10 replacement band members that proved major upgrades
Replacing any band member usually means starting back at ground zero. As much as acts like having the ‘Three Musketeers’ mentality in a group, sometimes people just aren’t to go the distance, and getting some fresh blood can help breathe new life into any group that’s been around the block a couple of times. While the magic might not be the same with someone new, acts like Black Sabbath have benefited from having someone who’s an objective step up from their previous members.
That’s not to say that every band in question struggled before any new musician came along. They certainly had their own set of strengths and weaknesses working with their original lineup, but as soon as the replacement stepped into the room, no one could argue that the results were absolutely electric when they found something that they all knew.
Not only could these players do justice to what had come before, but they could also perform them even better than the previous members. Admittedly, that isn’t always a high bar to clear most of the time, but it wasn’t just limited to whether people could play the old material. It was about where the new material would be going as well.
From being able to play multiple instruments to even writing their own material for the group, this was far from just another fairweather player looking to earn a quick buck. These were artists willing to stick their necks out on the line to become legends in their own right, and listening to the records, each band seemed to get hit with a shot of creative adrenaline.
10 replacements that improved the band:
10. Dave Grohl – Queens of the Stone Age
It’s hard to quantify Queens of The Stone Age as a band with replacement band members. The membership of the group has always been more than a little bit fluid, and no matter how hard Josh Homme tries to keep things fresh on every record, that doesn’t always mean having the most stable of lineups. But while Dave Grohl is technically part of the iconic lineup of Nirvana, his guest appearance during the band’s tour cycle and record Songs for the Deaf reminded everyone why he was still the next generation’s answer to John Bonham.
Framed as a trip through the desert, it’s Grohl who’s the star of the show throughout the entire record, matching Homme note-for-note with his tom-tom rolls and creating rhythmic hooks to tracks like ‘No One Knows’ and ‘The Sky is Fallin’. Despite the collaboration causing some bad blood between Foo Fighters, it was clear that Grohl hadn’t lost his step in the slightest over the years when it came time to throw down a hefty groove.
It seems that the chemistry wasn’t lost on Homme, either, who welcomed Grohl back into the fold to record the song ‘My God is the Sun’ taken from …Like Clockwork and eventually made Them Crooked Vultures in their spare time. The jury’s still out on when Grohl actually sleeps, but when he is up for it, he can still unleash the animal that had been locked inside him ever since the last minutes of In Utero rang out.
9. Andy Bell – Oasis
The 2000s marks a definitive split in the way Oasis sounded going forward. The stench of Be Here Now still lingered heavy in the air, and while it wasn’t nearly as terrible as most made it out to be, it left Noel absolutely petrified to go back to that sound again. That meant a complete system reboot, but while Gem Archer does leave something to be desired next to Bonehead, Andy Bell substituting for Guigsy is one of the smarter moves that they had ever made.
Although there had been rumblings of Damon Minchella of Ocean Colour Scene performing alongside them when Guigsy left due to nerves, Bell brought something the bassist never had: songwriting chops. Despite Noel arranging most of the 1990s output, tunes like ‘Thank You For the Good Times’ and ‘Turn Up the Sun’ are among some of the best tunes to come out of ‘Oasis Mk. II’, especially when they sprinkle in bits and pieces from Ride’s discography.
It’s also worth considering that Guigsy hardly played bass on the first two Oasis records because his playing wasn’t up to snuff, so having Bell able to nail down a bassline in a few minutes was probably a lot easier for the group to manage in the studio. Oasis may have become a songwriting committee by the time the 2000s started, but they still had a bright future as long as Bell gave a foundation.
8. Howie Epstein – Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers
None of the Heartbreakers in Tom Petty’s band could feasibly be called true ‘rock stars’. That was never how they saw themselves, and even in the case of Petty, he was more likely to leave his ego at the door and just play the kind of music he knew that his fans liked. Getting that in the studio is another matter, though, and Ron Blair’s decision to leave left the door open for Howie Epstein to completely restructure their sound.
Whereas Blair’s talents were limited to strict basslines on ‘American Girl’ and ‘The Waiting,’ Epstein had a workmanlike mentality when it came to recording, having already worked his magic leading Del Shannon’s backup band. But the greatest strength that he gave to Petty’s group was his voice, giving them the perfect soaring high vocal that gave Petty’s material an Everly Brothers feel on record.
Although Blair would return after Epstein passed away from a heroin overdose, his spirit is still present in every one of Petty’s 1990s hits. Every bassist tends to be a little bit invisible, but Epstein was the kind of musician that no one knew was so important until he eventually fell silent.
7. Stevie Nicks – Fleetwood Mac
For every band that possesses Lead Singer Disease, Fleetwood Mac had the same problem in reverse. They had fantastic frontmen at their disposal, and yet they could hardly hold onto one of them for more than a few records before things started getting out of hand. Nowhere does that lead to a stable life on the charts, but Mick Fleetwood managed to learn the lesson no one realised they needed: why bother with a frontman when a frontwoman works just as well?
Although Fleetwood Mac has operated as a united front throughout most of their career, there’s no denying that Stevie Nicks has been the pure star of the group from the moment she walked into those first rehearsals. From her impressive range to her pure poetry, Nicks has the power to convey more emotion to the listener with a single line than most other artists do, pouring their hearts out for an entire verse.
And while Lindsey Buckingham could match her in terms of raw emotion, there’s a reason why Nicks was the one that caused the band to disintegrate when she left. She was able to toe the line between being a solo star and a band member perfectly, but seeing the massive plummet that happened after Behind the Mask was released really says it all.
6. Neil Peart – Rush
Rush was never destined to take the east route to stardom. Half the reason why people come to their albums is for the complexity, and minus the lyrics about tales of mythic grandeur, no one could argue with the chops that they had on record. Every prog giant needs to have a growing period, though, and once John Rutsey left the throne open, ‘The Professor’ assumed his rightful position in the back of the stage.
The group’s debut in 1974 is far from a trainwreck, but it simply doesn’t sound like the prog band we know and love today. ‘Working Man’ is still a good slice of Humble Pie-esque guitar fury, but with Peart behind the kit, they earned themselves the distinction of having the single best drummer in rock and roll, whether that was him proving himself on Fly By Night or writing the kind of benchmarks drummers would measure themselves on like ‘La Villa Strangiato’.
Whether or not people have a strong enough stomach for them, Peart’s approach to lyrics is among the most intellectual in rock history, taking time not to write a typical love song but to tell a story and slowly dissect his emotions over time. Rush’s catalogue may have become more like exercises to some fans, but sometimes, an artist like Peart needs to give the audience a workout to appreciate the craft of musicianship.
5. John Frusciante – Red Hot Chili Peppers
OK, so this is where we start treading on potentially thin ice. The entire guitar legacy of Red Hot Chili Peppers has always been the tiniest bit controversial, but outside of the minor stints with Dave Navarro and Jack Sherman, Hillel Slovak was the true master that first got the funky monks rolling. So when he died, no one seemed to fill his shoes, but John Frusciante tapped into some cosmic energy no one had seen before.
Granted, Slovak’s track record with the band didn’t exactly start off the best, either. For all of the great records that he played on, his performance style was never given the time of day it really should have, mostly leading to him being buried in the mix. Once Frusciante joined, though, everything was in its right place, from the few melodic touches he added in to the pure fury of his guitar solos.
Talking about both eras tends to feel like talking about two separate bands, but when measuring Slovak’s recorded output next to Frusciante, it’s no contest. Slovak may have understood the Peppers at ground level, but Frusciante helped them tap into something that they didn’t even realise was possible.
4. Ronnie James Dio – Black Sabbath
There are still many outlets that swear up and down that Ozzy Osbourne is the be-all and end-all for Black Sabbath. Without him, the group surely would have collapsed, and as soon as he went on to a solo career, they were bound to become yesterday’s news, right? It’s true that you can’t replace a metal god, but Tony Iommi knew of another one that needed a band when Ronnie James Dio came calling.
Fresh out of his stint with Ritchie Blackmore in Rainbow, Dio was the kind of power-metal vocalist that Sabbath had needed since the beginning. Osbourne had his own moniker as ‘The Prince of Darkness’, but as soon as ‘Neon Knights’ began, fans knew that Dio had the stamina and the precision to take them to the next level, especially with the new kid in town hot on their tail.
Whether Sabbath knew it or not, Heaven and Hell ended up saving them from being another 1970s casualty by ushering in the New Wave of British Heavy Metal, keeping up with everyone from Saxon to Diamond Head in their wake. Dio wouldn’t be long for Sabbath, either, but even if ‘Crazy Train’ was fast becoming a metal anthem, it didn’t matter so long as Iommi was pumping out the licks on ‘Children of the Sea’ as well.
3. Taylor Hawkins – Foo Fighters
If Dave Grohl had just decided to call Foo Fighters ‘Dave Grohl’s Musical Wonderland’, no one would have complained. Despite the dodgy moniker, everyone would have understood that this was Grohl’s way of leaving Nirvana behind and paving the way for something new, and the first album is more or less his vision of what the group was supposed to be. While original drummer William Goldsmith never got a chance to properly shine, Taylor Hawkins may have been the only drummer in the world to match Grohl’s intensity.
During the recording of The Colour and the Shape, Grohl’s decision to redo all of Goldsmith’s drum parts pretty much ended their relationship on the spot, but Alanis Morrissette already had a drummer at the ready. Regardless of his presence with the alt-rock queen, Hawkins graduated from the Led Zeppelin school of drumming, and hearing him work off of Grohl live, playing everything from ‘Everlong’ to ‘Best of You’, was a sight to behold.
And no matter what fate has in store with the newest incarnation of the band following Hawkins’s death, here’s hoping that Josh Freese knew what he was getting into. Outside of being in Grohl’s band, Hawkins had become the co-frontman and a best friend to everyone who caught a Foo Fighters show.
2. Joe Walsh – Eagles
The Eagles never saw themselves as strictly one genre of music. Don Henley confessed countless times that he saw the group as a hybrid of all different types of American music, so being pigeonholed into ‘country rock’ never sat well with everyone in the group. They could still rock when they needed to, and even if it meant losing Bernie Leadon, Joe Walsh coming into the fold was like giving them a resident guitar hero.
During their first years together as a group, Leadon’s guitar and banjo skills were more centred towards country music, but as soon as Walsh strapped on his guitar on ‘Life in the Fast Lane’, they unlocked a fifth gear they didn’t know was there. Although the vocals didn’t have Leadon’s low tone, Walsh’s signature squawk also managed to give the group a certain character that no one knew was there when playing ‘Pretty Maids All in a Row’ or trying on his own songs for size like ‘Rocky Mountain Way’.
Walsh was far from the most user-friendly guitarist to deal with, but it didn’t matter once he plugged in his guitar. If Henley’s voice was coated with gold, there would be far finer metal on every one of Walsh’s guitar strings when he decided to solo on tracks like ‘Hotel California’ and ‘New Kid in Town’.
1. David Gilmour – Pink Floyd
Out of any person in a group to replace, the frontman is usually the toughest call. Every member is like a certain part of the body, and if the singer is taken out of the picture, you lose not only the voice but the entire face of the band in some respects. So, if Pink Floyd was walking around without a proper frontman throughout the late 1960s, David Gilmour slowly developed into the kind of frontman who could take them to the next level.
However, when talking about Floyd, it often comes down to Gilmour or Roger Waters as the creative leader. At the same time, Waters was never going to have the same strength to his voice that Gilmour had, constantly soaring above the notes in some of their classic songs like ‘Time’ and harmonising perfectly with Richard Wright when the time called for it on ‘Echoes’.
That’s before talking about his guitar work, which may as well be a shortcut to the group’s empathetic side on tracks like ‘Comfortably Numb’ and ‘Another Brick in the Wall’. Waters had a grand vision for what he saw Pink Floyd becoming after Syd Barrett’s departure, but a concept is rendered utterly meaningless unless there’s someone like Gilmour to breathe life into it.
