10 Rock Bands That Had More Than One Lead Singer

Two voices for the price of one.

Oasis Gallaghers
Will Fresch, CC BY-SA 2.0 , via Wikimedia Commons

The frontman role is a hard burden for any musician to carry. Sure, it might seem fun to lead the sing-alongs with your band night after night, but the idea of being the de facto leader of the group can tire even the most determined musical minds.

Even though many bands get by with just one guy up front, the smart ones spread the lead lines out to every one of their members. Whereas some bands are known for just having the one guy up front pumping out the hits, these bands have had plenty of songs where another member steps up to have a turn on the mic. But what constitutes having two lead singers?

For the ground rules, it has to be a musician who has more than one solo vocal performance to their name and works in tandem with the other singer. While someone like Keith Richards has taken his fair share of lead vocals on Stones records, the slipshot delivery doesn't warrant him a spot alongside Mick Jagger's snide delivery. Whether it's from the beginning of rock music or the new school of musical democracy, these are just a handful of bands who spread the vocal love across their catalog.

10. Blink-182

Pop punk tends to get a lot more hate than it is really deserves. Whereas some of the more cringey nostalgia acts like Simple Plan and Good Charlotte had their fair share of sore spots, groups in the genre's inception like Green Day and Weezer helped us move out of the doom and gloom we were getting after years of importing our music from the grungy Northwest. It may have been a little sophomoric at the best of times, but Blink-182 were the angsty bros you didn't realize you wanted.

Despite the more laughable memes that have come from songs like All the Small Things, these California brats' real appeal came from the fact that they had almost two separate frontmen. With the god amongst drummers Travis Barker letting his music do the talking, both Tom Delonge and Mark Hoppus offered two different sides of the teenage demographic, whether it be Delonge's delightful nasal whine or Hoppus' more subdued and thoughtful delivery.

Even when Tom decided to part ways to chase aliens, the arrival of Matt Skiba brought an even greater tinge to the group's usual formula, complete with a set of pipes that were as unnervy as they were passionate. Blink-182 might be a band that you remember blaring at the gym of your middle school, but when playing off one another, the vocal chemistry was actually fairly legit.

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