Yes in the 1980s, you likely think of the band's shift from their prog
06:16rock origins to something with more commercial appeal.
06:22However, they started the decade without keyboardist Rick Wakeman or vocalist John Anderson.
06:31Instead, 1980s Yes had Trevor Horn of the Buggles at the mic, with his bandmate Jeff
06:36Downs on keyboards.
06:45It might seem like a potential recipe for disaster, but drama, the Horn-led Yes album
06:50is legitimately good.
06:52But it wasn't the Yes that fans knew and loved.
07:01He was soon dismissed as the band's vocalist and Anderson returned.
07:04Horn did, however, continue working with the group as a producer.
07:13Number four, Fleetwood Mac, Billy Burnett, Becca Bramlett, and Dave Mason.
07:19Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham vocals are so essential to the mythos of Fleetwood
07:24Mac.
07:30Would you believe the lineup hasn't always featured them?
07:33They both joined the band well into its initial run.
07:36After Buckingham left in 1987, vocalist Billy Burnett and Rick Vito joined.
07:46Then after Nicks' departure, Burnett stuck around and was joined by singer Becca Bramlett
07:52and Traffic's Dave Mason.
07:54The result was 1995's Time, an incredibly tepid album that failed the chart in the U.S.
08:06What's more, there were personality clashes between the members, both previous and new.
08:11Nicks and Buckingham returned shortly thereafter, and this era of Fleetwood Mac soon became
08:17historic footnotes.
08:24Number three, Iron Maiden, Blaze Bailey.
08:29Bruce Dickinson wasn't the original vocalist for this legendary heavy metal band, but he's
08:34widely considered the best.
08:41And replacing him was likely to be a thankless task.
08:45Wolfsbane singer Blaze Bailey replaced Dickinson in the mid-to-late 90s to not particularly
08:51good results.
08:58Many have since argued that Bailey is a good vocalist who wasn't suited for Iron Maiden
09:04and the songwriting styles of Steve Harris.
09:07Two albums released with Bailey flopped both critically and commercially, and Dickinson
09:18came back soon after, though he and the band still perform some Bailey-era songs live.
09:24Number two, Judas Priest, Tim Ripper Owens.
09:29Judas Priest is another British heavy metal band whose most iconic frontman wasn't part
09:34of the original lineup.
09:35But Rob Halford and his incredible vocal range were essential to the band's success.
09:45After Halford's unintended departure in 1992, the band auditioned various replacements,
09:51hiring Wintersbane vocalist Tim Ripper Owens, who had previously fronted a Priest cover
09:57band.
10:05While Owens has decent chops, he couldn't fill the Halford-shaped void in fans' hearts,
10:11and the rest of the band wasn't giving him much to work with either.
10:20In any case, Halford returned to the band in 2003, and the Owens era is largely forgotten.
10:31Before we continue, be sure to subscribe to our channel and ring the bell to get notified
10:35about our latest videos.
10:37You have the option to be notified for occasional videos or all of them.
10:41If you're on your phone, make sure you go into your settings and switch on notifications.
10:47Number one, Van Halen, Gary Cherone.
10:51The original frontman of Van Halen, David Lee Roth, was such a force of personality
10:57that the band could have collapsed in his absence.
11:03However, Sammy Hagar ushered in another successful era for the band.
11:10But third time was not the charm when Hagar left and extreme frontman Gary Cherone came
11:15in.
11:21The band was already in a slump period, and this didn't help.
11:25While Cherone had proven his vocal chops before, on his one and only effort with the
11:30group, he sounded like a second-rate Hagar impersonator.
11:35He's not the only fault with the badly produced overlong Van Halen 3, but Cherone was unsurprisingly
11:45shown the door.
11:46Roth and Hagar returned to the band at various points.
11:57What lead singer do you think is irreplaceable?
12:00Let us know in the comments.