10 Rock Bands That Continued Without Major Members

Of all the core members of a rock band, the lead singer is the one that seems irreplaceable. After all, this is the person who serves as the mouthpiece and main personality of the band, so how are you supposed to reinvent yourself with someone completely new? And, more importantly, how do you replace a person who has become known as the Prince of Darkness?

After making a name for themselves as one of the first great metal acts of the '70s, things were clearly going off the rails with the Ozzy Osbourne fronted version of Black Sabbath. Amid the cocaine-fueled writing sessions and several bottles of booze, Ozzy was getting less and less satisfied operating under the Black Sabbath name, all while Tony Iommi seemed to take up the frontman role when they played live. When Ozzy was sent packing though, Tony quickly realized the answer was not to get an Ozzy clone.

Completely shifting their sound around, Tony managed to find Ronnie James Dio, who was fresh out of the band Rainbow, to sing lead on the next album Heaven and Hell. Having a much cleaner sound and more complex riffs, this launched Sabbath into the next decade, where they could actually compete with the New Wave of British Heavy Metal coming up in their wake. Though their time may have seemed short, bringing in Ronnie was proof that Sabbath could be granted life after death.