Which Bands Got Worse After Replacing An Original Member

BlueMoonAcrossThePond

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I'll start...

Warrant - had massive success as a "hair band" in the 80's with Heaven, Down Boys and several other top hits.

Unfortunately, Jani Lane was a troubled figure who often showed up drunk to Warrant's live performances. It got so bad that Warrant parted ways with Jani.

And that was the end of Warrant. Jani's vocals, lyrics and compositional ability was the heart of Warrant. Once the band (understandably) fired Jani - Warrant sucked.
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Hinder. A hard rock band you probably never heard of. But if you like hard rock check out Hinder - they were awesome.

Austin Winker was the driving force behind Hinder - but Austin, like Jani of Warrant, was a drunk. Hinder let go of Austin - and went from one of my favorite bands - to shit overnight.
 
I'll start...

Warrant - had massive success as a "hair band" in the 80's with Heaven, Down Boys and several other top hits.

Unfortunately, Jani Lane was a troubled figure who often showed up drunk to Warrant's live performances. It got so bad that Warrant parted ways with Jani.

And that was the end of Warrant. Jani's vocals, lyrics and compositional ability was the heart of Warrant. Once the band (understandably) fired Jani - Warrant sucked.
===
Hinder. A hard rock band you probably never heard of. But if you like hard rock check out Hinder - they were awesome.

Austin Winker was the driving force behind Hinder - but Austin, like Jani of Warrant, was a drunk. Hinder let go of Austin - and went from one of my favorite bands - to shit overnight.
Warrant once had a song that got to number 35 in the UK charts. Massive success indeed.

Hinder had even less success over here. An album that got to number 130 odd in the charts. Ooooh...
Just had a quick listen to 'Get Stoned'. Hard rock? Sounds like Nickleback.

Got any other examples that the majority of this forum might know and actually give two shits about?
 
I find that albums and bands I turned away from for changing band members in the past, as I get older I'm more open and chilled to listening to their stuff from that period. Sounds like the OP's taste is pretty similar to mine too!

Poison firing CC DeVille and replacing him with Richie Kotzen angered fans who just wanted more hair rock, yet there's little doubt that Kotzen was, and still is, an excellent guitarist who wrote some great stuff and on reflection that album has some good tracks. Just don't feel like Poison tracks.

Similar with Kiss. No Peter Criss or Ace Frehley for decades but for a long time my favourite era was with Bruce Kulick on the axe. Still love that MTV unplugged set though with them all coming out on stage.

Van Halen is one that has always divided fans. I prefer Roth but I wouldn't turn it off if a Hagar song came on. I did struggle with Gary Cherone going there though, especially as I was a huge Extreme fan so it was like ruining two bands in one swoop.

Aerosmith breaking up the toxic twins and replacing Joe Perry and Brad Whitford would have been huge, and whilst the album produced without them can be said to have no real standout tracks, it's doesn't have many bad ones either.

I wasn't too happy about Guns n Roses losing Izzy Stradlin, or taking on a keyboardist as a permanent member, but the Use Your Illusion albums turned out pretty good.

Have seen Skid Row a few times post Sebastian Bach and although they're still very good you're always going to think of the era and those songs as being the definitive.

Blackie Lawless and Chris Homes falling out was big too, what with Blackie even dropping the fake blood and guts props and doing a reborn Christian thing, but there were so many replacements that I'm just glad they finally found some stability and could knock a few more songs out. Even if he won't play certain animalistic ones any more

I know Hinder. They got selected via a rock talent show with Motley Crue as judges, or at least Nikki Sixx I think. Fantastic debut album, All American Nightmare was great, but I didn't listen to the others much thereafter though.

Speaking of the Crue, John Corabi didn't work out well and he was hardly given a fair crack, but even despite what happened with Vince Neil people still wanted that classic line up.

But, to bring it back full circle, now I'm middle ages myself I'm just happy to get to any gig nowadays, and much less bothered about whether it is the actual guys who lived and breathed the life playing the songs, if the effort to putting on a great show is there.
 
Oh I'd agree all day. But I've met plenty of people who wanted Hagar to continue, even return.
All of them are wrong. Anyone who wants that was never a fan, never saw them live in a stadium or early on in a club, doesn't appreciate Dave's sense of humo(u)r, doesn't understand what a tool Eddie could be, or knew much about what a schlub Sammy was, whether in Montrose or solo. Don't get me wrong -- his steakhouse was pretty good.

"Right Now" was pretty alright, TBF.
 
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nah...Taylor played on Let it Bleed, Exile and Sticky fingers...pretty much the best of the Stones.
As I said Taylor's skill as a guitarist is beyond debate but they just seemed to move towards being a fantastic rock band and away from being a ground breaking group who encompassed a variety of influences. That is what Brian gave them IMO.
 

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