Bands That Moved on with New Lead Singers

In November, 1990s grunge stalwarts Stone Temple Pilots debuted their new lead singer, Jeff Gutt, at an intimate gig in Los Angeles. The band has now announced a full tour with Gutt, as well as the prospect of a new album, their first with a singer other than late frontman Scott Weiland.

There have been many bands who have soldiered on with a new singer once their more well-known frontperson leaves or passes away. In fact, this isn’t even the first time Stone Temple Pilots has done it, as Linkin Park’s Chester Bennington fillled in the frontman spot for two years when the band parted ways with Weiland in 2013. Sometimes the new voice is welcomed with open arms. Other times the new addition has been a detrimental career move for the band.  

Inspired by STP’s new frontman, Vinyl Bay 777, Long Island’s music outlet, is taking a look at other bands who have replaced their lead singers. Here are seven who had a go with new frontmen, for better or worse.

1.       Blink-182: Co-frontman Tom DeLonge has one of the most distinct voices in pop-punk. But when he left Blink-182 in 2015, the second time he left the band, in search of alien life, Mark Hoppus and Travis Barker decided to add a different voice to the mix. The band recruited Alkaline Trio’s Matt Skiba to replace him on 2016’s ‘California.’ The move was successful, as the album earned the band their first Grammy nominations in their 20 year career.

2.       INXS: When Michael Hutchence passed away in 1997, INXS didn’t perform regularly for nearly seven years. Then in 2004, the band decided to take part in the new reality television craze, using the show ‘Rock Star: INXS’ to find a new lead singer. The band picked J.D. Fortune and released a new album, which gave them their first top 10 hit in more than a decade. The collaboration didn’t last long as Fortune and the band parted ways in both 2009 and 2011.

3.       Live: After a two-year hiatus between 2009 and 2012, Live reunited without one key player, frontman Ed Kowalczyk. Instead, the band started touring with Unified Theory frontman Chris Shinn on vocal duty, eventually releasing a new album with him in 2015. However, once Kowalczyk and Chad Taylor started getting along again, the band decided that they would reunite the original line-up.

4.       Sublime With Rome: Sublime’s career ended almost as soon as it started. Frontman Bradley Nowell overdosed just before the release of their breakout third album. At the time it was curtains for the band, no tour or anything. But in 2009, bassist Eric Wilson and drummer Bud Gaugh decided to perform under the name again with a new lead singer, Rome Ramirez. After a lawsuit, the band had to change their name to Sublime With Rome. Even though they still mostly play Sublime favorites, the band (sans Gaugh, who left in 2011) has two albums of new material under their belt.

5.       Three Days Grace: Three Days Grace had massive success in the mid-2000s with hard rock singles like “I Hate Everything About You,” “Animal I Have Become,” “Pain” and “Never Too Late.” But after the band released ‘Transit of Venus’ in 2012, lead singer Adam Gontier decided to leave the band unexpectedly. Three Days Grace immediately hired a new singer, My Darkest Days’ Matt Walst, and went on tour. The band has never seen the same kind of success since.

6.       Van Halen: Van Halen was able to lead a very successful career with two different frontmen. David Lee Roth helped make the band a household name in the late 1970s, but due to tentions with the band, left for a successful solo career. The band then hired Sammy Hagar to take over, helping them to earn their first number one album. In fact, the only time when the band wasn’t doing well was when Gary Cherone fronted the band for three years in the mid-late 1990s.  

7.       Black Sabbath: Everyone knows Black Sabbath as the band that Ozzy Osbourne fronted. But when Osbourne left the band, which he did multiple times, other vocalists stepped in. The most notable of these artists was Ronnie James Dio, who filled in after Ozzy’s second exit and for brief periods in the early 1990s and mid-late 2000s. Other frontmen have included Deep Purple’s Ian Gillan and Glenn Hughes, Tony Martin, Ray Gillen and Dave Walker.

There have been many bands who have continued their careers when their frontmen left or passed away. Like with Van Halen, some have success with multiple singers. Other times, like with Three Days Grace, new success has been hard to come by. Though Stone Temple Pilots definitely won’t be the same without Scott Weiland (or Chester Bennington), it remains to be seen how Jeff Gutt will do continuing the band’s legacy. He has some big shoes to fill.

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