These guys are 'band-wreckers'? Hardly!

A new list about some of our favorite bands just popped up on the Web, but you're probably not going to like where it's going. One retro-music blogger has named his top 5 singers who wrecked the bands they joined.

"Band wreckers are the worst kind of singers," writes Shawn Amos, who pens the Get Back music blog (just profiled on Yahoo.) "They are those dudes who take advantage of an unstable group relationship and insert themselves in the middle. They break into a band and destroy their happy home."

Of course, a few '80s bands made his list. Here's his take on...

VAN HALEN (with Sammy Hagar)
Shawn's take: "Van Halen are serial cheaters. First they broke up with David Lee Roth for Sammy Hagar. Then they cheated on Sammy for Gary Cherone. THEN they bring back Diamond Dave but boot bassist Michael Anthony."
My take: Bad first pick. I thought Van Halen did fine with Sammy -- they certainly didn't stop cranking out the hits. If anything "wrecked" this band, it was the feud between Dave and Eddie.

INXS (with JD Fortune)
Shawn's take: "The best they can do is some Vegas wannabe Lizard King named JD Fortune? ...A shameless disrespect to Michael Hutchence's memory."
My take: Agreed. They should have gone after Jimmy Barnes, who was brilliant with them on Good Times from The Lost Boys soundtrack.

QUEEN (with Paul Rodgers)
Shawn's take: "The remaining members of Queen think that keeping Paul Rodgers’ name separate from the band name on the marquee will cause people to forget that he's not a band wrecker."
My take: Sorry, but nobody was going to be able to replace the late, great Freddie Mercury (though George Michael sounded great during the Concert for Life tribute). Give the remaining Queen members credit for just trying to carry on.

JOURNEY (with every other singer in the world)
Shawn's take: "This band has gone through three different lead singers all trying to replace the signature man-chick wail of original vocalist Steve Perry. Each one had been a bigger embarrassment than the last."
My take: Current singer Arnel Pineda isn't a band-wrecker. Unless Perry feels like picking up a microphone again, consider Arnel the band's savior.

Click here to see more band-wreckers from Getback.com.

[AP and Getty Images photos]

Comments

[Jeff in Cuba]

At the risk of defending a bunch of hacks and posers (I'm looking at you, JD Fortune), I don't think it's fair to hang the "Band Wrecker" label on these (woefully lame) replacements.

Each of these bands suffered the departure (or death) of their lead singer. They were already "wrecked" before the new guys showed up. It's like taking a stained shirt to the cleaners. You can gripe about the fact that they couldn't get the stains out, but you can't say they ruined the shirt. After all, you're the one who dumped the Lil' Smokies on your Journey concert tee.

Let's save the "Band Wrecker" title for those rare individuals whose very presence sends otherwise servicable groups into a shark-jumping death spiral.

Like Yoko.

[Spears]

Good point, Jeff. I don't really begrudge Shawn for trying to write his way around this idea. It's a great talker. But I would have picked another term over than "band-wrecker."

I'm sure JD and Paul both felt uneasy about stepping in roles so tragically vacated. And it's not like Sammy had any role in Diamond Dave's departure. Hey, you wanna blame someone in that debacle? Blame whatever goofball manager it was who talked Roth into a solo career.

As for Journey, it would seem egos and hurt feelings will prevent Perry from returning to the band, and that's a shame. But I really think Arnel is doing a bang-up job, and their sold-out shows across the country this year should be proof enough that this band isn't wrecked so much as it's been reincarnated.

[Rob Bass from Chicago]

(sorry, Steve, but as far as blogs go, typepad is a piece of crap...)

Anyhow, I wouldn't say that certain departures have already "ruined" the band before the next guy comes in...just look at a few of favorite bands of all time.

When Ian Curtiss took his own life with his bass-strings, who would have throught that Bernard Sumner would have made the band even better? In my opinion, New Order took on heights that Joy Division probably could have never taken.

How about when Vince Clarke left Depeche Mode? Bringing in a tune-smith like Alan Wilder couldn't have helped the band more. You could also count Allison Moyet's departure of Yaz as a potential "band wrecker", but Andy Bell sure complimented Vince Clarke's music even better than Moyet could have ever done.

[OldSchool]

I came across this same blog and it is scary how close my own opinions were mirrored by yours, Steve.

I was going to comment on my own blog similarly, but now it is not even worth it since you reflected my thoughts already.

Not sure why I felt compelled to leave this comment, but I did anyways. Great job as usual!

[Bassnote]

I wouldn't call Paul Rogers a band wrecker for Queen. What wrecks Queen is that John Deacon, the original bass player, quit the band. John was the writer behind 'Another One Bites The Dust', 'Spread your Wings', 'You're My Best Friend", and other classic songs.
As far as JD goes, he just sucks, an INXS was stupid not to go for Jimmy Barnes.
Having seen Journey with Arnel this past summer, he is resurrecting the band.

[Paul]

As far as journey goes Arnel is great and so I think they will do just fine.
As far as inxs goes they picked the worst clown whose voice sounds the same on everything he tries to sing.
I like the reference to some vegas wannabe Lizard King.
Jimmy Barnes would have really fit in and the age thing wouldn't look so pathetically ridiculous.

[crockett]

how odd, my post yesterday got flagged as spam.

:-(

[CHAD]

shawn must be a dave era fan. i was a huge van halen fan prior to sammy joining, but became a uber fan after 5150. i just think they became more musical after sam joined. i like both eras, not gonna comment on the cherone debacle, but sammy's van halen is my favorite.

[JohnnyVinyl]

Hi,
I would just like to make a comment about INXS (and JD Fortune). It might not be known outside of Australia but INXS were whoring around a couple of other lead singers long before JD auditioned for the reality show. After Hutchence's death Jon Stevens (from Australian 80's/90's rock outfit 'Noiseworks') sung with the group for a long time but even before Jon Stevens, Terence Trent Darby played an awful show with INXS at a pre game grand final football match in Sydney. Jon Stevens left the band (or was sacked) because he was either, from New Zealand, or the band had signed up with Mark Burnett's reality tv company to produce 'RockStar'.
If you know Jon Stevens or T.T. Darby maybe J.D. Fortune was not a bad replacement.
Thanks.

[Frick]

I'd say Eddy is the band wrecker of VH and Sammy took them places that Dave never would have, just my thoughts
Arnel is doing his best to save Journey and maybe just maybe Perry will pick up the (Journey) microphone once again

[Marissa]

Hey, stop picking on poor JD Fortune. He's a mere human being; being human. It says so on his arms!

[Karen]

INXS lost all respect by choosing their lead singer replacement via a reality show. I don't understand why they couldn't have simply found a viable singer from Australia and renamed the band. The voice of INXS was and will forever be Michael Hutchence. You can't change that. Same for Freddy Mercury. The other bands I don't like so I don't have an opinion

[Eric S]

Band wrecker is kinda of a harsh term. It seems like it should be used in certain cases.

Paul Rodgers and Queen just don't mix at all. His voice just doesn't mesh well with Queen songs. I like Rodgers with Free and Bad Company, but not Queen.

I like Sammy, but I like Dave more. Sammy's VH seemed to go way more poppy. They lost their hard rock edge with Sammy on board. But it did seem like they were going that way with 1984.

No real opinion on Journey. Haven't heard the new album by them. Still wish they would have stuck with JSS. Now he is a very good singer.

I actually like JD. Saw them in concert with him. He is very good. I look forward to the new album with more imput from him.

I think a good example of a band wrecker would be Blaze Bayley with Iron Maiden. Especially with the 2nd album (Virtual XI). That almost killed the group. Luckily they brought Bruce back and all is right with the world. Yes, I realize most everyone who reads this blog will have no idea what I am talking about.

[tom]

Jon Stevens and Trent D. weren't made official members of the inxs band. They could get rid of them if they wanted to. They made Vegas Elvis a member of the band. That sucks. Not as much asJ D Fortune.

[Eric S]

I actually thought of another one that fits with this site. That would be Ian Gillan with Sabbath. I hated the Born Again album. Some fans actually like it. But like Paul Rodgers with Queen, Ian's voice did not fit well with Sabbath's song IMO. That is a good example.

[JohnnyVinyl]

What about Ian Astbury from The Cult who then joined The Doors?(or The Doors of the 21st Century unsure of exact name). I mean The Cult were a great band but playing with two of the three remaining 'Doors' is a punching above his weight.

[don in tulsa]

i commented on this guys list. his view on journey is pretty ridiculous and he didn't even get the van halen timeline right. first they offered the gig to patty smyth of scandal who turned it down and then to sammy. then came in cherone who left and was replaced by sammy again (who had toured with dlr in the meantime) then brought back dave and ditched michael anthony. eddie is the one who did all of this.
jeff scott soto just doesn't have the classic journey singer sound like augieri and arnel do and i think that's why he was sacked. steve perry will never get back with the rest. neal schon is now in charge and steve would never put up with that.

[Bassnote]

Here's a band wrecker; Ray Wilson with Genesis. Not only did they lose Phil Collins' voice, but they lost his drums and song writing. The album "Calling All Stations" with Wilson effectively ended Genesis's recording career. Collins came back in 2007 and they did a hugely successful tour.