10 replacement band members that never worked

Ian Gillan – Black Sabbath

During their prime, Black Sabbath had the kind of luck most bands can only dream of. It would have been impossible for anyone to match what Ozzy Osbourne did during his tenure with the group, but the fact that they found another one-of-a-kind singer in Ronnie James Dio made people wonder whether they made some occultist deal for their success. And when Dio was sent packing, it looked like they were on a winning streak with Ian Gillan of Deep Purple, but everyone should have known not to get their hopes up.

Gillan was still one of the greatest vocalists of his time, but hearing him sing opposite Tony Iommi was always a mixed bag when listening to Born Again. Beyond the fact that the album itself was mixed terribly, a lot of the songs on the record feel half-finished, as if Iommi and Gillan came up with the crux of the tune over drinks and then stumbled into the studio to get something down on paper so the record would be finished.

That’s not that far from the truth, either, with Gillan and Iommi remembering that they were getting hammered most of the time when they weren’t in the studio. Although Tony Martin did help steer Sabbath in the right direction, this was the first time that we realised that Iommi’s better judgment wasn’t always right.

Josh Klinghoffer – Red Hot Chili Peppers

Whenever someone like John Frusciante waltzes into a band, it’s enough to silence an entire room. Hillel Slovak may have been a core foundation of Red Hot Chili Peppers, but the minute that Frusciante plugged in, everyone knew they were dealing with a musician who could make some of the best melodies ever made, even if he wasn’t the most technically gifted player all the time. While the band overcame addiction together for Californication, the guitarist’s decision to leave again led to a few patchy spots in their discography.

Then again, that sounds too harsh a sentence to throw on Josh Klinghoffer. There was some real talent that he possessed every time he played with the Peppers, and hearing him play live really helped do justice to what he was capable of. So, if he’s a good enough guitarist to fill Frusciante’s shoes and bring them to a higher plane, why isn’t that reflected on any of the records that he played on?

Even though I’m With You and The Getaway are perfectly fine extensions on the Peppers’ sound, Klinghoffer always seemed to be kept at a distance compared to everyone else, almost like they were trying to block him out of the room so he wouldn’t try to eclipse what Frusciante had done. But despite Frusciante’s triumphant return on Unlimited Love, it’s still awkward having to see a player of Klinghoffer’s calibre be treated like a sidenote in their story.

Sid Vicious – Sex Pistols

Nothing about Sex Pistols implied that they were going to be the next Rolling Stones. They certainly had the image to give Mick Jagger a run for his money, but there was no telling whether their shows were going to be a revolutionary call to arms, an absolute mess, or both at the same time. But no matter how much he might have looked the part and epitomised punk rock, Sid Vicious is really the beginning of the end when it came to their career as a group.

That being said, it’s not like Vicious was talentless from the moment he walked into the room. The idea of sacking Glen Matlock for not being punk enough was a bit suspect, but hearing heroin-addled Vicious try to do a facsimile of a bassline during their shows was practically embarrassing, which is why Steve Jones had to perform both the guitar and bass on Nevermind the Bollocks.

And despite Vicious going down as one of the most emblematic figures of the punk movement, every member of the band could tell that things were falling out of whack the minute that he started carving words into his chest. Fashion can go a long way in the music industry, but Vicious’s behaviour is the best example of someone not understanding the difference between having a persona and being a genuine fuck-up.

John Corabi – Motley Crue

Mötley Crüe have always operated like some dysfunctional hair metal family throughout their tenure. Even if they are carrying on without Mick Mars on guitar, seeing them deliver their tunes nowadays feels more like a victory lap of them surviving than them genuinely wanting to make new music. And while Vince Neil is far from the screaming banshee that he was in his prime, fans would have much rather have had what they have now they put up with John Corabi one more time.

Which is strange because it’s hard to nail down what made Neil work, to begin with. His voice was always scratchy, but since it suited Nikki Sixx’s songs, no one really cared until it was missing. But Corabi is a trained singer, and seeing him add more depth to the group on their self-titled album could have been a breath of fresh air had they been given more time to build a following.

Since the record went over about as well as someone breaking wind in a church, Neil was back in the band, only to quit four more times during the making of their next album, Generation Swine. So, while most bands have to rely on every band member giving it their all, it turns out Mötley Crüe comes from the bizarro world of rock and roll when having a less talented singer is actually a plus.

Buckethead – Guns N’ Roses

Any chance of Axl Rose finding another Slash after he broke away from Guns N’ Roses was fighting a losing battle. The top-hat-clad six-stringer was known as one of the few icons of the hair metal movement, and if Rose had ever said that any other guitarist equalled him, he was either delusional or outright lying to his audience. But while Buckethead could play circles around Slash if he wanted to, that doesn’t mean he had the same sense of taste as his predecessor.

While Buckethead has made a respectable career of putting out what seems like 40 albums a year, hearing him in Guns N’ Roses was far from a bad idea at first. Once everyone heard the wash of guitars throughout Chinese Democracy, hearing his leads is like staring into the sun after a long day, almost like Rose is trying to polish the song as much as possible without realising if it’s actually good.

And despite having a great track record on his own, Slash couldn’t help but throw a few potshots his way, saying that he didn’t have the right feel to match anything from the original Guns N’ Roses lineup. Buckethead is still one of the biggest musical aliens to grace us during this lifetime, but to borrow a phrase from his KFC-style headgear, nothing can truly beat ‘Original ‘Recipe.’

Jimmy Crespo – Aerosmith

It’s time that most people put the comparisons between Aerosmith and The Rolling Stones to rest. There are more than a few similarities in the way that both bands conduct themselves, but ‘The Bad Boys From Boston’ have put enough swagger in their own sound to have their own seat in the hallowed halls of rock alongside their idols. But if there’s one thing that they have in common, it’s that the frontman/guitarist dynamic is not to be trifled with in either group.

Although Steven Tyler and Joe Perry were the band’s resident Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, seeing Perry walk out on them during the late 1970s already cast a dark shadow over them. Even though Jimmy Crespo was first in line to replace him, it’s clear that something is very wrong the minute his guitar parts came through on Rock in a Hard Place, as if Tyler could hear that his riff machine was gone.
And by the time Brad Whitford left, his replacement, Rick Dufay, could already see the writing on the wall and convinced Tyler to bring back the old guard once again. It was going to take a while to get each of them back on speaking terms, but as much as musical brothers like to fight, it’s not going to sound the same if one of them isn’t accounted for.

Gem Archer – Oasis

See, I’m willing to meet some fans halfway here for this one. Gem Archer is a brilliant guitarist, and what he did for Oasis during their in-between years in the early 2000s was miles better than anything Noel Gallagher could have played in the band’s prime in the 1990s. But without the power of Bonehead onstage every time they played live, it was clear that Oasis had become a shell of their former selves.

All of Noel’s tunes were still fantastic, and Archer even found a way to play off of his rhythm guitar playing, but Bonehead was the one who brought the engine to Oasis in the early days. There might have been moments where things weren’t exactly right, but the punk spirit that they were aiming for when they idolised Sex Pistols was evident every time they played songs like ‘Up in the Sky’ and ‘Columbia.’

So, whereas most of the entries thus far have been artists who couldn’t play as well as their predecessors, Archer was in a lose-lose situation before he even played a single note. Andy Bell didn’t have to deal with as much baggage when slipping into Guigsy’s stage shoes, but when someone had reached the perfection Bonehead did on rhythm guitar duties, there was nowhere to go but down.

Gary Cherone – Van Halen

Out of all the band members to replace, lead singers are always the trickiest. There might be a handful of bands that can manage to pull it off, like Black Sabbath and AC/DC, but when you have someone as charismatic as David Lee Roth, Van Halen should have been dead in the water. They might have been able to work a miracle by getting Sammy Hagar in the group, but it was impossible for them to make lightning strike twice when reaching the late 1990s.

While the band was already at a low point when working on Balance, Gary Cherone was never going to be the right man for the job. Extreme did give him experience playing next to another virtuoso like Nuno Bettencourt, but Cherone’s voice isn’t built to handle Hagar’s or Roth’s material, which puts him in a strange dead zone where he can’t do his own thing but has to make sure to differentiate himself from both frontmen who came before him.

And when he eventually tries to sound like Hagar, most of the songs sound like someone’s dying cat breathing its last breath, especially when looking at the back end of ‘Without You’. Cherone may have admitted that he may have pulled the trigger too early with the group, but even if there were some good ideas, it was no surprise when Eddie’s idea to have a joint tour with all three vocalists got laughed out of the room.

Franz Stahl – Foo Fighters

Every member of Foo Fighters getting hired almost felt like a common courtesy on Dave Grohl’s part. During his lifetime, Taylor Hawkins often joked that the only reason he was in the band was because Grohl knew that he had to eat, and giving them time as touring members and collaborators always made the band feel like a family. But even families have estranged relatives, and Franz Stahl was the answer to their prayers for approximately five seconds in the late 1990s.

Despite having the best lineup for The Colour and the Shape, Pat Smear’s departure left a huge gap when they played live. And while Grohl had a great rapport with Stahl and even managed to see him hit it off with Hawkins, hearing them play together wasn’t producing the sounds that he was hearing in his head. They had cut their teeth together, but it was clear that Grohl had changed dramatically once he got a guitar in his hand.

Since Grohl had started the mess, though, it was never going to be easy to ask one of his childhood friends who gave him his first shot at playing to leave the group. Even though he mended a few fences by having Scream open various shows for Foo Fighters during their later years, there’s bound to be some awkwardness every now and again between them.

Bekka Bramlett – Fleetwood Mac

Fleetwood Mac has earned the distinction of being one of the few indestructible rock bands. Oh, they had their moments where they could fight amongst each other, but no matter how many times people have quit or been asked to leave the group, they always found a way to come back even stronger. But losing Lindsey Buckingham already put them at a disadvantage, and the thought of someone replacing ‘The Gold Dust Woman’ felt like a recipe for disaster once Stevie Nicks left.

That shouldn’t have mattered, though. Christine McVie had sung on some of their best songs as well, and this should have been the moment when she could take command over the group. Instead, bringing in Bekka Bramlett never fully gelled, doing her best to capture the same feeling of their best work and sounding like a glorified background vocalist even on her leading songs on Time.

Granted, it’s not exactly fair to expect any female singer to match the persona of Stevie Nicks, but seeing Bramlett crash and burn feels tragic, given her situation. Everyone was sitting there waiting for the same witchy tendencies to come out, but one thing everyone has to learn is that the same aura radiating off of Nicks is the kind of sensation that bands only get once during their tenure.