Unsurprisingly, John 5 Defends Bands That Continue On Without Original Members
Unsurprisingly, John 5 of Mötley Crüe thinks we should be forgiving of bands that continue on without their original members. Considering John 5 took over for Crüe founding member Mick Mars in 2022 in what is proving to be one of the most controversial and drama-filled band member replacements in metal history, he would naturally be in favor of bands continuing on with new members.
In a recent interview with The Jeremy White Show (that was transcribed by Blabbermouth), John 5 expressed his support for metal and classic rock bands that continue on without original members:
“It’s very strange because all these bands, they’re slowly going away. And it’s totally, totally scary to me, because we have good rock and roll, but we need more good rock and roll. We need more bands to come out there. We need more bands to say ‘look at me’ and stuff, ’cause I’m looking. I can’t wait to see new rock and roll. We need it, because they’re going away.”
He continued on:
“I was thinking about this the other day. Can you name — I don’t know — let’s say five bands, let’s say starting from the ’80s who have original members. ‘Cause from the ’70s it’s impossible.”
To give a concrete example, John 5 mentioned The Rolling Stones:
“Just take THE ROLLING STONES. When Brian [Jones, founder and original leader of THE ROLLING STONES] died, what if THE STONES were, like, ‘That’s it. No more ROLLING STONES.’ We’d have a few records. Unbelievable.”
For the record, the Rolling Stones put out about eight albums with Brian Jones (the count gets a little murky when you start counting the albums that were only released in America). So, while it’s true that the world would miss out on a legendary album like Exile on Main Street, it’s also a little bit of an exaggeration to say that, had they stopped when Jones died, they would only have a few records.
On the flip side, what if Nirvana had tried to continue on following Kurt Cobain’s death? Nobody would have accepted that. And fans are pretty much rejecting the idea that the new Pantera lineup is anything but a tribute band without the Abbott brothers. The truth is, some bands have members that they just can’t continue on without, and it varies from band to band which and how many members you can replace before it stops sounding genuine. Many might argue that, without Mick Mars, there’s no real reason to continue with the Crüe.
