10 Famous Bands With Rotating Lineups
5. A Perfect Circle
If you looked at any of the press surrounding A Perfect Circle at the beginning of their career, this looked like it was just an offshoot for what Maynard James Keenan was doing with Tool. There were the still the same tropes that you were seeing with something off of Lateralus, only this time with a bit of a gothic atmosphere more in line with mainstream metal. Before Maynard was even in the picture though, A Perfect Circle was already beginning in the mind of Billy Howerdel.
Being a guitar tech for Tool back in the day, Billy was itching to get his own songs out to the public and even had considered a female vocalist for the group before taking Maynard on. Though the first incarnation of the band was more in line with metal with session musicians like Josh Freese and getting Rob Halford's input for releasing the song Judith, the next phase of their career saw different players from the alternative world come in as well, from the likes of 30 Seconds to Mars and Queens of the Stone Age lending a hand.
Out of every "guest star" though, James Iha seemed to work his touch a lot more than his contemporaries, working on tracks off of Thirteenth Step and creating a different world for Billy's ideas to form in. Whereas Tool might try to trip your brain out with different concepts that can break your mental capacity, A Perfect Circle is just the right middle ground for making something that might *gasp* get on the radio.