10 Weirdest Replacement Members In Rock History

Not every band is meant to go the distance with their original lineup. There comes a point in every group's career when you have to realize that the Three Musketeers mentality is not going to stand the test of time forever. You're going to have to cut some dead weight eventually, but none of the fans were necessarily asking for something like this.

While some of these acts may have had a shot at continuing on, the new ingredient in the mix definitely stood out as something strange when they were first getting the ball rolling. Compared to the symbiotic mindset that the original lineup had, this felt like taking the best parts of the band's sound and flipping them on their head without any prior warning. It's never an easy thing to do, but that doesn't mean that all of these changes were for the worse.

Outside of a few glaring errors, a lot of these acts managed to make it work with this new lineup for an album or two, with some still going strong with the new guys to this day. Is it what your audience wanted? No...probably not in a million years. Here's a little secret, though, fans sometimes don't know what they want, so it's better to swing for the fences whenever you have the opportunity. In some cases, the gamble is definitely worth it.

Looking at the Fleetwood Mac of the '60s and the Fleetwood Mac of the '70s feels like you're listening to two separate bands. Around the time that they were getting their feet wet, this was one of the greatest blues bands in the British music scene, with some of the members even playing with blues legend John Mayall alongside Eric Clapton. When Peter Green left and replacement Bob Welsh was out the door, the blues quickly left as well once Lindsey Buckingham came on board.

Being a lot more influenced by folk and pop than the traditional bluesmen, Buckingham had a knack for more commercial friendly material, which came out on the band's self titled release on songs like Say You Love Me. When the band were first considering him for the job though, there was also one condition: they had to let his girlfriend in the fold as well.

Along with having a fingerstyle lead guitar playing filling out the leads, Stevie Nicks was brought in as a singer, bringing a smoky haze to her songs that felt a lot more mystical than the traditional stuff they were playing. As much as the blues purists may have been unhappy, this was the ticket to success, with songs like Landslide and their follow up album Rumors becoming some of the most celebrated pop rock to come out of the '70s. This may have been really far away from the blues, but it was actually a lot closer to legendary territory.