Same old tunes, but with a new singer
Van Halen fans may forever debate the merits of singer David Lee Roth versus his successor, Sammy Hagar, but both camps offer a unanimous verdict on the tenure of the band's third vocalist, Gary Cherone: disastrous.
As a result of the backlash, Cherone bowed out of Van Halen after one album and tour during the late1990s.
This year, three well-known bands - INXS, Queen, and TLC - are taking a similar risk. They are all hiring new singers to take the place of deceased vocalists.
Queen has begun touring with rock vocalist Paul Rodgers (Free, Bad Company), who is taking over the microphone from Freddie Mercury. Australian rockers INXS and pop stars TLC are heading down an even more controversial path: They're auditioning new singers, "American Idol" style, on reality TV this summer.
Critics offer different theories on how many pieces of a band can be replaced before the group loses its signature identity (the decision to substitute drummers seems to be a no-brainer). But they all agree that finding a new front man is never a sure thing. It remains to be seen whether INXS can prosper without the charismatic Michael Hutchence, or whether TLC can find a third member to replace the harmonies of Lisa Lopes.
"The singer's voice is the single most personal characteristic of any band," says Jacob Slichter, the (irreplaceable?) drummer with Semisonic and author of "So You Wanna Be a Rock & Roll Star." "I don't necessarily frown or smile when I hear about singer changes, but I start to wonder, what is this going to mean? It's really hard to imagine Oasis without Liam Gallagher or Nirvana without Kurt Cobain."
Rock pundits are similarly pessimistic about TLC's show on UPN later this month, and the INXS experiment, which debuts next week on CBS.
"The idea of INXS coming back now seems really desperate to me," says Doug Brod, executive editor at Spin magazine. "It almost seems humiliating. [Hutchence's] death was so tragic and they've been gone eight years. Is this really necessary?"
Yes, says David Goffin, an executive producer on the INXS-CBS collaboration, appropriately called "Rock Star." The way Goffin sees it, why shouldn't the remaining band members do what they have done all their lives, which is play rock music?
"Michael Hutchence was a great singer and his death was tragic, but music is what [the remaining members] do," Mr. Goffin says. "This is different than 'American Idol' because we're dealing with rock music, not pop. Rock requires a much bigger commitment and it requires taking chances."
From death (INXS, AC/DC, Queen) to disagreement (Van Halen, Judas Priest, Creedence Clearwater Revival), examples abound of relationships that ended, leaving the remaining band members to either dissolve the group or continue on in a diminished state, struggling for relevance and identity.
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