10 Bands That Got Over Losing A Lead Singer

Life With a New Voice.

David Lee Roth Van Halen
Warner Bros.

When you're talking about the most recognizable people in rock and roll, you'll usually find them at the front of the stage. Whether or not the other band members would like to admit it, having a good frontman to sell every one of your songs is really the only surefire way to guarantee that your songs will reach a mass market. That begs the question though...what do you do when the mouth of the band gets silenced?

It's not like it doesn't happen...I mean, that internal drama between bands has been known to rub some artists the wrong way in many different situations. Oftentimes, a lot of the frontmen for these acts have left with expletives flying, never to be seen again with their next act. Despite any of the extracurriculars, these artists managed to shake themselves off and return even stronger with someone else out front.

From the worlds of rock, metal, and even the mellower sides of rock and roll, there are always those rare bands who's strength goes beyond just the person that's belting out the hits. Because after all, the focus should always come back to the music at the end of the day, and these artists hadn't lost the tunes to back them up.

10. Pink Floyd

In a business all about having a pinup star out front, Pink Floyd makes for a pretty interesting case study. All while making some of the most awe-inspiring prog rock albums ever made, the entire group has kept up a reputation of being relatively faceless, instead letting the music speak for itself. Then again, when you see what fame can do to a person, maybe it's for the best.

Long before the days of Dark Side of the Moon, Floyd's original singer Syd Barrett started the group with a more psychedelic tinge to their sound. Once the slew of popularity started to kick in, Barrett got more and more off the rails, oftentimes resorting to drugs which left him in a compromised mental state. It wasn't even that out of the question for Barrett to stop midway through the song and struggle to even hold his guitar pick.

While Floyd eventually kicked Barrett out of the band, his aura is still felt throughout every one of their later works, with Shine On You Crazy Diamond being a tribute to him and Dark Side of the Moon's resident lunatic attributed to Barrett's lost touch with reality. Floyd may have made it to the other side of the classic rock spectrum...but you have to think, at what cost?

 
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