10 Amazing Rock Bands That Almost Had The Wrong Members

In most fans' minds, the entire idea of A Perfect Circle doesn't exist without Maynard James Keenan in the fold. As much as Billy Howerdel might steer the ship for the band, not having Maynard behind the screams on a song like Judith just feels wrong to even contemplate for more than a few seconds. When Billy was first coming up with the idea though, the vocals were almost the polar opposite of Keenan's strengths.

As the songs started to take shape, Billy had originally thought of having a female voice above everything, almost to have a sort of haunting quality to the vocals. While there were never actual auditions had or anything, one of the names that Billy shuffled around was Elizabeth Fraser of the Cocteau Twins, who had already earned her credentials at making some more somber forms of rock music at the time.

That might sound like a bit of a stretch considering what we got, but it's not actually as far off as you'd probably imagine. Though something like the Outsider might not be anywhere near Fraser's style, hearing Maynard's voice on the more mellow cuts on APC records like Gravity or Blue is just the kind of intensity that she could have pulled off pretty well. We're a far way off from something like Amy Lee from around the same time, but this would have definitely been a change of pace from what we were used to.