Who's That Guy?!?!

Ah the lead singer. He's the guy you know more than any other in the band, right? But what happens when that familiar voice leaves the band? Usually, nothing good happens as we're about to explore. Here's a few examples.

Motley Crue: For years one thing was known: Vince Neil was the singer for The Crue. All that changed in 1992 when the band decided to dumb him. So who did they get to replace him? John Corabi, who at that time was fronting a band called The Scream. I actually had the first Scream album believe it or not. Truthfully, the only album they made with him wasn't terrible. It just wasn't a Motley Crue album. Here's the video for "Smoke The Sky" for proof.

Vince Neil would go on to make a couple dreadful solo albums and then finally return to the Crue a few years later.
Next up, Van Halen. No I'm not talking about Sammy Hagar replacing David Lee Roth. No, no, no. What, you don't remember Gary Cherone? Well, here's history lesson. Gary Cherone was the singer of Extreme. Again this just didn't really sound like Van Halen. Not only a different voice, but a different sound all together. The result? Uh, yeah it flopped. But you can still check out the video for "Without You".

Then there was Judas Priest. What to do when the guy who's fronted your band for almost 20 years up and splits on you? Well of course you hire a guy who sings in a Judas Priest tribute band. The legendary Rob Halford was replaced by Tim "Ripper" Owens. Priest made two albums with Owens, and also released a couple of live records. He also had a movie based him starring Mark Wahlberg called Rock Star. here's the title track from the first record they made with him, Jugulator.

He didn't really sound like Halford, except he did a great impression of that classic scream. Eventually Rob Halford returned and that was it for Owens. He then sang in power metal band Iced Earth for about 4 years. Now, he's fronting Yngwie Malmsteem's band. Yeah.
So as you can see changing the voice of your band isn't the best idea. It has worked on rare occasions (see AC/DC, Anthrax) but mostly it just leaves people scratching their heads.