Finding a new voice Bands often take desperate measures to replace lead singers
Jim Farber New York Daily News May. 1, 2005 12:00 AM
When bands lose a musician, it's like losing an arm.
But when a singer departs, because he or she stormed off in a huff, got thrown out or, in the worst-case scenario, shook off this mortal coil, it's like losing a head.
Prosthetics can give you a new arm, but how many head transplants have you heard about lately? advertisement
Such a daunting task hasn't stopped lots of big-name bands from trying to pull off this ultimate makeover. Queen, the Doors, INXS and Big Brother are touring with a replacement singer or auditioning for one.
INXS and Big Brother are getting help from the most up-to-date method: reality-show auditions.
Similar attempts to fill the void have met with mixed results. Here's a look at how past and present groups have managed without their most public faces.
Queen
When this flamboyant British band lost singer Freddie Mercury to AIDS in 1991, members vowed never to tour or record again. A wise decision, considering Mercury owned one of the most powerful and expressive yowls in rock history.
This year, two key members - guitarist Brian May and drummer Roger Taylor - reconsidered their pledge and decided to tour. To pull this off, they roped in singer Paul Rodgers, formerly of Free and Bad Company. Original bassist John Deacon decided not to join them.
The group is playing theaters in Europe, with plans to hit the United States this fall. Though I haven't heard them, and while Rodgers remains one of the United Kingdom's most soulful singers, he hardly seems suited to the grandeur of Queen.
The Doors
Finding an apt replacement for Jim Morrison seems about as easy as casting a new James Bond after Sean Connery. Yet, in the early '70s, the remaining Doors had a smart idea for a sub: Iggy Pop, who rivals the late Lizard King in mania and brilliance. As it turned out, the band did its own singing on two terrible albums in the early '70s. Last year, it joined with Cult frontman Ian Astbury. Drummer John Densmore stayed away and sued, which seemed more than justified. It turned out Astbury was so bad he probably would have lost in a Jim Morrison karaoke contest.
INXS
The late Michael Hutchence wasn't just a wonderfully huffy singer; his feline sexuality made him an erotic one of a kind. Still, the other band members had nothing else to do, so they happily prostituted themselves to reality-show czar Mark Burnett, who agreed to help them search for a mock-Michael. The sure-to-be-chilling results will air on CBS in July.
Big Brother and the Holding Company
Let's face it, Big Brother was never a great band. Band members knew it. The world knew it. Janis Joplin knew it, which is why she ditched the band after Cheap Thrills in 1968. Still, more than three decades later, the group vows to make a comeback with a new scratchy-voiced singer. It's shopping that notion to reality-show producers. In the meantime, I have two words for them: Joss Stone.
Genesis
In 1974, when Peter Gabriel stormed out of what he called the Genesis "machinery," the band seemed doomed. Who could replace his inspired foghorn of a voice? As it turned out, drummer Phil Collins could, with ease. He was to Peter Gabriel what Julie Budd was to Barbra Streisand: a solid knockoff. For a while, the Collins-led band stuck with their early art-rock format. Then it swung in a slicker pop direction, which made it 10,000 times bigger than it was with Gabriel. The group didn't collapse until years later, when Collins left and was replaced with Ray Wilson for one bomb CD.
Van Halen
When Diamond Dave Roth ankled the Halens to go solo in 1985, the smart money was on Dave to run away with the legacy, especially as he was replaced by the odious Sammy Hagar. After one good CD, Roth went soft and the Halens wound up raking in more moolah and scoring even more hits than they did when fronted by their first ham. Hagar later got into his own tiff with the guys and was briefly replaced by the even worse Gary Cherone. To this day, fans debate Roth vs. Hagar the way some do the Mets vs. the Yankees. Let's just call it a draw.
Judas Priest
Members of this classic metal band had no intention of fiddling with their formula after singer Rob Halford stormed off, so they hired a professional Halford impersonator. Later, Hollywood made a bad movie about it, Rock Star (with Mark Wahlberg as the replacement guy). The mock-Halford was so loyal to the band's legacy that when the old singer wanted back in, he graciously bowed out. Now that's love.
Joy Division/New Order
Singer-replacement stories don't get sadder than this one. When Joy Division main man Ian Curtis hanged himself in 1980, the shaken remaining members soldiered on with guitarist Bernard Sumner at the mike. Out of respect to Curtis, they changed their name and their sound. Whereas Curtis boasted a dark bellow of limited appeal, Sumner's monotone communicated a boyish yearning that, coupled with the group's catchy new synth sound, gave them a success Joy Division never could have achieved.
Deep Purple
A host of singers have fronted this long-running metal touchstone, but Ian Gillan remains the great one by divine right (he played the son of God in the original Jesus Christ Superstar). When he left in 1974, the band hired the thoroughly awful David Coverdale to mimic him. Coverdale later impersonated Robert Plant in the atrocious Whitesnake, inspiring the Led Zeppelin singer to dub him "David Cover Version," a term that may offer the last word on singer substitutes.
