10 Worst Times Hard Rock Bands Changed Singers

In a move that puts Iron Maiden on "Best Times Hard Rock Bands Changed Singers", they replaced their original singer Paul Di'Anno with Bruce Dickenson in 1981. Fast forward 12 years, after 7 albums and multiple massive world tours, Dickenson stepped away to work on solo material.

After an extensive search, the group settled on Blaze Bayley as the replacement. His band Wolfsbane had opened for Iron Maiden on one of their tours. Chosen because his vocal style was nothing like Dickenson, it ended up being one of the main reasons he's not thought of as highly as his predecessor. They released 1995's The X Factor and (for them) it was a commercial disappointment. They toured for the next few years until releasing their next album Virtual XI in 1998.

By this time critics were already writing off the bad as finished and Virtual XI did them no favors. It would be their lowest selling album, failing to reach the one million mark - something Iron Maiden had done with every one of their records to date. Bayley was fired in 1999 as the group realized he wasn't connecting with their fans and his voice just couldn't really keep up with trying to match Dickenson's material when performing it live.

Bruce Dickenson returned to the band permanently in 1999 and fans rejoiced, their 2000 album Brave New World was a critical and commercial success.