I originally wrote this post back in October. I decided to re-post it as not very many people were reading my blog back then. Enjoy!
It seems that very few bands keep the same line-up for a long period time. Motley Crue have done well to have only had six members since the release of the first album. We always used to joke about the Exploited changing band members like most people change underwear and they probably have had more band members that any other punk band, but what about metal bands? What metal/hard rock band has had the most members? Black Sabbath comes to mind due to the changes made after it was just Tony Iommi and a backing band because they went through a number of guys just between 86-90. Whitesnake might be up there as well. They went through a number of guys before 1987 and a lot of different people have played on tours over say the last ten years. However, my guess would be the band who has had the most members is LA Guns. In an interview with Metal Sludge last year, Phil Lewis was asked to name everyone who had been in the band and it was like 26 or 27 guys. Even though they have not done a lot of studio albums, LA Guns have toured a lot over the last 17 years so I guess that accounts for all of the members. However, unlike Black Sabbath, Whitesnake or even the Exploited, there hasn't even been one member who has been in every version of LA Guns. Traci Guns was in every version from the beginning until like two years ago. He hasn't been on the last two tours or the last album because he has been doing BOD, Phil Lewis and Steven Riley are in the current version and those guys have played on fewer Guns albums than Traci. Well, I would say that 27 members is a lot of guys for a band that has only produced two good albums (the first two) although I have heard the new album is supposed to be good. Let me know if you can think of a metal/hard rock that has had more members. I am trying to think more of bands than just solo artists although Whitesnake are really just a solo band. However, if I counted solo acts then Alice Cooper is probably up there as well with the number of guys who have played with him and the Nuge and Ozzy probably have high numbers as well.
I'm not sure how many guys have played with Uncle Ted over the years, but I can remember that on Free For All, he had at least three different singers alone, one of them being Meat Loaf. Yngwie Malmsteen falls into the same category.
ReplyDeleteThat's a lot for Rainbow considering they weren't around all that long. Uriah Heep would have to be up there because they changed a lot of members just in the early 70's alone. Krokus have had more than 20 members. Plus the fact that they had no original members left in the band by the time they did the Blitz.
ReplyDeleteGood digging on the story.
ReplyDeleteI'd wondered the same thing about LA Guns. I guess that's one way these bands can keep going, but at what point does a band really end, even when the name doesn't?