10 Rock Music Bands That Replaced Their Singer

When Iron Maiden were first making waves in the British music, they were adamant about wanting to stomp out the punk scene that was happening around the same time. The aesthetic of the Sex Pistols wasn't really appealing to their audience, and they just wanted to make killer riffs that could rip your head off instead of rebelling against authority. That was certainly possible, but they had to lose some weight if they wanted to reach the big leagues.

That's not to say that original singer Paul Di'Anno was a bad singer by any stretch. If you listen back to albums like Killers and their debut, every one of these songs remain staples of the band's work, having the same kind of bad attitude that you'd expect from Maiden. This was all about a matter of taste though, and Paul's delivery was a little too in tune with what the punk scene was up to at the time, toeing the line between the likes of Rob Halford and someone like Johnny Rotten.

After letting go of Paul so he could work on other projects, Maiden found Bruce Dickinson from a local band named Samson, who's voice practically sounded like an opera tenor whenever he stepped up to the microphone. As much as Maiden were already on an upward trajectory, bringing Bruce into the fold on Number of the Beast was what launched them into the stratosphere, signaling the real New Wave of British Heavy Metal. While Maiden definitely got better with Bruce behind the mic, that is by no means an insult to Paul. If Di'Anno hadn't have left that position open for Bruce though, that would have been the real tragedy.