10 Rock Bands That Continued Without Major Members
2. David Lee Roth - Van Halen
The entire '80s scene that became known as hair metal could pretty much be renamed 'music derivative of Van Halen.' As much as people may have cited acts like Sweet and David Bowie for them stepping up their look, the idea of combining the hard rock riffs with a fun loving party vibe is pretty much trademarked by Eddie Van Halen and David Lee Roth. Right at the time where the band could really do some damage though, they would have to do so without their titan of a frontman.
Once the tour for 1984 wound down, Diamond Dave was no longer happy with the direction the band was going on, leaving on pretty harsh terms if you look at his next record title Eat Em And Smile. Compared to the normal rock star shakeups, this should have been a fatal blow to the band that launched glam metal, only to see them come roaring back to life with Sammy Hagar.
After making most of their classic records with Dave, here was a guy who had a much higher range, which gave Eddie a lot more room to flex his musical chops on albums like 5150 and OU812. A lot of people consider the Roth-less version of Van Halen to be the end of the classic period, but if you're swearing off Hagar, you're leaving tons of good music still on the table.