I did have an entry of the best singers in rock and metal in the last book, but a few people after reading that one said I needed one on JUST replacement singers and I felt I agreed, I mean they knew who my #1 was gonna be, but who else should make the cut? Now, I don’t have any particular rules here… should it be after a successful album, or not, should the replacement be better than the original or not? I figure you could do all that on your own. So with very little setup and fanfare here is my list of the best replacement singers in rock and metal!





Phil Anselmo –Pantera

Joey Belladonna –Anthrax

Graham Bonnet –Rainbow

Lindsey Buckingham & Stevie Nicks -Fleetwood Mac

John Bush –Anthrax

John Corabi - Mötley Crüe

Phil Collins –Genesis

David Coverdale –Deep Purple

Bruce Dickinson –Iron Maiden

William DuVall –Alice In Chains

Ronnie James Dio –Black Sabbath

Tobias Forge -Ghost

Ian Gillan –Deep Purple

David Gilmour –Pink Floyd

Jeff Gutt –Stone Temple Pilots

Sammy Hagar –Van Halen

Glenn Hughes –Deep Purple

Terry Ilous –Great White

Brian Johnson –AC/DC

Myles Kennedy –Creed/Alter Bridge

Todd La Torre - Queensrÿche

Jesse Leach –Killswitch Engage

Joe Lynn Turner –Yngwie Malmsteen’s Rising Force

Tim “Ripper” Owens –Judas Priest

Paul Rodgers -Queen

Steve Perry –Journey

Corey Taylor –Slipknot

Matt Walst –Three Days Grace





Now, I do my lists in ABC order just for convenience sake and to be all warm and fuzzy, so there might be a few questionable ones like John Corabi who would be at the end of this list for sure because he isn’t even close to being better than Vince Neil. William DuVall who is really good, but the other guy died and obviously Halford is better than Owens of Judas Priest any day of the week, but he can sing. The other one where you may have no idea and be giving me WTF is the unknown Jeff Gutt; he is the new singer of STP and ironically is from Michigan. He’s got a pretty impressive range and was on The X-Factor awhile ago. I hope he does really well with the band because their track record with lead singers dying on them isn’t a good thing.





So like I said everyone knows I would put Sammy Hagar as my #1, right of course you do, why would you not know that at this stage, right? So here is the rest of my top 5, minus Hagar (because I am bias); it would be the all powerful vocals of Bruce Dickinson followed by the immortal Ronnie James Dio, then Brian Johnson and finally one of my favorite voices in metal Corey Taylor (replaced Anders Colsefni), then finally John Bush.





Notice my list didn’t have Adam Lambert of Queen, Bobby Amaru of Saliva, Robert Mason of Warrant, Johnny Solinger of Skid Row, Terry Ilous of Great White, JD Fortune of INXS, James Durbin of Quiet Riot, Gary Cherone of Van Halen (as if) or Arnel Pineda of Journey. Lastly, I can really only name two major bands that have never had a replacement singer or a lineup change in some way or shape and they are ZZ Top and U2. Can you name any others?